It's official...

I leave for Germany on November 20th! I'll be there for a little over two weeks, hopefully long enough to take a couple of trips within the trip. My sister and her husband want to go skiing in Austria for Thanksgiving. I'm excited, but a little nervous...I've been skiing once in my life, and my strategy for slowing down when I got going too fast (probably all of 10 mph) was to fall down. So, this should be interesting. One HUGE plus of going to Austria would be the possibility of going on "The Sound of Music" Tour!!!

Doe, a deer, a female deer.

I am 16 going on 17....

Edelweiss, Edelweiss
(Photos courtesy of Panorama Tours)

The last time I went to visit my sister, we didn't necessarily explore Germany itself too too much. That might be fun to do this time. Of course, I'll be trying to hit up every Christmas Market possible. There are also tons of castles, so those would be fun to tour. I also definitely want to go to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp in Germany. My neighbor went a couple of years ago and said it was really amazing and moving.

It's so easy to travel from country-to-country once you're over there, so I'd even like to maybe check out Prague and/or Budapest, or even Bruges. Or a Rhine or Danube tour. Okay, I might be getting a little too ambitious....

Time to take a breather

Going back through all the pictures and notes from my trip to Europe earlier in the year has been a lot of fun, but....I need to take a break. I was starting to burn out after A-e-P on the actual trip, so I think I'm having flashbacks.

Up next on the trip horizon is visiting my sister and her husband in Germany! The original plan was to go in May 2010, but I'm too impatient. Now the plan is to go around either Thanksgiving or Christmas. I definitely want to hit up the Christmas Markets because I love any and all things Christmas.

Nuremberg

Bremen

Erfurt

Munich

Cologne

I'm also trying to talk my dad into going to a dude ranch in Wyoming. He worked on a real ranch there after college, so this dude ranch vacation idea seems a bit pansy to him. Here's how the conversation went:

me: Dad, let's go to a ranch for a vacation!
dad: A ranch vacation?
me: Yeah.
dad: I can get you a job at the ranch where I worked.
me: Oh do they do vacations now?
dad: No. It's a working ranch.
me: Do they have a light version of that?
dad: ....(eye roll)....

So our "vacation" is TBD. The Wyoming Dude Ranchers' Association has links to a ton of great places. The top contenders thus far are:

1. T Cross Ranch

2. Triangle X Ranch

3. Box R Ranch

4. R Lazy S Ranch

European Voyage Part Six: Aix-en-Provence

The trip from Florence to Aix-en-Provence was A-MAZING. The Mediterranean coast is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately I didn't snap any pictures of the train ride, which I really regret. I'd love to do that trip again. It definitely was not short. We started in Florence, then changed trains in Milan and Cannes before arriving in A-e-P, around 12 hours later.

Getting to A-e-P from the train station was a little confusing. Not many signs, but we finally just followed the small crowd to a bus that dropped us off in the town center. Our hotel, Hotel Artea, was nice. It was on Boulevard République only a block or two down from La Rotonde. Very affordable, nothing fancy schmancy, but our room was huge!

Since we got in a bit on the late side, we ate at a bar/cafe just down the block from our hotel. They had a couple of glasses of Kriek and THE MOST delicious croque-madames everrrrrr. I tried ordering them at a few other places in a few different cities, and nothing touched this tiny bar's. Of course, I didn't get a picture of it....I know, I started slacking. Here's a good recipe from Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book:

• 8 slices white or whole-wheat sourdough bread
• 8 ounces Gruyère cheese, sliced into 24-32 1/16-inch-thick slices
• 12 ounces smoked ham, such as Black Forest, sliced into 12-16 1/16-inch-thick slices
• 4 extra-large eggs
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Fleur de sel or kosher salt, to taste
• Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

To assemble the sandwiches:
Set half of the slices of bread buttered side down, and cover them with the cheese slices, folding them back in toward the middle if they extend past the edges of the bread. Place 3 or 4 slices of the ham in an even layer over the cheese, and place the top slice of bread over the ham, buttered side up.

Grill the sandwiches in a two-sided grill or on a heavy-bottomed pan, using clarified butter and turning once. Place on serving plates.

