when in...

After our trip to Innsbruck, my parents set off for Athens while Ryan and I settled in to a very snowy week in Munich. Admittedly, it felt weird to be at work with so much snow outside. In Seattle, people would have freaked out long ago and headed home, and by headed home, I mean they got in their cars and sat on the freeway for six hours. Abandoning your car on the Freeway: a Seattle tradition unlike any other....

The blizzard from my office.

On Thursday evening Ryan and I flew to Rome where my parents would join us the next morning. We won the AirBnB lottery with our place - really the most fantastic two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment we've stayed in (and it was one block from the Colosseum!). Our host was also fabulous, giving us several amazing restaurant suggestions and even forcing the grocery store across the street to open their locked doors so we could get a bottle of wine for the night. But back to those restaurant suggestions!  For our first night we chose a close, family-run restaurant in the neighborhood where Ryan realized that he would rather marry eggplant than his fiancée. Truly, this restaurant was amazing. I even took the time to write a glowing review on Trip Advisor. I only give out 1 or 5 stars, people; there is no middle ground. While I could tell you how great the fried ricotta balls, bruschetta, or spaghetti carbonara were, that would just be wasting my breath (finger strength?). I will instead just cut to the chase: eggplant parmesan, roman style. We ordered this almost as an afterthought; a dish to round out our meal. However, it quickly stole the show with its melty cheesy goodness, delicious marinara sauce, and cooked-to-perfection eggplant. Ryan very seriously contemplated ordering one or two more of these dishes for dessert, but I convinced him that we were already full and should just try and come back another time. Although we did not return during the trip it certainly was not due to Ryan's lack of trying. Every day, every meal decision, he mentioned this eggplant and how we should go back there for "dessert." Yes, he wanted eggplant for dessert. 

Without knowing how good this was going to be, we did not snap a photo before digging in. This is a stolen photo from another user on Trip Advisor.

Since coming home from this trip we have made eggplant twice, trying our damnedest to replicate the dish. We are getting closer...

The next morning, my parents arrived and we hit the streets. Two nice strangers gave us their tickets to the Colosseum, mentioning that they were valid for two days and that they were leaving. We bought two more for my parents and waited for their arrival.

Buying tickets on a computer from 1998

After heading into the Colosseum, we discovered the "free" tickets had already been used so we were turned away at the turnstile. Oops. Rather than wait in the very long line to buy two more tickets, we decided to save my parents' tickets for another day and instead walked to Vatican City. We watched and subsequently made fun of my dad as he took selfies with his Nikon, and then headed to the Vatican Museum. Sadly, when I requested photos from him for this blog post, he did not offer that selfie up. While housing many beautiful and interesting works of art, including four papal apartment rooms painted by Raphael, the highlight of the Vatican Museum is the Sistine Chapel, home of the Papal conclave and Michelangelo's The Last Judgment. My sly father snuck in some pictures of this strictly-no-photos chapel.

Sunset outside of the Vatican Museum

Castel Sant'Angelo

St Peter's Basilica

After our first day's adventure we bought some more wine to enjoy in the apartment before heading to the next fantastic restaurant that our host suggested. This time, though, we went to an adorable pizza place that was decorated to provide the illusion that you were dining outside while inside. The pizza was very tasty (nothing tops that Milan pizza yet though). Have you guys noticed yet how all of my Italy posts revolve around food?

On Saturday, we joined a free walking tour, beginning at the Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps). Our guide was running late which meant my parents and Ryan wanted coffee. While exiting said coffee shop, somehow, someone hocked a giant disgusting loogie on to the side of my left boot. We are assuming it must have come from an apartment window above the coffee shop; it really was a mystery and I still wonder if it was my dad (just kidding). I immediately used a napkin to wipe it off, and then spent the next 20 minutes or so trying to stifle my gag reflex. I still want to vomit just thinking about it as I write this, three weeks later! You're welcome, everyone, for sharing this little anecdote. But at least the walking tour was wonderful.

Tour group

After the walking tour we explored a museum featuring the inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci. As you can see I was very proud of the bridge I built.

