The Dog House

I've been holding off on this post until it was official. We found the house about a month ago, but only signed the lease yesterday. This is what we got the dog:

Move in is July 1, so the dog will just have to wait a little bit longer....

You take the high road, and I'll take the low road...

I spent the whole flight back marinading on how best to write about Edinburgh. It's hands-down one of my favorite cities in the world. Sure, it can get cold and windy and dreary, but the people are lovely, the city is beautiful, and it's just so accessible.

I first visited Edinburgh about 10 years ago and remember feeling so worldly when I turned 19 there. There's something about wandering the world at that age that just makes you feel like you can do anything. And I did. I did lots and lots of cool things. I still do lots and lots of cool things. So for all those reasons (and the simple fact that it's awesome) Edinburgh has a special place in my heart.

Fast-forward to now. With 6 days of vacation time on our hands, this was the first place that came to mind. I loved that I got to share my favorite city with my love. It also helps that I'm no longer broke and can do things like taste (and buy) quality Scotch Whisky.

Which was one of the first things we did. The Scottish Whisky Experience. Not knowing what whisky we *really* liked it was a good place to start. We learned about how whisky is made (has to age in wooden casks for 3 years minimum to be called whisky) and about the different regions that make it and how it affects the flavor. Turns out I like Islay single malts and Mason prefers Speyside, but we can both agree on Highland whisky.

The rest of our time was spent touring the Scottish Highlands. It's such a beautiful sight!

The first tour took us past Stirling Castle, through Glencoe and to Loch Ness. We even found Nessie!

Our second tour gave us more time to explore. We visited the Abby dedicated to the first King of Scotland where WIlliam Wallace's mother is buried. Later on we got to try even more Whisky at the Glenturret Distillery and have a snack by the River Tay (longest in Scotland!)

We spent our final days touring Edinburgh itself - from the Castle to shopping on the Royal Mile, to Calton Hill. 

At the end of it all, we ended up with 5 litres of our favorite Scotch Whiskys. Who's coming over this weekend? We have plenty to share! 

(For those inquiring minds - Black Grouse, Monkey Shoulder, Ardbeg 10 year, Glenmorangie LaSanta, Glen Glarioch Select Reserve....we had to save some to bring back next trip!) 

Butterfly Garden

Well aren't ya'll special!! You get two blog posts in one day!

Another really neat thing we discovered in Luxembourg is the Butterfly Garden. It's in a tiny river town called Grevenmacher. You'd ever know about it unless you were driving through. If you heppen to love butterflies like I do, this is another must-see....

Chateau du Vianden

This is a great little place I found with my mom. It's only a hour away and was restored really well. Castles in Europe are about like Temples in Korea. They're everywhere, so they can lose their magic fairly quickly. The Government of Luxembourg has done an amazing job restoring this castle.

The Romans started building it back in the 11th century. Of course, you have to renovate every few hundred years. Each subsequent occupant added more and more to this grand castle. Including...



The armory:

The bedroom (where they placed a cactus by the window)

The kitchen (where everyone gathered to watch the only TV)

An internal well (with really icky looking water)

and the Wine cellar (which was my favorite room, personally)

Even today, there's still restoration work ongoing. I envy my friend Desiree and her husband that get to listen to a string quartet here next weekend. I would highly recommend visiting here if you're ever in Luxembourg!

Garden Update

Remember our trip to the Tulip Festival? Remember the 120 tulips we bought thinking we'd be excellent gardeners? Here's our progress so far...

Since we're still waiting to move into our house, we asked our temporary lodging if we could have a garden. Thankfully they agreed and I got to digging a nice enough space.

and digging and digging and digging (grass is *really* heavy)....until...

I had two wonderful helpers with the planting.

Then we had to wait. Meanwhile it rained and rained and rained. The up side is that we didn't have to worry about watering the bulbs, the downside was a very muddy dog. 2 weeks later, we have 4 tulips growing!! (which for you math geeks is 3% of what we hoped would bloom)

Whether our garden turns into a mini-Keukenhof of we just have those 4 flowers, I'm pretty happy! I can't wait to see what color they are and really love that we have a garden. Most of the Germans in our area have these immaculate lawns, perfectly manicured, with beautiful flowers. Having one ourselves gives us something in common with our neighbors AND is a fun hobby! Stay tuned for more blooms!

Frühlingsfest!

Mason and I happened to be in Stuttgart this weekend for a birthday party. Everyone there was raving about this thing called Frühlingsfest. I had (briefly) scoured the internet for things to do in Stuttgart, and had not come across this event. I found the Mercedes and Porsche museum, the Modern Art museum, and may or may not have located an H&M, but completely missed the festival. Suddenly, all those museums just seemed a boring way to spend the nicest day we've had in a month! (seriously, we saw the sun AND it was warm!)


Frühlingsfest was like a smaller state-fair, but with free entry, more beer, and lots of lederhosen and dirndls. We got there early to beat the crowds, which meant we were first in line to ride the Ferris wheel!

View from the Ferris Wheel

Another view from the Ferris Wheel

Since it was close to noon, we were pretty hungry. While we ended up getting a Krauterwurst, we were tempted by these fish grilled over open coals...

 We decided to go here for our beer and listened to the Oompah Band.

Prost! 

Ok, so this last picture has no context, but it was just funny. You could even get a condom custom made with the name of your choice on it. Way to keep it classy Stuttgart!

The lesson learned this weekend is this: just because we're in a rural area, doesn't mean the rest of the military installations in Germany are. We expected Stuttgart to be easy to navigate and took for granted that we could find our lodging. I had to remember all of the right-of-way rules with regards to streetcars. Thankfully Mason saved the day and took over driving. I'm so glad we had our GPS...and I'm also jealous of the people stationed here that get to live in a city.....and we're getting our own lederhosen/dirndls for the next festival...and that's all...