Forget Us Nicht

Hamsterdam

2012-01-27T06:31:00.001-08:00

Hello Everybody,

Well… ‘L’ surprised me for my B-day by taking me to Amsterdam with a couple of friends of ours. The trip was a blast we left early Friday and stayed until Sunday evening.

We walked around town and even went to a couple of places. Such as, the Anne Frank Museum and a super cool local district that everyone told us we couldn’t miss.

Below are pictures of our exploits.

The hotel

Taking the Tram…which travels at an alarming speed.

Heading towards the local center market

Something for the VanVeen part of the Family

I just couldn’t get enough of the buildings. Since Amsterdam wasn’t bombed, during WW2, many of the buildings are super old - dating back to 1486. And many of the buildings have sunk and shifted because I believe Amsterdam was built on a marsh. Thus if you look close at the buildings in the pictures…you should notice things not so “square”.

the canals were great as well.

Can you see the supporting beam in between these two buildings (in the picture below)

Ah Yes!!! the outdoors market.

So many Mushrooms!

Anyone for some raw Mackerel…apparently it’s a local favorite and I have to say it was quite tasty.

What did you say?

Anyone need to stop at the bank?

Below you can see L freezing as I ask her to pose in front of the old city gate - that is now a restaurant.

…And the Red-light District.

Way more tame than I had envisioned

Fastfood for the late night munchies… L sure seemed perplexed…we don’t get to see vast amounts of junk food on display in such a manner…well maybe back in the states we do.

Sunday morning…a bit of scones and clotted cream…a bit of coffee and a bit of tea…sooooo good.

Say goodbye everybody!!!

Until next time, that’s all folks.

hugs,

M&L

Quick Recap of 2011 X-mas

2012-01-20T05:39:00.001-08:00

Hello Everybody,

Well…we’re into the New Year about a month now and I haven’t had much time to filter all our holiday pictures – there was a combined total of 1052 pictures we took over the break.

As some of you may know ‘T’ was here for xmas and new years and of course we did some sightseeing. This year we focused more on German Christmas Markets – we visited : Erlangen, Nuremberg, Bamberg, Rothenburg, Wurzburg, Munich, Berlin and Dresden.

So I’m sharing a bit of each visit - enjoy the pictures. By the way, I really like T’s camera.

Erlangen

I think I forgot to take pictures and this is the only one I found in T’s pictures

Nuremberg

Nuremberg’s Christmas Market is one of the biggest and most visited by tourist in all of Germany…so I’ve heard.

Gluhwein anyone

Got to have a Drei und Weckla

and some bier

Bamberg

I had to make sure the guy wasn’t still alive and needed help getting up.

Rothenburg

L, not sure what to do

Here we go she’s on target now

Oh yes!!! Schneeballchen (snowball) = deep fried dough strips shaped into a ball and then covered with all sorts of yummy sweet treats…warning!!! only buy in Rothenberg all others are cheap imitations…you’ve been warned.

Another local treat a really long brat or frank or hotdog.

Wurzburg

This is where the Pope stayed back in the olden days.

Munich

Gluhwein anyone.

I think I found it?

I did, I did find the Munich soup kitchen

T wanted bier and when in Munich – we hear it’s gotta be the Hof

We look this way, because Rick Steve’s maps are really really Scheiße.

The Mitchell Sisters calling me out

Yeah…they won.

or did they? wake up T

walking off the bier

UMMM…me like fries, me like fries.

Gluhwein anyone

Gluhwein…can make even the most ferocious piggy attractive.

Christmas Markets never stop in Munich they were hidden everywhere.

Headin’ back home

Berlin

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Dresden.

I believe we found heaven (schnitzel garten) for K&L of Sheltoniaberg, we’ll maybe more for the L part.

and then there was the schnitzel

well that’s about it folks. until next time…

hugs,

M&L

November Recap

2011-12-07T03:36:00.001-08:00

Hello Everybody,

November was a good, so-so and sad month.

Sad stuff first, During the second week in November I received a message from my sister about how Grandma was in hospital and things didn’t look so good and that she would call me with updates. Then one late afternoon I received another call from my sister telling me Grandma had requested to speak to me, well all her nephews and I was next in line for a call. Still I was quite surprised, I didn’t expect to talk to my Grandma again and when I did speak to her, she was alert and even made a joke when I said, “it would be hard to visit since my private jet had run out of gas” and she responded by saying, “Well, put it on my tab.” We both shared a last laugh and then I wished her to get well soon - the following day grandma was gone.

I heard all my cousins attended the funeral, which meant all 52 showed up minus one, me, and that they made a collage of all of us, I did regret not be able to see all my cousins...oh well life goes on. Though I was sad I could not attend the service, I was happy to have shared a final laugh and goodbye with Grandma Castillo.

Below are the pictures used of us for Grandma’s farewell collage . (l-r: me, Barb and Cindy)

Now for the so-so stuff.

L was away for most of November – off to China she was and well, what could I do…well I went to France with a friend. One, was to get my mind from thinking to much of my Grandma, well more my dad since it was his mother. Secondly, to go taste wine in the northern region of France know as the Côte d'Or and I wasn’t driving - so all the better.

Taste wine, eat good food and forget the troubles of the day, you’d think that great…but it was so-so. Plus I would be away for three days and that meant L would be home sooner when I returned.

