- us

Moving back home on the 17th of July.  AMAZING.

JA

We don’t have a ton of information yet, but he was delivered weighing in at 8lb 4oz with a head of dark hair. 

Needless to say, we’re thrilled to be aunt and uncle and can’t wait to meet our new nephew.

Love,

JA and KA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOr25U6Dl58

Now, if you’ve got the stomach for it, this next one is really controversial.  It’s a bit gory so make sure you’re up for it.  And note that we would see this commercial at all hours of the day.  You can argue that it’s effective, but still…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRo-2THXaOQ

Here’s one more just as disturbing (if not more disturbing) that we’ve also seen at all hours of the day.  This one is about the cycle of abuse and it’s really hard to watch – so enter at your own risk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKFFlwavyms

Anyway, just wanted to share and see if anyone else thought this was unusual.

KT

Hope all is well with everyone.

Love,

- us

We started out in Rome for the first three days.  We were both really blown away by this magnificent city.  Every single building is ancient.  There are no sky scrappers and it really is just breathtaking.  We saw the usual tourist destinations – the Colosseum, the Vatican, Constantine Arch, etc., as well as eating and drinking the Italian way.   The food was great, the service…. not so much.  Most of the Romans were pretty put out by having to deal with us.  It was a little bit of a bummer, but I guess you come to expect that with the super touristy places like Rome.  But the worst are the gypsies/street vendors that are constantly pushing their merchandise in your face or just plain asking you for money.  That got old really quick, but still was only a small fraction of what this truly incredible city has to offer.

We opted to do professional tours for the Colosseum and the Vatican and were glad that we did because you learn so much more than you would otherwise.  For example, all the marble statues you see in the Vatican (and history books) would have been originally painted flesh color and have glass eyes to make them look more real.  The paint fades almost immediately (which is why you never see them painted) and there’s only one statue in the Vatican that still has it’s glass eyes (it looks a little creepy if you ask me).  Also, when they originally built the Colosseum, they put lead inside the stone to act as a shock obsorber for earthquakes because it’s a soft metal.   How they knew to do this back in 70 AD is beyond me.  You can now see holes throughout a large portion of the stone walls (all the original stone anyway – which is how you can tell which parts have been restoreoved the years), which is from people digging out the lead inside to melt down and use.  It’s stuff like this you learn about on the tours – and that’s only about a tenth of what we learned.

We spent most days in Rome walking around sight seeing during the day and having a late dinner.  They eat much later in Italy, normally not before 8pm at the earliest.  They also eat large dinners.  Apps, two smaller main courses (like spaghetti and then pork chops), followed by dessert.  Some waiters were a little annoyed with us for just ordering the one main course.  We hit the Spanish Steps every night on the way home which was really mind boggling.  It’s a central area of town in a shopping district with these beautiful stairs and couryard.  And every night there were literally hundreds of people gathered there just hanging out.  At first we thought there would be some street performers or something like that, but no.  There was nothing going on except a bunch of random people hanging out.  It was so bizarre, but I looked it up and saw that Bob Dylan refers to these Spanish Stairs in his “When I Paint My Masterpiece”, so I guess that makes it ok.

On May 5th, which was our one year wedding anniversary, we headed for the more relaxing part of the vacation in Tuscany.  We took the train to Florence (stopped there for a couple hours) and then JA drove us to Donnini (very brave of him) where we’d spend the next 4 days.  We stayed at Villa Pitiana which was beautiful!!  Fantastic views!  The first couple days there we layed around the pool, drank wine, played ping pong and just plain relaxed. 