To fry the eggs:
Crack two eggs into two separate bowls to check that the yolks aren’t broken. In 2 6-inch non-stick skillets, melt half of the butter over medium-high heat, until it starts to bubble. Pour 1 egg into each pan, being careful not to break the yolks. Add a teaspoon of water to each pan, sprinkle the eggs with fleur de sel, and cover the pans with lids. Cook the eggs for about 3 minutes for a soft-cooked egg and 5-6 minutes if you like your eggs firm. Wipe out the skillets, and fry the other 2 eggs in the remaining butter in the same manner. Center a fried egg over each of the grilled sandwiches and sprinkle with pepper.

We woke up the next morning, and headed to a little street cart for crêpes. Dear god...they were absolutely fantastic, so good that I had them again lunch. My favorite crêpe was the crêpe complet: egg, cheese, and ham. My mom's was crêpe au sucre: crêpe with granulated sugar. We also stopped and got a baguette. I don't think the Adkins diet exists in Europe....

A-e-P is very very walkable, so we spent the rest of our day exploring the city. It was a little rainy and brisk (to put it nicely), but all the more excuse to stop in at all the little shops. If I'm ever able to go back, I'd love to go during spring or summer to visit the lavender fields.

These little Cezanne tiles were all over the streets. I think they lead to the museum or some kind of path.

We came upon these old hot mineral baths. They were sooooo tempting after our damp chilly day. Had we stayed another day, I think spending time there definitely would have been on our agenda.

About 91 F

We made a stop at Les Deux Garcons for a couple of drinks on our way to the grocery store. Pretty expensive (a tourist trap, I'm sure), but the the decor is cool, and it was fun to go to a place that's been open since 1792. For dinner we decided to go to Monoprix to pick up some cheese for dinner. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I love cheese. Monoprix was a lot of fun to explore; it had everything from food to clothes to housewares to cosmetics to sporting goods. The rest of our night was spending warming up and watching the French versions of "Deal or No Deal" and "Wheel of Fortune." So weird how different they were!

The next morning, we woke up early and tried to go have those heavenly croque madames before we left for Paris, but the bar was out of eggs. It was very upsetting. I have to say that it was really nice to spend some time in a small town before heading off the Paris. After a couple of days though, I was ready to hop back on a train and keep on going.

European Voyage Part Cinque: Venezia

One of the perks of our Eurail pass was jumping on a train any given day for a spur-of-the-moment day trip. It was a little rainy in Florence, so my mom and I decided to hop on a train to Venice. We hadn't planned on making the trip over, but it was only a 4 hour ride and well worth it. It was a little drizzly in Venice too, but such a crazy, amazing place. The odor is indescribable. It's not terrible or fishy...it's just Venice I guess. We spent most of our day on the water buses tootling around the different islands. Man was it cold though. I was ready to get on the nice warm train by the end of the day.

I never quite got over seeing steps just leading into water.

Doge's Palace

Piazza San Marco

The one goal my mom and I had while we were in Venice was to have spritzes, a drink my sister Emily had raved and raved about having while she was in Venice with her husband. They had them at Campo Santa Margherita and said it was a really cute area. Well if we thought Siena was confusing, we had another thing coming when we got to Venice. Instead of venturing to Campo Santa Margherita, we decided to stay at Piazza San Marco for spritzes. They were sooooo good!

Here's the recipe:

• 1 1/2 ounces Aperol (rhubarb liqueur)
  
• 3 ounces Prosecco or sparkling wine, chilled
• Sparkling mineral water or club soda, chilled
• 1 orange slice
• 1 green olive

I personally like my spritz in a tumbler with crushed ice, but it's good any which way. It's really become the family favorite drink. Emily just moved back to Germany and said spritzes are all the rage. One restaurant here in Atlanta serves Aperol, but I haven't seen it anywhere else. We usually just order ours from the local liquor store, so it's easy enough to get.

There were so many dogs in Venice! They were everywhere: off leash, on leash, dressed, and not dressed.

We were only in Venice for lunch, so we just grabbed a quick snack at a bar.

They were okay, nothing to write home about, but not bad by any means. They were nice, hearty, and warm, all that mattered at that point.

We didn't want to venture too far from the train station since we were on the last train back to Florence, so we just wandered around to different shops. We came upon this really cute produce market.

I'm really glad that we got to spend some time in Venice. I would love to go back for longer, and maybe in the springtime when my fingers and toes won't freeze....