Below is the town of one of my favorite Burgundy wines - Mercurey.

Many people prefer the wines from the northern region of the Côte d'Or and do have to agree that the wines in the north are good, Côte d'Beaune, Côte d'Nuit, Pommard, Romanee and Volnay. But for my taste and wallet, nothing compares to the Mercurey region and L’s favorite the Givry region, not to be confused with Geverey.

I hope these regions stay the way they are – small and quiet, because their northern counterparts are way to big and built for money.

Heading back to Germany.

I had some great wines from the 2009 vintage, I’d say it’s great all around, but the 2010 may be more to my liking, in the Mercurey region that is. I can’t wait for the Wine Festival in Strasbourg.

Back home a day before Thanksgiving. I made Challah for our local friends. Several of the expats got together and we had Thanksgiving dinner Friday night. It was so-so, I had fun but I think I was really missing L, family and friends this year. Well that may be changing soon, like in six months or so…hint hint.

Challah

And time for the good.

L returned the 2 of December and I was quite happy. We had an abbreviated version of Thanksgiving dinner. I made quail wrapped in bacon, green beans and leek – sage butternut risotto. Below is some of the pictures of my prep work.

Cubing the butternut and chopping the leeks

Prepping for cooking – all ingredients at the ready

chicken stock, olive oil, a cup and some of risotto, chopped sage, chopped leeks, white wine, parmesan cheese, pepper and a bit of heavy cream or butter

stir-stir-stir

taste-taste-taste

mix – rest – serve

That was November

Hugs,

M&L

what the? where did october go and hallows eve?

2011-11-04T02:39:00.001-07:00

Hi Everybody,

I realized this morning, as I was brushing last nights broccoli out of my teeth – I forgot to blog in October. While the U.S. is doing the OctoberBeerFest stuff during the month of October, here in Germany people have moved on, thus all October I sat on my porch, Stein in one hand and a Mos in the other, waiting for Oktober fest to pass by the house - forgetting that Germans have their Oktoberfest in September – can you see why I get confused and forget what month it is.

Continuing – everything is moving like salmon on a mating run. Turkey day is around the corner and L will be off on one of her yearly China trips. So November is also starting to get away from me as well – thus eyes got to blog.

Firstly and similar to last year - I ordered drum shells (African rosewood, I know save your complaining for the monkeys in the forest) and will be building a complete drum set this time around…wish me luck.

I really have gotten into trail riding and I think I scared my friends The Prumleys, because when they got one look at my MTB get –up,I could see they thought I had entered a spandex vortex – I figured while here in Germany, where no one really knows me, why not go (b)all(s) out. See below.

dork in funny clothes – spandex coved of course - no one wants to see me in tight shorts it’s gross…really

Even though these guys are gung-ho about MTB-ing, they still have trouble mounting the bikes to the van.

The MTB Club Minus 2

I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked and this trip is also around the end of fall, maybe a month ago, early October.

We had a week of crazy warm weather and of course we had to take advantage of our good fortune. Now the weather has turned to foggy cloudy days at about a steady 34 degrees.

Getting lost, the french dude really liked getting us lost, though he had a GPS attached to his bike, he still managed to pick the wrong path…hehehe.

This was a really nice single trail path that went along this huge rock wall.

Back into the forest getting lost.

And FIN. Greeny is still doing good although sometimes she still kicks me off when we’re not getting along. Don’t worry Lianner, no need to get jealous.

well that’s all for now. I’ll post pictures of my drum building project as I get closer to finishing.

Hugs,

M&L

Köln : Hugging the Rhine

2011-09-22T03:45:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody,

Köln, Germany

Let me see…what can I say about Köln…oh yeah, awesome!

Köln is the cultural center of the Rhineland and I would also add, because of the Köln University, the hippiest and artiest city of Germany, thus far anyway.

Köln originally founded by the Romans in 50 AD, was once called Colonia and has seen its share of history. Middle Age disputes with the Holy Roman Church, then the French, well Napoleon wanted a piece of the action, sitting on a prime trading route one can see why it would be a great city to own. Then WWI and with much of it destroyed during WW2,(See picture below, borrowed from an internet source) Köln suffered 95% destruction and lost many cultural artifacts. Unlike Nuremberg, which rebuild brick by brick a replica of what once was, Köln chose a new path to rebuild with an (at the time), modern 1950s look.

L and I had a great time in Köln and I would recommend anyone visiting Germany to plan time to visit this mighty city by the river.

There’s just something about cities that sprout up near rivers, the night life, the people and that mix of culture one gets from people flocking to river cities.

Kölner Dom

Our first stop was the Dom of Köln which was quite impressive. The cathedral is one of the world's largest Gothic churches in Northern Europe and for four short years from 1880 to 1884 was the tallest structure in the world.

The inside is also quite beautiful, if you like the inside of Gothic churches.

The Köln train station and also a hang out for the locals.

The back of the cathedral.

I guess back when the church was built sticking one’s tongue out scared away demons

The Rhine

Portland?

So along the fence of this bridge - couples demonstrate their love by placing a lock to signify their forever bond.

Does anyone see something in the picture below.

And I guess young kids don’t climb trees in Köln, but city walls.

Walking through the old part of Köln.

