Germany Part I - The Rhine

Yesterday we got back from 2 weeks in Germany with our 12 week old son, Max.  We had a great time!  We visited the Rhine Valley, Füssen, Salzburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and Munich.

People often would stop and ask us if it was hard traveling with an infant or if we were crazy for taking such a young kid overseas for vacation.  So let me address that first.  

No, we are not crazy, and yes it was different, but it was still awesome, and I wouldn't have done it any other way.  Max is part of this family and this family was going to Germany for vacation, so of course he was coming with us.  And he did amazing!  He's such a great traveler.

Travel to Bacharach

We flew to Germany on a direct redeye flight from Houston to Frankfurt.  We specifically chose to fly Luftansa because of its great customer service and amenities; one of which is the bassinet for infants that attached to the wall right in front of us.  Aside from take off and landing, Max had his own place to lay that was not our lap.  This definitely made the 9 hour flight more enjoyable.  (What also helped was the unlimited supply of free wine, beer, and baileys.  Did I mention I love luftansa)

After arriving in Frankfurt we picked up our bags (1 standard luggage shared between Jeremy & I, 1 medium wheeled/backpack duffel for Max, 1 brica bag for the carseat, 1 stroller, 2 backpacks) and headed down to the connecting train station.  With the help of the folks at the TI we got our tickets for the regional train to Bacharach.  I can only assume that there were elevators somewhere in the airport that led down to the tracks but after looking for a while, and not wanting to miss our train, we used the escalator.  Turns out I got pretty good taking a stroller down an escalator on this trip.  No, I don't recommend it.  It's scary as all crap.

Throughout the vacation we used a combination of trains, planes, boats, and cars. We started with the train because we knew we wouldn't need a car in the Rhine Valley, plus it was pretty easy once we got going.  The folks at the TI in the airport printed us our tickets and pointed us to the platform and the upcoming trains are printed pretty clearly on the overhead signs.  Note that for German trains you have to press the button on the doors to make them open (in and out).  Not like the subways in the states where the doors automatically open.   Also, you have like 2 minutes to get on/off before it leaves again.  So don't mess around!

Once on the first train we looked at the overhead map and just followed along until our stop.  We changed trains in Mainz from Track (Gleis) 1 to 11 which for some reason were right next to each other (bonus for us).  This was the confusing part.  Our ticket had this long fancy train number on it, but the train itself only had like 3 letters showing.  Fortunately there were enough people milling about that we were able to confirm with someone that it was in fact our train and we quickly hopped on.  Most trains in Germany run very much on schedule, so if there is a train on your track at the time you expect, it's probably your train.  The trains also usually only display the last stop on the route to indicate direction, so it is helpful to have a map.  (ie - the regional train we were on stopped at Bacharach, but was labeled something else, whatever its last stop was)  And the time on the ticket is the time it leaves, not arrives, so get on!  Also, the regional trains in this area, while useful and safe, not so nice.  Think NY subway.

Bacharach

For our stay in the Rhine Valley we choose to stay in Bacharach.  A cute little town with 2 main streets known for their white wine production, which is what made them quite famous and profitable back in the day.  

In Bacharach we stayed at the Bacharacher Hotel which was just fine for us.  They we able to provide us with a baby "crib" (pack and play) which is what we used in all the hotels that we stayed.  The room was clean and nice enough and the breakfast was pretty good.  Standard German breakfast is breads, lunch meats and cheeses, cereal, and soft boiled eggs.  The bread is so good!  It wasn't our best hotel, but there was nothing wrong with it. 

After taking a short nap we walked around the town for a bit and grabbed some dinner.  Unfortunately our two days in the Rhine, as well as our first 2 days in Füssen, were a bit rainy and overcast, but it could have been worse and we did get a few hours without rain each morning.

Our first night we choose to eat at this little place called Bastian's Weingut zum Grüner Baum.  It was... um... interesting.  The wines we sampled were pretty good, but the food wasn't exactly what we had expected when ordering.  Jeremy ordered a boar sausage of some type and I ordered a 3 sausage plate.  What came was this...

Jeremy thought it was good, but I was disgusted.  I couldn't do it.  Especially considering that "boar sausage" on the bottom clearly came out of a can suspended in some kind of weird gelatin.  The homemade potato salad in the background was pretty good though.  If you are here, really enjoy white wine, and have the liver for it, you can order a 15 wine sample tasting.

After dinner the rain cleared and we spent the evening walking the town and then having our first german beer in a small courtyard that housed the old post office.  German beer really is better in Germany.  Delicious!  

(side note: watch out for the Radler - 1/2 lemonade, 1/2 beer known for being a sports drink (?!?!) its quite bad)

(second side note: what the hell is with Europeans and smoking?!?!  Especially when the weather turned nice, it was our one big problem with sitting outside.  You couldn't get away from it.  Easily 75% of the people would be smoking.)