On our final night we used the good old combination of Trip Advisor, Foursquare, and Yelp to find our dinner destination. After turning a deaf ear to Ryan's pleas for more eggplant, we headed to another adorable Italian restaurant and enjoyed sharing lasagna romana, spaghetti carbonara, gnocchi with pesto, and a seafood linguine. All were fantastic, of course.

So now you're wondering, did we ever make it back to the Colosseum? Fear not, we saved the best for last. On Saturday we had discovered that the first Sunday of each month is free entrance to the Colosseum. Despite only having a few hours until our taxi would take us to the airport, we squeezed in visits to the Colosseum, Palatine, and Forum.

Cappuccino to start the day (for Ryan)

Everything was "so-called"

Time to say "Ciao!" to Rome and head back to Munich for Super Bowl XLIX. Here are some photos of us enjoying beers before our spirits were crushed like grapes. At least we had some fun with my parents on their last night in Europe.

Smiles now but the tears came later

Miss you guys and hope you can come again!

Until next time!

xoxo
L & R

the art of snow walking

My parents arrived in Munich on January 17, helped us celebrate the NFC championship win, and attacked Bavaria like experienced tourists. Within a matter of four days they visited the Munich Olympic Park, BMW museum, Dachau concentration camp, Neuschwanstein Castle, and Salzburg, Austria. Ryan and I haven't even been to the BMW museum or Neuschwanstein yet, and we've lived here for six months! Almost twice our age and kicking our asses. Well done, Menne's.

They borrowed my phone for many of their journeys, and I found this photo of Neuschwanstein!

For our first weekend adventure, we rented a sweet Passat wagon to explore the Innsbruck, Austria area and enjoy some winter sports. I will also mention that this was the first time I have rented a car with my newly acquired Bundesrepublik Deutschland driving license. I will now have to bring my passport everywhere with me in the US in case I get carded, as they took my Washington license and mailed it back to Seattle where it will await my return in 2016. One last note on the license: Washingtonians are lucky because we have reciprocity with Germany. Other states are not so lucky and must take a written driving test (in German) as well as pay 1000 euros in fees.

Ryan couldn't take Friday off so my parents and I headed down the autobahn towards Innsbruck (home of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics). Once we arrived, our hotel allowed us to check in early, so we unloaded our bags and asked reception for a snowshoeing recommendation. After assuring her that we did not need a guided tour, she sent us to one of the local ski resort areas. We drove up, had lunch in one of the lodge's restaurants, and failed to find a shop that would rent us snowshoes. As if having no snowshoes could stop us! We drove a bit down the mountain and found an area with several cars parked and what looked to be a meandering, snowy road that was blocked from car traffic. The snow was pretty well packed, so we decided to just take a snow walk! The walk ended up being more of a hike, as it was essentially two miles of non-stop uphill. We were exhausted and sweaty by the time we reached the alm, but were able to enjoy some terrible beer and wine at the top before heading back down the hill (really the worst beer and wine ever). Everyone else had the right idea and brought toboggans up with them to ride down, so we had to keep our heads on a swivel to make sure we didn't get run over. Once back in Innsbruck, we met up with Ryan and had a delicious German dinner. At least sweaty hikes in snow gear let you not care about caloric intake.

This is not a table-size bottle of Ketchup! 

The road we hiked to Birgitzer Alm (here comes a skier!). Sadly, this is the only photo of our trek.

The next morning, we drove up to Stubai Glacier to ski. At the base of the mountain, everything looked so cloudy and foggy that we couldn't even see the peak. However, after taking the gondola up past the mid-way station, the sun came out and the visibility was incredible! We enjoyed a beautiful day of skiing with fresh powder - for only 35 Euros each! Skiing in Europe has (so far) been really cheap when compared to back home.

We also saw literally the most perfect snowflakes known to mankind. Some of the pictures look like close ups, but they aren't. They are just really large, perfectly formed snowflakes. We've really never seen anything like it before.

The fog! (P.S. Zipfer is the worst beer ever.)

Ryan is bundled up.

Alps for days.

The best skiing of the day, which sadly was only serviced by a T-bar.

Father and me. Picture perfect conditions.

Not a close up

See??

Here come the Menne's!

Post-skiing beers in the snow.

