Ireland!

We went to Dublin and surrounding countryside for Labor Day weekend. Let me tell you, the rumors are true, Ireland grass is neon.

It was beautiful. We really enjoyed the Jameson whiskey tour and the Guinness brewery tour (yum!), but we particularly enjoyed the countryside. We visited the Boyne valley and also the peninsula of Howth. Stunning views and green, green, green.

Trip to Good Ole London

Check out the fruits of my hard work, the categories widget on the right hand side of the blog (scroll down til you see the word cloud). I went through all my old posts and added labels so you could click on those words and find exactly what you're looking for.

Oooo, aaaaa, shiny!

Ok, onto photos from London. We went for a three day weekend to jolly London and walked, a lot. I came home with sore feet and a bag full of books (ah books).

The tourists need help with which direction to look for oncoming traffic. It was helpful, as well as hilarious.

A fuzzy hat guarding the royal jewels. Which were absolutely stunning.

The Millennium Bridge, the one destroyed in the sixth Harry Potter movie. It's right near the Shakespeare Globe Theater, pretty much the only thing I cared about seeing.

Classic telephone booth. I don't know who uses payphones anymore, but London would probably have a riot on their hands if they took away the telephone booths. As Albert said, London has probably the most in-use icons of any city: telephone booths, Parliament, taxis, English Bulldogs, the Queen...

The fountain in Piccadilly Square. We also saw Covent Garden, Hyde Park, Notting Hill, and Buckingham Palace. The city was crawling with tourists, but it was bearable.

Family Trip to Germany

The second week my family was here my dad and brother-in-law showed up. They brought my precious parakeet, Moe. We've missed her for the past eight months. She was hand-raised and is just as friendly as a big parrot. We played her favorite song, and after not hearing it that entire time she still sang to it!

Moe bird.

Anyways, my dad and brother-in-law flew in and then we headed to Munich. We saw Dachau, very heart-breaking. We went to the Munich Ratskeller restaurant for dinner. Then we headed to the Neuschwanstein Castle, otherwise known as the Disney Castle. I'm having to split up the photos into three segments, so that's it for this one. There will be more later.

Visiting Esslingen for ice cream and an afternoon in the park.

Dachau barracks.

Dachau gate, Arbeit Macht Frei - Work Makes You Free

Neuschwanstein in the mist.

Family Visit Photos

Here are some of the photos from my family visit. The first week was just us girls and we went to Baden-Baden and the Alsace region of France. It was a complete blast. We happened upon two very wonderful pensions to stay at, and had a lot of fun. We also took the girls to Frühlings Fest on the last day. Junk food galore, let me tell you. Then the guys showed up for another two weeks, I'll post those photos later.

The Squeaker in Baden-Baden.

My mom said she visited 'little people houses' when she was a child. We searched and searched, and randomly found something like them. Though not the same according to her. With these you put a euro coin in a machine and the waterworks, train, and gondola all moved for about ten minutes. It was excellent.

My mom and her friend Linda from college. We teased her relentlessly about the 'little people houses' for the next two weeks. It seemed like she was just describing a fantasy dream but hen we found these!

We visited an Abbey ruin. Yes, my mom laid down in the tomb/trough thing. Linda had the hardest time getting her out because I was just standing there laughing.

My mom and sister on the Frühlings Fest swing ride. Of course then Squeaker was begging to swing so we had to find her some rides.

She rode the tiny Deutsche Bahn train with my sister. But her favorite was the pirate ship that moved in a big circle. She's fearless.

My mom wrote the sweetest blog post about staying with us. My sister is waiting to write her blog post until I send these pictures. I'll post about the other two weeks later.