Below is some of that 1950s I was talking about. It is everywhere if you start looking for it.

Here we are at the children’s festival – oh yeah I forgot, L and I went to Köln because I had a small gig at a Köln’s Children Festival. The young girl in the picture below was really intrigued by how my foot made the bassdrum work. She was quite cute – she’d run to the front of the drum and peek through the vent hole and then back around to the side and then back to the front…this went on for a while.

The night life was great. L and I stayed by the University and boy was it jumping. Bar after bar after restaurant and we thought it must be just in this area . Not to be - twice we went walking in the evening and found these great pockets of people and restaurant bars. It made us miss Portland.

Our last night enjoying their local brew called, Kölsch, which unlike regular German beer, which is cold fermented, Kölsch is warm fermented. So when in Köln order a Kölsch…small, fresh and sooo good, plus easy to drink, so be warned.

Bye Bye Köln

Until next time.

Hugs

M&L or L&M

It’s September Already GEEZ!

2011-09-02T03:47:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody,

I hope all is well with all of you and that you’ve had an enjoyable summer. I believe this weekend will be our summer’s last fight and then it’s on to cooler weather and so on and so on until…W-I-N-T-E-R.

There’s isn’t much to report - well maybe there is – I heard Mr. Lucass is re-releasing all six of his War of the Stars in the Galaxy ridiculously faraway, back in time…you get what I’m trying to say. I don’t want to get flamed by fans of his movies – thus my encrypted jots - sort of, any 8 to 40 year old male knows what I’m talking about. Moving on…

I just wanted to say, I heard Lucass changed some scenes in the new release, something about a dark clad figure saying ‘no’ at the climatic end of movie six, where the evil dude overlord is frying his only son.

Well…I think that was a bad move and the more I think about it – a really bad move, Lucass just sucked all the implied emotion out of the scene. I’m starting to believe what many critics are starting to say - about how Mr. Lucass just stumbled upon greatness…if that’s the case – I’d like to place an order for stumbled upon – wait – no I don’t. I don’t think I’d be able to deal with all the critics…anyway.

I’m just saying, someone needs to edit Jorge, he’s gone to the edge and his CGI guys just let him jump off. As though Jorge one day said, “look, what’s that, do you all see it, it’s a Cyclops on a winged unicorn holding Excalibur fighting Alexander the Great dressed up like Khan from the other star movie on a frozen planet in his R2 – D2 underoos …can you see it?.” And CGI guys said, "’oh Jorge, you.’

I may never buy all six of the rere-released movies because “new edits” are starting to change my perception, as for that imagination and wonderment I had when I was 4 – well, he’s try to rob me of it all and that is not cool, plus my pant pockets have holes in them…okay enough – moving on.

About a week ago I went on a hike in what the Germans like to call their Swiss Alps. It was quite beautiful. I hiked with our friend who is starting his battle with an even stronger darker force. I’d talk about it more, but I’ll give him his privacy. I will say it makes me think about our parents and family…I miss you all….okay enough of the mush.

The hike was great – about a 3 and a half hour hike or so and then back home.

Like I said earlier, the weather is ah changin’ and thus I made a short video to say goodbye to summer. Hope you all enjoy, it’s nothing fancy.

Hugs all around,

-M&L

Southern France Camping Trip

2011-08-12T03:39:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody,

One of our trips this summer was going camping in Southern France near Narbonne. We stayed at two camping sites, the first one being the one in the picture below and the second one near another smaller village who’s name has escaped me.

I won’t write too much because there is quite a few pictures for this post.

A little scrabble playing followed by some nice Tomme cheese and wine, if you happen to come across this French cheese I do recommend trying it.

Taking a walk to the small bay near our camp ground.

Heading to Leucate for some nice Mediterranean swimming.

We had a great time at this beach and hardly anyone was around, I guess it was still a bit cold for the locals, but not for us. The water was fantastic.

In the city of Narbonne for some grub, notice the chorizo in our salad, well it’s because we are in the part of France where Spanish and French cooking hold hands like back in middle school when you held hands with your first crush, but didn’t really want any of your friends to know, sort of like that. No one really mentions how good the food is in Southern France…Frenchies, they like to keep the good stuff for themselves.

L basking in the warm summer sunset

boss di plane.

and some more wine.

Then we had a visitor in the dead on night and yes it had me jumping around the camp site like a little sissy broken hand…help,help,help me L.

Leaving Narbonne and heading to our new campsite.

Below is a picture of the Catalan flag proudly flying in France.

don’t be scared, it’s not really that bad of a drop off.

Some sightseeing. Below is the oldest lookout point/Fort that kept getting a change of ownership between the French and Spanish.

As you can see…he who posses the fort has eyes of a thousand troops.

An Abby we visited, which name I can’t remember, I’ll ask L and update the blog later.

Below is the longest and tallest aqueduct built by the Romans, Pont du Gard.

Can everyone see L standing below the arch.

Our new campsite and I’m just pretending to be passed out.

Walking in town.

I told you they like the Spanish down here.

Oh Yeah, olive trees everywhere…well almost.

Back at the campsite relaxing

A village in Provance that Mr. Brumley wanted me to walk through

Mr. Brumley maybe you should post the name of this place.

For those of you that like a pocket utensil

Heading towards the city of Avignon

The City of Avignon

Pont du AvignonI think I have to mention that L lived in Avignon and never knew which river the bridge crossed…or should I say tried to cross, I don’t think they finished this bridge.

L was telling this city on a hill is where all the fancy French movie starlets come to hang-out.

Onto Orange and the lavender fields.

And home…

this concludes our tour…until next time.

-hugs

M&L

Belgium in a flash and Einmal Jahre

2011-08-06T07:20:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody,

It’s been quite a while now hasn’t it…well I’m glad to report that I will be posting more now that winter is around the corner. I’ve been busy riding my bike, entertaining guests and visiting places.

Since last I wrote - we’ve visited Southern France and Slovenia, which I will be talking about in future posts. But first let me finish Belgium and start anew.

Months are starting to fly by now, before we know it, we’ll be having to pack our cardboard crate and head home.

Well onto Belgium.

Plus a congrats to the Noodles and their shiny new baby.

Plus another congrats to the Stilcho’s for their shiny new baby.

And another congrats to my sis for their shiny new house.

hugs,

M&L

Belgium : Part 1

2011-04-15T00:28:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody,

As some of you may know, we were in Belgium a couple of weeks ago and had quite a few pictures to sort through well, its done now so on with the sharing.

We spent most of our time in the city of Ghent and we visited Ostend, Brussels and Bruges. All were nice cities, but I really liked Ghent.

Ghent, Belgium

City Center

We arrived to Ghent late in the afternoon and walked around the city getting acquainted with our surroundings and of course, because we were hungry, we were also on a mission to find Belgium fries and beer.

Below is Rene taking in some sun as we walked towards town. The weather in Ghent was fantastic – when we left our village it was rainy and cold, so we were quite glad for a change in weather.

One of the city parks in Ghent, located near the university. Ghent is also the largest city in East Flanders and though one will hear French and German spoken in this Flemish part of Belgium, their main language is Dutch.

Ghent has a great history: Romans briefly wrote about it, Franks lived here, Vikings plundered, had a wool industry, the Dukes of Burgundy ruled it in the 1400s, Philip the Good was very bad, has ties to Juana the ‘loca’ of Castile, went through a religious war, was a Calvinist republic, but of course the Spaniards put an end to that…plus much, much more.

Ghent is also packed with young university folk on bicycles. Seeing so many people on bikes was great, I heard a rumor that Ghent will be passing a law that does not allow motor vehicles in the city. I think that would be a wonderful idea for downtown Portland.

Look it’s Mr. Marcy on drums.

Manteca???

Here’s what I meant about folks on bicycles and I thought Portland had a big bicycle population…now I know.

Below is a picture of us walking underneath the St. Michielsburg Bridge towards the Graslie.

I guess every afternoon people gather on the staired banks of the Graslie talking, drinking and smoking.

The Graslie

Castle Gravensteen

I’ll talk about the castle in a later post, remember this is just an introduction post.

walking along the rivers that run through Ghent.

Looking for food, I won’t mention any names, but someone was getting hungry.

Belgium Fries, soooo good.

With our bellies full of potato goodness and beer, we headed back through town towards our hotel for a good nights rest.

Ghent at dusk.

Goodnight Ghent

hugs,

M&L

more on the way, plus someone leaves for Hong Kong this weekend, not me, the other one.

Hello there…

2011-03-31T05:17:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody,

It’s been a while since last I blogged and do I have things to write about.

Let us all have a moment of silence as we say goodbye to my dear and close friend, ol’blue.

Fifteen great years of mountain biking bliss… I couldn’t ask for a better bike, but it’s time to move on so…

Say hello to my new little friend, greeny. A new chapter in trail riding and hill climbing begins.

I’ve come to realize that training going up hill helps my lower back immensely. Sooo, the last month or so I have been really pushing the limits of my old mountain bike and finally it said, NO MORE and committed seppuku.

I’m am going to try to revive ol’blue by making it into a single gear…well see.

Ok now for some updates,

Two weekends ago L and I headed to Gigondas, France with a friend of ours to help him buy wine. It was a quick three day weekend of long drives, wine tasting and developing a palate for these bold wines.

Our first stop was in the small village of Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes. I believe this village is located in the northern part of the Cote the Rhone, near Châteauneuf-du-Pape. But their popular Grenache grapes from the Cairanne appellation are quite good.

“Red wines in Cairanne are mainly made from Grenache Noir which must comprise at least 50% of the blend. This grape is supported by Syrah and Mourvèdre (which must together comprise 20% of the blend) and then all of the other nominated grapes varieties for the Côtes du Rhône appellation which include Counoise, Cinsault and Carignan among others.”

Ok that was for all the wine experts out there, which I am by no means near approaching. Below is a picture of the town market. I bought some really tasty chorizo and French sausages.

below is a picture of one of the wineries we visited, this one was the Sainte Cecile local.

The Gigondas wine valley.

If you are interested in reading about the Gigondas wine click on the link -

http://www.gigondas-vin.com/terroir/encepagement.php

Rhone Valley

Gigondas

The Maison de Gigondas is where most of the wines from the local villages are collected and sold. We stopped here before we were off to the wineries. I completely forgot to take pictures of the wineries, every time we arrived at a winery I became enchanted by the owners and I would forget to document our visit.

