Pilsen Liberation Fest

Every year in Pilsen, Czech Republic there is a liberation fest.  It celebrates the liberation of Pilsen by the soldiers of the 2nd Cavalry during WWII.  To learn more about the yearly fest check out this link http://www.liberationfestival.com/ .   Since this is Shayne's unit we decided to go with a group of friends.  It's a quick hour and a half drive from our house to Pilsen.  Pilsen is also the home to the famous Pilsner Urquell brewery so its guaranteed good drinks!  We picked up Mike and Lena Saturday morning in Weiden and then headed on our way to Czech!  After checking into our hotel we stopped by the Pilsner Urquell brewery to see if there was anything going on there.  They had a small band playing and some people hanging around but we decided to make our way into the city center to see what else was going on.  Pilsen is a relatively small city and very walkable so to was easy to get around from our hotel without having to drive anywhere.  As we got close we saw some static displays set up reenacting war time conditions.  There was a British WWI camp set up as well as an Afghanistan camp trying to display the current conditions.  As we headed further into the city we found lots of people dressed in US military gear.  The uniforms they were wearing were from many different decades.  They all seemed so excited to be wearing them and to celebrate the liberation day.  It was really cool to see how much of an impact US troops made on this city.  We enjoyed some beers and walked around for a while.  When we were in the main city platz there was a ceremony that began.  They were awarding a scholarship in George S. Patton's name and this was the first year that someone from the Czech Republic had won so it was a pretty big deal to them.  When they were announcing the names of the distinguished guests we heard them say that one of Patton's grandsons were there for ceremony.  For my armor officer husband this was pretty cool.  After watching the ceremony we continued to walk around and then ended up over by the side of the stage where everyone was standing.  We decided we were going to try to talk to Mr. Waters, Patton's grandson.  So after following him around from person to person for a little bit we finally got up to him.  When Shayne introduced himself and told him that he was part of the 2nd Cavalry and he gave Shayne a coin!  Coins are really popular in the military as a token of appreciation and recognition.  Shayne has a collection of coins already from different things he has done, but this is by far the most unique one he ever received.  He even got to take a picture with him.

After that we tried to find a spot to watch the incoming parade.  There were lots of old military vehicles driving into the main platz with veterans riding inside.  

It was so wonderful to see the veterans who had made such an impact in this cities' history coming back for his weekend celebration.  Unfortunately, the number of veterans that are able to make the trip each year dwindles but seeing the dedication of the ones who still do make the cross continental trip is heart warming.  After we looked at some of the vehicles it started to rain so we headed into a little cafe to wait out the storm.  It was nice to sit inside and chat with everyone for a bit before we headed out and found someplace nice for dinner.  We ended up a steakhouse and I had a burger, which was something I don't think I had eaten, besides at home, since I moved to Germany.  And it was actually pretty good!  After dinner we all headed back to the hotel and left early the next morning, after enjoying a great European breakfast of meats, cheeses, and breads of course!

Spring Break with Meghan

Better late than never…I guess that should be the theme of my blog!  We were so lucky to have our first visitor back in April!  Meghan came on her spring break and we picked her up on our way home from Garmisch.  I was so excited to see her!  It was also nice because my spring break wasn’t until the following week so this gave me 2 weeks off!  We picked her up in Nuremberg and then headed back to home!  Poor Shayne had to listen to her catching me up on all of the happenings back home the whole car ride back.  We ended up ordering pizza that night and chatting for a while before calling it an early night.  On Monday I took Meghan to Amberg, which is a bigger town about 20 minutes from our house.  Unfortunately, not only are pretty much everywhere in Germany closed on Sundays, but a lot of them are closed Mondays too!  I wanted to take her up to this beautiful church up on the hill in Amberg that has an incredible view of the city and a great little restaurant nearby too.  We got up there and soon realized that the restaurant was closed, and then when we got up to the church that was closed too!  I thought churches were always supposed to be open!?  At least we got to enjoy the view and take a few pictures. 

We then headed back down the hill in into the stadtmitte (city center).  We found a place to park and walked around for a while.  Amberg is a pretty city with lots of shopping so we just walked up and down the streets, enjoyed some Germany pastries and the nice weather!  After walking around for a while we headed back to the house to plan for dinner.  We decided to grill out that night so we went to pick up some things and then pick up Shayne from work.  Meghan got to enjoy her first German beer (in Germany) while we hung out on our balcony and planned for the rest of our week.

 The next day we headed down to Munich to meet up with another fabulous Parklawn lady, Francis.  We started out the day at the Olympic Stadium in Munich where Meghan and I took a tour.  Unfortunately, the tour was supposed to be in English and German. For every German paragraph the guide said he gave us one sentence of English.  It was neat to see and tour the stadium.  We met up with Francis after the tour.  We were really excited to use the zipline called the Flying Fox, but that was yet another disappointment when we found out it wasn't open.  Unfortunately the day started out less than perfect but we definitely made up for it.

  We then headed into the city to the Hofbrauhaus, the famous German beer hall in Munich.  We again enjoyed some traditional German beverages along with some great food.  It was great to catch up with everyone and enjoy a historic German landmark.  Although it is a super touristy place it was really fun.  After we ate we walked around the city a bit visiting the gardens and enjoying the sites.  We then said farewell to Francis and began the trek home, stopping at McDonald's on the way to show Meghan how much better it is in Europe.  It was there that she got to experience her first language barrier issue.  While ordering she was VERY explicit about telling them that she would like NO cheese on her burger.  The woman asked about the other condiments and she said those were fine and repeated NO CHEESE back and forth a few times.  Well, when the food came Meghan had a burger with ONLY cheese, ha!

On Wednesday we hit the road again to Prague!  Prague is a great city that I have visited 3 times before that I actually know how to get there without a GPS.  Pretty impressive for me if you know me, I am directionally challeged.  I was thinking since it was a Wednesday it shouldn't be too busy there, but I was wrong. Every other time I had gone to Prague I had parked in the same parking lot that was guarded.  In Prague, I've been told, you need to be careful with SUVs because they get stolen a lot.  So when we got to my parking lot (yes, it is MY parking lot) and it was full and I became a bit nervous.  We kept driving up the hill and were not lucky enough to find another parking lot.  At the top of the big hill there were some metered parking and since I didn't know anywhere else to go we just crossed our fingers and parked there.  We then were able to start our walking tour of Prague.  

We headed up to the castle where there was a big ceremony. There is a changing of the guard every hour but this was much larger. Never the less, we continued on to the castle.  After the castle we headed across the bridge and into the Old Town.  When we got there we visited the Easter Market.  I love all of the different markets throughout the year and the Easter one was no exception.  We both bought a few Prague Easter eggs for decorations, which are hollowed out, painted beautifully, and have a string attached to the top to hang.  We enjoyed some great fest-food and walked around and bought a few things.  After, we went over to the astronomical clock to watch it at the top of the hour.  We were able to cross the beautiful Charles Bridge, a pedestrian bridge which always has vendors.  When we made it back to the city center we stopped at Starbucks and then started our trek back up the big hill to the car.  The whole way up there I was PRAYING that the car was still there.  Believe me that would not have been a fun phone call to my husband telling him the car was stolen in Prague!  Luckily it was still there but that hike up the hill was MISERABLE.  By that point it was a bit warmer so that did not make it any better.  We were both pooped when we made it to the car but it was nice to finally sit down and start the drive back.  When we got back we picked up Shayne and headed to one of our favorite Italian restaurants in Amberg, Trattoria Rustica.  We love this little Italian restaurant because the pizza there is just like the pizza in Naples.  The owners are Italian so it makes sense.  The pizza is thin and delicious.  The type of pizza you really need a fork and knife to eat.

Thursday was Meghan's last full day in Germany and I was already getting sad about seeing her go.  We took the train down to Nurnberg to do some more Bavarian site seeing.  There are always great vendors out on the streets in Nurnberg so I love going there.  We found a store called Nanu Nana that I had always just walked by, but for some reason we decided to go in.  It is the BEST store ever!  They have tons of great crafty things for the home.  I could spend all day shopping there!  That day I tried to keep it low key so I only got a small vase, a canvas, and some paint.  (Sidenote:  I used the canvas to do a pinterest project using painters tape and it came out really well.)  We walked down to the center of the city and visited the Easter market.  It was definitely not as great as Prague but it was neat to see.  We then stopped for lunch and enjoyed some traditional Nurnberger Sausages!  Our plan was to go to see the castle which is up on the hill, but after our trek up the hill the day before we decided to forgo the castle and we just walked around some more before heading back on the train.  That night we took Meghan to another one of our favorite restaurants, Sai Nam, which is a Thai restaurant in Freihung.  I'm sure you are wondering why a German restaurant isn't one of our favorites, but there is nothing great about schnitzel, believe me!  The owner of Sai Nam is the best and she remembers us each time we go so its a great place to visit, and she gives us free Mai Tai shots!

The next morning Meghan and I got up bright and early to drive back to Nurnberg so she could catch her flight.  I was so sad to see her go, but cannot wait to go to Virginia this summer to see her!  It meant so much to us to have our first friend come out to visit us and be able to show her around.  And just think, if you come to visit us you too could have a blog post all about you!  

Tschüss!

Garmisch and Neuschwanstein

Two weeks after our trip to Chodovar we headed to Garmisch for another weekend away.  This had actually been planned before our previous trip to be another relaxing weekend!  We left early Saturday morning and began our 3 and a half hour drive down to the Alps.  Garmisch is so beautiful I could honestly go every weekend.   The town is nestled right in the Bavarian Alps and the views are just breathtaking.  This was our second trip to Garmisch.  The first time we had gone hiking with some friends back in the fall.  For this trip we decided to stay at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, which is military owned.  I personally really enjoy staying in European hotels and truly getting to experience the culture, but Edelweiss was gorgeous.  The hotel is so nice and it was truly like a little piece of America from all of the amenities, to the décor, and even the food.  After we checked in we went down to grab lunch 10 minutes before the buffet closed.  Obviously this was not the best idea because a lot of the food was already gone but it was the quickest option for us.  It was an American type buffet with some German influences to include some brats.  After we had lunch we went back up to our room for a bit to rest.  Long distance driving (even just over 3 hours) always makes me tired!  To make this a truly relaxing weekend we had scheduled a couple’s massage for the afternoon.  I had never had 2 massages in the same month before but I could definitely get used to the frequency!  We both enjoyed an hour massage with views of the Alps out the window.  This massage was a lot more like what I had been used to back in the states and while it was great, we both agreed we liked the ones in Chodovar better.

After our massage we decided to head into the center of the town and walk around a bit.  By this time it was a little after 5pm and even though Garmisch is a pretty touristy place pretty much all of the stores were closed.  It was a really nice evening so we walked around for a while and then sat down at an outdoor café and had some drinks.  We had made reservations for 7pm at an Indian place that was highly recommended on Tripadvisor.com so it was nice to waste sometime outside and people watch a bit.  Lots of people were walking around with their dogs.  Germany is so dog friendly it is great.  I wish we could have brought Rocco with us but unfortunately Edelweiss doesn’t allow pets.  The hotel we had stayed at the first time we came to Garmisch did allow dogs and we brought him with us, even though he spent most of his time in the hotel room.  We left the café a little before 7 and walked to the restaurant for dinner.  We both really enjoy Indian food so whenever we go away somewhere and find an Indian place we like to try it.  We ordered some naan with cheese and I had butter chicken, my usual.  Even though I was really explicit about the fact that I was allergic to sesame seeds the naan came out with small black seeds on them.  They didn’t really look like sesame seeds so I decided to just brush them off.  The first piece was find, but after the second piece I realized even though I had brushed off the seeds I was still having a reaction.  Oops!  Luckily it wasn’t a bad one, but we still left the restaurant quickly just so I could get medicine if needed.  My throat started to feel better about an hour later so we headed down to the restaurant in the hotel and had a drink to finish off the night.  I had a nice frozen margarita which I hadn’t had in forever since that’s not really a typical German drink!  We ended up calling it a night after that and after planning our day for Sunday went to bed.

 We woke up Sunday morning and got ready to check out of the hotel.  After leaving there we went and found gas on post in Garmisch and we were on our way!  We were going somewhere that I had always wanted to go since arriving in Germany and I was so excited!  About an hour away from Garmisch in Schwangau, Germany is Neuschwanstein Castle (pronounced New-shwan-stine) which is known as the inspiration for the Disney castle!  We decided to take the way through Austria and through the Alps a bit.  While in Austria we were driving right by huge mountains and saw a lot of people skiing.  We had reserved a 1:00pm tour of the castle so after parking we walked up to the ticket office only to see a huge line!  Luckily since we had reserved our tickets online we were able to go right up to a desk and get our tickets.  I definitely recommend that for anyone ever visiting the castle.  I noticed that there was an English tour starting at 12:40 so I asked if we could switch to that and luckily they let us.  The only downside about booking the tour online was that it didn’t tell me when the English tour was.  From the ticket place up to the castle you have 3 options to get there.  You can pay a few euro for a bus ride, pay a few more euro for a horse and carriage ride, or walk it.  They said the walk was about 45 minutes and since we had about an hour before the tour started we chose to walk it.  It took us only about 20 minutes so we had some time up at the top to enjoy the view and take some pictures.

Unfortunately the castle is under construction until 2014 so there is scaffolding all over the exterior, which doesn’t make for the best pictures!  They have tours starting every 5 minutes and it is an incredible system they have going up there.  So we just enjoyed being at the castle while we waited for our tour to begin.

The castle was ordered to be built by King Ludwig II.  The design and interior decorating was all inspired by the composer Richard Wagner.  So a lot of the paintings on the wall depict Wagner’s pieces.  King Ludwig moved in prior to the completion of the castle, but he only lived there for 172 days.  It is said that King Ludwig was in his bed chamber in Neuschwanstein when he was told that people believed he was insane and not fit to rule.  He left Neuschwanstein that day and was found dead the next day.  It is still unknown how he died.  Unfortunately, after his death construction on the castle stopped, but it was opened to the public.  During the tour we were able to see most of the rooms that had been completed.  We saw the servant quarters, throne room, bed chambers, a secret room, and the ballroom.  They don’t let you take pictures in the castle which I think is a ridiculous rule, but believe me if you try to take a picture they get mad at you…I speak from experience!  The throne room was absolutely incredible.  All adorned in gold, but there was never a throne in it because the castle was never finished.  Another breathtaking room was his bed chamber.  Everything was hand carved out of wood.  The top of his canopy type bed had over 70 carved steeples.  It was very impressive.  Along with a devotion to Wagner’s works, the castle has a lot of swans throughout it.  (Hence the name!)  There was one room that had over 100 swans in the wood carving and paintings and even the door knob.  After the tour we visited the gift shop and purchased a beer mug with the Bavarian flag on it and some post cards.  The castle was definitely worth the trip!  When we left Neuschwanstein we headed back up to Nuremberg to pick up Meghan who was flying in for a visit!  More on that later!!

Chodovar Beer Spa

A few weeks back we were able to take a trip to a small town in the Czech Republic called Chodovar.  I had found out about it online and its known for its family brewery and beer spa.  The week prior to us going was extremely crazy so it was a much needed trip!  Let's back track a bit...On Monday morning I drove a friend's father to the airport, luckily I didn't have to work that day so I could relax a bit during the day.  That night we went out to celebrate the same friend's birthday!  Tuesday I substituted in a wonderful 2nd grade classroom and then had an FRG leaders and POC meeting that night.  Wednesday I shadowed the teacher I took over for maternity leave to meet the kiddos and that night we had Hail and Farewell that we needed to go to.  Thursday was Shayne's company's BBQ so I was up early that morning making two large pans of my Aunt Jan's chicken ceasar tortellini salad (which had become my go to for events and is always a huge hit!) and 3 dozen regular and 4 dozen mini chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes.  By the time I finally finished and got there it was around noon but it was a beautiful day and all of the families had a great time.  That night we went out to dinner with friends to a great chinese buffet in Weiden.  So needless to say we were both VERY ready for a nice relaxing weekend!

