Deutschland Day 1: Bonn

Britta and I at the Bonn Hauptbahnhof

Smartcar


Some of the lovely architecture in Bonn


More architecture



After a brief, post-flight, jet-lagged nap, Britta took us on a walking tour of Bonn. This is us on Poppelsdorfer Allee, in front of the Summer Palace (either that or the Winter Palace).



The Winter Palace that is now the home to the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.



Sculpture inside the University



No caption necessary




Stumbling upon the first day of the Wine Festival in Bonn. What luck!

Listening to the sounds of Captain Moonlight. What luck!

The wine festival was held right in front of the Münster Cathedral

Heads of the martyrs Saints Cassius & Florentius, whose legs are supposedly buried in the cathedral's crypt


Another view of the cathedral




Statue of Beethoven




Post office




Downtown Bonn




Mmmmm...bread...






Mmmmm...cheese...and meat






Mmmmm...Heh





Bonn's Old Town Hall






Beethoven's birthplace

lovely clouds along the River Rhein

The River Rhein

We managed to magically overcome our jet-lag enough to participate in the wine festival

People "schunkeling" at the wine festival. They really do that!

Guten tag!

We're back!


Have to go through our 800+ photos, and then will start the posts!

xoxo

Auf Wiedersehen!

(me, Britta, Jessica, Caroline in Oz 2006)

We're off for Germany tomorrow!

The tentative plan is to stay in Bonn from Thursday thru Sunday, as the main reason for our visit is Britta's wedding, which is on Saturday. We then travel to Heidelberg and leave Tuesday to boat up the Rhine to Koblenz, winding back up that night in Bonn. Wednesday morning we fly back to NY.


Am so looking forward to sharing Britta and Philipp's special day (Hi Britta!), and Mike and I are so flattered that we were invited.


Additionally, it'll be a fun little reunion of all the girls from my Australia trip, as both Caroline and Jessica will both be at the wedding.


Finally, Mike and I need a vacation, and this should be a great time in a wonderful country that neither of us has yet explored, yet we've already found the people to be warm and welcoming.


Can't wait!!!

(me, Britta, Jessica)

(Britta and friend)

Yankees

Hokay, it's been a ridiculously long time since I've posted here, and I'm sorry for that. Not that I really expect many people to read this, but for those few of you who do, thanks and sorry. More than anything, posting on this thing was an awesome form of discipline that I sorely needed...and apparently need again!
Now that I have a little more time on my hands at work (shhhh! Don't tell!) I will hopefully be able to get back into the swing of this and maybe offer something to the blogosphere.
Mike and are I leaving for Germany on Wednesday evening for my friend Britta's wedding. We're psyched and panicked, as of course there's tons of last-minute stuff to do beforehand. But I'm trying to be uncharacteristically zen and have faith that it will get done and panicking about it won't get it done sooner.
Anyhoo! We'll hopefully have tons of photos from that trip.
In the meantime, we were lucky enough to score Yankee tickets from a Mr. Bill Cosby a few weeks ago, and although it wasn't the game where A-Rod scored his 500th homerun, it was the game were the team tied their all-time homerun record of 8 homeruns in a game. We made history!
Granted, I know very little about the game...but we still had tons of fun. We were right close to the field; so close, in fact, that were were about 10 rows behind the Chicago White Sox dugout. Wheeee!!!
Here are photos, as well as a couple of videos from Mike's cell phone of some of the homeruns:

Jandals

A lot of the questions I get from friends about my time in NZ ask about "strange" things: What's the strangest thing you ate over there? What strange words do they use? How stange is the culture?

I usually draw a blank, mostly because I get so excited merely by the thought of NZ and my time there. The only thing I do seem to remember is, on a number of occasions, telling myself to remember these things.

Then, every so often, something in NY reminds me of one of those strange NZ things. Like "Goldstein" at jury duty, or flat whites when I'm about to order a coffee, or seeing a word starting with "Wh-" and wanting to pronounce it as "F-".

Yesterday I was walking down Broadway (which, as a side note, on the Upper West Side has become the new tourist haven thanks to the youth hostel on 103rd and all of the new, cheapo boutique hotels in formerly abandoned buildings) and saw a couple talking to a guy selling incense on the street. I barely registered this until I overheard the girl mention the word "jandals". I did a mental double-take, then a visual one, and saw her take her flip-flop off and show it to the guy. "This. A jandal," she said, when he didn't seem to understand the word.

I wanted to drop my bags and run over and hug the poor girl and say, "I understand! I know what jandals are! And I am happy to be your personal tour guide as long as you speak to me in your sweet little accent and only in kiwi-isms!"

So there, folks, I've now remembered the word "jandal" as one of those strange kiwi euphemisms.

http://www.nzgirl.co.nz/articles/5505

Now tell me: how is "jandal" any stranger than "flip-flop"?

...of the iceberg

Hey folks,
Mike's band - Just the Tip - played a momentous show at the Knitting Factory on Friday. It was sold out and the audience (including Mike's parents who came in from Peoria) LOVED IT!
Here are some not-so-great photos:

Annie Banannie, Angie Pie, and Dougie Bug

A couple of weekends ago Mike, my friend Robert, and I went down to Virginia to visit my good good friend Angela, her husband Doug, and their new baby Annie.

Get ready for cuteness:

I miss...

Flat whites...



Sorry for the lack of posts, my peeps. Lots happening.

Future posts:

• photos from our trip down to Reston, VA to visit my dear friend Angela, her husband Doug, and my new favorite baby (and niece!) Annie.

Future trip:

• Mike and I are taking a road trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Asheville, NC and back. We'll take tons of photos!

Carnival!

Sometime last week was the Cuba Street Carnival in Wellington. Some of my fellow salsa buddies were involved, as was our salsa teacher extraordinaire, in full parrot (toucan?) glory. I hope, if I were still there, I could've dressed up as a big bird and danced through the streets as well...

More Kiwi Eye/Ear Candy

The boys from Salmonella Dub...




*Sigh*...

Tui

I had a dream last night whose soundtrack was the crazy and beautiful chirp of the Tui.
This reminded me so much of living in Wellington that it hurt -- I forgot how constant the sound of the Tui is all over the city and its environs. It's so distinct and, to me - now that I'm no longer there - haunting.

You can listen to the Tui song here...and feel like you're in the middle of the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary.

It's so much a part of life in NZ, they even named a beer after it: