Friends in Spain!

Just a few pictures from our adventures with our friends Jen and Tyler!

More to come soon!!

Throwback Thursday- Our Trip to London

That's right... about two months ago we went to London!  But somewhere along the way, that trip got forgotten and left behind.  There is so much to do in London that it can easily be overwhelming.  We spent a lot of time eating, just like when we were in Barcelona, and speaking ENGLISH!  Which means we both got our hair cut while we were there.

When we arrived, London was like you picture it- rainy and dreary.  But it quickly cleared up and remained a decent and mostly sunny 50's-ish for the entire trip. 

After a minor mishap with booking our Book of Mormon tickets (we supposedly booked a matinee and showed up for evening show) we rebooked our tickets for the next night and ended up with better seats!! 

We had to stop by the Rapha shop for coffee... We've now been to nearly all of their locations- San Fran, London, and Mallorca.  And have never purchased anything but coffee. 

 
And we saw all the sights... and ate so much food...  There's so much to do!

 We stopped by the British museum because 1)  It's free (and London is expensive) and 2)  it houses the Rosetta Stone!

And mummified cats.

Being in London was a nice break from the Spanish lifestyle and gave us the chance to feel semi-American again.  This may have happened too...

No shame. 

Beers in Munich are THIS Big

Bus to Where?

As seen in Reims

Veuve Clicquot Champagne - Honeymoon/Semana Santa Pt. V

The second champagne house we visited, and the one we were most excited about, was Veuve Clicquot on the south side of Reims.

We started the tour and learned about 'Le Grande Dame' Madame Clicquot, who was one of the first female business owners in France in the early 1800's.  

Fun Fact:

The caves Veuve uses to store their champagne were originally mined out by the Romans in ~200bc for the construction of buildings and monuments in the area.

Unfortunately, our tour of the caves was cut short by an untimely illness.  But the staff there were awesome and we had already done about half of the tour.  Next time were in Reims we'll do the whole sha-bang!

G.H. Mumm Champagne - Honeymoon/Semana Santa Pt. IV

I know, I know.  It took us a while to get to the good stuff.  Here we go...

Our first champagne stop in Reims was G.H. Mumm (like moo-m).  After getting only a little bit lost we made it there for our 'Premiere' champagne tour.

Fun Facts:

1) Mumm is the third highest selling champagne in the world.  

2) Cordon Rouge (red ribbon) non-vintage champagne is what they spray on each other on the podiums of Formula 1 races.

3) The best champagne is always in magnum (1.5L) bottles.

The champagne region of France is technically too wet to be a good place to grow wine grapes.  However, underneath the entire region is chalk which helps the ground drain better than normal allowing grapes to be grown.  The chalk also absorbs water and because of this, the caves where the champagne gets stored are humid and stay a constant temperature.

Apparently the walls also come in handy when you forgot your calculator...

They have over 24km of tunnels in the ground and so they give them street names and signs to keep everything organized.

After touring the cellars (and seeing champagne bottled in the 1870's) we went upstairs and sampled some champagne.  Because we're awesome (and signed up for the Premiere tour) Kelly and I (and one other guy) got to sample two vintage champagnes, a rose and a brut, while everyone else only had one non-vintage glass.  Suckers...

Trains - Honeymoon/Semana Santa Pt. III

After our brief stint in Paris we went to the Gare de L'est and caught our train to Reims.  Since we live a life of ease and leisure, we booked first class seats facing each other with a table in between.

Train travel is by far one of the best things about Europe and, as you can tell, I am suuuuper excited about this (and the Gouda flavored crackers, which were delicious).

As you can see from the screen behind the girl with the silly cheeks, the train goes well over 300kph (186mph).  The highest speed we saw the screen get up to was 330kph, which is over 200 mph.

Just in case you were wondering why someone had silly, puffy cheeks.  The answer, as usual, is wine.

Checking out the scenery.  Even going really fast, its a great way to see parts of the country outside of the city.  And doing so with a Belgian beer and (amazing) French crackers makes it even better.

More Paris! - Honeymoon/Semana Santa Pt. II

After we found our (new) hotel in Paris and had a good nights sleep, we woke up (relatively) early and killed a few hours walking along the Seine before our train trip to Reims.

We took the Metro to the Ile de Cite, grabbed a cafe au lait and a croissant, and went to check out Notre Dame.

We have been to Notre Dame twice before, but this was the first time the line to get in wasn't insanely long so we finally got to go inside.  And it's huge.  And beautiful.  

There was a small service going on so we wandered around the periphery of the church.  Interestingly (to me) the stain glass windows actually open to allow air to circulate.

Next, we decided to wander towards the Eiffel Tower.  Except we went the wrong way (and no, you couldn't just see it and walk towards it, I think).  But we did find the soon to be closed lock bridge which Kelly wanted to put a lock on.  However, we didn't have a lock so we started walking back in the right direction until we came across a guy selling locks.  So we bought a lock and then walked back to the bridge where we got our lock on:)

We walked down to the closed road that runs next to the river, and it turns out they have lots of awesome games painted there.  Like the long jump here.

And, because its Paris, there are tons of places to take really good pictures.  Across the river in this picture, under the white tents, is a small flea market that we went and visited.  I'm pretty sure any Francophile could furnish their entire house there.

We also ran across this barge/park.  Its 3 old barges that have been turned into a park with plants, trees, and even a greenhouse.

And also these sweet nets that looked like a great place to take a nap except that they were not comfortable at all.

Finally, we made it to Paris's big radio tower.  After walking around (we have never gone up, going in things isn't really our M.O. for traveling if you haven't noticed) we decided to find some food and take in the nice weather and the great view.

We stopped at a stand to get Frites and Wine.  However, they would only sell you frites (which they were dumping straight out of the Carrefour bag into the fryer, how authentic)if you got 2 hot dogs with them.  Picture french fries and 2 hot dogs... got it?...  Wrong.  We got a small bowl filled with fries with 2 hotdogs (no buns) layed across the top.  Fortunately, Kelly proceeded to immediately drop the hotdogs on the ground, so we ended up with just frites and wine after all, which we sat and ate right in front of the Eiffel Tower (Most enjoyable moment of this, watching a crow try and grab these hotdogs.  After a few tries he just got the whole thing in his mouth (sideways) and flew off).

Brussels, Belgium

We took the train from Cologne, Germany to Brussels, Belgium and tried to enjoy all of the beer in town...

The famous little peeing boy statue

A much bigger peeing boy on a nearby wall.

A great shot of the old and new that come together so well in Brussels.

Hitting up the beer museum.  We somehow were given 2 free beers. 

 It was a good day.

Getting some vin chaud (hot wine) from a street vendor.

Its like cider but better (wine-y-er)

Awesome streetlamps.

Observing the arts, and then sitting on them.

A statue of Peter Pan.  Seems like an odd amount of statues

of small boys in this town...

The Delirium Cafe, because its Belgium, thats why.