It was a quick hour and fifteen minute drive to the quaint little town.  We got there around 10:30 and went right to our hotel.  The hotel we stayed at was connected to the spa and right down the street from the brewery and restaurant.  I've begun to realize that Europeans really don't like it when you arrive prior to check in time at the hotel.  Luckily they had a room ready for us and we checked right in.  We had reservations for the spa later in the afternoon so after relaxing in the room for a bit we decided to go explore.  First we headed down to the restaurant for lunch.  It was a really cool place because it was built into a hill, so you were under ground the whole time.  You walked through a rock enclosed tunnel to get to the restaurant.

After sitting we ordered some food and beer and enjoyed our lunch.  We both really enjoy Czech food.  It is more flavorful than German but still has a heavy emphasis on meat.  We had some time before our planned events so we walked back to the hotel room for a bit.  We noticed there was a minibar with some beer and water, both produced at the brewery down the street.  When I looked at the price I saw each beer was 20 Czech Koruna.  For those of you not familiar with the Czech currency (because honestly who would be unless you lived in the Czech or close by!) their currency does not hold a lot of value in comparison to ours and the euro.  So 20 Koruna is the equivalent of $1.06.  With that being said we definitely took advantage of the minibar!  At 2pm there was a tour of the brewery so we headed back down to the restaurant, bought our tickets, and waited.  Obviously they knew we did not speak Czech (it is a very hard language, similar to Russian and I don't even know how to say hello) so when the tour guide came out to start the tour she handed us a sheet of paper that told all about the brewery.  So as we went to each stop we read our packet while she talked.  Having been to a lot of breweries now, both in the states and in Europe we've seen a lot of the things that were on the tour but unfortunately couldn't understand any of the jokes she told or any of the questions asked.  So I probably wouldn't recommend the tour to non Czech speaking people.

After the tour it was time for our spa services!  It was called the "Beerrarium".



We walked over to the spa and were given a white sheet (like a top sheet for bedding) and were told to undress and put that on.  Once we were ready we went for our beer bath!  We got into a large metal tub that was filled with beer and relaxed for 20 minutes.  They also gave us a beer to drink while we were enjoying our bath.   When our time was up the woman opened the curtains grabbed the first sheet and held it up in front of her face.  We quickly gathered that we were to get out of the bath and be wrapped in our sheet.  They then led us to our "relaxation room" where we were wrapped in a fleece blanket, given another beer, and listened to calming music for 20 minutes.  After being wrapped up with was quite difficult to try and drink you beer without completely undoing your burrito wrapped blanket.  I'm pretty sure we spent more time laughing than actually relaxing but it was still great.  When we left there it was time for our massages!  This was Shayne's first massage, but it was a bit different than ones I had back in the states!  I was always used to being shown into a room being told to undress and get under the blanket and then the masseuse would come back in and begin the massage.  Not in Europe!  We were still wrapped in our white sheets at this point.  The area for massages was a long, large room that had curtain dividers up around each massage table.  We were told which table to each go to and once we got inside the curtains we were told to put our sheet on the chair and get on the table.  I guess you would say Europeans are very free with their bodies!  In the end it was actually one of the best massages I have ever had!  After they finished the massage they wrapped us up in blankets again and left us for some more relaxation time.  This time I almost fell asleep.  When we left the spa we headed back to our hotel room to relax for a bit before dinner.  We went to the same place for dinner that we did for lunch. It was great traditional Czech food.  We started off by sharing a bread and cheese plate.  Everywhere in Europe has had great cheeses and here was no exception!  After we finished that we both weren't that hungry anymore so we just shared a meal that had meat, pickled red and white cabbage, and potato dumpling balls.  I had never really had cabbage before but this was really good!  And the dumplings were very heavy and dense but great also.  The town we were in was very small and there wasn't much else to do so we ended up heading back to our room after dinner.  Unfortunately there were no English channels on our tv in our room so we watched some winter sport games in German.

The next morning we woke up and headed to breakfast.  As I'm sure I've said before, I always enjoy European breakfasts.  This one was no different.  There was a selection of meats and cheeses as well as breads and pastries.  I usually always look forward to a piece of baguette with some Nutella, but we were visiting during Lent and I had given up chocolate so I had to go with something else.  After breakfast we did a little shopping at the little store next to the hotel, buying a glass, some beer, and a magnet that had the brewery mascot on it, a yellow lab!

