Having upload issues with pics, so there may not be so many while we are in Amsterdam...very slow connection here at our hotel.



So....we left Germany by train on Tuesday, and got into Amsterdam around 330pm. This city is beautiful, but very crowded right now, because of the upcoming Queens Day celebrations. They have a massive carnival, complete with ferris wheel and other rides set righ in Dam Square, one of the main open squares in the city. The whole city is being decorated in orange, and crowns are showing up everywhere--even on the steeple of Westerkirk church.

Our hotel has the steepest stairs I have ever seen. Feels like climbing a ladder. We are going to get a video climbing up them to show how very steep they are. Our room is teeny, but the bed is comfortable and the location is awesome.

Our first day, we went to a Rick Steves recommended Italian restaurant, and had AWESOME food. No pictures, but it was delicious. Then we wandered around a bit, and eventually headed to Leidesplein; a great area with lots of bars and restaurants and a big courtyard with all sorts of street artists and people wandering about. We had a few adult beverages, then headed back to our room to call it a night.

On Wednesday, I got up and headed out to see the Keukenhof gardens. Massive flower overload. *I* was sick of flowers when I left there, and it was one of the things I was most looking forward to doing in Holland. I took a billion pictures, and will attempt to upload some eventually. I just get pissy when I upload pics, then after a million hours of waiting, it freezes and times out and I lose it all. Very annoying.

After I got back from my flower escapades, Ethan and I headed out for a late lunch, then windowshopped unil it was time to go to a show--Boom Chicago; an improv show. Very funny. After all that, it was back to the room for the night.

Ethan and I on the Rhine river...

For Sabrina........some of our food (did I mention that we LOVE schnitzels???), and the view from the window in our room.

Off to Amsterdam after breakfast!!

The teeny bed for two in the nobles' bedroom


Ethan helped out by modelling the older version of a knight's helmet. Heavy!!!

View from the Castle


The castle's 'keep'--the very last line of defense



Our tour guide explaining the evolution of cannons

Germany Day 3

Today, we took a train to the nearby town of St Goar, then a 5 minute ferry across to St Goarshausen, where we had lunch...then another train to Braubach, were we went to get a tour of Marksburg castle, the one un-ruined castle on the Rhine river. Never defeated, never conquered. This is where we learned how cool it is to have a tour guide explaining things to you.

Germany-Day 2 (again)

Once we actually got to Boppard, I drug Ethan to the Sesselbahn, which is a sort of chair lift that takes you up a massive hill/cliff overlooking the water and town. Beautiful view, WINDY weather, and a lovely glass of raspberry wine at the top. And sunburn. Did I mention the fact that I am now purple?? The wind blew away the heat, so I didn't notice the sun, and am now purple. Enough that I now know the German word for sunscreen. Sonnenschlotz. Maybe spelled differently....but I did have to go to the pharmacy (apotheke) to get some sunscreen. And aloe. Lots of aloe. Anyway, I digress...

We saw the lovely view, then returned to the town and caught a 2.5 hour river cruise back to our hometown of Bacharach. Lovely castles everywhere, Mister Rogers' neighborhood houses, just picture perfect. Feels like a storybook.

Germany Day 2

Today, we took a train to the nearby town of Boppard. We got off on wrong stop (due to the entirely forgivable fact that there were TWO Boppard-slash town names before the actual Boppard town--we got off at Boppard-Bad Salzig)

Bad Salzig is not a tourist town. Here is the main church. It was Sunday, so everyone in town was here. We assume. We saw no one in the hour we spent wandering the town before our next train came to take us on to Boppard....

A few pictures from day 1 in Bacharach, Germany

Ethan in front of the high-water marks for Bacharach, during Rhine flooding in the past.

And, our hotel, Pension im Malerwinkel

After check in, we headed to the nearby town of St Goar, where we visited the Rhienfels castle ruins. Lesson learned: ruins are much more interesting when you know what you are looking at. Lesson two: Rick Steves is not the best at giving directions. We did wander around and see some cool things, but really feel that we would have gotten a lot more out of it if there had been a tour guide pointing things out for us.

There were sort of Boy Scouts camping out at the camp, which must have been awesome for them....but took away somewhat from our visit. Oh, well. Still an awesome view from the castle, and pretty extensive ruins to wander through.

Germany

We just figured out this morning that we could get internet in our room here (actually, last night, but the front desk closes at 6pm)...

So here is our update for Germany.

Good times.

Our hotel, Pension im Malerwinkel, is awesome. See the picture taken from our window?? Malwerinkel means 'painters corner', because the area where our hotel is is.....gorgeous, and people want to paint it. Check in was easy, and we were on our way.

We made it!

Flight took off and landed just as it should have. We are here and we are having a blast. A couple pics to tide you over....will update again with an actual post this evening (it is currently 1130am here)

Pics taken during our river cruise down the Rhine. Not edited because I am on vacation.

