I LOVE this picture of my sister and I. This was our first night in Munich. I haven’t sorted through pictures yet, but will do add a more comprehensive post once I do.
Next German class starts this week!
Another picture
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Tag Archives: Gretchen
Small taste of Prague
I meant to get these up a while ago, but ran into technical difficulties with the way I wanted to put them out there. I’m just going to put them up, so no slideshow for now, sorry!
Here’s the view from our room the first night at Unitas.
More Unitas at night
Here we are (terrible picture of us I know) in Old Town by the clock.
The crowds at the clock when it is about do its thing are intense. Hand on your wallet for sure!
Old Town Prague (I might be looking the wrong way in this photo)
Our Lady before Týn church is in Old Town too. This is about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. Tycho Brahe is buried here!!
Wenceslas Square – lots of shopping and people watching.
Wenceslas Square
Street view on Wenceslas Square. Not where I’d want to stay, but the hotel looked cool.
Brian on the Vltava
Gretchen on the Vltava
The Vltava
Vltava River
Horses at the National Theater. Misha told us that this was the first time that the Czech people were able to build their own theater to perform in their language. Beautiful building on the Vltava river, next time we will go see something here for sure.
Transit wires near the National Theater
Building on the castle grounds
Castle Grounds
Castle grounds – there used to be hunting here (cannot remember if there still is or not)
Old Town at night
Old Town at night – just a short walk from our rooms
Changing of the guards at the castle. It was super crowded and the crowds didn’t move for the soldiers. It was a bit funny how close they had to get to the people in the crowd, and one poor soldier watching it couldn’t keep a straight face. I think he got in a bit of trouble for that, which is too bad, it was really really funny (the crowd and then his reaction).
Prague Castle
Anyhow, more to come. I’d rather that it was a slideshow format but I need to get some time to research and test the plugins first. Really love Prague, and Misha helped us find so much.
Random pictures from last week
My sister was in town so we had to try each beer at Hopworks as she had not been there yet. Also unsurprisingly got burgers, which she declared amazing too.
Took a walk along the waterfront to get a good walk and go to Pendleton to pick up a shirt for Brian. Instead of taking a picture of the beautiful Willamette River, I took a picture of this graffiti instead.
This may be the worst rummy hand ever.
Also admired Tesla, which I would love to own at some point.
The coast with my family
Great time at the coast with Gretchen and the kids. We stayed at Inn at Otter Crest again, and while we really think with the exception of the bellhop and one other guy, the service is completely lousy (making me think twice about buying a unit), the room was quite nice and I love being able to walk down to the Devil’s Punchbowl.
We played frisby on the beach. I tried to do cartwheels and discovered I am no longer able (I think I’m a bit more top-heavy than the last time I tried. I know. I’m working on it.) so I will stretch much more and watch my diet closer and hopefully be able to do it this time next year.
We went swimming, even Brian. I don’t remember the last time he went swimming with me, it was sooooo much fun. Maggie ask him to throw her, and she went sailing halfway across the pool, it was soooooo awesome!! Matt asked for the same, but I think Brian realized his strength at that point, so he didn’t throw as far. I hope I can continue to talk him into at least occasionally swimming with me / us, it was really neat to see him swimming again. Even if he could standing in the deepend unlike the rest of us.
We ate at the Flying Dutchman, which was good. The next day we ate Mo’s (of course) and then went to Rogue for pizza and beer (root beer in the case of Maggie and Matt). Mmmmm. Otherwise we really just read, listened to the ocean, wrote in journals, swam and walked on the beach.
O! We did make it to some terrific tidepools on Devil’s Punchbowl’s beach (the marine garden side, not the surfer side). It was a negative tide and even though we were a little late to it, we got waaay out. The highlights were seeing a new anenome (pictured above, I usually see the light green ones on the coast, and the pink tipped ones just in aquariums) and an octopus!! I was so excited by the latter, I haven’t seen an octopus in a tidepool since I was a kid.
It was also nice to see these tidepools recover – the last time we had done any serious tidepooling there, they had been overcome by urchins, which is usually a sign of an unhealthy tidepool. Also saw two new crabs, which I took pictures of for my flickr pool so that I could identify them.
That’s the coast update. Maggie and Matt realized that other than family, I love the Oregon coast best.
Preparations
I decided a glass or two of wine would be nice last night, so I opened a bottle of Monticello rioja that we had. Eventually, I went to a friend’s house, where I had a glass or two of boxed wine.
Boxed wine has come a long long way since the days of the scene from Grumpy Old Men (or was it Grumpier Old Men? I get the two confused). I keep a black box of merlot for when I want to have just an occasional glass without finishing a bottle, and while it’s not the best wine I’ve ever had, it’s definitely servicable.
Franzia, on the other hand, is still the same thing it ever was, so this morning instead of getting a ton of stuff done, I am nursing a huge headache and wondering what got into me last night. I know at one point, it involved a great big trampoline. Fun stuff, but ow.
Two days until Gretchen, my niece and nephew come, I can’t wait. Lots to do in prep, and I’m a little nervous about keeping an 8 and 9 year old entertained for three weeks, but Gretchen assures me that the Wii will keep them amused during our slow times and that we will go buy Legos!!! to keep at the house. I can’t wait.