Just a Couple of Wieners

Last Wednesday, we headed to Vienna and Budapest for a one-week trip. We had four nights in Vienna and three in Budapest. Part of the time in Vienna was taken up by a lacrosse tournament for Tim, but the rest of the week we were free to tour these two beautiful cities.

We arrived in Vienna on Wednesday evening, and after checking into our hotel, headed to a restaurant recommended by a co-worker of Erin, that allegedly has the best Wiener schnitzel in all of Vienna. We had made reservations at this restaurant, named Figlmüller earlier in the day, and it was a good thing, as there was a lineup out the door when we arrived. The schnitzel didn't disappoint. In addition to being delicious, it was bigger than the plate it was brought out on. We had an Austrian potato salad with it, and washed it down with some local white wine, a traditional Austrian meal for our first night.

On Thursday, we checked out out local sites like the Naschmarkt, St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Hofburg Imperial Palace, before having a nice, albeit incredibly filling dinner at an old restaurant located in a hundreds of years old cellar in the old town.

On Friday, we started the day off with a nice breakfast at a Viennese coffee house, and then went our separate ways for most of the day; Tim playing lacrosse with the Swiss National Team in the Austrian Nations Cup and Erin checking out more of the city as well as seeing Schönbrunn Palace before catching the last lacrosse game of the day and heading out for dinner together.

Saturday was more of the same; Tim playing lacrosse and Erin touring the city during the day before we met up for dinner together at the end of the night. Tim's lacrosse team managed to make it to the tournament final with an overtime win over the Slovakian team in the semifinals, and was set to face Team Austria in the finals early Sunday afternoon.

Since we had to leave for Budapest pretty much right after the lacrosse game on Sunday, no touristy stuff was done. Erin came to watch the game (the only person cheering on Switzerland, compared to a decent sized crowd cheering on the hated Austrians), and despite falling behind 4-0 early, Tim and Team Switzerland managed to come back and win the tournament 11-9, the first time Switzerland has ever beaten Austria. It was a nice way to end our time in Vienna, but we didn't get to celebrate for too long, as we had a train to catch to Budapest. More on Budapest to come soon!

Onward to The Metropolis of the Western Reserve!

It's been an exciting week here. As of yesterday, it is official that we will be moving to Cleveland. Earlier in the year, Erin interviewed for a job in Solon, just outside of Cleveland, still with the same company. After being informally offered the position a little while ago, she received an official offer last week, and as of yesterday, she accepted it! So, as of the beginning of October, we will be living in the USA. It will certainly be a change of pace, but after seeing the video below, we can't wait!

In all seriousness though, we will definitely miss Europe. While there are some things from home that we definitely miss here, there are also some great things that we will miss when we move back to North America. For one, it'll be a lot more difficult to just pack up and head to Paris for the weekend now...

So, with only about 2.5 months left in Europe, we are trying to make the most of our remaining time (and generous amount of vacation given in Germany) and do as much travelling as possible. Next week we head to Vienna and Budapest for a week, and just last night we booked a weekend trip to Prague in mid-August. We're also hoping to spend a week in Croatia and a weekend in Amsterdam before all is said and done.

And as mentioned earlier, in October, we'll be back in North America. It'll be nice to be that much closer to our families, and also to be back in an English speaking country. We're looking forward to this next step in our adventure.

Back to Paris

Last weekend we took advantage of affordable train tickets and some local connections and went back to one of our favourite cities: Paris. Early Friday afternoon we hopped on a train for Paris with our friend Laurence, a colleague of Erin's whose boyfriend, Fred, is a Gendarme living in Paris. Fred lives on a Gendarmerie base in the Paris suburbs and we were able to stay with him for the weekend, making Paris much more affordable.

Our inbound train had to be re-routed due to a tree on the tracks somewhere, and thus we were a little late arriving. Because of this we decided to stay in and take it easy, and cram our Paris adventure into Saturday and Sunday.

We got up relatively early on Saturday and had a nice French pastry breakfast before heading out. We had wanted to go see the Catacombs, but the line to get in was literally around the blocks, so we went with Plan B and checked out Rue Daguerre in the same neighbourhood, and fun street with some cool shops and cafés. After that we went to the Grande Mosquée de Paris, which has a café/restaurant attached, and had a really nice lunch. We had various Moroccan dishes, with a sweet mint tea, and some great pastries for dessert.

Afterwards, we walked through the Latin Quarter, Île Saint-Louis, and Le Marais before heading back to Fred's to get ready for our evening event, a dinner cruise along the Seine. While the dinner cruise may be a little touristy, it was still really enjoyable. We boarded the boat right near the Eiffel Tower, and the boat then goes upriver through all the main sights along the river, turning around on the eastern edge of the city before turning and heading back downriver, finishing up right by the Eiffel Tower, which at this point is all lit up in the night sky.

The meals were very good, and despite being on a boat, it felt more like we were in an elegant restaurant. There was live music from a jazz band, nice wine, and expensive dishes with portion sizes half of what we would get in a regular restaurant... yep, we're in Paris! After the cruise, we strolled around the city a little more before heading home.

On Sunday, Fred and Laurence took us to one of their favourite places for brunch in the city. It was this place in a very nondescript neighbourhood in the 19th or 20th Arrondissement, where we can't imagine tourists would ever go unless they were specifically looking for this place. The brunch has two parts. The first was an all-you-can-eat buffet of delicious pastries, baked goods like brownies and cookies, fruit and beverages. That would have been easily enough food, but they then offer you a choice of one of five or six prepared dishes, with things like an English Plate (with eggs, sausages, bacon), lamb or salmon. It was all very good, and filled us up for the rest of the day. We'd highly recommend this place, which is called La Bellevilloise, if you are ever in Paris.

Having to head back to Konstanz late Sunday afternoon, we didn't have too too much time to do much else, but we were able to head back to one of our favourite streets in Paris, Rue Mouffetard, where we spent another nice afternoon.

We arrived back in Konstanz late Sunday night, appreciating Paris even more. Every time we go there, we find something new which makes us love the city even more. And it definitely helps to have some local guides like Fred and Laurence to show us around!