A final post from stateside

My bags are (partially) packed, and we are (fairly) ready to go. A little more running around tonight (gotta purchase Avatar and bring it with us to watch on the plane or in our hotel the first night if we totally crap out), and we are all good. I have my carry-on bag all set, just need to pack my actual backpack.

Jobie has kindly agreed to feed and water my cats...and is also open to addressing the litter box, which will surely need addressing before we return.

I came home from work the other day to find that Ethan had scrubbed the 3 bathrooms and the kitchen from top to bottom. I am sure the cats will appreciate it while we are gone. They tend to fling litter around in theirs.

Anyway...we are off to the airport tomorrow morning (after I rush down to Enumclaw to retrieve my camera from Jobie). We are going to try out the new light rail from downtown to the airport--supposed to be a 30-minute ride altogether.

I am not sure if we have internet access in Bacharach...but I know we do in Amsterdam, so look for my updates!

The very last planning travel post for Europe

I can do nothing about the volcano. I realize that. So I am finishing up my planning and preparations, and I share my finished results here today.

I drew out some maps for my stay in Paris, to help me figure out the logistics of what to do when; which things I could group together on a certain day because of their proximity. I am not bringing these with me, but they really helped me figure out my itinerary. It is hard to see, but I color coded metro travel, walking travel, etc.

I also have some more examples of my personal travel guide/bible that I put together. Maps copied out of Rick Steves books or google maps; miniaturized train tickets and tour confirmations. I have everything here.

I also put together these little envelopes--one for each country (color coded...except they only had 3 different colors, so Germany gets stuck in a clear ziploc bag. My bad). In them, I put things that are specific to that country, things that I would not need until I am there.

For example, I have the appropriate language translator guides for each (cut apart from a German/Italian/French combo language book), the train or flight tickets to leave that particular country, and sections of the Rick Steves books I had that pertain to specific things we will see in that country (for places that do not have audio guides that we are planning to rent)

We bought two cheapie mp3 players, and I have downloaded a bunch of audioguides to take with us, so we will better understand the things we are seeing (the Pantheon, Notre Dame, St Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel), in areas where we don't have a tour guide or a rented audioguide. Does me no good to be somewhere awesome and see something beautiful if I don't know what it is or the stories behind it. Ethan was not a big fan of being tied to Tobias when they shared audioguides on his last Europe trip, so we got separate players. No short leash to tie us together!

Anyway. I have planned. I have thought carefully. All contingencies were deliberated upon. Except volcanic ash. We shall see. An Atlantic storm on Weds/Thurs may push things northward and save the day.

Europe, here we come!

Hotels and Airfare: Booked

Trains: Booked

€uros: Purchased (well, at least enough to pay for our hotels and Germany portion of the trip. May need to get some more....)

Research: Never ending. But I *love* it, so it is all good...

Planning: Quite possibly the most fun thing of all. See 'Research'

Travel info/map book: Paris and Rome portions are complete, still working on Amsterdam and Germany, but those two areas are much lower key with less actual planning needed. Which stresses me out, to be honest. I don't *know* what I will do...I have options to choose from. Lots of options.

Excitement: Ramping up!!

Getting down to the nitty gritty here! I am still working on my book, which is truly a labor of love. I used to carry it in my bag to work, so I could add to it while here, but now I am worried that something could happen and it could get stolen, and that would so much suck...so I leave it at home. Gotta get over that. It will be awesome and useful and all that. I need to find a large rubberband to help keep it closed, though. Too much paper added inside of it, the magnet can't quite reach to keep it closed very securely.

I am also bringing a phrase book with German/French/Italian in it. I am going to cut it up into sections (by language) and separate it out and bring it. The most important parts are the menu decoders. I am learning how to ask if there is seafood in a dish in three languages. Go, me!!

Other than the phrase book and my own personal travel bible, we are bringing a street map of Paris, and either an iPod touch or cheapo mp3 player. I reallyreallyreally want an iPod touch, but was planning to sell my wedding dress to finance it, and that hasn't happened yet. I dropped the price on the dress by $40 today, so we will see if that sweetens the pot enough. Fingers crossed!!

The mp3 player will be for downloaded podcasts to take with us in areas that we are not paying for a tour guide--(still determining which areas those will be...)the colosseum and Vatican in Rome, etc, etc. Better to have info on what exactly it is you are looking at, rather than just looking and not understanding.

Anyway.

The iPod touch would also download podcasts, but also maps and apps for the Paris transit system (even though I have already looked up which exact trains and which exact stops I need to be using...more info NEVER hurts...), and lots of other useful travel gadgets. And music, stuff like that. We are bringing the laptop with us, both for photo dumping off the memory cards, and also to keep in touch with work (Ethan) and blog (alyca). Ethan has a messenger bag that the laptop fits into for travel, then we will leave it in our hotel rooms and take the messenger bag as a day-bag for our whirlwind touring.

I still need to figure out what exactly we are doing in Germany--definitely a few castles, maybe a chairlift/viewpoint hike, wine and cheese tasting, etc. Gotta sort that out.