One day we decided to jump in the car and do a little tour of the Chianti region (why not right?).  It was all mountainous roads that were basically switchbacks.  The roads themselves were actually really good, as was the signage, but the drivers in that country are crazy.  They just didn’t understand the concept of driving in one lane so they were constantly coming at us while driving in the middle of the road – this was especially unwelcome at the blind corners.  But we made it through alive and even hit a couple of great vineyards too!  Most of them also made they’re own olive oil so that was a treat (until a bottle of it busted in my suitcase…).  We stopped in Greve in Chianti for lunch which was a very charming little town and then did a wine tasting at the Villa Vignamaggio, which was where they filmed the movie “Much Ado About Nothing” (Shakespeare) and is also thought to be a former home of Mona Lisa.  Who knew???  From there we kept driving south towards San Gimignano (which we’d never heard of before but were told to go).  We got a little lost at one point in a very small village (about 1/3 the size of an American shopping mall) and a little old man stopped and stared at us like we were aliens.  It was pretty funny.  When we finally made it to San Gimignano we were more than pleasantly surprised.  It’s a magnificent little walled city know for their very prestigious and tall towers.  To us, it was so picturesque.  It was one of our favorites of the whole trip.  Plus there were tons of great art shops and yummy food, of which we had both.  It was a great day.

On our last day we were flying out of Pisa so we went a little early to check out the tower.  Luckily we were forewarned that the town wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and it turned out to be true.  We took a picture of the tower, the right thing to do, but felt it was pretty lame compared to everything else we’d seen.  So our advice if you’re ever going to Italy is to skip Pisa.

We definitely want to go back to Italy now.  It was just too good to not go again, but maybe it’ll be for the 10 year anniversary!  Have fun looking through the pictures!     

Love,

KA and JA

We spent a wonderful weekend in Madeira, March 27-30.  It’s a small mountainous island off the western coast of Africa, though it is a Portuguese island.  As is evident in the photos below, it is often referred to as the “floating garden”.  It is one of the most beautiful places we’ve seen (and that’s coming from people who used to live in Colorado!).

Our first stop on the island was to the Blandy’s Wine Shop since we’d heard a lot about it.  We did a tasting and were quite surprised by the taste.  It was not what we expected.  It was a mix between a port and brandy – strong, thick and syrupy.  After the first few sips though we got over the shock and it was really good.  And all the restaurants serve it complimentary at the end of the meal.

In general, Madeira is a beautiful and artsy place.  There’s a lot of rain in the winter and a fair amount the rest of the year, so it’s very lush.  Everywhere you looked there was a garden or just random exotic flowers.   I saw Calla Lilies growing everywhere!  But seriously, there were gardens in the middle of the town center, where you’d expect it least.  Everywhere – gardens!  And there  were sculptures everywhere too.  Along the sea walk there was a sculpture of some sort about every 100 yards.  Even the random benches had a unique design to them.  And naturally all the streets and sidewalks were cobblestone.

Now, we were told by some of the Brits that we’d be disappointed by this island because we’d be the youngest people there and bored out of our minds.  And true, we did think we were interrupting the filming of Cocoon 3 a few times, but we actually really enjoyed that aspect of it.  The island is very laid back and relaxing.  You’re not constantly surrounded by annoying drunks or adolescents, plus, it was so CLEAN!  We were very impressed by the low levels of litter, etc.  Again, just very peaceful and laid back, which is just what JA needed.  The only downside to the older demographic was that is was a bit pricey at some places and we were a bit underdressed in our jeans and sneakers.  Oh well!

The first day there was pretty short for us since we started it off with a nap and then went to bed early (no complaints here!).  On Saturday we got up relatively early and spent the day in the sun.  It was the only sunny day, in the low 70′s, and we made the most of it.  Unfortunately we did it without sunscreen (so dumb) and ended up with nasty burns (well, mainly for KT anyway).  We walked all around the town and took about a million pictures.  We just got a new camera and it’s the nicest one we’ve ever owned so JA was very excited about using it.   We discovered the Old Town area with tons of great cafes in a picturesque setting.  We also saw about a dozen or so really happy stray dogs that kept reappearing throughout the weekend.  It was a great day and we ate in the old town area, followed by a stop at the only Irish bar in town for a couple Guinness.

On Sunday we were up even earlier for our Levada Tour.  It was a 6.5 mile hike through the mountains along the levadas (aka aquaducts).  Words cannot decribe how beautiful it was.  We took some great photos, but even those don’t do it justice.  The weather was much colder up in the mountains – and rainy, but luckily we were dressed well for it (unlike a couple people in our group).  We had a great guide and saw some awesome sites.  It was a great hike and made us feel really alive since hiking hasn’t been as assessible to us like it was in Colorado.

