Jewelry Swap Reveal!

I love blog swaps! I've done a kitchen apron swap, a summer and fall swap.  This was the first time I got to swap jewelry--and we're not talking brand new jewelry either.  We're talking tasteful jewelry you already have that you could bear to part with and thought that your swap partner would enjoy.  What a great idea.  I mean, I've been hoarding jewelry for years and hardly wear ANY of it.  Really...it's so sad. This one was hosted by Melissa at The Life of a Not so Ordinary Wife.  We were supposed to blog about this and link up at Melissa's blog yesterday, but I honestly just got my package in the mail today.  It just takes a little longer for stuff to get to Europe!

 

Melissa paired me up with Sydney from the Southern Newlywed blog.  I just became a follower on her blog, but like what I see so far.  I plan on staying in touch!  But check out what she sent me!

 

 

 She sent me something I would have bought for myself!  I love long necklaces and the stones are in some of my favorite colors.  It'll go with pretty much anything in my wardrobe!  Thanks so much Sydney!

What a great swap!  Thanks to Melissa for hosting!

I sent a piece of jewelry to someone else and I haven't seen her post yet.  I hope my package gets to her soon!

Oh...we returned from our trip to Barcelona on Sunday.  It'll be a while before I post about it since I have tons of pictures to sort through!

London {Part III}: Day 2

I hope you guys aren't getting sick of these London posts!  I last left off on our first day spent in London--the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the Eye, a city bus tour, yada, yada, yada.  We spent our second (and final) day outside of London.  We signed up for a coach bus tour that took us to three different locations and lasted the entire day.  I think we boarded our bus by 9:00 and returned back to London at 19:30.  Yup...it was a long day.

The first stop was Windsor Castle, which is the largest inhabited castle in the world, the longest occupied castle in Europe, and a functioning royal home.  One of Britain's major tourist attractions, Windsor Castle is frequently used by the Queen as a royal palace as well as her weekend home. The castle is an important ceremonial location and is often used for state banquets and other official engagements.  We were told by our tour guide that the Queen was spending a lot of time at Windsor Castle to escape the hubbub of the Olympics  Games (at that time, the city was still preparing for it) and that we'd know she was at Windsor Castle if we saw her flag atop the castle's Round Tower.

Some of these photos are out of order and I couldn't get some of them to move into the right spot!

There is a nice little garden area in what used to be the moat. Apparently, the moat kept drying up, so some king (remember how I told you I'm not a good tour listener? that's where Wikipedia comes in handy for you, hence the link to Windsor Castle above) turned the moat into a garden for the queen. Pretty, huh?

On the way into the castle, we walked through the Windsor Royal Shopping Center, where there were some pretty cool shops and a really great place that we had lunch at.

There wasn't anything particularly fancy about this castle and let's face it, we
were tired from the bus ride and extremely hungry.  We just wanted to get our pictures and get out of there.  When we first got to London and toured the Tower, we saw all kinds of guardsmen in uniforms adorned with the letters E and R.  Similarly, the gates and buildings had the letters on them too.  We knew they had something to do with the royal family, but didn't know exactly what they stood for.  So we asked around.  We asked two British women and would you believe that they didn't even know?  Finally, someone told us that they stood for "Elizabeth Regina," regina being the Latin word for Queen.  So it means Queen Elizabeth.  And how fitting because...

You see that flag?  The Queen was in the house!  We didn't get to see her though.  You would have thought the place would have been a little bit busier with her there in terms of security and everything, but not really.  It was pretty quiet except for all us tourists!

The lights had cute little crowns on them.  Loved them!

Loved seeing the guards at their posts.  See how he's left a light white line on the ground?  That has to get tiresome and boring.  But that's coming from someone with no stamina.