Amsterdam, I know WHAT we are doing, but not WHEN. We will do the Dutch Resistance Museum (WWII), Anne Frank House, Van Gogh Museum (Ethan says it was cool), Keukenhof gardens (half-day or more trip for a billion picture opportunities), 22-mile bike ride along canals and windmills (Ethan did it a couple years ago and LOVED it), and random relaxation. Except for April 30, which is Queen's Day, a national holiday and celebration where an additional 1 million people pour into Amsterdam and party like it's 1999 for the day. Old people, young people, etc, etc. Music galore, yard sales by little kids. Craziness. No public transportation available, and nothing will be open...so we will have to see how that day shapes up. Probably not our most awesome, but I am told it is a 'must do' at least once. But we (Ethan) are not crowd people, so I am not sure how fun it will truly be. But, I have my orange shirt all prepared, and I am ready to give it my all!!

Paris, we do the Sacre Coeur church and Opera Garnier the first day, followed by an evening bike tour of all the sites lit up at night, and a boat cruise afterwards. The next day, it is off to the Army Museum and Napoleon's Tomb, then the Rodin Museum gardens (to see the Thinker). Then over to the Arc de Triomphe (may go to a nearby hotel with a fabulous 35th floor bar with billion dollar views first...), walk down the Champs Elysees, then view the Petit and Grand Palais', over to l'Orangerrie museum to see Monet's water lilies, then back to the hotel to crash....and up again to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset.

Our last full day in Paris involves Notre Dame, St Chapelle, Cluny Museum (to see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries), then the Pantheon, Luxembourg gardens, Church of St Sulpice, and St Germain des Pres for dinner and mimes and street artists.

A very full city.

In Rome the next morning, we tour several churches, the Cappucin crypt, National Museum of Rome, then walk the Spanish steps, Trevi Fountain, Piazzas Colonna and Navona, Campo di Fiori, and the Pantheon. Hopefully at sunset when these are all lit up. I am unsure how this will all work, since I want to see the Pantheon during the day, and the other sites at night. And some nearby churches, too. Amazingly beautifullness is inside.

Next day, we do the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine Hill, then Capitol Hill, Capitoline Museums, and Largo Argentina (cat sanctuary).

Our last full day is reserved for the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basilica and Castel St Angelo.

Then we come home and deal with insomnia and look forward to going back to work. Actually, we come home and I disappear into my scrapbook room until I have photos edited and beautified.


After all this, our next vacation: Heading to Florida in September to watch the last space shuttle launch. A must see, in our opinions. Last chance, too. I just hope weather cooperates and we are actually able to watch!! You better believe we will photograph the heck out of that.

I know it is waaaay early...but

Cooper Kids Coast Christmas


I have an idea. I saw it on a goofy website I peruse on occasion. We need to find an old picture with all of us in it......and recreate it. I mean a picture from when we were little kids. Next get-together we have (be it camping or actual Christmas), we need to figure out ahead of time what picture we want to use, then each of us head to the thrift store to find props/similar clothing to wear, then we take a picture of us posing to match the original picture. Facial expressions and all.

Won't this be awesome????

Davinie will be so proud

When I went to Australia, Davinie encouraged me to take along a blank book, and fill it with receipts and ticket stubs and all sorts of memorabilia and notes about my trip. I took a book along, and filled out maybe 3 pages. Didn't really follow through.

This time, with my Europe trip, I am doing a different variation of this same idea. I bought a lovely blank, lined page book with a magnetically closing flap. Pretty and green (of course). I have it separated into four sections (Germany, Amsterdam, Paris and Rome), and each section is filled with shrunken down hotel confirmation emails, train tickets, flight information, and maps. I got maps both from google and also by copying them out of my Rick Steves books (I have them for Amsterdam, Paris and Rome). He has maps of key areas, suggested walking itineraries, etc, etc.

I made lists of absolutely everything I wanted to do in Rome and Paris, the figured out which things were located close to each other. Then I put together an itinerary for the days that I am there, taking into consideration things like days museums are closed in Paris, busiest days/times of the week at the Vatican, etc. I posted these on tripadvisor.com, and got some good feedback. I tweaked things around after that, then started gluing everything into my book. In order. (actually, I started gluing *before* I went on tripadvisor, so my Rome itinerary is not quite in order). I even have which exact metro line I need to take to each area in Paris, along with the station name and any transfers I need. I *love* planning!!

So I have Rome-Day 1 (Tuesday), with maps and info about what I want to do that day, followed by Rome-Day 2 (Wednesday). I left about 15 empty pages (at least) after each city/area, so I have more space to attach stubs, etc, and also to journal. When I get home, I will find some flat scrappiness to add for embellishment and interestingness, and in the end I will have an awesome keepsake.

While on my journey, this saves me from having to carry around guidebooks (except for info sections that I am going to rip out and take with me to some museums), and has all my info in one place. Can I tell you how excited I am about this?? I am having lots of fun. I know that my Paris and Rome itineraries are vary ambitious, and we will likely have to cut some things out--but I would rather know all my options at a glance, and be able to decide on the day if I am in the mood or have the energy to do something, rather than getting home and realizing that I was a block away from something very cool, and totally missed it because I didn't know it was there. Make sense??

