Spanish Road Trippin’

I have another trip surprise…

Right now we are in the car for a very long day of driving. About 9 hours of driving. And from where we live, we could get to any number of places in 9 hours, but this time, we’re on official business: put an end to our illegal immigration status.

In order to do this, we have to go to a US Naval Base in the south of Spain. They’ll take our passports from us for the week, process us, and give us the wonderful little stamp that allows us to be here. We have been laying low over the holidays since the police are very quick to pull over anyone at night to breathalyze them/check their papers. So with our newly attained SOFA (Service Of Forces Agreement) status, we will be able to once again leave the house without fear of being pulled over and being locked up abroad.

But just because we’re on official business doesn’t mean we won’t be making the most of this trip! We get two days of travel down to Rota, where the Naval Base is. Tonight, we’re stopping in Sevilla for the night. Tomorrow, we’ll head into Gibraltar and check it out before going on to our hotel.

Our hotel in Sevilla–hopefully it really does look this cool in real life!

Our hotel in Rota, where we’ll be staying for the week.

The week won’t be too busy for us, but we do have to take Spanish driving tests! It’s a written test, thank goodness, and it’ll be in English since many of the men and women at the Navy Base need their license. We get a little review session before the test…I hope I pass! It’s certainly been awhile since I’ve taken a driving test.

Other than that, we’re going to explore the Cadiz area and relax! We’re excited to explore yet another area of Spain, and I get to add another country to the places I’ve been–we’re spending all day driving through Portugal!

Oh, and I almost forgot–one of the parts I’m the most excited for!! On the Naval Base, there is an American grocery store where we can get some of our favorites from home that we’ve been missing. I’m looking forward to marshmallows and reese’s cups!

Wish us luck on our Spanish driving tests!

Neuschwanstein Castle & Liechtenstein

Rounding out our winter vacation, we made a stop at Neuschwanstein Castle and Liechtenstein before heading back to the Milan airport to fly home.

Our driving day to Neuschwanstein Castle (heretofore represented as NC because I can’t keep typing that out) was foggy. Not just a little foggy, it was foggy to the extreme of not being able to see 50 feet in front of you, which isn’t the best way to be driving on the German Autobahn.

The Autobahn is almost as terrifying as I pictured it–people will fly by at speeds of 200 kph or more. Our tiny little rented Peugeot could not top 144 kph (90 mph) though we sure tried. I felt like the car was going to come apart at the seams at that speed, so we didn’t try to maintain it. It was fun to see how fast we could go, but we preferred to keep it safe. When we did pass some slower cars, we had to be especially careful about cars coming up behind us. They could go incredibly fast and would NOT slow down for anything. There were a few close calls which prompted screaming and nervous fits of giggles after the cars passed. Our tip–if you don’t have a big enough engine to handle it, stay out of the left lane. We learned our lesson.

When we got to NC, the fog hadn’t lifted. It was enormously disappointing because I was picturing this:

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Instead, we got this:

Boooo. So we couldn’t see it from the outside, and we weren’t allowed to take pictures from the inside. I was sad that I wouldn’t have much to show for the whole thing.

Here are some photos that I did capture despite the fog.

This smaller castle was below the fog, but we did not choose to tour and visit this one.

Kinda blah, right?? We overheard some of the workers saying that it was the worst fog they’d seen in the area for awhile. Lucky us!

Despite it being ridiculously foggy outside, inside the castle was just plain ridiculous.

The paintings, the details, the carvings, the walls…EVERYTHING in this castle was incredible. It was so incredibly intricate that I kept saying to myself “This is just stupid. That’s STUPID!” I didn’t mean stupid in that I didn’t like it or that it wasn’t worthy to see…it was stupid in that it was so absolutely mind bogglingly ridiculously incredible that I didn’t have any other words for it. It was beautiful. It was amazing. It was worth seeing just because you can’t believe something like this exists in the world and that it was created for one man (who died before he could even live in it).

Of course, since it was so incredibly stupidly awesome, it attracted busloads of people, so it was very very commercialized. Of course they led you through three different gift shops on the short tour. Of course you were stuck with a group of 100 other tourists to bump into in tiny spaces. But sometimes, you just have to deal with the tourists and the commercialism to see something amazing. I wish it hadn’t been so foggy that day so we could have gotten an even more full experience.

After our tour, we packed up and headed into Liechtenstein, where the fog never let up. We arrived at night, too late to take pictures. The next morning, the fog persisted until after breakfast when we could finally see what the fog hid from our hotel view:

Beautiful, beautiful mountains.

We couldn’t stay long to admire them though…we had a long day of driving through the mountains ahead of us in order to catch our flight that evening. The views on the way to the airport were fascinating and breathtaking. I truly, truly feel like I could be a mountain girl after this vacation because I couldn’t get enough of the stunning landscape.

I have a feeling that we’ll find our way back to these parts of the world multiple times in our lives. I felt so happy on this vacation, seeing the many wonderful things we saw. I highly recommend going near Christmastime if you can because the cheer in the air was very worth the chilly temps and rainy/snowy/foggy weather.

Now that we’re back home in Spain, it feels good to be next to our Christmas tree with our pups, but we’re already planning our next trip for early January! More on that later!

Munich

We spent three days in Munich on our trip, and it was wonderful! I’d heard fabulous things about Munich, but wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of its size. It was a much larger city than I had anticipated, but the public transportation was FANTASTIC. We could get anywhere we wanted through public transportation, and the hotel we stayed at even included a pass for all trains with our room.

Mike and I didn’t waste a lot of time when we got in…we headed straight for (you guessed it) the nearest glühwein booth!

The glühwein mugs kept getting nicer and nicer as our trip progressed, but since we were in Germany, we couldn’t go the whole trip without making the rounds to some bierhalls!

I will be forever partial to weissbiers…I don’t care if it makes me “such a girl.” Because I am. So hmph!

As evening fell, we decided to stuff ourselves silly on streetfood instead of going for a balanced meal at a restaurant. This is mostly what we did throughout the trip to keep costs down on the meals inbetween our Michelin-star restaurant excursions. More on that in a bit.

Now, it was all really the same from market to market. There weren’t a ton of differences besides the amount of people milling around and the mug that they were serving the glühwein in. But even though each market was largely the same, I really, really, really loved all of them. Having so much Christmas spirit in the air made me extremely happy, as did all of the sweets and foods that were delicious and cheap. Everyone that we came across in Munich spoke English as well, so it was also a very accessible city for tourists.

The other days that we were in Munich, it rained, so I didn’t take photos of their incredible day market, where there was produce galore. I could definitely see myself living happily in Munich, with the great public transportation, the shopping, the food, and the markets that were definitely superior to the little ones we have in our area of Spain.

We also went to Tantris, a 2-Michelin star restaurant with fabulous 70′s-era decor. Seriously, “orange carpet on the ceiling” type of fabulous.

In all honesty, we were a little disappointed in Tantris. It makes me feel like the snob-of-all-snobs saying that a 2-Michelin star restaurant wasn’t up to snuff, but there were a few dishes that left us less than impressed, which isn’t exactly what you want when you’re shelling out that kind of dough. Overall, I thought that it wasn’t worth the money or the rating. We had a good meal, but it wasn’t as special as we had hoped.

The other restaurant we went to while in Munich was called Terrine. It’s a one-Michelin star restaurant, and it was HARD TO FIND. We were about 35 minutes late to our reservation because we could not find where it was located. Oh, and it was raining. We were terrified of being charged as no-shows, but we made it and settled in.

Since this was the last restaurant we had planned for our trip, we decided to go all out for it and order the full, 10-course meal with wine pairings for each course. It. was. wonderful.

I won’t post pictures of this experience since the lighting was bad and my Photoshop skills just aren’t good enough to do it justice. Instead, I’ll let the menu speak for itself.

king crab and scallops in lime vinaigrette
tahiti vanilla, air “pata negra”

carpaccio of venison
kohlrabi, black truffle

lobster with squash and watercress
crispy calf’s head

john dory in clear bean-tea
seafood & red bell peppers

wild duck with black pudding and sauerkraut
cassis fruits

red mullet
cauliflower wonton, spinach, curry

chicken breast and leg
beetroots, artichokes, treviso

roquefort creme

grape granité, dark chocolate
cinnamon cake, orange, basil sorbet

warm chocolate espuma, rum banana, kafir lime ice cream

Some of it may sound odd or strange or not super appetizing, but it was amazing. It was a wonderful meal with all of the flavors adding something to the experience. The wine pairings with each meal were especially appetizing and we had a few very, very memorable wines. The service was all wonderful and we learned new things about cooking techniques and different wineries. While the meal was one of our most expensive on the trip, it was definitely worth it.