After that, we rode another two hours to Bath, England to see the Roman Baths.  If you want to experience being two places at once, this is the place to be.  I mean, you're basically in Rome, in England!  The Roman Baths is just that--a complex once used by Romans for public bathing during the Roman occupation of Britain (under the rule of Emperor Claudius; apparently in 43 A.D.).  I was so intrigued by the place--not just the Roman Baths, but the city itself.  If I ever go back to England, I think I'm going to stay in Bath!

Typical European city...open square, live music, dominating cathedral--beautiful.

The Roman Baths staff thought of everything!  Free backpacks to lug our heavy kids up and down those stairs.  If only the places in Rome did this!

View of the baths from above.

Just hanging out with the locals!

Another 30-minute bus ride got us to our last stop--the Stone Henge!  Okay, so am I the only person who thought the Stone Henge was in Ireland? I was beyond thrilled to get to see this.  I'll let you guys read about this on your own (see link above) because, frankly, it took me three days to do this post.  Not sure why (connection really slow, photos too large?), but I'm just going to leave you with these awe-inspiring photos.  I'm so glad that Vaiosina could see this.  Not that she'd remember it at all years from now, but I just love my little world traveler!

Just....wow!

I'll never forget this trip and the wonderful time we had with our friends.  I definitely want to go back to England once more before we PCS.

Tomorrow, we start our summer leave!  For the next two weeks, our little family will be spending every waking moment together.  Unfortunately, the clock is ticking until Malu's deployment, but we won't be thinking about that over the next 5 days because we'll be soaking up some more sun in BARCELONA!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel.  I hate flying these days!

Talk to you guys soon!

Just Us & A Perfect Weekend

On Saturday, we spent the day out and about...just the three of us.  Add beautiful, summer weather and the German outdoors and what do you get?  Perfection.

We've taken to riding our bikes a lot lately.  Our trip to Lake Constance really inspired us to dust off our bikes and get them out and running!  It's been awesome...although I'm still trying to get used to riding on the roads with traffic.  It can be scary at times, especially when you're the one toting the little one!

I think I've mentioned this several times before, but Germany's (and pretty much all of Europe) outdoors are just heavily laden with trails that people hike, bike, and run all year long.  As you ride the trails, especially on a beautiful day like that day was, you run into tons of people either hiking, walking their dogs, parents/grandparents walking their kids/grandkids, people picnicking and riding bikes.  Even more so, you run into biergartens along the way--restaurants with outdoor seating where people can take a break from the trail to enjoy a nice drink and/or meal. 

On our leisurely stroll through the woods and a mere 15-20 minutes from the post gate, we stumbled upon a biergarten that we had been to before with friends called the Katzenbacherhof.  The place has a ginormous playground that Sina loves (complete with slides, swings, and a sand box), a small restaurant, and just an overall relaxing atmosphere.  And thank goodness we ran into when we did--I was needing a break.  Those trails are quite hilly! 

Here are a few pictures...

Vaiosina absolutely enjoys being out on the trails--probably because she doesn't have to exert any energy!  She actually falls asleep from time to time.  What a lucky duck.  She couldn't get enough of the little sheep.  She kept singing the "Baa Baa Black Sheep" song to herself.  It was so cute.

 

The playgrounds here are just amazing.  I mean, we have cool playgrounds back in the states, but it just seems like the ones here are much more elaborate and more fun--even to us adults!  Coincidentally enough, a lot of the equipment at this particular park had U.S. Corps of Engineers engraved on them.  Why don't they have swings like this at home?

This is my favorite picture of Vaiosina from that day.  Love that smile!  She was clapping and asking for more!

This girl is quite fearless. Even more so when daddy is around and, of course, he encourages it.  Look at her go!

We enjoyed a great lunch!  Grilled steak, wurst and potato salad.  Yum!

Didn't I tell you she couldn't stay away from those sheep?  And there's me hauling precious cargo.  There's a lake along the trail; just minutes away from home.  Love it!

We spent the rest of the weekend doing much of the same.  We've really been lucking out with this gorgeous weather!  I hope it continues at least until Malu leaves (yup, the ugly deployment is rearing its nasty head).  