One place I am excited about seeing is the Largo Argentina ruins in Rome. There are cool ruins, but also a cat sanctuary and hospice that takes in sick and injured cats and houses them for life. They also have a robust spay/neuter program, and they foster and adopt out as many cats as they can. Even internationally. We are NOT coming home with a cat, but I am going to try to fit a box or two of gloves into my luggage--they are requesting these, as well as monetary donations. Rome is known for having cats everywhere amongst the ruins, and these people are the only agency actually HELPING these cats. You know we have a soft spot for cats..

We have lots of cool churches on our list as well, and some museums in Paris. We ar not going to the Louvre (shocking, isn't it?), but we will see the Cluny and Orangerie, as well as the Army Museum/Napoleon's tomb and the Rodin Museum. We are getting Museum passes, so we won't feel bad about only stopping in to see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries in the Cluny Museum, or other small, quick stops. One price, all the museums we want to see in 2 days. Works for us.

I have absolutely nothing going on in my life, which makes updating a blog a bit tricky. I will try my best...

I did win a victory over American Airlines and got my flight home from Rome in May switched--they rescheduled my flights 3 times and I was looking at a 6 hour layover at JFK airport waiting for a flight home to Seattle, but a little web research showed me that there was a flight leaving Rome around the same time that went through Chicago and would get me home to Seattle arout 7:30pm, rather than 11:30pm. Much better. And, we leave Rome about 90 minutes later than the earlier flight, so we can have a leisurely morning trek out to the airport. Good news all around.

I am also planning to take part in the Big Climb here in Seattle, climbing up the stairs of the Columbia tower (69 floors) to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma research. Should be fun. And tiring. Definitely a good workout, at the very least. I am in the 'untimed' division (a climber, not a racer), so my goal is just to avoid the elevators and make it all the way to the observation deck. We shall see. This is in only a few short weeks, so I need to get my butt in gear. I joined a gym a few months ago, so hopefully my blood, sweat and tears there will pay off in my non-death in the stairwells.

Of course, there is a lot of Europe planning going on. I like lists, so I am making lists of all the things I want to do in a particular city, and the cost/days they are closed.
Then I am linking together museums/sights that are physically close together.
Then looking at the Museum/city passes that are available and seeing if those will save me money, or if I should just go to them individually.
Then prioritizing things, since there is absolutely no way I can see *everything*.
Then I will eventually show my conclusions to Ethan, and see what he thinks.... Trying to squeeze a lot of things into a short period of time, but I don't want to rush around and exhaust myself.

So. That is an update. If my life were less boring or my cats looked any different than they did last year or the year before, etc, I would put up pictures of them or of the exciting things we are doing. But there are none. We are boring people, living a boring life. We are living like no one else; so that one day, we can live like no one else.

I got my babyback-babyback-babyback; I got my babyback-babyback-babyback....

Just for Sabrina. My camera came back much sooner than expected, so here are some pics of the wall that I painted. It is much darker than the light sage pictures (flash), but less avocado than the darker ones (no flash). Rest assured that it is gorgeous.

I just finished painting the tall accent wall that divides my kitchen from the living and dining rooms. The one with the breakfast bar attached. I would show you a picture, but I currently have no camera (one is out on loan and the other is being de-peed), so you will have to visualize it.

Visualize my upstairs.....painted.

The color is green, of course. It is called Grasshopper Wing, but that sounds so stupid, we are going witn Dried Basil, which is another Behr color that looks EXACTLY the same, to me. So we painted it dried basil. Beautiful.

If you asked someone who knows me, I am sure they will tell you that I am a mild mannered, kind sort of person. Go ahead--ask. It has recently come to my attention that I can come across as a ferocious bitch in the written-area of communication. I am good with that.

I am shy. Very few people understand this, because I have pretty good coping skills, but I am. Shy. If you asked people at work to describe me, I doubt a single one would use the word shy, however. If you asked them specifically if I *am* shy, I am sure you would hear 'no'. But I am, nonetheless. I am just very comfortable there. Just about 10 years, with nearly the same people every day makes a girl comfortable. At least it makes *me* comfortable. I know where things are and who people are and what my role is and what to pretty much expect. All good.

In my public life, I am Clark Kent. Mild mannered, etc, etc, etc. But I do have those moments when I step into that telephone booth and out comes passionate, screaming Superman. Or something like that. Sadly enough, up until now, Superman only converses within my own head. Or via email or some other written form of communication. Sometimes on the phone. I can be bitchy on the phone at times, too. Not in real life, though. Me no likey confrontation. At least not directly. I love it via written forms. So.

At home, when I am absolutely comfortable, I *am* superman. Not to say that I am not nice and caring and all the good Clark Kent things, but I am also comfortable enough to express myself. Which doesn't really happen elsewhere. SOmetimes at work, but not always. Mostly, I have heated discussions at home with Ethan, or in my own head, because I was too chicken to say anything to someone in the moment when I wanted to say it. I have great zingers, and LOTS of opinions. Anyway....

