I will be here one week from now:

Sotogrande, Spain!

I think this is our actual villa....pinch me, seriously.

I will be here one week from now:

PRAGUE!

Tentative Itinerary

As I've mentioned before, I love making itineraries. My OCD organizational skills are allowed to let their hair down and really run free. Here's what my upcoming trip is looking like thus far:

November 21

• Arrive in Munich at 8:00 a.m. (apologies in advance to my sister and her husband)

• Attempt to stay awake despite a likely Tylenol P.M. induced coma

• Explore the area where my sister lives (near Parsberg in Bavaria)

• (*fingers crossed*) Eat a döner Turkish pizza, a variation of a döner kebob. If you haven't experienced the heaven that is döner, I'm sorry. It's like a gyro, but far far better. The Travelling Hungryboy has a good description.

Nov. 22-24: Prague (woo hoo for the USD being strong somewhere!)

Nov. 25: Early Thanksgiving

• Herb and mustard turkey with green onion gravy

• Apple, sausage, parsnip, and sage dressing

• Mashed potatoes with garlic, mascarpone, and caramelized leeks

• Brussels sprout hash with caramelized shallots

• Apple streusel tart with honey crust

• Pear (replace with apple?) cobbler with blueberries and corn biscuits

Nov. 26-29: Sotogrande, Spain with various day trips

Seville

Gibraltar


Tangier

Nov. 30-Dec. 5: Bavaria

Christmas Markets

Dachau

Castles

Dec. 6: depart for home

Dec. 7: go back to work

What I will look like at work

(Creepy witch from "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves")

Change of plans

**Editor's note: I apologize in advance for the egregious amount of exclamation points.**

Now I'm Spain and Morocco-bound! I got an email from my sister last week asking if I'd be interested in going to Spain instead of Amsterdam, and she attached an itinerary that her friends put together. I emailed her back within 30 seconds with a "YES YES YES!!!!!!!!" So needless to say, I'm in. I am so unbelievably excited; I've been dying to go to Spain, and as an added and completely unexpected bonus, we're going to be able to take a day trip to Morocco (cue squeals of glee)!!! It'll be five of us including my sister, her husband, a couple they're good friends with, and me. I have a feeling I'm going to get along with her friends very well after seeing the organized and detailed itinerary they put together; I too love making a good itinerary. So here's the plan:

Day 1
-Depart Frankfurt for Málaga, Spain (woo hoo for cheap Ryan Air flights!)
-Drive one hour from Málaga to Sotogrande where our villa is. According to the rental description, the house has views of Gibraltar!


Day 2
-Explore the area
-Maybe (hopefully!) drive up to Seville




Day 3
-Take a ferry to Tangier (so excited!!!!!!!!)





Day 4
-Visit Gibraltar

-Depart for Frankfurt

I cannot wait! Only one month and one day until I leave!!!

Amsterdam-bound....maybe

So my sister and I are starting to plan what trips we're going to take when I visit in November. It's looking like Austria is out. Now we're thinking Amsterdam. The more I research it, the more excited I get! It seems like an interesting, cool city. My sister already found a couple of places we could rent; this one is my favorite. I've been browsing tripadviser.com (best travel website EVER and what I use for every single trip); here are some of my initial thoughts of things to do (aside from the obvious redlight district and Anne Frank and Van Gogh museums):

1. Canal candlelight cruise

And here's why: they have unlimited cheese and wine. Oh yeah....and it looks pretty too.

2. Heineken Experience

3. Flora Holland auction

Isn't it crazy big?!!

Most of the world's flowers come through this auction.

4. House of Bols Cocktail and Genever Experience

Hmmm....a lot of my choices seem to involve drinking. When in Rome I guess. Funnily enough, Design*Sponge happened to come out with an amazing Amsterdam city guide today. A sign perhaps?

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