Stopping in a local restaurant for some lunch.

Approaching the village of Séguret, France.

L taking in the fresh air of the Rhone valley from Domaine de Mourchon a winery located in the hills of Séguret.

If you ever get a chance to visit France,one must visit Séguret, but don’t tell anyone we have to keep it a secret.

Below we headed towards the village of Pommard, another fantastic place to visit. After our wine travels we headed back home, but before we left France…

We stopped in our favorite villages of Givry and Mercurey looking for those final purchases that would round out our wine selections.

One final pictures leaving Givry and headed back towards Germany. We had a fantastic time and we got to stay in Lyon for two days, which was an added bonus.

Next in line is Belgium.

We also visited Ghent, Burgge, Ostende, and Brussels. I’m sorting through the pictures this week and will be posting soon but here’s a sneak peak.

Oostende

Ghent

rock!!!

Hugs,

M&L

Finally–Budapest, Hungary

2011-01-27T02:58:00.001-08:00

Hello everybody,

well I’ve finally sorted through all the 726 Budapest pictures.

Budapest in a nutshell!!!

So here we go!!!

Arriving to the main train station in Pest.

The guy in the lower right hand side of the picture was trying to get me to exchange money with him, although I said no thanks.

In the picture below is the outside view of the train station.

Here we are exiting the underground subway and headed towards our hotel.

The Mitchell Sisters, well 2/3 of them anyway.

Pictures as we walked towards our hotel.

after arriving to the hotel, we headed back outside and braved the artic blast in search of…you guess it, beer.

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The following day.

Our view of Buda and the Danube River. The majority of our time was spent in the Pest part of Budapest. But don’t worry we do get over to the Buda side.

Budapest is home to 3,271,110 people.The city covers an area of 525 square 202.7 sq. miles within the city limits. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of right west-bank Buda and Óbuda with left east-bank Pest. (borrowed from Wikipedia)

This day we scheduled a stop at a local Therma and sightseeing.

The Hungarian State Opera House

We tried to buy tickets for the Nutcracker Suite, but the show was sold out. Next time.

You know these goons.

Next we headed towards the HOUSE OF TERROR.

The building located on one of Pest most historic streets, Andrassy, heading towards the Oktogan, now called new America, because of all the fast food joints located there.

But, below is a picture of the museum entrance. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the basement. I managed one picture of the interrogation room.

The “Terror House” was home to the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party in 1944. Then it fell under Russian occupation and the Department of Political Police took over, later known as AVO and AVH. It was also called, ‘House of Loyalty.’

At least from what I understood from the tour…

In an act of preservation, the Hungarian Socialist Party sided with the Nazi party in order to end Nazi occupation of Hungary, but instead the Nazis took over the building and developed the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party. The Arrow Cross rounded up Hungarians and Hungarian Jews that were not loyal to the Nazis. The Arrow Cross then either sent the prisoners to concentration camps or tortured them in the basement of the building and then dumped their bodies in the Danube River.

Because the Hungarians had supported the Nazis, the U.S.S. R. had no mercy and in turn set up the Department of Political Police, later called the AVO and AVH. The AVO developed a network of informants and a shadow army, big brother stuff. A silent terror roosted in the streets of Hungary and it lasted up until 1956.

As one walks along the sidewalk towards the building, you will notice the museum, it is the only building painted in a drab grey that has an imposing frame on top of it that reads, “TERROR.” The building is a memorial to all the people that died during the occupations.

You can read more about it here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Terror

After we shook off the fright of the museum we headed to the spa…

But first, below is the Heroes Square, built during the Hungarian Soviet Republic reign in the 1919.

Here is what it looks like now.

Here are a couple pictures I took for Mr. Rahn

Now to the Spa.

Here’s what it looked like from the inside…I can’t remember the name of this place perhaps - The Mitchell Sisters can chime in if they remember the name.

Walking back the hotel with our internal temperatures set on high after the spa.

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Below are pictures of our walks around the city.

I can’t remember the name of this church either - Can anyone help?

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The Hungarian Grand Market

This guy was trying to show me his banana.

The Grand Market was quite a big place, we went twice, once to check it out and then a following time to eat.

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Evening walks.

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St. Stephan’s Basilica

Can anyone see the Mitchell Sisters?

lost?

Parliament

I called this place The Wax Church, but I wish I could remember it’s name.

Picture for the Sssmmmuuuusseessss.

I can’t tell if the Mitchell Sister were impressed…

I believe they were making cinnamon rollish sweets.

Back to the hotel

Check out the sweet hotel lobby.

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Buda!!!

In the distance you can see Parliament.

Fisherman's Bastion

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A view of Parliament from Buda looking towards Pest.

Buda Castle

Buda Castle Courtyard and some pictures for Mr. Rahn

Looking towards Pest from the Buda Castle

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Bridges

The Chain Bridge

The Elizabeth Bridge

The Liberty Bridge

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Walking along the Danube on the Buda side.

ST. GELLÉRT CAVE CHAPEL

We didn’t go into this church, but it was built into the side of a hill.

Walking across the Chain Bridge back to the hotel for our New Years Festivities.

L, trying to push the bridge over. If you recall from a previous post, she was struggling to push a church aside, must be a Mitchell thing.