I. Am a passionate person. I care deeply about things. Many things. Among them: issues of race and racism. Deeply. Not because I married someone of a different ethnicity, not because it is currently a 'popular' issue (what with the anti Haiti people out there spewing). Because I care.

Yes, marrying outside my same racial background got me started, all those years ago, on thinking about people who are not the same as I am. But I feel so much more. Ethan and I are FAR more similar than we are different. I truly don't see his skin, unless it is through the eyes of someone else (via a comment, a look, etc).

I have taken many cultural awareness and history classes. I love reading about different cultures and countries and people of all sorts. I am blessed with coworkers from dozens of different backgrounds, each with their own stories about their heritage, their country of origin. I love hearing non-American names bestowed on their children, and hearing what those names mean in their native languages. I love trying different foods (except seafood. You know I have to put my foot down on seafood) that I had never heard of before. I love the richness that comes with a multicultural group.

I am currently all irritated with the yahoos who think we shouldn't be helping out in Haiti, since there are so many problems here in the US. And it irritates the hell out of me.


All of this rambling *does* have something of a point to it, I swear.

This is your warning/advance notice that I have decided to go ahead and unleash 'Superman'. Meaning that I am not going to try to be PC or nice or let things go. On the internet, that is. Or the phone. Shyness is not something you just 'stop', so I will continue in my mild-manneredness in my actual nice. But I have discovered that I CAN express myself, I CAN say what I want if I am typing, and I am going to do so. I am sure there will be some stepped on toes (and I will keep the cursing to a minimum. After all-my MOM and GRAMMIE read this blog. And are facebook friends!!). But I am not going to worry about that so much.

Please welcome Alyca to the internet.

Issues of funding

Written in mid-November

We always go on vacation, have a wonderful time....then come home to the massive credit card bills that we racked up on our trip.

Not this time.

We started a fund through SmartyPig.com a while back, where we put in a certain amount of money each month automatically from our paychecks. It earns about 2.5% interest, and we don't have to think about it and remember to put money in--it does it for us. This works for us. We are notoriously bad savers. We make twice the money we did 6-7 years ago, but other than the bigger mortgage, we don't really have any more 'stuff'. But we still have the same amount of spending money, it seems, and we are always broke. The more we make, the more we piddle away. So we started with Smarty Pig and now have funds for home repairs, savings, a new car (in a couple years), travel, and season tickets. Works for us.

Anyway, we figure we will have $1700 built up in our travel fund by April. We plan to exchange that for Euros and take it with us to Europe. The hotels we are staying at offer discounts if you pay with cash, so we are planning to do that.

Other ways we are working to NOT be in debt when we come home--we have already booked our main flight--it is paid for, months and months ahead of time. We are trying to spread things out so they are not all paid at the same time and lingering on our credit card. I think that is the beauty of planning a vacation so far ahead of time--you can slowly pay for things over time and not get hit all at once.

In January, we will book and pay for our big train tickets from Germany to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam to Paris.

That leaves February and March for purchasing prebooked tickets to the Anne Frank House and the Eiffel Tower, among other attractions. There are new systems in place that allow you to book ahead of time, and avoid the notoriously long lines at the attractions themselves. We will pay a small service fee for the convenience, but we (mostly Ethan...), are NOT line waiters, and it is worth it to us. I think we will also prebook for the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel and maybe the Roma pass, which is a great discount program for Rome--there are over a dozen places that take the Roma pass, and whichever two you do first are totally free, then you get discounts on the rest that you visit. It totally pays for itself if you make sure to go to the spendiest attractions first--mainly the Colosseum.

The downside to pre-booking/pre-paying for attractions is that you must choose exactly WHEN you will do them--the Anne Frank House gives you a one-hour window to arrive, as does the Eiffel Tower. But, in the long run, I think we can handle having to be at ONE place at a specific time. Not planning out our entire days with a set schedule, just making sure we hit THOSE places at a set time. We will see. Maybe this WON'T work and I will be back on here saying NOT to do this. But, I think we will be fine.

After all this pre-paying, and handing over Euros to pay for our hotels, we should have a couple hundred Euros left out of our vacation savings to use for small train trips in Germany, meals, trains/metro in Paris and Rome, other attractions, etc. I am SURE we will end up needing more money than we have, but at least a big portion will already have been accounted for.

UPDATE:

We haven't done a whole lot more. Well, *I* haven't. Let it be known that I am the planner, and Ethan is the supportive, encouraging person who just wants to know what time the plane leaves. Not exactly, but something like that...

We are planning to book our Paris Hotel (Hotel Tourisme) next week, as well as the plane tickets from Paris to Rome. We went ahead and decided to take the early morning (7am) flight from Paris, because this gives us almost an entire day in Rome, whereas if we wait for the 1pm flight, we only have from about 3pm to do any looking around. And, lets face it--if we leave at 1pm, that entire morning will be us piddling around, waiting for our flight. Or waiting for it to be time to go to the airport. Or something like that. It is not like we will be doing touristy things. A wasted day.

