November

Nate returned from the field at the end of October and with only a month before he would leave again, we began taking advantage of our Italian home. We wine tasted with friends to some of the best wineries we have been to in the Valpolicella region (near Verona) and discovered our new favorite red wine, Amarone.

  We also traveled to Garmisch, Germany for a long weekend, hoping to enjoy the views of snow covered Alps and the charm of small town Germany.  Although, it was a wonderful and relaxing weekend, there was absolutely no snow :(  We have plans to return again later this winter in hopes of skiing and getting to enjoy those snow covered peaks (which at present are still rather bare for this late in the season).

No snow in the Alps:(

Bavarian dinner in Garmisch

Talented isn't he?

I love the mountains!

With Nate due to leave for Jumpmaster school in Georgia the day after Thanksgiving, we hosted Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before.  I was a little concerned about cooking a large turkey for 8 in my small Italian oven, so we made plans to fire up the grill and try cooking that way.  With an Italian "leggy" turkey thawing in the fridge on Saturday, Nate and I set out to participate in the Army sponsored Turkey Trot at a nearby lake and wouldn't you know it, we won a turkey!  So now we had two turkeys to prepare:)  I ended up fitting the Italian turkey in my miniature Italian oven and armed with online step-by-step instructions, Nate grilled our winning Butterball turkey.... it was excellent!!!!  Both turned out great, but I must say, Nate will be in charge of grilling all future turkeys ( it was THAT good).  It was a wonderful holiday spent with several of our friends, eating, laughing and playing games.

"Turkey Trotters"

Italian turkey cookin'

Grilling our prize turkey

Proud GrillMaster

The Spread...Mmmmmm

And since we had already celebrated Thanksgiving the Sunday before, we had pizza from our local pizzeria on actual Thanksgiving and it too was delicious!

Looked out our window the day after Thanksgiving wondering what the noise was and we had hundreds of new "neighbors"

Next up, back in the states for the holidays!

Catching Up

Clearly we are months behind in posting, so my hope for the new year (note: not a resolution... I make no guarantees) is to be more on top of my blogging.

Anywho, shortly after returning from our amazing Mediterranean cruise, Nate left for in-field training in Germany.  This was a two month training exercise, so rather than stay in Vicenza by myself, I flew back to the states to visit my family.  I got to enjoy a month of the wonderful Oregon summer weather and travel to Chicago and then Iowa with my brother for his med school interviews.  We stopped in Iowa City for a quick visit with Nate's family then returned to Oregon.   Soon after, I flew back to Italy with my mom, dad and brother in tow.  It was great to have them around for two weeks since Nate was still gone and it was fun to show them around our new home and introduce Justin to Europe for the first time.   We did the usual sights around Vicenza, including a day trip to Venice and visits to the wineries, but by far his favorite part of the visit, was the trip up to Germany.  He thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Hofbrauhaus and sampling all the fantastic German beer... I think my dad was happy to have a "drinking buddy" along too.  Much to Nate's dismay (since he was not along) we stayed right across the street from the famous beer hall in a hotel with our name (The Platzl Hotel).

Overlooking Vicenza

Cin Cin!

Venice

Venice

Drinks on the way up to Germany

Hofbrauhaus Mama!

Glockenspiel in Munich

Happy Hofbrauhaus Patrons... just need some lederhosen

After a couple days in Munich, we traveled to the small Alp town of Garmisch, a beautiful place situated among the massive peaks with small town charm.  We hiked along the Partnach Gorge, then warmed up with a delicious German dinner of Wiener Schnitzel, Pork Knuckle, Potato Soup and Schnitzel..... oh and of course more beer.  Though it rained heavily on our second day, we enjoyed touring some of the small shops before heading back to Italy.

Walking along the Partnach Gorge

Garmisch, Germany

Pork Knuckle... a good Bavarian dinner

Before the family left, we made a quick trip down to Florence (one of our favorite cities) and again climbed the Duomo and visited Michaelangelo's David.  Amazing as always!

View from the Duomo

More beer.... in Italy

The two week visit flew by with wine tasting, amazing dinners, and sightseeing, and before I knew it my parents and Justin were on flights back to the states......  10 days until Nate would return :(  It was a rather quiet week and a half and it was wonderful to have him back after 65 days apart.  (Not very newlywed like).

By then, we had reached the beginning of November..... Wow!  We set out to make the most of our time together, knowing Nate would be leaving again the day after Thanksgiving....

Turkey, Croatia and back again!

We also did our homework on Turkey and decided that if we were going to have time to see anything worth seeing, specifically Ephesus, we needed to go with a tour group.  Let me state for the record, that Nate and I are not “tour group” kind of people and had relished the fact that we were not one of the hundreds in Greece following a feathered stick or umbrella (group leaders) like sheep.  Nevertheless we hopped on our designated tour bus bright and early the next morning and followed the giant silver “magic umbrella”.  While it was similar to being herded like sheep, I must say, I’m glad we did the tour.  We may have found our way to Ephesus (about an hour drive from our port in Izmir), but I don’t know that we would have made it back in time to board the ship.

Hmmm... I don't know about this...
gettin the headset ready for the tour

Our tour guide and the "magic umbrella"

         We didn’t know a lot about Ephesus prior to learning we’d be traveling there, but it turned out to be a highlight of the trip.  We walked among the remains of one of the great cities of the Greeks in Asia Minor that once laid right on the Aegean Ocean.  The ocean is now 8 km away!  As we walked along the mosaic streets, we viewed the Great Theatre where St. Paul was dragged to face the crowed because of his famous letter to the Ephesians, the Temple of Hadrian, the impressive Ephesus Library, the Gate of Heracles (Hercules), and the Odeion (small theatre) built as a council chamber in 150 AD, among many other ancient structures.  

Athena Nike

Ephesus Library

We were quite amused to learn about the Latriana, or public toilets of the time.  Apparently these stone seats were kept warm by servants whose only job it was to sit until their higher up came to relieve himself.  Now there’s a fun fact!

Public toilets.... not much privacy

         After walking the length of the streets of Ephesus we were treated to a battle reenactment with Cleopatra present and all!  We then headed back to the bus and were on our way.  Next stop was a Turkish carpet school where we were shown how the silks are harvested, dyed and used to make the elaborate and famous Turkish carpets.  We watched as several young girls worked on their carpets and learned that some carpets take several years to complete even with 5-10 women working on them.  We were then “treated” to a huge sale pitch by the schools owner (at least they served us Turkish beer and wine), and then encouraged to buy, which we thought about, until we saw the price.  Maybe 10 years from now J

The ocean used to meet this street.... now it's 8km away!

Christian symbol... the Holy Trinity

Silks drying in the sun

         Back on the ship we set sail for our final port… Split, Croatia!  After the full, hot days in Greece and Turkey, we decided to make Split a beach day. We set out with some friends from Vicenza, who were also on the cruise and found a nice spot right on the water.  By nice I don’t mean soft sandy beaches… I mean a rock ledge with hundreds of people.  However, the water was gorgeous and refreshing!  After witnessing jet skiers in Dubrovnik we made it our mission to find the same in Split and were successful!  We had a great time flying around the Adriatic and seeing more of the coastline.  Nate may have even been thrown off a few timesJ  It was a wonderful relaxing day and the perfect end to a great vacation before Nate headed off for 2 months of training in Germany. 

Jet skiing!!!

Goodbye Split!