Since there was nothing really to do in the area we decided to just head home.  So we left, went and picked up our furry friend who was staying with friends and finished up our weekend!  This is something that I definitely would love to do again.  And it was so affordable!  For the one night of hotel, beer bath for 2, and 2 massages it was $183!  We lunch, dinner, beer, and souvenirs we ended up spending around $250 total.  That was a great weekend get away!  Anyone who comes to visit, if you would like to take a trip there we are always willing to go back!!

Sbohem!

Rome...our Italian Honeymoon Part 2

Sorry for the delay in posting this!  I'm already failing at my New Year's Resolution to get better at this blogging thing.  Probably because there are so many things I want to write about and feel overwhelmed getting started!  But I'm going to try and get some done today and tomorrow for your reading enjoyment. :)

So we arrived in Rome on the early evening of December 28.  I had been stressing out quite a bit about our hotel situation because our hotel kept getting changed by our travel agency due to overbooking with our hotel changing the day before Christmas Eve for the 4th time!  When we arrived to our hotel and checked in and then went up to our room.  Upon opening the door I was not pleased with the fact that we had been given 2 twin sized beds.  So I went and told them that we needed our room changed and although he said there were no more rooms available I was given a new set of keys.  Our new room was a bit more acceptable, but not perfect due to the paper thin walls!  But we had plans to do so much that it didn't even matter.  So off we went to begin our Rome exploration!

Having lived outside of D.C. for a few years has made us very comfortable using public transportation, trains especially.  So we headed to the main station that was a 5 minute walk from our hotel and headed towards the Colosseum!  I thought the metro stops in D.C. were close together but in Rome you can pretty much walk 2 stops in 10 minutes, which is sometimes quicker than waiting for the train.  When we walked out of the train station the Colosseum was literally right in front of us.  It was neat to get to see it at night because it is all lit up on the inside.

We walked around and took in the incredible sites, trying to find the perfect picture spot to get the whole Colosseum in the picture.
You can't go in at night so we continued our night tour and went to see the Arch of Constantine and then proceeded down towards the ruins of the Forum.
It was so incredible to see everything at night because it was all lit up so beautifully.

The next day we decided to go to Vatican City to see everything there.  That was something that I personally was very excited to be able to see.  When we got off the train and started walking toward Vatican City there were a lot of tour guides telling us the lines were an hour and a half long and they could get us to cut the line if we took their tour.

We decided to go and check it out for ourselves and upon first look the line was ridiculously long.  I was a bit discouraged at first, but we decided to get in the line for St. Peter's Basilica.  Although the line was wrapped all the way around the main square it only took us 30 minutes to get in through security and into the basilica.  The breathtaking views inside were just so incredible that pictures can barely do it any justice.  It was amazing to just be able to walk around and take it all in.


We were even able to get some holy water from there to take home.  After we left there we went to find tickets for the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel.  We were able to buy tickets to skip the line for this, but since our tickets weren't for another hour we decided to go grab something to eat.  We went to a little deli type restaurant right across the street from the entrance to the museum.  Now everyone knows that when there are no prices on something its usually expensive, but this was a deli!  We asked for a menu but the waiter told us it was buffet style so we went up and looked at what we wanted in the cases, told him, and he brought it to us.  Since we weren't very hungry we decided to share a prosciutto panini (my husband's favorite!) and we each got an ice tea.  It was pretty good, not the best we had tried since being in Italy, but it served its purpose.  Since it's pretty much a sin not to get dessert with every meal in Italy I picked a canoli and we shared that as well.  So for 2 drinks, a panini, and a canolli we were not expecting a 30-something euro bill!  To help with that conversion 30 euro is about 40 US dollars!  Needless to say we learned our lesson to check for prices and not to eat in touristy areas.  We then proceeded into the museum.


