Snips & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

We found a great pet shop near base so we've been busy shopping for little Toby.

Take a peek at all of his loot:

We emailed the breeder with a few questions about picking-up Toby and in her response email she wrote that she'll make up a little baggie of all of his favorite treats and she'll even give him a toy from his first home to take with him. How sweet!
We are SO excited to bring our Toby home.

We also want to send a Happy Birthday shout-out to Randy!

Cheers to a very special day. We're thinking of you!

Love - C & B

Reims & Verdun

On Sunday morning we packed our bags and bid au revoir to sweet and peaceful Épernay. After consulting the map in our guidebook, we realized we were only 20 kilometers from Reims, which is home of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. (I even remember studying this cathedral in college). 30 minutes later we parked the car and started walking towards the Cathedral. Sundays in Europe are demure and serene compared to the more boisterous and bustling weekdays and Reims was no different. A quiet calm permeated the almost silent, sunlit avenue as we strolled to the Cathedral. The view was breathtaking:

We first admired the exquisite craftsmanship of the exterior:

Inside we were astounded by the awe-inspiring artistry:





Construction on the Reims Cathedral of Notre-Dame began in 1211. Even more impressive is that there has been a cathedral on that very site since 401. Joan of Arc attended a coronation of a French King at this Cathedral. Grasping the magnitude of the history of a place is sometimes daunting.

Warmed by the early summer sun and the inspiration of the past, we hopped in the car and headed towards our next destination: Verdun. We both remembered whisperings of "Battle of Verdun" from past history classes, but neither of us really had much knowledge regarding the area. We read from our guidebook as we made the hour drive from Reims to Verdun. During WWI for approximately one year the Germans and French battled at Verdun at the cost of nearly one million lives. Again, grasping the magnitude of this history is overwhelmingly daunting. There are multiple monuments in Verdun, as there should be, and we chose to visit the Douaumont Ossuary, a cemetery and monument located on a former battlefield.

To get to the Douaumont Ossuary we drove through beautifully forested roads more likely to end in a trail head than a powerful monument for young lives lost. As soon as we opened the car doors the heavy silence flooded in around us.

The cemetery is home to 130,000 soldiers who fought at Verdun. The monument names hundreds of brave souls, most not seeing their 30th birthday. It was a powerful and informative experience. As we walked back to the car, hope sprung from the peacefulness of a place that was once so violent.

If you'd like to view all of our photos from our visit from the Champagne Region, please click on this link:
The Champagne Region Photos

Épernay

Last Tuesday we decided we should take advantage of the weekend and go on a one-night stay somewhere close-by. After surveying the map for a day we decided the Champagne Region in France sounded like a perfect spot. Saturday morning we hit the road for a bubbly adventure in dreamy Épernay. After about 4 hours of driving we knew we were getting close:

We exited the main highway (or Superhighway as they're called in France) and found ourselves on a picturesque two-lane road in the French countryside. We rolled down the windows, let the warm country air embrace our bodies like a long lost friend and inhaled the sweet, wild smells of the Champagne Region as we cruised down the idyllic road to Épernay:

With the help of our ever-trusty GPS we easily found our adorable hotel located in the heart of Épernay, Hotel La Cloche. I especially enjoyed the blue shutters:



Not sure if it was the excitement of exploring a new town, the newfound warm summer breezes or a combination of both, but we dropped our bags and hit the streets of Épernay with a rejuvenated bounce in our step. Our first stop was for sustenance. We found a darling brasserie with an outdoor terrace. We sipped our first glass of champagne (in the Champagne Region!) as we tried to translate the menu:

A croque monsieur for him and a creamy crepe for her. Lunch was the perfect balance of fuel and fun. Next we walked a block away from the heart of town and found ourselves on:



All of the major champagne producers in Épernay have their champagne house on this Avenue. The champagne houses are where the fresh pressed wines are brought to ferment into champagne in the vast cellars. Large mansions and regal buildings behind intricate iron gates line this famous Avenue. Our first stop on the Avenue was at Moët et Chandon (the makers of Dom Pérignon). We enjoyed an hour tour of the Moët house and we learned quite a bit about champagne production.