The masses began to gather for the festivities and we prepared for the party of a lifetime…with paprika?

Paprika…really?

The firework display New Years Eve.

People gathering for the show

Then….

Happy New Years!!!!

Hugs,

M&L

Ending the Year : Part 3 Aosta, Italy

2011-01-07T06:09:00.001-08:00

Hello everybody,

I thought about breaking up this blog into two parts, but then decided not to – Here it goes.

Aosta, Italy

After driving through France for about two hours and then another hour and a half through the Italian Alps we arrived to our destination.

No one really told us about the snow covered roads we would be navigating through...and thus the torturous ascend into the white heavens began. Below is a picture of the worst part of the road. The cool thing about the drive was that our front wheel Toyota (with it’s sweeeet snow tires) sliced through the snow like a Samurai sword slicing through Swiss cheese.

Below is a picture of the cabin we stayed at and that puny fence next to our car is all that protected our sweet ride from falling to certain death.

Here’s L taking in the view from our perch.

The day we arrived was the clearest weather we got to experience during our stay, after this night a snow cloud fell upon the mountains and hugged the mountains for the remained of our stay.

The Pad

L and T’s sweet sofa bed.

Living Area

The following morning we woke up to our car coved in snow. After we un-iced we headed for a short walk up small hill/mountain.

Here we have the ladies taking a break.

Above is a picture of the snow cloud that covered the mountains.

Below are the fearless Mitchell Sisters leading their cam’pain’ of will against a fierce opponents…old man winter and mother nature.

Our first destination marker ‘La Coliere’ 1255m. Sad to say we never reached the small town that was said to be nestled among the trees and as result we made it to our next marker…un-descript tree by road. After reaching our goal we celebrated by partaking in old Mitchell Family ritual…we walked around said marker and turned back towards our cabin.

Awe yes, the elusive Yeti tracks.

The Town

For some reason L thought the church pillar needed to be adjusted. We never got to go inside this church, but behind the church was a crypt from the times of Senor JC.

Below are the pictures.

City Center

Yes…it was raining P’town stylie. It made for smelly goose down jackets. I won’t mention any names, but their initials are L and T.

Christmas Market

No, we don’t know the guy in the picture standing next to us. My friend Brumley called it picturing bombing…or something like that.

Below is the oldest tree in history…no not really, but it is old and it was set on fire many moons ago when invaders tried to sack the city, now it’s a monument. You can’t see it, but it’s missing all it’s innards.

Below are pictures of another crypt we just happen to stumble into…really.

These tombs are from 322 after JC.

Don’t adjust your eyes, that is a statue of children drinking from the mother wolves teat. I never did find out why that was, but it made me think about some Alaskan lady talking about mother bears or something. I think mother wolves sounds cooler, but that’s me.

Here we have the famous exploding car warning sign. They don’t have them in Germany so I can’t tell you what it means, but you are welcomed to come up with a meaning for this sign.

Stayed a week in Aosta. We relaxed eat great food and drank great wine (from France, but don’t tell the Italians I said that). We left for our next phase early Christmas morning. Below are pictures of our drive.

Here we have the St. Bernard tunnel which cuts through a portion of the Alps and connects Italy with Switzerland. L took some video of what waited for us as we exited the tunnel into Swissland.

Stopping for a quick rest and inspecting the funny looking ice that had collected on our car doors.

Back home to Herzo.

That’s right, no one gets away from shoveling snow. The snow was quite a surprise, it was about a foot deep. You can see the small mountain of snow I had built before we left for our vacation.

We rested for a day and then the following Monday we headed to Budapest for the New Year.

Below you can see what my secret Santa gave me for the holiday.

The Castichell Christmas Wreath.

Bye-Bye and hugs,

M&L&T

P.S. Dropped off T’mitch at the Airport early this morning. Hope you had a good journey T.

Ending the Year : Part 2 Chalon, France

2011-01-05T02:42:00.000-08:00

Chalon Sur Saone, France…

Well not really, it’s the smaller city (Saint Germain Du Plain) which is across the Saone River and through the woods on the way southeast side of Chalon. The wine coop we like is located in Chalon, I’ll talk about that later.

But below is a picture of the château we stayed at for the evening.

Château de Saint Germain du Plain

If you look closely L and I are standing in the left hand corner by our car.

We walked through the town looking for food. Arriving on a Sunday afternoon presented a challenge, because everything was CLOSED!!!

The only ‘French’ restaurant was closed, so our second option was a French/Italian food joint up the road from the Château.

Our hosts were so nice to us, they even called the restaurant to make our reservations. When we arrived it was quite funny to hear the owner of the restaurant say in his French accent, “you are here from the Château yes…have a seat.”

Below is a picture of the Mitchell Duo rubbing elbows with the local town artist.

After dinner we took a short walk thru town taking in the local sites.

Above is a statue commemorating WWI.

Here we are the following morning having breakfast around 8am.

Oui, oui … du pain!!!

Shortly here after we headed to the local Maisons des Vins de la Côte Chalonnaise. Since I forgot to take pictures you can check it out here – http://www.maisonvinsbourgogne.com/

But make sure to keep this place a secret, we don’t want the prices to go up.

And so the next phase of our journey began.

Off

Italy!!!

Mt. Branc

a short video of our travels.

