Budapest

Arrival into Slovakia and a long wait for the rental car followed by a stop at a Tesco's with coffee and Hungarian pastry outside. YUMMY!

The day started at 2:30 with a drive to Stanstead, a flight to Bratislavia, Slovakia and a drive into Budapest. Needless to say trying the Hungarian coffee was a top priority! And of course, what is coffee without a typical Hungarian pastry to go along with it? After checking into our hotel we went to the race area. We took some photos at the start/finish line before checking in and getting our chips and shirts. Then it was off for some fun and delicious Hungarian food.

We decided the best way to see the most of the city on the short amount of time we had left in the day, we should do the hop on/hop off bus. My favorite part was the Citadel area on top of Gellert Hill. There were fun market stalls to explore and I found my second most favoritest pitcher next to the one Jeff bought for me in Ravello. (See how clever I am honey)

As we were walking back to the hotel, we realized they were blocking off the main drag and we assumed it was for the race in the morning. We were mistaken however and were delighted to come across a piano concert in front of the opera house street side. Nothing like strolling the streets of Pest with live concert piano music.

The next morning we headed to the race to stretch and hydrate. Then we were off.

I didn't take a camera with me but it would have been amazing to do so. We ran down the main drag through Heroes Square and then across chain bridge. We spent the majority of time on both sides of the Danube river running the bank. The last part was to run around the back of Parliament and through the city. It was hot and sunny and just a gorgeous day. What a run. Nothing like crossing the finish line with crowds of strangers cheering you on. I even heard the announcer announce my finish and that this had been my first half. The best part was getting my medal. Love it!

After finishing and turning in our chips, we met up with Sarah and after some photo ops we headed back to clean up and do some sightseeing, shopping, and more eating! We continued our hop on hop off tour until we found where we wanted to eat and shop.

Then we boarded a boat for a sunset cruise on the Danube. It was beautiful. And warm.

After the cruise we went back to get some dessert and coffee and rode the metro. It is really clean and beautifully old looking. Gerry and I were exhausted and not looking forward to our early morning drive back to Slovakia.

A quick stop at McDonalds for coffee helped in the morning.

Spring Break in Scotland

This year we went to Scotland for spring break. I will give everyone ONE guess who had this brilliant idea! Nonetheless, the boys and I decided to make the best of our time and had a pretty good time in a really beautiful country. Day 1: Drive to Scotland and get settled in our ENORMOUS beach house in Elie Scotland. We rented this house with 10 other adults. We took turns cooking and so every night was a new culinary treat! What was even better was this view of the beach every evening from our room.

Day 2: St. Andrews: After a bit of geo caching, we basically hiked through the old town of St. Andrews. It is a really gorgeous town right on the water and there is even a beach. For some reason I didn't picture this as a costal town. We hiked out all the way on the pier and ran into a young man who bore a striking resemblence to Harry Potter in his robes doing the same. He was a student at St. Andrews University and this is apparently a tradition to walk the pier on Sunday after their lunch. The boys had a fun time running all about.

We finally met up with Jeff later in the afternoon for lunch and hanging out on the old course. I was incredibly surprised to learn the old course is a public course, is closed on Sunday, and is open to the public on Sunday. There were folks having picnics right on the course, dogs and all. So we spent a bit of time putting around and letting the kids have the experience of playing golf on the old course for free! We even took pictures on the famous bridge which has a name which completely escapes me as I write this. I'll have to have Jeff remind me.

Day 3: The ONLY day Jeff didn't play golf we decided to head into Edinburgh. I love this city, it has truly become one of my favorites. As we've been here before we decided to just shop on the high street and on the royal mile. I wanted to have the cheesy Scottish dress photo taken as well. Just too much fun to pass up the opportunity this time. We had a good day and headed back to hang out with the folks back at the house.

Day 4: Stirling Castle: We went with all the ladies to visit Sterling Castle. It is involved with the Braveheart legend. There was an amazing statue of William the Bruce. The castle itself was pretty cool. The old town was really lovely as well. Jackson and Colton werent' really keen on the tour so mommy took them out for some ice cream. As you can tell it was the best part of the day! After the castle tour we looked around the old town and went as far as the prison. Fun day with the ladies.

Day 5: St. Andrews again and rest!

Day 6: Balmoral and the Highlands:

On the way home we decided to pass by Menwith Hill which is near the lovely old town of Harrogate. It was a fun visit actually. Jeff called a buddy who hooked us up with a room and met us with his family for dinner. Turns out he used to work at Double Daves and so he sent us home the next day with pepperoni rolls

Girls Weekend in Italy

Our OCSC tours coordinator has done a great job of creating some really great adventures for us this year. This past month we went to Italy for a girls fun weekend of pottery, wine and pasta! After a dicey start with one of our rental cars overheating and hours spent in the airport with the local police helping us out, we had the first of many amazing late dinners. Day one we headed to Nove, Italy for pottery shopping. I loved Nove as everything was already marked for places like Tiffany's and Williams Sonoma and you can buy it for tons less than you would get it in the states. We shopped all morning then had a great lunch, as if there would be any other in Italy, shopped a bit more in the afternoon and collected our packages before heading to the Vicenza post office to MPS it all home. I kind of felt sorry for the post folks as 18 women descended upon them with 50+ huge boxes. I found some real treasurers including my ginormous rooster for my eventual large kitchen. I got a ton of great pieces and it was really fun when my two enormous boxes arrived at home!

On Day 2 we went to Venice. I adore Venice. I can't understand how anyone cannot like this incredible city. We started the day along the grand canal and San Marcos square. This time around we decided to head into the cathedral as I had not done this on a previous trip. We saw the tomb of St. Mark and enjoyed the view before heading down the many side streets shopping all the way to the Rialto bridge. Of course, we took a gondola ride along the way and our gondalier was named....wait for it....Fabio! And Fabio was Fabulous!

After another amazing dinner we had to head home.

The final day we visited Verona. I had not previously been to Verona and was pleasantly surprised to find almost everything open on a Sunday. We had tons of fun sightseeing at Juliet's balcony, shopping and eating gelato not once but twice, and had an amazing lunch of gnocci gorgonzola and wine. I love Italy!