Here's a taste of what we picked up:
-For a sparkling wine to be champagne, it must come from grapes that are grown and harvested in the Champagne Region of France, otherwise it is not a true champagne.
-Champagne is made from a combination of these three grapes: chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier. Dom Pérignon is made of only chardonnay and pinot noir.
-If there is a specific year printed on the label this signifies a vintage champagne which means all of the grapes for this specific bottle were all grown in the same year. If no year appears it is a non-vintage and composed of grapes from multiple years of growth.
-During the 2nd fermentation process the sediment that collects in the neck of the bottle (as the bottle is stored upside down) is flash frozen and basically pops out of the bottle when the bottle is turned right-side up and opened before the final cork is placed inside.
-There are approximately 200 million bottles of champagne fermenting in cellars in the Champagne Region, the majority of those are located in Épernay.
-Grapes for champagne are harvested by hand.

Here's a peek at our tour:













As you can see from the photos the cellars were dark, damp and fairly chilly (around 50 degrees F). It was amazing to see all of the bottles slowly but surely fermenting into delicious bubbly champagne. After the tour we walked up the Avenue to explore other champagne houses, but they all seemed to be closed or available only via reservation. In the warm summer sun, we lazily bounced back towards our hotel and walked around the beautiful Épernay Cathedral (which incidentally is right next to where we were staying):



After another glass of bubbly at a local café we meandered to the hotel for a little rest before dinner. We read that the restaurant at our hotel had received quality reviews so we chose to dine there. Unfortunately I didn't lug the camera with us, but believe you me, the food was delicious! Champagne, scallop and crawfish cassolette, pork filet (wrapped in bacon!) with a heavenly roquefort sauce, and a cod filet (topped with bacon!) with creamed lentils.

Almost uncomfortably full, we made our way over to a local bar to watch the USA soccer game. Although a victory would have been a more fitting ending to our lovely day in Épernay, we couldn't complain. We slowly made our way home in a dreamy haze of soft summer heat and champagne. Bonsoir, Épernay!

This...

...is what Brian's boss' 15 year old son made for dessert for the Wednesday World Cup Viewing Party. I don't know which one was better, the last minute USA victory or the homemade white chocolate cheesecake with fresh berries?!

And yes, the cheesecake tasted as delicious as it looked.

Introducing...

...Tobias (Toby) Merritt!

Toby will be officially part of the family on Saturday, July 10th. We cannot wait!

Salzburg

Saturday morning we hit the road for Salzburg from Munich. As we neared our hotel in Salzburg all three of us were a little surprised by the sketchiness of our surroundings. It was a very Griswold-Roll-'Em-Up moment. We found our hotel, grudgingly parked the car in the questionable neighborhood, and walked into the hotel feeling a little out of place. Other than the girl working the counter at the hotel, there really weren't any other human beings around. It was SO strange! After we checked-in we quickly dropped our bags off in our room (again, no one in the halls of the hotel, no voices coming from other rooms...it was SO quiet that we all felt like we had to whisper when we were in our own hotel room...ha!) and got out of the hotel to explore. We immediately learned that our hotel was in the sex shop/gambling hall neck o' the woods, which, I might add, was not at all what they advertised on their website. We walked a few blocks towards what we hoped was a better part of town. Slowly, but surely, the town started to brighten up with other people and nicer surroundings. About a mile into our walk we finally felt like we were in Salzburg and not some sketchy deserted neighborhood. We found this cool path and started walking up:

It led us to this cool view of the city:



From that view we could see the Salzburg Castle on the other side of the river and decided we wanted to go visit. We walked back down to street level, found some delicious lunch and then made our way over to the Castle. Along the way we finally found the heart of Salzburg. Once we crossed the river everything looked like we thought it would. Cute store fronts, lots of other tourists, and cool sights. In a large square we stumbled upon this giant fountain:

The photo dosen't do it justice, but this fountain was HUGE. I tried to find some information about it online, but no luck. After we admired the fountain for a few minutes we pressed forward on our trek to see the Castle. The Castle was located way up high on a cliff, so we had a lot of steep walking ahead of us. Once we made it up there we drank in the remarkable view of the city below:

Oh and yes, those are rain clouds and dreary weather. We just can't seem to escape it! We wandered around the Castle for a while and then finally made our way back down into the city streets. One of the first major buildings we walked by was the Salzburg Cathedral, we decided to go in. I am so glad we did! The Cathedral was beautiful, very different from other cathedrals we've seen. Take a look for yourself:

We learned later that the Salzburg Cathedral was the site of Mozart's baptism. After a peaceful visit to the Cathedral we were ready for some warm, dry indoor time, but none of us felt like going back to our weird hotel so we opted for an Irish bar. We saddled up to the bar for a drink and some World Cup action. Once we were sufficiently warm we made our way back to the hotel for a quiet evening of take-out and more World Cup soccer. So although Salzburg started off a little startling, we ended up enjoying our time out in town.