Munich was, in a word, magical. I loved so much about the city and I can definitely see myself revisiting. The bierhalls were fun, the dining was wonderful, the streetfood and markets were amazing.

Next, I’ll take you to Neuschwanstein Castle and Liechtenstein to round out our Winter Vacation!

Salzburg, Austria

After two days in Innsbruck, we drove about 2 hours to Salzburg to spend two days here! Unfortunately, the weather was not as cooperative in Salzburg as it was in Innsbruck and it rained the whole time we were here! I suppose that’s what you risk when you take a winter vacation, so we didn’t let it faze us. It snowed a bit as well, but it was the big wet flakes that immediately melted instead of accumulating to a pretty white blanket.

Despite the weather, we still had a WONDERFUL time in Salzburg. It’s larger and more expensive than Innsbruck, but it has even more designer shops if you’re looking to spend money on shopping. We mostly stuck around the glühwein and Christmas booths on day one!

The Christmas ornaments and decorations seem nicer here, but I’m way too nervous to take these gorgeous ornaments back on the plane with us to go home to Spain! I’m happy window shopping though

That evening, we went to Carpe Diem, Finest Finger Food. It’s a one-Michelin star restaurant that had a lot of choices when it came to what to choose for dinner. We could have gone with a number of small fingerfoods that are served creatively in cones, we could choose a prix-fixe winter menu with 5 courses, or a full, 7-course meal. We chose the full menu with 7 courses and were very pleased with our dishes.

As you can see, the lighting was a nightmare to photograph the food in, so I didn’t take too many photos. We did stay at the restaurant for almost four hours though, and had a wonderful evening listening to a band play Christmas music.

The next day in Salzburg, we slept in and went shopping in the morning. For lunch, we went to Ikarus, another one-Michelin star restaurant. This was the restaurant that I was looking forward to the most on our trip since it was such a cool concept-the restaurant invites the best chefs from all around the world to cook for a month. During our visit, the featured chefs were from Sao Paolo, Brazil, so our menu had Brazilian influences in the flavors. The restaurant is located in an airport hangar, which provided an incredible atmosphere.

The restaurant and decor were beautiful. I was even a little intimidated to walk in since there were only 8 tables in the whole restaurant! You always hope that you don’t stick out like a sore thumb in these kinds of places, you know? We started out with some sparkling wines, which were very good. There was a drink pairing available for our meal at €95/person, but since we were already spending so much on the meal, we decided to go for a bottle of wine instead. We went with one of the cheapest red wines on the menu and milked that sucker throughout the 12 different plates we received.

Our Menu:

Snacks:
Tomato, burrata and basil
Bonbon of foie gras and guava
Gillardeau oyster with cucumber and lychee

“Waldorf salad”
with Atlantic lobster and gorgonzola emulsion
***
Pot-roasted char
with Bacuri-vanilla oil and char caviar
***
Gnocchi of sweet potatoes
with Osietra caviar and tucupi
***
One-hour egg
with palm heart foam and white truffle
***
“Feijoada” Brazilian bean stew
***
Rice with slowly cooked cudgel of duck,
pequi and coriander
***
Braised cheek of beef with mashed potatoes,
crosne and black truffle
***
“Acai” Muscovado sugar, strawberry granite and guarana jelly
***
Assorted dessert tray

Our favorite dishes were the Waldorf salad, the pot-roasted char and the one-hour egg with generous slices of white truffle. It was all about a dream come true…I couldn’t believe all of the different flavors and the beautiful way each dish was plated. We had an amazing afternoon at Ikarus and if we ever find our way back to Salzburg, we’d go back in a heartbeat to see what that month’s chef had in store.

After our wonderful afternoon there, we walked around the hangar for a bit, then headed back to the hotel to relax before our evening at an Austrian Christmas play.

