Florence & Siena

Florence

While the first half of the summer clipped by at a quick pace, August and September seemed to drag a bit. We didn't travel much, and most of the things I'm involved with shut down for the summer. I won't admit  to having been bored per-say, but I did feel a bit restless. And homesick.

Actually, I was incredibly homesick. Unfortunately, I've found that it never really goes away. There are periods of dormancy when I might forget about it, but then it flares up at random intervals with varying intensity - slightly uncomfortable to completely disruptive. Like herpes.

Fortunately I'll be receiving a nice and soothing salve in the form of a visit home next month - the first in 20 months! We'll be back for Christmas and New Years this year. I'll be in Redding with my family December 14 - December 27. Josh will be in Salem with his family December 21 - December 27. We'll reunite in Portland December 28 - January 7.

It's a much needed trip home especially in light of the second half of following updates:

1. Josh got a promotion! Same team, but he is now a global project manager. He "really just like(s) having an office. Title. Paycheck." Mm.

2. Two more years abroad! September 1st marked our two year anniversary of living in Germany and it also was the start date of Josh's new position. We originally planned to stay until September 2013, but with the promotion we decided it would be best to hang on an additional year. We'll be here until autumn of 2014. So please, come visit us! Seriously. Please.

Sometimes living in Germany makes me feel sad,
but then I visit "durr"-faced lions in Italy and things start to look up again. 

Anyway, in an effort to pull me out of my late summer funk (or was it to celebrate Josh's birthday month...?), we went on a much anticipated trip to Florence and Rome for the first week of October. Fortunately, it worked.

First up was four nights in Florence with a day trip to Siena. While Florence was not our favorite city, I'm happy that we were able to see the art in the Uffizi Gallery and the large Duomo was more impressive than we expected. Honestly, I think we had really high expectations for Florence and it ended up being one of the most crowded, touristy city experiences we've had so far. It was dirty, the people cranky, and I swear I heard more American English than I did Italian. Which, yeah ok, we were American tourists as well but it was still disappointing. Grabbing a glass of afternoon wine was a chore. Looking back, maybe that is what I was really upset about...

Regardless, I would definitely recommend doing a full day trip there for your Renaissance cultural experience but would advise one to stay in a Tuscan hill town while in the area. Maybe Siena, which was lovely.

Below are some pictures from the first leg of our journey. Next post will be on the city that stole a substantial piece of my heart: Rome.

A Florentine street with a peek at the dom of Duomo .

The Duomo

Tripe. We decided to pass on that gastronomic experience...

Ponte Vecchio

Restoration in action.

Tourists catching a break.

 In Piazza della Signoria

Birds on heads

Outskirts of Florence

Florence

Coffee break in Piazza del Campo, Siena.

Piazza del Campo. A horse race among the 17 neighborhoods 

of the city takes place here twice a year.  

Each neighborhood is represented by a horse/rider and a

mascot such as ram, fish, caterpillar, etc. 

Check out these pictures: Il Palio Horse Race

One of the mascots

Siena Duomo

One of the coolest cathedral interiors I've seen.

Siena

July, July

This summer has been wonderfully busy.

May kicked off the outdoor festival season, June brought a visit from our dear friends from Canada, and July was perfectly paced with travel, fests, family, celebrations, exploration, and friends. However, July also delivered my first tick bite which extremely pissed me off, not to mention it was horrifically gross.

Oregon + Cumulative time spent in fields/wooded areas = Many years. Bites: 0. Infection risk: low.

German + Cumulative time spent in fields/wooded areas = 20 hours, maybe. Bites: 1. Infection risk: SO MUCH HIGHER!!

Not only is there a risk of Lyme Disease there is also this fun little thing called TBE:

"In a first phase the illness begins with fever, head and limb pains (similar to summer flu). In most cases the infection is already over by this time. However, the virus can also attack the central nervous system resulting in meningitis which may be cured without any long-term damage. In an infection which goes badly not only the meninges, but the entire brain (meningoencephalitis) may be affected by the disease and it may result in impairment of consciousness, speech and swallowing, symptoms of paralysis and psychic changes." Source

Most of you know about my hypochondriac tendencies ("I swear to God there is a lump! It's just the top of my rib cage? Oh..."), so this tick-related business should provide enough fodder for many health-related paranoid spirals over the course of the next six months or so. Nurse friends Lori, Andi, Megan - brush up on bug transmitted infectious diseases and your patient soothing skills!

While I didn't take any pictures of this tick horror to subject you to, I did manage to capture many of our enjoyable July experiences. Like my Uncle Matt's visit to Nuremberg at the beginning of the month. He and a friend had been doing the backpacking around Europe thing for a couple weeks and he ended his trip with us. We only had a few days, but we packed them full.

The first day Matt and I dropped Josh off at work and took the car  out in search of
castles, medieval villages, and beer. (Yup, that is my uncle and he is younger than me)

One of the few castles we saw. However we got distracted upon arrival
and by the time we wanted to go inside it was closed for a two hour lunch break.

The source of our distraction - an adorable biergarten in the woods below the castle.
Also, some of the best and cheapest beer I've had in Germany. 

The next day Josh joined us and we went to Würzburg. This is the Prince-Bishop's Residence. 

Creepy statue in the fountain in front of the Residence.

Drinking wine on the pedestrian bridge in Würzburg. Festung Marienberg is
on the hill in the background.

Across from our wine drinking post on the bridge was the site of some sort
of sexual health awareness competition.  Themed groups (Flower-children,
Hell's Angels, punks, etc) cycled through giving singing and dancing performances.

That evening we met up with some friends in a neighboring town so that Matt could
experience an authentic German bier festival. This is the first round of beers and
the only picture acceptable to post on the blog from that night. (photo: Desma Colburn)

The following weekend Josh and I went to Prague to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It was a beautiful and relaxing getaway. Our hotel had overbooked the type of room we reserved, so they upgraded us to the best suite in the house. We had a private rooftop terrace overlooking the entrance to the Charles Bridge.

Terrace view to the right.

Terrace view to the left.

A beautiful Art Nouveau cafe. The cake was decent. The coffee, blah.

A fountain that depicts the glorious art of the male piss? The subjects' hips swivel
as their peens rise and fall. Guess where the water comes out.

The only stairs I've seen that have traffic lights at the top and bottom

A romantic anniversary dinner. Shortly after this was taken, fireworks went off.
And shortly after that, a lantern lighting ceremony took place down river and we watched
them float away over the bridge in the early night's sky. 

And just a few miscellaneous pictures:

After the gluttonous first half of the month, I worked off some of the beer bloat
by hiking and exploring caves in the Fränkische-Schweiz.

A lookout tower we came across on a hike.

Annafest. This is an annual festival celebrating the opening of the cellars where
local breweries store their beer. This takes place in a large forest park and the
cellars are carved into the sides of the hills. Beautiful and debaucherous. 

Adidas threw a London Olympics themed party last weekend on their campus.  A horse-drawn carriage
with royal impersonators, a food stand dedicated to baked beans, and a bridge set up to
look like the Tower Bridge. With misters so one could walk across it with a black umbrella. These were
a few of the more ridiculous things.

The Bardentreffen in Nuremberg. It's a free, outdoor music festival that takes
place on various stages throughout the old city. What's even more entertaining are
the many street musicians of all ages (even kids) who try their hand at busking.  Some
were actually very good, many were not but it was a fun atmosphere.

Oh, and I even sneaked a little 7k fun run in with some of my lady friends. 

So yeah, this summer has been pretty good so far. As always, I miss Oregon but a European summer is a great tonic for the soul. Especially when one does not have to work.