We started by walking through the Vatican gardens and then went back inside to see the museum.
The museum is very well set up and it flows very easily from one section to the next.  There was a lot of ancient Greek and Roman statues, which were a lot like what we had seen in Naples, but the artwork and tapestries were just incredible.  About 3/4 of the way through the museum we realized that our camera was about to die :( and unfortunately the Sistine Chapel was at the very end.  So by the time we made it there the camera was dead so we have no pictures of the Sistine Chapel.  It technically says no pictures are to be taken in the chapel, but everyone was doing it.  Everything in the Sistine Chapel was gorgeous, but it wasn't anything overly surprising because I had seen pictures before.  After we left Vatican City we headed back to our hotel to plan for the night!

We decided to go to the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon for the night.  So we started walking and first passed this fountain.  Luckily Shayne has a great camera on his iPhone so we were able to use that for the rest of our trip since someone (oops! me!) forgot to pack the charger for the camera!  We continued walking and could soon hear the sounds of the fountain.  It was pretty packed with people but we were able to find a good spot to take pictures.  We had just turned around to do our own picture of the two of us when a guy offered to do it for us.  After he began to tell us poses to do I realized that he wasn't just some nice guy offering to take our picture!  He gave Shayne the phone back and then wanted to take a picture of us with his Polaroid for a few euro.  After repeatedly telling him we were all set, we were finally able to go and throw our pennies into the fountain!  Being there was so magical!

 It was such a romantic location and we enjoyed just sitting there for a few minutes taking it all in.  After we spent some time there we went to a place for dinner that we had found in tripadvisor.com.  I really wanted some good Italian pasta so I was excited about going there!  We started out by having some bruschetta and prosciutto with melted cheese.  Both were delicious!  

For dinner Shayne got pasta carbonara

and I had fruti del mar.Both were incredible.  I was having a craving for gelato so we skipped dessert at the restaurant and headed towards the Pantheon. 

It was in a really nice square area with another fountain, and a gelato shop!  I had heard there was an incredible gelato shop somewhere near the Pantheon but forgot the name so I just went to the one closest to the Pantheon!  I walked in and looked at the flavors and said "OOOOOH" when I saw the flavor I wanted.  The woman working there looked at me and said "nutella?" and I said "yes!".  For those of you that don't know I have recently become obsessed with nutella since arriving in Europe.
It is EVERYWHERE and oh so delicious!!  We hung out for a bit in the square while I enjoyed my gelato and then we continued walking.  We found a little festival going on a little bit further and we walked around there or a while before heading back to the hotel for the night!

The next day we took a food tour in Testaccio.  Whenever we travel we always try to take either a food tour or a beer/wine tour, whatever is best for the area we are visiting.  Unfortunately it was not really in season for us to go to a vineyard but we did find this food tour on tripadvisor.com and it was incredible!  We started in the small neighborhood of Testaccio which is part of Rome but pretty far removed from all of the touristy areas.  It was a small tour with 7 people plus the tour guide who was American but now lives in Italy.  We started by going to one of the oldest open air markets in Italy.  It was so cool to see all the locals going to pick up their groceries for the weekend.  Our guide explained to us that when you start shopping there you need to pick who will be your cheese guy and your fish guy and your meat guy because if you flip flop back and forth they will get mad!  There were about 2 families who were vendors for each area.  We got to try buffalo mozzarella 