The last day we spent walking around town, eating gelato (yum!) and picking up a local art piece.  All in all, a great holiday getaway.  We definitely recommend it for anyone who’s looking for something a little different.

 Next stop – Italy!  We’ll be in Rome and then Tuscany from May 2 – May 9, celebrating our one year anniversary.  Yay us!

As always, we hope you’re all doing well and look forward to hearing from any of you!

Love,

JA & KT

Hey all!  We’ve been derelict in posting recently – so busy!

JA has been working like crazy and KT has stepped up her schedule as well – volunteering at the local cancer society and hanging out with a women’s circle that does fun stuff like bowling nights and dancing classes.

Anyway – just dropping a note to say hello to y’all.  Life is good; no updates on moving back yet but progress is still moving along at a slow pace.  We had a great day today in London.  Saw Billy Elliot, had great Mexican food for dinner and hit a couple of pubs on the way home.  Next Friday we head off to Madeira for a short break – a gorgeous island west of Portugal.

Look for pictures and stories in about ten days.

Love,

KT & JA

So this is us, being thankful and counting our blessings!

KT and JA

Germany was great!  We spent three days in Cologne, and had next to no idea of what we were going to see.  All in all, we were pretty impressed and entertained.

First off, it seemed Germany has an odd fasination with clowns.  Little did we know though, we had arrived for all the kick off parties for Cologne’s Carnival.  We were surrounded by people dressed up as clowns, cats, witches and grown men who looked like they were in marching bands.  Even lots of the store windows were set up to advertise all their different costumes.  With some effort, we were able to resist the urge to purchase our own carnival outfits.  You’re welcome.  We went to one bar for a Kolsch (the signature beer of Cologne/Koln) and got to see a large group of men dressed in band-type uniforms doing a great performance.  It was a lot of fun to be surrounded by the uproars of laughter and German song.

The best part of the trip, as I’m sure you’ll be able to tell by the reoccurring theme in the slideshow, was the Dom Cathedral.  It was absolutely amazing.  It’s a HUGE gothic chathedral that can be seen for miles and we spent about half our trip at it.  The construction of it began in the 1200′s, but wasn’t completed (for the most part) until the mid 1800′s!!  And it’s still not completely done since there is constant need for repairs for such an old building.  The saying in the town is that if the cathedral is ever totally done it will signal the end of time as we know it.  All kidding aside, there are about 100 employees at all times at the Cathedral because of the constant maintenance.

In case you want to do any further research, here’s Wikipedia’s page on it:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Cathedral.

Cologne was one of the most bombed cities in the country during WWII, so most (95%) of the popluation cleared out, and they took all the windows and relics out of the Cathedral for protection.  In the pictures you can see that the entire town is completely devasted – buildings literally crumbilng and often cut in two.  But the Cathedral stands tall and unharmed (no major damages noticale anyway).   It’s an awesome sight.

Inside the Cathedral there are tons of beautiful and ornate stained glass windows, extremely detailed mosaic tiles, burial sites, countless artifacts and treasures, and most notably, a relic containing the bones and some clothing of the Three Magi.  Really amazing.  We also got to walk up one of the towers.  It was close to 400 feet up so we got some great views of the city and KT had some sore calves!

Besides hanging out at the Cathedral, we spent a lot of time walking around town and seeing all the other sites (while freezing a bit because it was COLD!).  There were tons of old Roman walls and towers throughout the city and we were so surprised at how unsecured they were.  Here in St. Albans, there is an old Roman wall dating back to 250A.D that is fenced off, but in Cologne they (some dating to 50A.D.) were all open for anyone and everyone to touch and put graffiti on (unfortunately).  There was even graffiti in the Cathedral.  The food in Germany was pretty good too.  We ate a lot of stuff like sausage and drank lots of Kolsch – when in Rome… 

The only negative thing we can say about Cologne was that it wreaked of cigarette smoke!  We’ve been spoiled (by our standards anyway) by living in cities with non-smoking laws inside public places.  Between Austin, Colorado and England (England’s non-smoking law went into effect less than a month before we moved here) we haven’t had to be around smoke in years, so it was a little unpleasant to have all our clothing smell (especially since we didn’t bring a lot for a short weekend trip).  But that’s Europe for ya!