We had a wonderful time at the show. There were cute, talented kids and great talented musicians. While we couldn’t understand a lot of the dialogue (even with context clues it was often difficult), it was still incredibly enjoyable to listen to the music. Plus, it was awesome to see that the Austrian theatre-goers were all dressed up in very traditional dirndls and trachten.

It’s safe to say that we’re having a wonderful time on this vacation so far and feel so lucky to have the opportunity to do and see so much. While I wish it had been nicer weather in Salzburg so we could enjoy the markets a bit more, we still trekked out and made sure we saw as much as we could! Tomorrow, we head to Munich!

Have you eaten at a Michelin-star restaurant? Would you want to, or would you save your money for another part of the vacation?

Innsbruck, Austria

There’s just something about mountain towns that I adore. Maybe it’s because my first European vacation featured mountains and beautiful scenery. Maybe it’s because I like the crisp, clean air. Maybe it’s because I got engaged at the top of a mountain in Europe. Whatever it is, I am so, so happy in the mountains.

Innsbruck, Austria is no exception. Innsbruck is a wonderful mountain town on the smaller side with all of the class and sophistication of a larger city. And oh! It’s been PERFECT for us since the Christmas market is open and there are so many things to see and do!

I won’t drone on and on too much…I’ll let the pictures do the talking!

Since it was a Sunday, there were people everywhere! The shops in the old town were all open, but most of the rest of the city was shut down. It was busy, it was exciting, and the booths were all filled with delicious or beautiful things! Everyone at the booths spoke English, so even though we tried to speak a little German, the workers were all very nice about speaking English.

After meandering around the market for a bit, we decided to hike up to the Alpenzoo, which is a zoo of creatures all local to the Alpines. It was wonderful since I hadn’t seen some of those animals before!

The wolves were a particular favorite of mine. Part of me felt terrible that they were enclosed at the zoo, but another part of me was so happy that I could get so close to them.

Then there were barnyard animals, which I’m not usually super gung-ho about, but there were baby piglets!! How could you not aww at them??

They were SO cute. Mike liked the big horned lamb and they kept making faces at each other. True love.

Oh, and see this picture?

See the tiny buildings on the ground? Yeah, we walked up here from down there. Mike said it was a “short walk” and it ended up being a “short mountain hike.” We took the bus back down to save our legs for the rest of the trip.

After the zoo, we headed back to the Christmas market for some more glühwein (hot mulled wine) and other treats!

Our second day here was more dedicated to shopping since we don’t have any Christmas gifts for each other. We both got new winter coats, and Mike got a few other needed items at a department store that was very nice. Really, all of the stores in Innsbruck were high-quality, classy stores that we could find any number of items that we loved. Innsbruck had some great shopping!

After shopping, we hit the Christmas market back up for more food and glühwein (I’m telling you, this stuff is amazing).

All in all, I LOVED Innsbruck. Going during this time while the Christmas Market was open was a wonderful decision. The weather wasn’t too terribly cold, and when it did get chilly, there were plenty of places to duck in and warm up. We also didn’t spend too much money here on food since the street vendors were so accessible and cheap. You can see our new coats in the above photos, and while they weren’t exactly cheap, they were good, necessary buys. Plus, doesn’t Mike look so dashing in his new scarf? I’m obsessed with it.

The first two days of our vacation have been so wonderful! I’m excited to see what Salzburg has in store for us. We’ll be driving there tomorrow, so stay tuned!!

Mike and Mandy’s Winterurlaub 2011!!!

I’ve kept something very exciting from you guys…Mike and I are going on a winter vacation tomorrow and will be gone for 10 days!

Where are we going, you ask?

View Larger Map

• Flying from Santiago to Milan
• Driving from Milan to Innsbruck, Austria
• Innsbruck to Salzburg, Austria
• Salzburch to Munich, Germany
• Munich to the Neuschwanstein Castle
• The Neuschwanstein Castle to Liechtenstein
• Liechtenstein back to the airport near Milan
• Flying back to Santiago, Spain

Crazy, right?? We’re so excited for this trip!

Some things we plan on doing:

Go Christmas shopping around the Christmas markets:

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Perhaps go on a Sound of Music tour??

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Visit the Neuschwanstein Castle (aka: the castle that inspired the Disney Castle):

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AND EAT!!

