New Year's Eve in Paris

Chris and I decided to party big this year and spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in Paris! We rode the ICE train directly into Paris, it only takes 2 hours and 26 minutes from Kaiserslautern. The speeds reach over 300km! We booked first class, it was nice and roomy. After finding our hotel, we made our way to the Champs-Elysees and over to the Eiffel Tower for midnight. New Year's Day we explored Paris. January 2nd we took the train to Chateau Versailles which was amazing. We had a fun and eventful trip!

Paris

2010 Is Here!

Hello! I apologize for the delay in blogging, we have been very busy bees! November was exciting with the new kitty, and Chris's family came to visit for Thanksgiving! They went to London, Paris, and Heidelberg while here. In December Chris and I went to the Nurmberg, Bamberg, and Rothenburg Christmas markets for my birthday which was awesome. I had a class too, so I was busy studying and writing papers. Our Christmas was nice, though it is still very hard to be away from home during the holidays. We celebrated with several friends, and the company was great to help fill the void of missing family. The holiday season went by so fast I feel like I missed it! Here are a few albums of our travels and of course our beloved kitties!

November Kitties

Kitties Nov 2009

Heidelberg with Chris's family

Heidelberg with the Q's

More November Kitties

More Kitties Nov 2009

Christmas Markets and My Birthday

Christmas Markets 2009 & My Birthday

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009

Chris Graduates

Today Chris graduated from Airman Leadership School. He was the class leader for the 6 weeks of class, as the highest ranking in the group. Tonight was the graduation ceremony at the Officer's Club. One of the perks of being with the class leader is that our table was front and center, perfect view of the stage. Chris earned the Distinguished Graduate award for being in the top 10% of his class. He's definitely ready to go back to working his regular job after the last 10 months, and I'm ready for the alarm to not go off at 5am anymore.

The kitties are making progress, they are getting closer to each other more frequently. There is more sniffing, and less hissing and swatting. Chris promises me they just need more time, and I know he's right, but I'm not good with the transition period. Can't we all just get along?

Nov 5 2009

Phooey

Today we adopted Phooey, a kitty cat for Callie. Callie is lonely while we are at work all day, and when we're out exploring Europe. Phooey is so cute! She looks like a shrunken, miniature kitten. She spent the morning bouncing around the house exploring, and all afternoon and evening passed out on my or Chris's lap. Surprisingly, Phooey was the first to hiss and growl at Callie. Callie follows her around sniffing and watching her, but Phooey doesn't want to spend time with Callie yet. But for day one, it has been very successful.

Phooey 1

Trier

Yesterday we took a lovely day trip to the German city of Trier. It was filled with Roman ruins, which we explored and took many photos of. We also went to the house where Karl Marx was born.

Trier 10-24-09

Ponza and Rome

Our last day on the cruise was spent on the island of Ponza. It was almost uninhabited, only two small towns occupy the island. We took an excursion in which we sailed around the island with a tour guide and learned about the mythology and history of the island, as well as getting to jump off the boat and swim in the Mediteranean! Ponza was beautiful, as you can see in my numerous pictures. After the boat tour we went to the water sport deck on the Wind Surf and swam in the Mediterranean! I think that was probably the coolest part, swimming in the Med. It was something I'll always remember, splashing around with Chris with the beautiful island of Ponza in the background. Later that night we had dinner at the fancy seafood restaurant on one of the decks with a couple we met from Canada, and we popped open Chris's winning bottle of champagne.

Ponza Sept 2009

Early the next morning we had arrived in Citavecchia, the port of Rome that's really an hour away from Rome. It was funny to eat breakfast on the deck and look down to see a concrete parking lot/road rather than water. We ventured into Rome and checked our bags at the train station for the day. I took Chris to the classic Roman sights, we started with the Colosseum and explored the Roman forum. We ate yummy pasta for lunch, and went on to the Pantheon and the Trevi fountain. We walked around and explored more, and then made our way to the airport to come home.

Rome Sept 2009

Today we went to a farm festival in Hitscherhof. It was lovely! Craft booths, pumpkins, food, and wine. Chris ate his bratwurst (my ever-promised bribe to convince him to go places with me) and I found pumpkins, a fall wreath, and a friendly ghost. Oddly enough, I didn't take any pictures - it looked exactly the same as it did last year.

Sicily and Amalfi

After Croatia we had our day at sea. Chris and I played Wii tennis with and against other couples. We also joined a putt-putt golf tournament in the lounge. Let's just say that one hole involved a popcorn bucket and a swimming flipper. Chris won the tournament, and the prize was a bottle of champagne!

Returning to Italy, next port was Sicily. Gritty is a very good term to describe Sicily. We took a bus nort of Messina and laid on the beach for a few hours. It was lovely! The scenery was beautiful. We walked in the sand, and found a spot on a pebbly part of the beach. The Mediterranean is so beautiful! It's a beautiful blue color. We read and wet our feet. After sunning ourselves, we took a bus back to the ship and read on the deck by the pool until dinnertime. The sail away was during dinner and it was nice to watch the coast lights as we ate.

Messina Sicily Sept 2009

The next port was Amalfi. The Amalfi coast is beautiful! We hopped on our tour bus and rode along the coast, then through the mountains to Pompeii. We spent two hours exploring Pompeii, seeing remains of shops, houses, ampitheaters, and temples. It was really neat. Returning to the town of Amalfi Chris and I went into town and had a delicious Italian dinner. We walked around the shops for a bit, and then returned to the ship.

Amalfi Sept 2009