Provence, France

Oh man - it has been awhile and I have a bunch of trips to share! I'll try to be brief (probably likely because I won't remember everything!)

We went to Provence at the beginning of May for the long Bank Holiday weekend and it was beautiful! We stayed in Aix-en-Provence and then drove around the area to explore.

My first pic is of the center of Aix and its famous fountain...

On our first day, we did some walking around the town and just enjoyed the town and it's cute little streets. This is a shot of Quartier Mazarin.

The Cours Mirabeau is the main street lined with trees and restaurants and cafes, once frequented by the city's main claim to fame - Cezanne, the famous french artist who lived in Aix,

I have to admit, I wanted to go to Provence to see the blooming Lavender but it wasn't quite in bloom.  We still spent the day on Sunday driving around and had a picnic lunch on the river at the Pont du Gard.  It was amazing!  Here is a picnic, purchased from a gas station!!  Bread, cheese and meat - so French!

Here is Chad enjoying the picnic!

The next few photos are pics of the actual Pont du Gard - or "Bridge of the river (Gard)".  It is an old aqueduct built about 2000 years ago without any use of mortar!  It was so beautiful and I'm so glad we made the drive to check it out!

Walking across the bridge.

After a little more driving and thinking we were lost, we went to walk around the little town of Roussillon.   It is a hilltop town surrounded by these amazing red cliffs.  Again, very picturesque!

Pretty cliffs!

The actual town.

The rest are of our touring of the little streets in town. 

So I had to include a picture of a roundabout because we had to have driven through a million of them during the course of our 2 and half day trip!

And also, our trusty GPS helped us get from point A to point B (and everywhere in between!)

So that was our mini-break in Provence!  Next up - Greece!

Holiday in Spain

We took the advice of Adam Duritz and the Counting Crows and did a "Holiday in Spain" and it was worth it!  Viva Espana!

We decided to not do a big city and stayed in Marbella on the Costa del Sol.  Marbella is on the Mediterranean and is a laid back tourist town.  We stayed in a little botique hotel called the Villa Marbella which is run by a Brazilian named Marco.  It was in the old town and perfect for our long weekend getaway!

Here is Chad in the breakfast and common area in the main building (we stayed in another building a few doors down).  

Lately, we've been pretty bad about planning our trips in advance and have just gone with it when we get where we're going!  This was the case for Marbella.  We needed a break from a busy time at work and enjoyed having some good meals, enjoying the warm weather, and checking out the towns.  On day one, we tasted some great tapas and did some walking along the sea side.

Chad on the rocks!

The photo is deceiving because as sunny and beautiful as it looks, these sun bathers were brave soles!  It was a little too windy and chilly for us but still pretty in the sunshine!

Another beach shot with the Spanish flag.

The cute Villa Marbella!  It was a great place because they were so helpful.  Marco gave us great directions of what we should do on our second day because we rented a car.  We took a trip up into the mountains to see the town of Ronda and the white villages.

Here I am along the way up to Ronda overlooking the beautiful scenery!  Oh and I just got my hair chopped off!  It's already grow a lot!

Ronda is an old city that is built on some amazing cliffs.  We took tons of photos from different spots all over the city.    These better be worth it because we paid a few Eruos a piece to enter this garden and view point!

Talk about serious photography - Chad is catching on and learning how to take a good photo.  I had to capture the moment and catch him in action.  I might add that it was extremely windy and a little scary to be standing where he was next to the cliff.  Obviously, he didn't trust me out there!

Here is a neat one of the main bridge in town, Puente Nuevo, which means New Bridge.  It's not so new though because it was built in the 1700's! 

And here is a look out over the cliffs from the Puente Nuevo.

We also went to visit the bullring, which is the oldest in Spain and is still used today.  There were no bulls there when we went to visit and I liked it that way!  It was pretty impressive!

View from the second level!

After our funfilled day in Ronda, we headed back down the curvy roads towards Marbella and stopped along the way to see the many beautiful white villages along the way.

On thing that I didn't get a good photo of is the parades that they have 

And to round it all out, we had to have a dinner of paella (duh!)  It was very good and I was able to indulge - they actually had some without prawns!

So that was our Easter weekend in Spain!  Good times yet again!  Adios! xoxox

March Madness

Ok - so it's been AGES since I've updated  the blog.  Long story short, we've been super busy with work!  So yes - it was March Madness with work and Chad trying to watch as much of the tournament as possible (and staying up until 2 am to watch some games)but we managed to fit in some fun!  Here is my March update and I'll follow up with some April highlights!  