Until next time…hugs,

M&L&T

Ending the Year : Part 1 Germany

2011-01-03T07:28:00.001-08:00

Hello everybody,

Another year gone by, another black hair gone grey and a great ending to a decade of change.

Our end of the year celebrating started the moment we picked up T’Mitch from the airport. For those of you that do not know T’Mitch, she is L’s sister.

After a week of work we began preparing for our travels. We started our journey here in good ‘ol Germany, then headed to Chalon, France, then to Aosta, Italy for Christmas and finally saying hello to the New Year in Budapest, Hungry.

And so the tale begins…

Erlangen, Germany

One can’t start a journey without a nice hot cup of Glühwein (Glow wine) fancy word for German Mulled Wine.

If you would like to make Glühwein, here’s a recipe you can try.

http://www.bcliving.ca/living%20space/recipe-german-mulled-wine-gluhwein

We also tried German eggnog…hummm, there’s a reason why there aren’t any pictures of the egg concoction.

Sommerhausen, Germany

Before we departed on our adventure we first went to Sommerhausen, Germany near Wurzburg. This city is known for their Christmas market. Most of the items sold are made locally by the towns folk and they have an open house kind of set-up, where one can go into the artisan’s house to purchase their crafts.

Don’t look so sad buddy.

L didn’t get enough mustard on her brat mit brot.

A quick snap of Santa Claus or is it Pope Kris.

Then there’s this guy.

Here’s L giving you some hand jive.

Above you will notice our getaway car…not the white one.

The Mitchell Sisters in full EFX!

Our visit to Sommerhausen really put us in the festive spirit. And if I dare say, Germans do know how to put on Christmas. The xmas vibe is everywhere you turn.

We had a great time in Sommerhausen. Our journey would begin in true form a day later. An eight hour drive to Chalon, France for a quick restock purchase of our favorite wine and then off to Italy for Christmas.

Hugs,

M&L&T

The Greatest Journey

2010-12-10T04:19:00.001-08:00

Hello everybody,

Winter is here and with a mad baboon on it’s shoulder. It’s been snowing for the last week or so, but last night I guess it must have been party party party into the evening in Herzo, because we woke up to about a foot of natures white puke every where.

Ok, puke is a harsh word, but it was a butt load of snow. I know, because I was out this morning at 6:30am sharp shoveling.

Here’s what I saw when I first opened the door…hello a foot of snow at our front door. Did you sleep well?

It’s hard to tell how deep the snow is, but if you look at the silver plant pot at the lower right hand corner, which is about a foot and half tall, you’ll get a sense of how much it snowed during the evening. Plus, what’s crazy about this snow biznezz is…the snow had all melted two days before.

Look at it now.

And the work began

Where’s the car…oh yeah, under 12 inches of snow.

Our pretty street covered in snow…how the heck am I going to get the car out of here? Don’t worry you’ll see later how much snow I cleared off the car.

My herb’s!!!

Looking out onto the walkway behind our house.

A view out our bedroom window.

Where’s our car!!! oh yeah…under 12 inches of snow.

Well we got all bundled up and we left for L’s work. I’ve been trying to walk in the mornings with L – Trying to get exercise for my back.

Above is a picture of the frozen pond by our house.

Look at this, the Germans build benches for snow – They think of everything.

The frozen pond.

I think the birdie has the right idea…

Spielplatz?

Another frozen pond.

And now....

The Greatest Journey of the Greatest Heart

And this it what I did when I returned home. It was like unwrapping a cold burrito on wheels…varoom.

Many hugs and until next time…keep warm.

M&L

Now I know why…

2010-11-16T05:42:00.001-08:00

Some time ago I played with the idea of building a snare drum, but for this reason or that I never tried…until now. With the extra time I have these days, I sat myself down in front of the computer, did my research, ordered my parts and began.

It’s taken me about a week and a half to finish the drum and now I know why custom drum builders charge so much money, it really is hard work. I enjoyed building the drum and my next task is to build a 4 piece drum set.

Picking the wood for drum was difficult and in the end, I ordered German beech wood, it’s a wood normally not used in the states and the wood was inexpensive. No sense in buying say…walnut, especially for my first go at drum building - that may have turned costly.

Below are pictures of my project.

Measuring the distance between the tension rods, using a template.

The tool/square below was the hardest item to find. I went to five different stores searching for this particular square, which by the way was only 5 euros. Drum companies make a drum square which one can buy for about 68 euros.

I also used a snare drum I own (black drum) as a model for my beech drum.

Drilling was the scary part – I really did follow the check three times before you drill rule. Below is a picture of the first hole.

Cleaned the drum removed the tape residue and then I went to work sanding.

Then I had to measure the snare bed. If you want, you can read about snare bed theory here - https://www.drumfoundry.com/driver.aspx?Topic=drum_snare_bed_theory

Having a good snare bed is important for good quality sound. Shaving my drum for the snare bed also made me nervous. As you can see from the picture below, a good chunk of the wood does get removed…so, bad snare bed = bad sound = start again = more money.

Antik – Wachs…this stuff is great. Wood wax for that natural finish.

I still have bruise from holding the drum between my legs. (note to self…self build a stand to hold drum)

And here we have the first wax application and below is the finished product after three coats of waxing and sanding. Check out the matte finish.