We (I, remember??) have decided on a hotel for Germany. We are going to stay in Bacharach, along the Rhine river. The hotel is Im Malerwinkel, which means 'painters corner'. This particular area was popular in years past as a place to sit and paint the beautiful scenery. Gorgeous, and only a 5-10 minute walk from the train station.

Now, I am just waiting for this hotel to send me a confirmation email, and we are set. I have seen pictures taken by other travellers in Bacharach in early May (we are there the last week of April), and it is just so fairybook beautiful, I almost can't stand it. I finally sent my camera (my baby) off for cleaning, and expect it back in 6-8 weeks. I need to go buy some ginormous memory cards to bring with me, because I am SURE I will take a billion pictures every day. Even though I CAN download them to my laptop nightly. Nothing worse than a full memory card when you are out and about!!

So, there we are. Will have hotels/flight booked on the 26th of January, and will start booking the trains as each 90 day window comes up (can only book 90 days ahead of time--first one will be January 27, then the 30th, etc).

Almost for the fun part--what activities we will do. So much to choose from...so little time to see/do it all!

Since I *am* striving to update this blog, I have decided to not have my other (unread) travel blog going as well. One is plenty. So, here is info (mostly) copied from that blog, with, of course a few updates.



Nearly 6 months away, but my mind is FILLED with thoughts of Europe!!
I get all involved with finding a hotel to stay in in Paris, then I get all interested in which river town to stay in while in Germany. Then thoughts of Roman ruins run through my head and I am all about Italy. I really cannot say which part of our upcoming trip excites me the most.

All together, we will be in Europe for about 340 hours....and I am sure I will spend at LEAST that much time either on the computer planning this trip, talking about options with Ethan, or reading guidebooks.

So far, I am using the Rick Steves books--I have the 2010 versions for Rome, Paris and Amsterdam, and older versions of his Europe through the back door and Best of Europe. I am trying to NOT do a cookie cutter trip following his advice to the dot--sounds like many people do, and they miss out on a lot!

At this point, this is what we have done:

We booked tickets from Seattle to Frankfurt and from Rome back to Seattle using airline miles. Because our trip puts us in Amsterdam during Koninginnedag, which is a national holiday celebrating the Queen's official birthday, we booked that hotel first.

We will be staying at Hotel Aspen in Amsterdam--located really close to the Anne Frank House and the Jordaan neighborhood, and only a few blocks from Dam Square, right in the heart of the city.

Nothing else is booked yet...but that is mostly because we are too far out to book them!

In Paris, I am pretty confident that we will be staying at The Tourisme Hotel, which is located very near the Eiffel Tower. There are a couple hotels in this area I am considering, but this is my favorite right now...

In Rome, we are staying at The Beehive, located a few blocks from the main Termini train station. Great rate, wonderful location....and free wifi, which is a must for all our hotels. We are bringing the laptop with us so I can download pictures off my memory cards for my cameras, and Ethan can stay updated with work issues.

In Germany.....we are still deciding. I really want to go here, but it is not located very conveniently to any of the small towns we are thinking of staying in--we land in Frankfurt, then will take a train to the Rhine river and stay in either Bacharach or Sankt Goar...or maybe somewhere else??? Rick Steves suggests staying in Bacharach, which looks just beautiful--bit it *is* the furthest south/farthest away from other sites. Such dilemmas.....


Overal plans:
Germany
Arrive in Germany, see lots of castles, taste wine and cheese, relax. We will be here for 3 nights, but as I mentioned--we are not yet sure where we will be staying. We will do at least 2 castle tours--probably Rheinfels and Marksburg. Definitely taking a K-D river cruise at some point. We shall see if Burg Eltz makes it into our plans..

Amsterdam
We are here for 4 nights. So far, we know we want to do a bike tour, and go to the Anne Frank House. Not sure what will be happening on the big celebration on April 30th...but we will go with the flow.

Paris
We are in Paris for 3 nights. We arrive on Labour Day, so we are crossing our fingers that the French do not have a notorious strike on that day, and our train arrives on time.. We get here on a Saturday, and the next day (Sunday) is the first Sunday of the month, so many museums are free. We are not overly museum-y people...so we will take advantage of the free-ness. I definitely want to check out the Louvre, and the Orsay, maybe l'Orangerie to see Monet's famous water lilies....
We are absolutely doing this tour--it is one of the things I am most looking forward to! Probably do that our first evening in Paris. I want to see everything there is to see architecturally--Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, St. Chapelle, etc. And, of course, the Eiffel Tower....

Rome
Rome is going to be awesome--3 nights here. We will definitely see the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica one day...gotta do the Colosseum/Forum/Capitol Hill/Pantheon...maybe check out some catacombs...Rick Steves has some do-it-yourself walks past some great areas--Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, etc. I also want to do the Borghese Gallery and the National Museum of Rome. So much to do, so little time....