We headed back to Innsbruck for some yummy burgers and chili cheese fries (how American) and then settled in at our hotel to enjoy the fire pit and a couple of bottles of delicious wine.

On Sunday, we checked out of our hotel and headed out to find some snowshoeing/snow walking. We had found an easy trail online and hoped my parents wouldn't need snowshoes. We arrived at the parking lot and, after mixing up some mimosas in juice bottles, hit the trail. The good news: the trail we found online didn't require snowshoes! The bad news: we didn't take that trail. We ending up following the people ahead of us and by the time we realized we were headed to the wrong Alm it was too late. We basically hiked up a ski slope, resulting in one of the steepest climbs of my life.  It had snowed a lot over the weekend, and there was a ton of fresh powder. After the first half mile or so, my parents decided to leave the steep "trail" and take the winding service road, which was still covered in fairly deep powder. Ryan and I were grateful to have our snowshoes and tackled the slope head on. Our end goal was to reach an alm which was apparently located at the top of this mountain. After another mile or so of climbing, my parents found us again. They were a bit farther back, but we had reached a section of switchbacks and they yelled to us up ahead to let us know they were behind us. We were surprised to see them as we thought they would have called it quits by this point. No snowshoes, remember?! We reached the alm first, and to our utter dismay, it was CLOSED. By this point, we were so exhausted from this extremely vertical, snowy hike, we were ready to give up. With the last of our mimosas gone (which, by the way, are terrible when you are thirsty on a hike), all I wanted was to sit down and have a beer! We started to trudge back to my parents to stop them in their tracks. Just as we were sharing our disappointment with my parents, another pair of hikers approached. They informed us that there was a second alm just 500 meters farther. And the second alm has a gondola down to the bottom! This was the best news possible, so we followed them over another hill and through some ski lifts to the next alm (literally pressing the limits of our ability to keep hiking). We also realized at this point that Ryan was the only of us with any cash. My near-fainting mother, who does not eat carbs, demanded bread, so we used our only 20 Euro bill to buy her a pretzel and a water and the rest of us bought the only thing that made any sense: three beers and a plate of fries. We rode the gondola down with a promise to pay at the bottom (we did) and then had to walk another two miles to get the car from the parking lot, but this felt like cake compared to what we had just been through. Again, with an excuse to eat whatever we damn-well please for dinner, we binged on a delicious Indian dinner once back in Munich. What an exhausting but fun weekend!

Rome up next - stay tuned!

xoxo
L & R

second chance

For those of you not on Facebook or Instagram (are you hiding under a rock?), Ryan's mom, Jerri, has been visiting us in Munich for the past two weeks for Christmas and New Years. Germany really loves Christmas, but Munich in particular. Toward the end of November, almost every public plaza, square, or courtyard gets taken over by Christmas markets.  The various markets in each square have some slight differences, but all more or less sell gluhwein, food, and some various handmade goods and trinkets (Ryan bought some lambskin gloves from one).

After we completely tired ourselves of gluhwein and flammbrot at the Christmas markets, we enjoyed a lovely Christmas in Munich, despite an ER visit. CliffsNotes version: Jerri had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic, so we spent the first part of Christmas day at an emergency room. Thankfully Jerri made a swift recovery after a shot of Cortisone, an IV drip, and some sleep. Reasons we were glad that Jerri made a quick recovery: (1) we love her (2) it was Christmas! (2) who else can make such amazing turkey gravy? and (3) we were flying to Paris the next morning!

On our way to Paris, Jerri tried to come up with another way to thwart our trip (she forgot her passport back in the apartment, after we'd already caught the airport bus), but we could not be stopped. Ryan and Jerri got in a taxi with Speed Racer while I watched the luggage, casually ordered a bagel, and picked up our boarding passes. They made it back with time to spare, despite the snowy streets and day-after-Christmas crowd at the airport. We made the flight, and I hesitate to confess that none of our passports were ever checked. Better safe than sorry, right?

Passport in hand!

Cute (and free) little airplane beer.

Paris and I had met before, seven years earlier when I was a broke 22 year old on a post-graduation backpacking trip with friends, which was funded through student loans and my dad's Alaska Airline miles (thanks again, Father!). We had planned to stay for three nights but were forced into an extra day and a half due to train strikes. No wonder I didn't love it the first time around. Paris, I am giving you a second chance to impress me. Ready? Okay, good.