(which I can say I am now an expert in distinguishing between the real stuff and the fake stuff!  Let me know if you want the inside scoop!)  We also got to try some tomatoes from the tomato vendor.  The way he works is that you don't tell him what kind of tomatoes you want (he has over 40 varieties!) but you tell him what you are making and he picks out the perfect tomatoes to go with it!  When we left there we headed to a gourmet cheese shop.We got to try some truffle cheese and some spicy sausage.  It was delicious and we decided we definitely needed to head back there after the tour.  After that we ventured to a small bakery where we were able to try these amazing tiramisu cups!I could have stayed there all day!  Our next stop was a non food related spot, but it was really neat.  It was a cemetery where some famous writers were buried.  From there we went to a restaurant to try some pasta!  The restaurant was really neat.  It was built into a hillside, but the hillside had been made when the Romans would import their goods from the port and it would all come in ceramic pots.  They would reuse most of the pots, except for the ones that held olive oil.  Those had to be disposed over because they couldn't get rid of all of the reside to reuse them.  So they would break it up and pile it on top of each other, which eventually created the hillside!The restaurant was carved into the hillside so it was like being underground.  We got to try 3 different types of pasta.  The first was a really simple pasta but you would have never guessed it by tasting it.  All it had in it was pecorino romano cheese, salt, pepper, and pasta water with some linguini.  It was awesome!The next one had a ziti type pasta.  It had a spicy tomato sauce and pork cheek with some cheese.  This was both of our favorites.I even tried to make recently and although it didn't taste the same it still came out pretty good.  The final one was a carbonara which was the best one I've ever had.Needless to say we were stuffed at the end of the meal, but we still had 2 more stops on the food tour!  Before we went to our next food stop we went by the old slaughter house.  It was neat to see some of the things that were still there, although no longer in operation.  When we left there we kept walking and went to a small shop where we had suppli.  They were fried rice balls with sausage in them. They were really good.  The shop we went to had lots of different varieties of suppli but unfortunately we only were able to try one.  From there we headed a gelato shop, my personal favorite!  It was the oldest gelato shop in Rome and we learned about the difference between real gelato and the fake stuff that comes from a powder.  I had 2 scoops, 1 hazelnut and 1 dark chocolate (like nutella!) with homemade whipped cream.  It was incredible!!  The whole tour was absolutely incredible and I would definitely recommend Eating Italy Food Tours Rome to anyone going there.

After we left there we walked over to Circus Maximus which was an ancient race track for chariots.It was up on a huge hill which made it look even more impressive.  We then tried to go into the Colosseum, but unfortunately it was already closed for the day so we decided to come back another day.  We went back to the hotel to rest for a bit and then headed out for dinner.  The tour guide for the food tour had given us some recommended restaurants so we decided to check one out for dinner.  The one we wanted to go to was all booked and since we didn't had a reservation we headed to another one.  We ended up going to Spirito de Vino, which was once a 10th century synagogue.  It also had a wince cellar which was older than the Colosseum!Dinner was delicious as was dessert.

Our last full day in Rome was New Years Eve.  We started off the day by going into the Colosseum.  It was so incredible to be inside there and see the seats and imagine what it would have been like actually being there during the fights.
There was such a complex system underneath the main floor that was the staging area.  After we left there we walked up to Constintine Hill and explored that area.

From there we were able to go down into the Forum Ruins to actually walk among the ruins.  It was pretty neat to get so close to everything.  We even got to see where Caesar was murdered.  We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the New Years Eve festivities!  We found a small restaurant by the hotel that we hoped we could get into without reservations.  When we got there we were the only people there (and it stayed that way for most of our dinner!).  There was a prix fixed menu.  I had a pasta dish and Shayne had steak.  We also were finally able to try carchofi alla romana (artichokes roman style).  They were incredible!  They were so well cooked that you could eat every part of the artichoke!  We had a great bottle of wine to go with dinner and ended the night was a delicious dessert.
  After we left the restaurant we made our way to the Piazza del Popolo, which we head read was a great place to ring in the New Year!  We got there around 9pm and there was only a few people there.  We went up on a balcony and positioned ourselves for the night.  We had brought a nice bottle of champagne with us to ring in the New Year as well.

  As it got closer to midnight more and more people started coming but no one was gathering inside the piazza, everyone was along the outside.  In most European countries fireworks are legal and everyone pretty much brought their own and were setting them off in the piazza, which had the potential for being very dangerous!  At one point one of the trees even caught on fire,but none of the people working there did anything except watch it burn out.  Once midnight hit a lot more fireworks went off, but it wasn't anything spectacular.  Its also apparently tradition to throw your champagne bottle into the piazza but luckily it wasn't too bad.  Within 15 minutes of the beginning of 2012 the piazza was pretty much empty again so we headed back to our hotel.

The next morning we had hoped to do a little more sightseeing but unfortunately I felt pretty sick when we woke up so we just relaxed until it was time to head to the airport.  By the time we got to the airport I had a fever and was so grateful that I didn't get sick during our trip.  Our entire Italian Honeymoon was absolutely incredible.  I cannot wait to travel more in Italy and eat my way through another trip!