So, here we are!! The next thing I will probably be doing is book a flight from Paris to Rome. THey are about 36 euros each through easyjet.com for a mid-day/mid-week flight. Can't book our train tickets until we are 90 days or less out, and can't book the hotels for another few weeks...so more planning and looking and dreaming for me!


Written in early NOvember...

It cracked *me* up, anyway...although I am sure the math is a bit off...

The Population of this country is 300 million.

160 million are retired.

That leaves 140 million to do the work.

There are 85 million in school.

Which leaves 55 million to do the work.

Of this there are 35 million employed by the federal government.

Leaving 20 million to do the work.

2.8 million are in the armed forces preoccupied with killing Osama Bin-Laden.

Which leaves 17.2 million to do the work.

Take from that total the 15.8 million people who work for state and city governments

And that leaves 1.4 million to do the work.

At any given time there are 188,000 people in hospitals.

Leaving 1,212,000 to do the work.

Now, there are 1,211,998 people in prisons.

That leaves just two people to do the work.

You and me.

And there you are, sitting on your ass, at your computer, reading jokes.

Nice. Real nice.

Sleep

Anyone else have sleeping issues?? I sure do. I have had a hard time FALLING asleep for years now. I am pretty good at now going to bed a little earlier, doing some reading, winding down before trying to sleep, etc. I do OK, and it is totally manageable. But now...for the last week or so, I fall asleep OK.....but I half wake up like 10 times each night. Very sucky. I wake up enough to realize that I am waking up, then roll over and try to get back to sleep. Not cool at all. Usually, once I am asleep......I am ASLEEP. Dead to the world until that alarm goes off at 0429. I have tried going to bed earlier the last couple nights (seriously--at 8:15pm), but that is not working out so well. I am getting irritable at work. I am sure that is well appreciated.

Anyway....any suggestions out there?? I am not willing to take meds, because I would have to take them at like 6pm or else they won't wear off in time for me to get up and not be fuzzy..

Note to readers...the more you (legitimately) comment, the more I post.....

Updates, updates....we went to Avatar on IMAX 3D for New Years Eve, which was very good. It did give me a headache, and I can't STAND wearing glasses...but the movie is THAT good...

Had a lovely, laid back weekend at home with my husband, marred only by the ~6 hours we devoted to the last Seahawks game. Another no-go. We are in the running for a decent draft pick, at least. We always have a good time at the games--win or lose. More fun when we win, of course.....but fun nonetheless. I love the pre-game, where they announce the players and they run onto the field, and when the hawk flies out of the tunnel, and when they announce the raiser of the 12th man flag--this week, it was Ken Griffey Jr, and the stadium ROCKED. We always root to lose the coin toss, or to defer the win if we DO win it, so our defense can start out on the field. Everyone screams full force when the D is on the field, and you haven't LIVED until your voice joins with 70K others all in an attempt to screw up the opposing offense's plays.

This week was special because it was the first time I have ever been in a stadium where there was a successful 'wave'. You know...where people stand up and scream in a timed way so that it looks like a huge wave rippling through the crowd?? Never seen it go all the way around. This week, the fans were so bored (and fed up ), they made it around 6 times. It was epic. Have I mentioned that it brings a tear to my eye to see a crowd do the wave?? Even though they *did* do it while we were on offense....

So, the Seahawks season is finally over, and I now have my Sundays back. Not that I didn't enjoy the games, but they mean leaving the house around 930am, and not getting home until 430-5pm. It is a full day, and squeezes into my general lounging around time.

Elsewhere on the home front...we are working very hard to figure out where our money goes and make an actual budget. I have printouts from mint.com that we are going to analyze today to see which areas we can maybe cut back on. After seeing that we spend nearly the same amount on restaurants in a year as we do food/coffee at work.....we are going to start bringing lunches or at least snackage to work instead...

Also lots of (mental) planning for our upcoming Europe trip. Can I tell you how excited I am??? I even got a gym membership and am working with a trainer specifically in the area of stair climbing, since every gorgeous monument I want to see involves a lot of stair climbing, and I don't want to be the fat, lazy American tourist huffing and puffing and not making it to the top. We want to climb Notre Dame, the Arc du Triumphe, do some hiking to a castle in Germany, climb a bell tower in Amsterdam, go to the top of St Peter's, and climb through numerous ruins in Rome. Lots of stairs.

Still need to book a couple hotels and our little flight, and will be able to book the train portions later this month (can only book 90 days ahead of time). I bought the Rick Steves guide books for each area (except Germany), and have pored over each of them numerous times. Lots of excitement over this..

I am also making plans to have a niece come up to visit me for a long weekend this summer. I have secret plans of going to Wild Waves and maybe the Seattle Aquarium and some other fabulous things. Just need to talk the mama into sending her up......I think this will be awesome, and will try to get each neice/nephew as the get a little older and can hang out. Maybe two together??? Yeesh....maybe not...

Anyway.. that is where I am today..

A year in review

My New Year's resolution for this year is (among other things) to do a better job keeping my blog updated. In this spirit, I am going to recap 2009 as it was for the Amersons. No pictures, because my camera is still (hopefully) temporarily out of commission, but you can certainly search back through my blog and see if I documented any of this stuff...