St. Goar & Rheinfels Castle

Our only full day in the Rhine valley we spent mostly in St. Goar.  Around 10am we hopped on the K-D boat which made several stops along the river.  Rick Steves has a very nice writeup in his Germany book explaining different points along the river, easily identified by mile markers on the river bank.  Between Bacharach and St. Goar there are several very cute little towns and we could have easily spent time exploring all of them.  With a single boat ticket you can get on/off as many times as you'd like but you can only go as far down river as you specified at the time of purchase.

The Rhine used to be a very profitable area and is still one of the worlds busiest shipping rivers.  Dotted along the river banks are "robber-baron" castles all owned by rulers who levied taxes on the boats passing downstream.   In the small stretch from Bacharach to St. Goar there must have been at least 5 castles, all with owners levying their own taxes on the barges that passed by.   For our single day in the area we decided to check out one of the greatest castles of the area, the Rheinfels in St. Goar.

Now by "greatest castle" I mean, one of the largest and one of the most foreboding of its time.  During the Thirty Years War it was said to hold thousands of people and earned the nickname the "unconquerable fortress".  Today only an empty ruined shell is left, but it was still very interesting to explore.  From the boat station we took the nature trail up to the castle and just walked the road back down.  I would recommend the trail; follow the notes in Rick Steves book to start then follow the markers painted on the trees. 

A quick note about the castle.  There is still an in tacked cellar that they use for events.  Vow renewals anyone?!?!  

After touring the castle we ate lunch at the Rheinfels restaurant overlooking the town.

Of course beer was involved.  On tap was Krombacher.  I tended to stick to the Weiße beers, while Jeremy went more traditional.  

After returning on the last boat to Bacharach, we ate a wonderful dinner at the Altes Haus.  One thing we noticed in Germany was that most of the restaurants use benches to line the walls instead of chairs.  This worked out really well for Max.  

The next day we headed out to Füssen.  We split up the journey by taking the train from Bacharach to Stuttgart then picking up the car at the station and driving 3 hours to our apartment.  While I'll cover that in the next post, I should mentioned here that we only purchased our tickets a day in advance for this longer, high speed train.  Turns out we would have saved like 40 euro if we would have purchased the tickets at least 3 days in advance (bahn.de).  We wanted to have flexibility but in reality the room checkout was at 10am so it made sense for us to grab the 10:30 train.  

(continue to part II HERE)

INSANITY

I realize that it's been almost 3 months since I've posted, but there hasn't been much non-baby related news to tell.  So make the jump HERE and check out what's been going on in our lives for the last 10 (almost 11) weeks!

Though my life is now 95% consumed by a little one, there is one thing that I have managed to find the time to do...

INSANITY! 

The title says it all.  This workout routine is truly insane.  By far the most cardio I've packed into a workout before.  In fact, I am finally at a point that some days I can make it through the warmup.

Yes, you read that right, only SOME days.

It's crazy.

The warmup starts with 3 rounds of sprinting in place, jumping jacks, heisman, 1-2-3 heisman, butt kicks, high knees, mummies - each 30 seconds - each round getting faster and faster without stopping.

HERE a video of some people doing the last round of the warmup.

And that's just the warmup, so you can imagine what the rest of the workout is.

It's tough but it is a really good way to start the day.  Plus it's time that Jeremy and I get to spend together doing something that we both enjoy while Max is still sleeping.

Well, mostly enjoy.  I pretty much can't breathe or walk at the end of it.

We find the time by starting the workout as soon as Max is done with his morning feeding.  So that's usually at 5 or 6 am.

After Insanity is over (a 9 week program) we will still continue to do it every once in a while, and probably get back into P90X too, but I'd also like to do Hip Hop Abs.

It sounds kinda cheesy but the reality is that I was in the best shape of my life when I was out climbing and cycling all the time.  And I'm just not doing that as much now that we live in Houston.  So it will be fun to do something that isn't so much "working out" as much as it is a dance class.  We'll see.

If you want to join us for an Insanity workout sometime, just let me know.  You gotta get your butt here early though!

Rainbow Cake AND Oreo Cookies & Cream Cake

This afternoon Jeremy and I spent some time together in the kitchen baking these two awesome cakes.  It was really nice baking with him, as its usually just me baking and him doing the dishes.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I think he enjoyed actually participating in the creation process.  :)

First up, rainbow cake.

Use your favorite white cake recipe and divide the batter into 5 portions, dye each portion

Spoon some of each into a pan

Like this.

So it looks like this in the end.  Make sure to bang out any bubbles that may have formed.

Bake according to the directions.  (25 minutes in my case)

Top with vanilla frosting...

and sprinkles.

I made my buttercream frosting with a combination butter, vanilla, confectioners sugar, water.

The inside looks like this when cut!

So tasty!

Happy Birthday Lenny!

Next up was the Oreo Cookies & Cream Cake

I found this recipe while playing around on pinterest.  It's from a blog called Bird on a Cake and the recipe can be found HERE.

Mixing up the frosting.

1 layer down

The final product

I haven't cut into this one yet, so I can't say for sure how it tastes, but it looks awesome!  The only thing I would change is the frosting.  It calls for 3/4 cup of sugar, but I think you could easily cut this down to 1/4 cup or substitute some vanilla extract for the sugar and it would be great.  3/4 cups of sugar makes it VERY sweet.