We arrived on Friday morning and checked in to our AirBnB. While the building was old and Parisian (read: small and dirty), we were in an amazing location. We stayed in the heart of Montmartre, conveniently located mere blocks from two metro stops, Sacre Coeur, and Moulin Rouge. Right outside of our apartment building was a Christmas market, and while I was so sick of gluhwein, I was intrigued at what treats a Parisian Christmas market might have. You can imagine my delight upon discovering a Raclette booth! Do you know anyone who loves ooey gooey cheese more than this girl? I think not.

Ryan accidentally ordered 12  churros at the Christmas market.

After eating my weight in cheese (Raclette on bread with salami, Raclette on potatoes, and then just simply a mixed platter of meats and cheeses), we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. We walked the park and enjoyed the views. It was so crowded that I imagine it would have taken us approximately three hours to buy tickets and actually make it to the top of the Eiffel Tower, so we opted for drinks in a warm restaurant instead and waited for sunset. I promised Ryan and Jerri that the iconic landmark was more impressive and magical at night, and I don't think they were disappointed.

Adorable Parisian

On Saturday, we explored the Louvre, including acting like cattle to catch a glimpse of the Mona Lisa.

So crowded!

We also took a visit to the Arc de Triomphe, but again, didn't want to wait or pay to climb to the top. We had our fill of stairs in the Louvre.

After several hours and likely several miles of walking, we were all exhausted and headed back to the Montmartre neighborhood for dinner. We found a superb little restaurant that apparently has a location in NYC as well: Buvette Gastrotheque. We shared dishes such as nutty pesto bruschetta, brussel sprout salad, Shepherd's Pie, various cheeses, and coq au vin. If you have the opportunity, visit this yummy restaurant.

After dinner, we dropped in to a bar solely because it was named Dirty Dick. This was, of course, located in Moulin Rouge. The bartenders were on point with their mixed drinks, and thanks to Jerri's charm, provided us with free shots of rum. (Sidenote from Ryan: "Heaven is eating dinner at delicious, small Parisian diner with your Fiance and Mother.  Hell is then going to drinks after and have the bartender hit on your Mom.")

On Sunday, after recovering from my hangover with a tasty quiche, we walked up the many, many stairs from our apartment to Sacre-Coeur. I have never seen more people in one place in my life. The streets were so packed with tourists, and every time a single car would try and pass through, it seemed as if we would never move or get out of the crowd. We entered the Basilica, admired the beautiful architecture and art, and contemplated religion. Meanwhile, a horrible woman could be seen stealing money from the church. I was stunned and horrified, but like everyone else, did nothing to stop her. Does that make me just as guilty?

Sausage Party

After expending Jerri's tolerance of stairs, we found a cute little cafe to have a late lunch. I finally ordered some escargot for Jerri and Ryan to try. I impressed them with my de-snailing techniques and luckily, they did like the dish.

We met up with extended family for dinner at an awesome North African restaurant in the heart of the city, and then joined them for drinks at the Buddha Bar. Around 11:30, we left to meet up with Ryan's friend, Chris, to watch the second half of the Hawks game at The Great Canadian. Not only were we able to meet up with friends and family that were conveniently in Paris at the same time as us (completely unplanned), we had another small-world experience at the pub. After finding Chris at his table and saying hello, I heard my name. I looked up to see a former EY coworker at the table next to us! As it turns out, he and his wife have recently moved to the Netherlands on a two-year rotation with EY. Someone please calculate the odds of running into a friend at a bar half around the world and get back to me. Thanks.

On our final day in Paris, before heading to the airport to catch our afternoon flight, we did went anyone else would do. Eat more delicious French food. We capped off our trip with a spectacular creme brulee and said au revoir to the City of Lights. Here are a couple of final imagines from our trip: Ryan's hair inspiration on the Paris metro and yummy macaroons! Well done, Paris, well done.

What are they advertising for exactly?

Salted caramel gelato macaroon. Too good for words.

Until the next post!

xoxo,
L & R

P.S. We miss you already, Jerri!