Hope everyone has a great week!

London {Part II} : Day 1

How cool is it that you can get to London in just 1.5 hours?  Way cool.  And guess what?  It only cost us about $80--round trip.  If you're ever in Germany, whether to live or visit, www.germanwings.com is the way to go.  You can do what's called blind booking and depending on what time of the year it is and where you're trying to go, you can get flights as low as 39.99 Euro.  Trust me!  I've seen it.

Anyway...I digress.

London...in one word:  EXHAUSTING

Okay, here's another one:  AWESOME

Our flight took off at 7:00 a.m., so we were up and at 'em at 4:00.  You can imagine how tired we were by the time we landed in London.  But hey, we sucked it up and immediately hit the ground running.

In the essence of time, I'll just let our pictures do most of the talking.  I will link the major places we visited to websites just because I don't have the energy to go into history, facts, details, etc.  Plus, let's face the facts...when you're out and about with a toddler with no husband to help, you're not really listening to the tour guide or reading displays.  You're busy quelling cries and/or screams and trying not to lose sight of said toddler.  It's exhausting.  I always just say or think, "I'll Google this stuff later."  

We took a train from the airport to Liverpool Station.

From there, we took a cab to our 'flat'.  Ha! I still crack up when I say that!  Just a note...lodging in most European cities can be pretty expensive.  When we travel, we almost always stay in an apartment versus a hotel.  You'd be amazed at how many nice apartments are out there...and we've had a few great ones.  If you ever plan on traveling out to this side of the world...www.homeaway.com is the way to go! Our flat in London was just okay.  We were in quite a rush to find a place to stay and settled on whatever we could find that looked decent.  The apartment itself was decent...

...the neighborhood?  Not so much.  Like the art work?  And it's not so much that the neighborhood was bad, there was just a lot of graffiti and bars nearby.  Oh well, it was a place to crash each night!  Plus, there were some really cool restaurants nearby as well.

So I think I can vouch for our whole group when I say that we set out to do some very particular things while in London. 

Take a picture near one of the signature Royal Phonebooths....Check!

Exchange our U.S. dollars for some British Pounds....Check! 
Aren't they pretty?

Do some damage with said British Pounds...Check! 

And did we ever!  Within minutes we found sidewalk sales down the street from our flat.  Everywhere else, it was souvenirs galore!

See cars driving on the other side of the road (and riding in a car on the other side of the road)...Check!

See how they have to put reminders on the streets for tourists to check right before crossing?

Ride the 'tube' or subway in London...Check! 

You know a subway is near when you see signs for the Underground.

See members of the Royal Guard...Check!

Have some traditional British fish & chips...Check!

Yum!

Tour the Tower of London and see the Crown Jewels...Check!

No pictures, but the jewels were gorgeous.  Some serious bling-bling going on, if you know what I mean.



In front of a mural of the White Tower...and Vaiosina playing with her double-decker bus souvenir!

Vaiosina and I going into the 'Bloody Tower'

Go for a ride on the London Eye and get a great view of the city...Check!

What a ride!  When you ask Vaiosina what she did in London, she always screams, "The Eye!"

Great view of London's many bridges spanning across the River Thames

View of Westminster Palace (Parliament Building) and Big Ben

Take a tour through London on a double-decker bus...Check!

After our Tower of London tour, we were absolutely tired and content to just tour the rest of the city by bus.  We got a close-up view of Westminster Palace (Parliament Building) and Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Kensington Palace, etc.  By this time, my iPhone gave out and I couldn't take any pictures.  At least I can say I saw mostly everything!

See the Royal Family...Check!

Okay...maybe not quite.  Being in London is as close as I'm ever gonna get to these people.

Would you believe this was only Day 1?

Seriously.  But this knocked out pretty much all of our London wish list!

Thanks for sticking with me through this entire post!  Please stay tuned for Day 2 which entails our trips to Windsor Castle, the Roman Baths and Stone Henge.