My office mates better be excited about this one, as it will be coming with me to work tomorrow, my final Monday of work for 2 months!  :)  (But who's counting)

I am so bored.

I know, I know.  I should be relaxing and enjoying this time, but if you know me, then you know that I don't sit well.  I like to be up and moving and doing things, and while I can do some of that, I just can't do what I would usually do on a day like today... workout, go to Austin, go for a hike (it's mucky and humid out), drink wine, etc.

So I started looking at poke cakes.  Then I started looking at other cakes.  Now I have a list of like 8 cakes that I'm dying to make.  If this baby comes late, maybe I can do a cake-a-day theme for the last week of pregnancy.

Here's my list:

Chocolate Chip Caramel Poke Cake
Cherry Limeade Poke Cake
Raspberry Poke Cake
Gelatin Poke Cake (standard)
Rainbow Swirl Cake
Andes Mint Chocolate Cake with Ganache
Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Oreo Cookies & Cream Cake

What to start with!?!

I think I'm gonna do the Rainbow Swirl Cake and/or the Oreo Cookies & Cream Cake.  I think both of those are good weekend cakes as they will take a little more time.  The Poke cakes, while delicious and overall more time, take very little effort.

I'll keep you posted on what I come up with!

Congratulations to Albert and Shawna

I haven't done a photoblog in quite some time, but these pictures deserved a black canvas.

Congratulations Albert & Shawna.   (click the link)

5.19.13

RNASA Awards

This year the X1 Exoskeleton Team was nominated for an RNASA Awards.  RNASA is the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement and it is quite the honor to even be nominated.  I was fortunate enough to get to represent the team at the awards banquet last Friday night in Houston, TX.

There were 134 nominees from across the country in 4 total categories.  In the Team category there were 29 nominations, and although we didn't win, it was such an honor to even be there.

This banquet is like the who's who of space.  Charles Bolden, Gene Krantz, Gene Cernan, Colonel Tom Safford, Mike Griffin, Eileen Collins, Michael Foreman, Nicole Stott, Sandra Magnus, and more I can't even remember.  I was star stuck every time I turned around and it was really hard to contain myself from going up to some of these people and asking for a picture.  (I didn't)  Mostly we just eased dropped on their conversations and tried to pretend that we fit in :)

Because this banquet is such a big deal, it also meant that we had to dress to the nines.  Fancy fancy fancy.   Jeremy rented a tux, and I was in a long dress. (My boss even called me at 5pm to make sure I was dressed appropriately.  Thanks for the confidence Ron).

Since it was staged and presented like the Oscars, and since I'm sure you want to know, I will tell you all about my dress.

Designer: Unknown
Store: Goodwill
Price: $10
Alterations to fit a 34 week pregnant lady: $22
Total Cost: $32
SCORE!

Planning a trip

A few weeks back I started looking at some books on Germany, and now that the excitement of the parents weekend and baby shower is over, I thought it was a good time to go revisit this crazy plan of mine.

I've decided that we are going to visit Germany at the end of August.  So far I have the trip planned out for 16 days, so that we can get home on a Saturday and only take 10 days off work.  (I can just imagine how that Monday would go after getting in late on Sunday with daycare drop off and work.  I'm guessing infants don't adjust well to jet lag and time changes).

I know people think I'm crazy for trying to do Germany with a 2 month old, but if not now, then when?  Plus, I'm hoping he'll be pretty happy in the Baby Bjorn that toting him around won't be too much of an issue.

Tentative Plan:
 - Fly into Frankfurt, drive or train to the Rhine Valley
 - Take 2 days in the Rhine Valley staying in Bacharach
    (Rhine boat trip, Visit St. Goar, wine tasting, tour Rhienfels castle)
 - Day drive down to Fussen 
   (or a train to Stuttgart then renting a car to take us the rest of the way to Fussen) (5 hours, yikes!)
- 2 days in/around Fussen
  (Castles! - Hahenschwangau, Neuschwanstein, Oberammergau, Linderhof)
  (Hiking and Luge Course)
- 2 days in Salzburg
  (Hellbrun Castle, Berchtesgaden Salt Mine, Mirabell Gardens, funicular to Hohensalzburg fortress)
- 1 day in Nurnburg
- 3 days in/around Rothenburg ob der Tauber
  (relax in this most awesome little town, and visit all the Christmas shops)
- 3 days in/around Munich
  (Hofbrauhaus, beer gardens, Dachau, Marienplatz, English Garden, 4 Gates)
  (Funf Hofe, Nymphenburg palace)

I know there's a lot of great places to visit north of the area, but with only 16 days I think that this will be enough.  Plus I wanted to give us a lot of down time just to walk around the towns and nap/feed when we need to.

If you have any suggestions of sights we need to see while we are in this area, please leave a comment. Also, any suggestions for how to cut down on that 5 hour drive from the Rhine to Fussen would be great.  Are there any cute little towns that we should visit along the route?