Assembly required

After waiting a day for the last wax coating to dry, it was time to assemble my new drum.

Slowly…slowly

Here we have it…My new beech snare drum

I tuned it up, played it bit and at the moment it sounds good, but tomorrow I’m taking the drum into the rehearsal room to replace the factory drum heads with my favorite drum heads and give the drum a true test. I have to also see how it’s going to get along with my drum set. (Orangie can be demanding on snare drums)

The first drum from M&L Drums and hopefully not the last. (by the way I have to work on the badge design…any ideas?)

hugs,

M&L

P.S.

L, is in China for 10 days, so it’s me and Jean-Luc, a bag of catnip and bottle of whiskey.

Happy Mid-November

2010-11-12T00:45:00.001-08:00

A quick post…

Things are moving along swimmingly. L is leaving for China in a couple of days and I’ve been working at the army base for a several weeks. Other than that there isn’t a lot to report. I’ve started to track recipes by cataloging the ones we like in a homemade recipe book. Plus I started a project that is almost done…I will share when I finish it.

Pictures of what we’ve been experimenting with in the cooking department.

Someone wanted a certain type of cookie, which I don’t usually like, but I’ve come around.

If you haven’t guessed by now…It’s Homemade Oreos

We’ve got a whole mess load of Oreos in the kitchen…need help eating them.

Hugs.

M&L

Italy: Part 5 – Trentino-Alto Adige and Home

2010-10-05T07:52:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody,

If you’ve been following the posts, sorry about the wait, our laptop monitor has been acting silly lately, sooooo, we purchased a slave monitor for our laptop so we don’t have to deal with any funny stuff.

Well below is the last leg of our Italian journey. As we headed north we took a nice drive on Northern Italy’s wine road, it’s really called that. We saw fields beyond fields of wine, I mean grapes. I had trouble keeping my eyes off the fields and on the road, plus the smell of grapes was amazing.

As one drives through the wine road, you also go through smaller villages, each with their own type of wine.

If you would like to read about this regions wines go here: http://www.italianmade.com/wines/doc10030.cfm

The local grape variety that is used in this part of Italy is called, Lagrein. They also have two other grapes, but their names escape me at the moment.

Below are pictures of one of the places we stopped to try some wine and have a quick snack.

As you can see L was quite excited to get in, plus I believe the Mitchell sisters were hungry and we all know what that means.

This vineyard was awesome we tried their Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. We liked the wine so much that we purchased several bottles. If you track down the Young Man Yazzo, you too can try some of this delicious Italian wine, but I think he may have drank it already…next time.

Yup, just like I said, fields and fields of wine, I mean…grapes.

Below are pictures of our journey back home. I hope you liked the pictures and our adventure into Italy.

This was the view from our window in Vipiteno.

Now I’ll finish with a picture of me, doing what I like to do best…can anyone guess.

hugs,

M&L

Italy: Part 4 - Fontanellato

2010-09-28T01:48:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody,

Fontanellato is a small province of Parma. Does it have something to do with gelato, no, but it did have good gelato and a really nice lady who helped us with our Italian diction. The city sits in the northern part of Italy near Parma, the River Po and is also near Piacenza and about 60 km from Milan.

It is a great small province. I believe we were the only tourists, perhaps because it’s late in the year and winter is quickly approaching, who knows, but it was nice to see the local people shopping and eating.

The town was built up around the 15th century. It has a castle which is fortified by a moat and owned by the Sanvitale family until 1951 when they sold it to the city. The castle is known as the Rocca Sanvitale.

The Yazzos wanted to see a castle and do some shopping, so after some research we all decided that Fontanellato provided both. As you can see below the city was in full market mode when we arrived, which was close to siesta time as well. The market was wrapped around the castle’s moat and we walked around the market several times, when soon people started to pack up and rest up for the afternoon.

We found a small butcher where the Young Man Yazzo found some great culatello for his father. Culatello (little backside) is a refined prosciutto made from a heavier pig. From what I’ve researched and read, this cut of meat is the unexercised part of the pigs hind leg and butt, thus making it quite tender. If you’re interested and have an internet translator, you can read about it here: http://www.consorziodelculatellodizibello.it/ita/consorzio.html

Purchasing several pieces of meat and cheese we later sat down for lunch. After lunch we headed back to Bologna for our last night. We drove through some of the country side of Parma and Emilia – Romagna, before our NAV system gave up and got lost in the new road constructions of Modena, at which point we had to head back to the autobahn to make sure we were heading back to Bologna.

Below is a picture of the place where we found the cured ham.

Here are some pictures L took along our drive of the country side.

Ok, so below is a picture of a bridge, which I can’t remember the name of, but it was about this point in our travels that the NAV system started to say, “no” and ‘things’ began to repeat themselves. Thus, we felt trapped in some alternate play writing by Beckett, where we were doomed to repeat the same bridge and then thinking about it differently until we found a way to escape the circle of madness. By the third time of being lured in by this bride’s siren call, L was able to take this great picture of ‘The Bridge of Perpetual Madness.’ Or at least that’s what I call it now.

Fontanellato was a great stop and I also recommend visiting this sleepy but vibrant province.

Next: Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Fields of Wine.

Hugs,

-M&L

and the Yazzos…but they’re home now…lucky.