Mike lined up quite a few impressive restaurants for us to visit, including:

Tantris: A 2-Star Michelin Restaurant near Munich

Terrine: a 1-Star Michelin Restaurant near Munich (and yes, I do believe those are shaved black truffles in the above photo

Carpe Diem, Finest Finger Food: a 1-Star Michelin Restaurant in Salzburg, Austria

And lastly, the one I’m looking forward to the most:

Ikaru: a 1-Star Michelin Restaurant in Salzburg, Austria. Ikaru is unique in that it does not have a single chef heading the restaurant. Rather, every month it invites guest chefs from around the world to plan and cook their own menu that month. When we are going to be here, the chefs are from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Their menu looks incredible.

I think it’s safe to say that the most exciting thing about travel to us is getting to eat and taste a bit of the best around the world. I’m not sure how our travel style will change once kids enter the picture, but for now we’re going to live it up by doing as much of this kind of stuff as we can. We’re also going bonkers over the thought of pretty Christmas markets nestled in the mountains. Talk about picturesque!

So while we’re gone, posting may be a bit infrequent, but I’ll still try to write when I can. Have any of you been to these cities? Any suggestions on where we might want to go?

Hasta Luego! Ciao! Auf Wiedersehen! See ya!

Coruña

This past Saturday was a gorgeous day. We decided to head into La Coruña, which is about 30 minutes away from us. It’s the 19th largest city in Spain and has a nickname of A cidade de cristal (The Glass City). Most of the buildings in the city are covered in windows, and when the sun reflects off of them, they give a beautiful affect to the city.

But first, we headed to the Tower of Hercules, which is an ancient Roman Lighthouse as old as the 2nd century! It has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the surrounding area is full of bike and walking paths, as well as a golf course and a beautiful coastline.

We walked around the tower for a bit…

(it’s a soldier with a gun)

And then we went inside!

It was pretty cool walking in and seeing the ruins of what the tower was before renovations. The ceilings were so low at first, I was a little scared we’d have to duck the whole way! But once we got climbing the stairs, there was plenty of headroom. We climbed the tower (242 steps) and got a very rewarding view at the top!

From this view, you can see all of the space for the bike trails, and you can also see the city of Coruña in the last photo.

After we went down all 242 steps, we walked around the trails a bit.

Beautiful, right?? We decided that this would be an awesome place for a picnic, so we might just have to do that sometime soon!

After the Tower of Hercules, we went into the city of Coruña. We’ve been a couple of other times, but mostly at night after everything but the bars had closed. Of course, we got into the city right at seista, which is 2-4pm in this area of Spain. Um…I didn’t know people seista’d on Saturdays, but whatevs. Some shops were open and we had a nice time window shopping.

In that last picture, you get an idea of why it’s nicknamed the city of glass!

Mike and I feel great that there’s a city so close to us that we can explore on Saturdays (everything is closed on Sunday). It’s definitely not Philadelphia…the cuisine here is still all very traditional to the area and there isn’t a lot of ethnic cuisine, but there are some highly rated restaurants here that we’d like to check out! We already found one place called Abica that we truly love and I know we’ll be going back soon!

I do like the city though and I think it has a lot to offer! I look forward to knowing it well by the time we leave!

“Let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.”

Somehow, after 11 months of waiting for this day, it’s here. As romantic and wonderful as moving to Spain sounded to me eleven months ago, we now face the adventure we signed up for knowing that it’s not all rainbows and butterflies. We went through hell and back to get what we wanted with this move, and we’re still fighting on a daily basis to get all of the moving parts that are involved in this kind of adventure working together. It hasn’t been easy. It hasn’t even been fun, most of the time. The only thing that pushed us forward was the ever-present thoughts of “when we get there…” and “it’ll be worth it.”

Mike and I are entering this new chapter of our lives hoping with all hopes that the risks we took to make this move will work out. We hope that the sacrifices we’ve made in our everyday lives will lead to greater opportunities for us down the road. We hope that the challenges we face will make us stronger individuals and a stronger couple.

We will arrive at our new home tomorrow afternoon, which will be the beginning of a very different year for us. We might not be able to speak with the locals and I might not be able to have the independence of a car to get myself around, but we’ll also have incredible opportunities to meet new people, immerse ourselves in a new culture, learn a new language, travel to many, many new places. This year will definitely be whatever we make of it, and knowing me and Mike, you can be sure that we’ll make an adventure out of everything.