January

Went to Disneyland with the Fieros and had a *fabulous* time, other than the hip issues on the roll-away cot, which I finally minimized by sleeping atop three pillows running lengthwise down the bed. I will definitely weasel my way into the next Disney trip taken by any of my neices/nephew. We also refinanced our mortgage (again....) into a 14-year mortgage with an amazing interest rate. This is our last refinance, because we will never be able to beat this deal. Ethan was on crutches all this month (from his right knee surgery in December 2008)

February

Got into finances and figuring out the future and eventual retirement for the Amersons. Started watching a lot of Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey and MSNBC and CNBC. I think we are a whole lot more savvy now. Ethan was also able to hire Brian, the boyfriend of one of Ethan's best friends, as a temporary worker in the lockshop at Harborview. All in all, Brian's 3-month job turned into almost exactly 1 year of work. Ethan came off his crutches this month, and started walking again on his super repaired knee. We love Dr. Wahl!!

March

I taught Mom how to make a blog post, in anticipation of her going to Michigan to get a guide dog, since she wanted to blog about it. Lots of vacation planning, as well.

April

Went to Mazatlan in the beginning of the month, with Justin and Kim. Stayed in a 2 bedroom condo on the beach and had a fabulous time. I switched back to being 100% UDF nurse at work, and stopped working as a floor nurse. Went to Las Vegas at the very end of the month, with Sabrina and Matt. LOVED the Beattles show, Love, and enjoyed the warm weather and hanging out with the Merritts.

May

I have no recollection of anything that happened this month. Probably not a whole lot. Debt repayment from the vacations, I am sure. Planning for a possible Australia trip for fall 2009 (which we did not end up taking). Watched Star Trek in the theater.

June

Celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary at Salty's on Alki. WONDERFUL dinner! Had a corner table by the window overlooking the water with a city view. Ethan's birthday was celebrated very low-key--I made him a photo collage of picturs of us on vacation from our years together, and put it on the wall by his desk at work. Watched Star Trek in the theater. Had a minor feud with the neighbor (renter) across the street who kept unscrewing the light bulbs in our porch and garage lights. Seattle nearly set a record with 29 straight days without rainfall. Start of a gorgeous, warm summer!

July

Had a ridiculous hot streak with over 100 degree days. Bathed the cats frequently. Took cold showers every day after work. Did LOTS of planning and researching for Mom's Europe trip. Watched several paddling regattas. Tried not to melt in all the heat. Watched Star Trek in the theater.

August

Continued to melt in the heat. Nearly divorced when our carbon monoxie sensor beeped for 36 hours, and we thought it was a smoke detector beeping. Even had Ethan up in the attic trying to figure things out... Hosted mom and a friend overnight, then drove them to the airport to start their European trip and IDBF World Championships of Paddling. Went camping and hiking up at Mt Baker with friends to end the month, and swore I broke a rib after falling off a log. My chest hurt for nearly 2 months....Seahawks preseason games

September

Booked tickets to go to Europe in April/May 2010. Hosted the Fieros for a long weekend, then off to Sequim for a BBQ/illicit bonfire with the Cooper side of the family. More Seahawks games. I think they were still winning a few, at this point...

October

Another quiet birthday celebration (mine, this time); LOTS more vacation planning (Europe)

November

Went to the scrapbook convention in Bellevue for two full days--had a blast, other than the fact that I also had a cold... Went to Puerto Vallarta for 5 days in the most unplanned-ahead trip the Amersons have ever taken. Had a blast, and flew home first-class.

December

Went to Long Beach, Washington with my siblings and Mom for our annual December/Christmas get-together. Got a snuggie as my White Elephant gift. Was not enthused....but now watch my cats fight over it every day (It is leopard print, and they refuse to share it). Went to Hood River with the Fieros and Merritts and Mom for the Polar Express train that turned out to be fairly lame....although the get-together itself was nice. Shadow peed on my camera 12/24...it was resurrected 12/27 (I think...) Went to a lovely Christmas eve party at Justin and Kim's house, and were very merry. Saw Avatar Christmas day.....then booked tickets to see it again in IMAX 3D on New Year's Eve. Finally gave up on the Seahawks' 2009 season, but plan to enjoy their last home game 1/3.

I may become a believer yet...


After three days and three nights of death, my camera has emerged from the darkness and may have been reborn...

One last replacement of the battery, one last flip of the "on" switch...and THIS time, the camera booted up, came to life, and took pictures. Albeit without the lens attached, but it *did* boot up, and the flash *did* go off....so it will be headed to Kits camera in the near future for some SERIOUS cleaning. Because there was urine pooled in the battery casing, the camera card slot--you name it....

YOu may notice that there are no pictures along with this post. Get used to it...

My cat decided to give me a Christmas present, so I now have a $1200 paper weight, which used to be my Canon 10D camera. I am afraid it is beyond repair, so no pictures until I figure out a replacement......