The next morning we decided we wanted to go explore the Austrian Ice Cave (aka Eisriesenwelt). The Ice Cave in Werfen, Austria is the largest ice cave in the world. We drove 30 minutes south and found ourselves at the start of our journey to the Ice Cave. Photography is not allowed in the Ice Cave so we have no photos to document this trip, but it was a cool one! We first parked the car, walked 5 minutes to the ticket center, bought our tickets, then walked 20 minutes up a steep incline (we're in the heart of the Austrian Alps at this point) to the tram. The tram zipped us up for about 5 minutes at what felt like a 50% incline then dropped us off to walk another 20 minutes up steep terrain. Then we reached the end of the line of people waiting for their tour of the Cave. We waited in line for about 40 minutes before we were able to enter. It was SO worth the wait in the rain and chilly weather. The Ice Cave was phenomenal. Zero degrees and almost pitch black darkness greeted us as we entered the Cave. We were led through the Cave by a fun and informative tour guide. We walked 1 kilometer in and 1 kilometer out covering just over 1000 stairs inside of the cave, all the while taking in the splendor of the massive ice formations. I highly recommend you check out their website to get an idea of what the ice looks like. We then made our way back down the mountain, hopped in the (warm) car and drove to Munich to drop off Nate.

We had an awesome time with Nate and are so glad we were able to hang out with our pal in Germany and Austria!

If you'd like to view all of our photos from our visit with Nate, please click on this link:
Nate's Visit Photos

Munich & the Hofbräuhaus

On Friday morning we woke up (in Munich) bright and early to head to the airport to pick-up Nate. Once we collected Nate we swung by the hotel to drop off his stuff and grab some breakfast before we hit the town. Nate's plan was to stay up all day and try to fight off the impending jet-lag. Luckily we had a day of soccer and beer awaiting us!

From the hotel we took the train to the Marienplatz, which is a large town square in the heart of Munich. We walked up from the train stop and saw the huge Rathaus Glockenspiel. Completely by accident, we arrived right at noon when the glockenspiel does one of its three daily shows.

As you can see from the photos it was another gloriously gray day in Germany.
We keep thinking summer is just around the corner...

After the neat glockenspiel show, we consulted the map and made our way to the famous Hofbräuhaus. The Hofbräuhaus has been in Munich since the late 1800's and even more impressive is that there has been some sort of beerhall in that exact location since the 1500's. Here are the boys outside of the Hofbräuhaus:



Team Germany was playing in the 1330 World Cup match so we figured we needed to get a seat quickly as the town was going to get pretty wild pretty soon! We found our way up to the 2nd floor in the Hofbräuhaus (which is HUGE by the way) and ended up sitting next to some other Americans at a table near the big screen. Here are some shots:



The Team Germany game was fun to watch. It would have been more fun if they had pulled off a win (or if the refs weren't totally hosing Team Germany with yellow cards), but nonetheless it was fun to support our host country. After the Team Germany game ended a little curtain was pulled across the big screen and we, unfortunately, realized they wouldn't be showing our game in the big hall. A little frustrated we went downstairs as fast as possible in hopes of getting a seat near one of the smaller screens that would be showing the game. We lucked out and found a bench right in front of the TV and got ready to cheer on the good ol' US of A. There was a large contingency of Americans there and the place went absolutely bananas when we scored our two goals. During halftime we saw some very drunk Germans being "escorted" out of the building via the side door by the Enforcer. (And by escorted I mean dragged on the floor by his arms). Brian and the Hofbräuhaus Enforcer:



After the game, we dined on a delicious 1/2 chicken and German potato salad:

It turns out that spending nine hours at the Hofbräuhaus watching soccer and drinking beer is the perfect way to combat jet-lag. Nate was a champ! So although we didn't see much of the city of Munich we had an awesome time soaking up a local experience at the Hofbräuhaus.



Next stop: Salzburg!