I’m excited to garden with space I’ve never had before. I’m anxious to see if the dogs can swim or if they’ll just drink the pool’s saltwater until they puke. I can’t wait to see Mike’s face when we bring home our first cured ham leg to carve up in the kitchen. I’m looking forward to the day where I can go to the local market and ask for what I need without thinking twice about the language barrier. I’m nearly shaking with anticipation for all of the possibilities laying out before us that I haven’t even fathomed yet.

I’m also scared to leave what I have behind. Over the past three years, Mike and I have grown incredibly close to my parents, since they moved to New Jersey. They’ve been our best friends, the two people we could count on more than anyone else in our lives. They’ve been there for us when we ask advice, whether it’s financial advice, personal advice, health advice, clothing advice or what the hell to do with the groundhog we found trapped in our yard. The bond that I’ve shared as an adult with my parents has been invaluable, and I will so miss their physical presence in our lives. I am so grateful for their unconditional support as we take this huge step, though I know it’ll be hard for them too. We love you, Mom and Dad.

So, folks: here we go. I hope you’re ready to read about my adventures, mishaps, highs and lows when it comes to uprooting our lives and living in a foreign land. No matter what happens in the next year or so, Mike and I have the dogs, who will love us no matter where they are on this Earth; and we have each other, which…we feel pretty much the same as the dogs.

Title quote by the wonderful and prolific Albus Dumbledore.

Home Again

Why Helllooo!

Long time no talk, readers! It’s been a very long three weeks while we’ve been in Spain, Andorra and France, and we are very happy to be home. We got in to Philly Saturday night, had Sunday to take a breath, restock the fridge, cuddle with the dogs, and then today…today the movers come and will start moving out all of our belongings over the next week.

Scary how time flew by just like that.

I’m so excited to tell you guys about our new house! It’s taking all the willpower I have to not post about it right now, but if I start out with the biggest reveal, what fun is that??

I CAN tell you that at our new house, we’ll have the opportunity to have fresh fish and bread delivered straight to our doorstep…yay! I can also tell you that the closest beach to our house is a nude beach….uhh…yay? lol.

A few other things I can tell you about where we’ll be living is that it will be VERY different from the lifestyle we’re used to. The roads are steep and curvy, which will make transportation on my bicycle nearly impossible, so I’ll have to work even harder at my cycling skills or consider shelling out the dough for a scooter or second car. We’ll see how the first few weeks go, and if I start getting twitchy at home, we can go from there.

The food markets are also definitely not what we’re used to and I’ll have to live the next year with very little international foods (ie burritos, Asian cuisine, Indian food & spices) unless I can make them myself or order some things online. Most surprising to me is that fresh, local and organic produce doesn’t seem to be “in vogue” there, where I thought that would be the easiest thing to find. The markets are full of fruit that are out-of-season, shipped from around the world with stickers on them…definitely not in-line with the changes we’ve made, but we’re told that there’s a more local market on Saturdays that we’ll have to check out.

So I’ve been worried about how we can carry on with our current lifestyle, but that’s the thing…this move was never supposed to be something that didn’t disrupt our precious routines. This move will shake things up, and it will be awesome sometimes, but other times I’m sure we’ll long for home and the comfort and convenience that is harder to come by over there.

I can tell you all right now…this will definitely be a challenge. A fun, exciting challenge, but it’ll be a challenge. My world is about to be tipped upside-down and the only thing I can do at this point is embrace the changes ahead, for better or for worse!

Since I can’t leave you without any pictures, I’ll leave off on the most exciting part of this new chapter in our lives…

Fresh, fresh, fresh seafood!

More to come!!

I Miss…

After being on the road a little over a week now with two more weeks to go, I can say that we’re having a great time, but being constantly on the move can be exhausting! Three weeks away from home is a long time, and no matter how amazing the sights and cities are where we’re traveling, sometimes there’s just no replacement for some of the comforts of home.

The things I miss the most:

1. The dogs
2. My pillow
3. Our washer & dryer
4. Having a kitchen to cook in
5. Conditioner being readily available for my hair
6. An iron for our clothes