Mainz, Germany for Olaf's Birthday

We spent Olaf's 32nd birthday with his family in Germany. We were already in Frankfurt for Olaf's work, and thought it would be fun to get together with the Gurks over the weekend. Olaf's brother Gerrit and his wife Birgit live in Mainz, which is about 45 minutes from Frankfurt. Friday evening, Olaf's birthday, we drove to Mainz to meet up with Olaf's family for a little celebration. 

The senior Gurks live north of Frankfurt, in Osnabrück. Usually we meet up there, but it had been far too long since we've visited Birgit and Gerrit in Mainz.

Map showing all the Gurks in England and Germany

Birgit suggested a really cool restaurant, Heiliggeist for the birthday dinner. It was in an old church which was beautifully lit with candles, both indoors and out. We sat outside in the warm early autumn air, sharing a charming table in an ivy-covered alcove.

Afterwards we headed back to Birgit and Gerrit's for some birthday cake and presents.

That cake traveled in style, economy class from London :)

Saturday we visited a flea market by the river and then took a four-hour, afternoon river boat cruise.

Birgit and I walking to the boat.

Birgit and I checking out the wares.

The boat

All the Gurks!

We left the boat at Rüdesheim, a quaint wine making town on the Rhein river. Birgit packed us a wonderful, homemade lunch that the enjoyed at a lookout point above the village.

View from the boat

View of Rüdesheim from the tram

Not nervous at all ;)

Olaf's brother Gerrit and his wife Birgit

Olaf's parents, Wolfgang and Claudia

Lookout above Rüdesheim

Enjoying some lunch- Birgit took care of us :)

Freight boat on the river

Back in Mainz, we headed out on foot to the schnitzel boat. That was my first time, though I think everyone else has been there multiple times. Our food never came, though, so we ended up eating at Birgit and Gerrit's favorite Italian restaurant.

The schnitzel boat

Walking down to the schnitzel boat

On Sunday we headed back down the river to a bridge where couples put locks engraved with their names. Birgit had locks made for all three couples, so we put them on the bridge together and then together threw the keys in the river.

Our love locks

Helsinki, Finland

Fresh berries at the harbor market in Helsinki

Land of reindeer, lakes and bear paté. Olaf and I visited Finland at the end of September. When we left, London was experiencing a slight Indian Summer, but we said adios and took off for the Arctic Circle, where winter was already arriving. 

Finland is surprisingly far from England- three hours northeast. When we landed in Helsinki, all we saw were trees and lakes. 

Flight from London to Helsinki

On Saturday we explored the city by bike. Helsinki is right on the Baltic Sea, so the air was incredibly fresh and crisp. My thin trench coat was embarrassingly inadequate. Most people were wearing parkas already. 

Olaf getting our bikes ready for us.

This is right before we got lost in the industrial part of the city.

The people in Helsinki were extremely relaxed and friendly. Not a whiff of snobbery. It helped that everyone spoke perfect English. It's funny that English is everyone's common currency. We saw Russians, Germans, Spaniards and Italians all speaking English with the Fins. Really cute :)


Olaf's colleague is from Finland and was kind enough to suggest a few restaurants for us to try. The first one served real, traditional Finnish food. Olaf had reindeer and I had fried fishies. Little, head on, fried in a pan, bigger than sardines, smaller than mackerel, fishies. I closed my eyes and swallowed them them head, tail, skin and all. 

After our chilly bike ride, we warmed up with salmon- salmon filet, salmon soup and salmon cakes.

We thought these apartments by the water were awesome. Each was decked out with a glass enclosed balcony, some of which had hammocks for napping. 

Me getting ready to ascend and count the steps. 48, I think.

We had a really nice time in Helsinki. I enjoyed perusing the shops full of Scandinavian design. Some say Finland is not part of Scandinavia, but the aesthetic sure is (for example, the McDonald's was entirely wood paneled inside). The coolest clothes were of Swedish design, like Tiger of Sweden. I really would like to visit Norway soon, which is where Grandma's family is from.

Paris, DSK

In September, Olaf and I went to Paris for a week. Olaf's employer is Paris-based, so he is often there. 

My Grandma Annie has always told me lots of stories about her and Papa's travels. Paris is one of their favorite cities and they have many happy memories from their times there. We walked by Grandma and Papa's hotel everyday, and everyday I would imagine them enjoying the city together, Grandma trying on beautiful dresses and Papa loving the sweet pastries :)

Grandma and Papa's Paris hotel

While walking through Place de Vosgues on the weekend, we stumbled upon a big commotion. We guessed that DSK had gotten released and returned to Paris. We googled, and we were right! Missed him by 8 minutes, exactly. 



Here are our pictures of the paps outside DSK's pad:

And here is the pap's picture of DSK returning to his pad (or to be technical, Anne's pad):

Cornwall

Hello again! I'm back to blogging! Olaf and I had a traveling dry spell for a couple months in the summer, but are now back on the road again.

I had a really wonderful time with my family in July. I was home for about a month, hanging out with my family, taking a law exam and attending a girl friend from law school's Chicago wedding. 

When I returned to London, Olaf was ready for a little break too. The City is empty in August, as all the bankers head to le Midi for the month. We had no summer holidays planned, as we've been saving Olaf's vacation time for trips back to California to spend Christmas and Thanksgiving with my family. Anyhow, we decided to use a Bank Holiday weekend (Monday off)to get out of the city. 


I try to ask English people about their favorite places in England. Multiple people have told me about Cornwall, including my hair stylist Stephen. 


Crack of dawn Saturday morning, Olaf and I picked up our Zipcar in Camden and took off for Cornwall. The trip to southwestern England was green and gorgeous, despite the masses of cars clogging the roads. We made it to Cornwall in about 7 hours. 

The roads were hellishly narrow. Two lane roads that were narrow even for a one lane road. I gotta admit, we grazed a few bushes and had a few birds flipped at us for driving too slow. After a harrowing hour off back country roads, we reached our weekend home, Nansloe Manor.

Nansloe Manor

The drive up to the hotel

Our faithful Zipcar

Happy cow on the manor grounds

 
On Saturday night we were so excited to be out of the city, so after dropping off our bags we headed to the coast. 

Our first stop was The Lizard. It was getting dark so we only walked along the cliffs for about an hour. It was super windy but we were giddy to be outdoors in the fresh air :)

I'm really not sure what language the people were speaking here.

End of the Ski Season in Austria

Olaf and I finished off our first ski season in Austria. We spent a weekend there after going on a business trip to Germany and Austria. The weather was so warm, and the days were longer than they'd been in the winter, so we really enjoyed ourselves every moment.

Next year we are going to have to start off with a big week of lessons- for me especially. While we really came a long way this season, skiing isn't natural for either of us and we need some instruction. Here's to finding a good ski instructor next year!

Liechtenstein

Castle in Vaduz

On Thursday, Olaf had business in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, about 80 minutes away from where we were staying in Zürich. Instead of taking a bus, train and cab to get to Vaduz, we drove a rental car.

Lake in Switzerland, on the way to Liechtenstein

On the drive back

I love love driving in Europe. I love stopping whenever we see something interesting, which we got to do on the way back from Vaduz. Trying to find a post office, we drove off into a picturesque valley in Liechtenstein.

After dropping off our postcards, we hiked to a little castle on a hill in the middle of the valley.





We were trying to find somewhere to eat dinner and ended up driving to the top of massive mountain, into a ski village.

Lake in Switzerland

On the way back, we stopped here for dinner. Olaf had a schnitzel with fries and I had fresh asparagus with shrimp.