My friend that I used to work with at KPMG in Columbus, Karen came to visit for a couple weekends while she was in town work.  We had so much fun with her here and got to see some sites in and outside of London!

So Karen loves London and spent some time studying here in college.  She knows so much about the city and the country - way more than me and I've lived here for a year and a half!  Anyway, her first weekend here, we walked around our neighborhood and of course, the Borough Market!

We had some great weather and it was fun for us to have a visitor!  

The next weekend, we did a day trip to the coast.  We spent the day in Brighton; it was a good to see another part of England.  The weather was nice to walk around but too cold to get in the water!  Here is a photo I took along the beach.

And another of Karen and I with the Pier in the background!

Oh - and here is a close up of the beach - no sand just rocks!!  Ouch!

The Brighton Pier is the place to been in town - there are several places to pick up a bite to eat and there is a carnival at the end.  Might I add that it freaked me out a bit because the rides are so close to the edge of the pier.  Check out the merry-go-round!

Thanks for coming to see us Karen - it was so fun!

We also had a wonderful dinner a the Fat Duck, a world famous restaurant outside of London.  We went there with a few of Chad's friends from work and it was amazing!  It was an interesting experience to say the least.  We did the tasting menu and they have you try all this interesting food and they use special techniques to make their food.  Here are a few pics of what we tried (oh and you can't use your flash so the photos aren't all that great)...

They use all your senses when you eat - you try different smells, tastes, and even listen to the sounds of the ocean when you are eating one of the courses.  It's also visually beautiful food!  The one above was a moss board that they covered in dry ice to create an effect.

So this is a dish they are famous for - snail porridge!  It sounds all wrong but it was really good!

This was a pretty desert that had sorbet and also a douglas fir and and mango puree.

This is also another famous dish - it's called Nitro-scrambled egg and bacon ice cream on a piece of caramelized bread and tea jelly on the side.  Again, it sounds so weird but it was yummy!

And here is the group photo - we were the last table to leave that night so they let us finally use the flash!

Prague, Czech Republic

It's been a few weeks, and I'm just getting to this post! Chad and I went to Prague for the away for our first away weekend in a long time at the beginning of March. We broke away from London and busy season to see a new place and relax!

It was a great weekend! It was still pretty cold there but we stayed warm by just keeping on the move. We didn't do too much but we able to just walk around the city and enjoy the sights. The city is very old and the architecture is beautiful so we did a lot of roaming. Plus, I got a new camera for Christmas, so we tried to take lots of photos. I won't bore you with all the details but have a lot of pictures to share....

This is a photo on Charles Bridge. It's the oldest and most famous bridge in Prague which crosses over the Vltana river. It's probably the busiest tourist area in Prague - there are a lot of people and vendors along the way. It's beautiful because it has statues all along both sides of the bridge. We stayed on one side of the bridge near Prague Castle and the main square and city area was across the bridge.

This next one is of St. Vitus Cathedral which is part of Prague Castle. It's very big and very Gothic! We didn't make it inside but admired it from the outside.

Here is another neat building in the castle grounds across from the Cathedral that I liked! The color was so bright and I thought it was pretty!

Here I am from the Castle grounds with a view of the city in the background.

Here is a neat one of the Charles Bridge that we took on our way up to it. They were doing some construction on it while we were there - you can see some scaffolding on the side. Still pretty though!

Here is Chad intensely studying our travel book in the Old Town Square. This is another place in Prague where the tourists congregate to see more architecture and relax in the cafes.

This is another cool photo of the bridge from the street level right below it. Chad actually took this picture because on the other side of this building, the shopkeepers painted a line to show where water had risen during the floods of 2002. There were really bad floods and the water came up to above the brown shutters on this shop!

Here are a couple more bridge photos we took near the shop.

And yet another black and white and view of the bridge from the 0ther side!

Here we are back at the Old Town and this is of the astronomical clock on the side of the City Hall.

We had a little traditional treat in the square called "Trdelnik". It's a sweet pastry that they roll around a round wooden rod and then grill over heat then top with nuts and sugar! Pretty good stuff - Chad is below digging in!

So that was our short trip to Prague! A beautiful city!

We've got a few more trips in the works and are looking forward to enjoying the warmer weather! I also need to get some pics up of the past few weekends - my friend Karen from Columbus has been in town for work and we've had a couple fun weekends!

xoxox