Looking forward to landing in San Francisco...

but I'll be missing and loving my family that stayed behind in Stetten.

xoxo Chad, Meatloaf & Gnocchi

Baby and I will be back again soon!

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. - Jane Howard

2 for 1: Greece

In the midst of Greece's crisis, Chad and I sailed somewhere between Athens and Napfoli listening for the most recent updates on their economic situation. Fortunately for us, we narrowly missed the riots and fires but made it in time for the garbage strike to plague the city. Awesome.

Since I'm feel particularly lazy these days, I'm combining two stops in Greece in one post. Enjoy.

Athens, Greece

Acropolis. Parthenon. Olympic Stadium.

22 Weeks at the Parthenon

Poseidon's Temple

Napfoli, Greece

Corinth Canal. Roman Ruins.

The picture below almost got me kicked out of the museum... apparently you can put your grubby little fingers all over the marble statues in Greece but you can't photograph them. Go figure. Typically my guilt would force me to delete this photo but Chad loved it so therefore it was spared.

Paul the Apostle preached on this podium...

his letters address the Corinthians in the New Testament.

Town of Napfoli, Greece

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land. ~G.K. Chesterton

The End

Also, I thought you might like to know that our collection of baby supplies is growing steadily. We now have 6 pairs of socks, 6 beanies, a onesie, and a 7 euro rocking horse. We're making progress.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the Adriatic (one can surely see why). The city itself earned most of its success and notoriety due to the maritime trade that took place there in earlier centuries.

The Old City is surrounded by thick walls and turrets meant to protect it from invasion. The walls still stand to this day even after surviving shell attack and damage in the early 1990s.

Up Next... Greece!

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. ~Seneca

Flight to Venice and the city itself...

Our boat disembarked from the lovely city of Venice. We considered it lovely until we spent 2 hours aimlessly wandering through it's crooked back alleys in 80 degree weather after three different locals told us the 'porto' was that way... no, this way... or over there.

Now we just think Venice is a good place to go to if you have no plans and no time restrictions. Then it's an okay place.

Anyways...

Our 300 Euro flight to Venice.... they better give me a damn sandwich.

Venice, Italy

22 Weeks Pregnant (in Campalto, Italy)Needless to say, we eventually found the port... and our boat... and went directly to the stateroom to elevate my sausages, er, feet in hopes to reduce the swelling that occurred from the 2 hours of walking mentioned earlier.
And then we went to the top of the ship and watched Venice disappear (along with the chubby toes)...


And tomorrow.... Croatia....

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu

(and that's all fine and dandy unless you have a boat to catch...)

Hi Grandma!

my love/hate relationship with vacation

I loved our little vacay. It was grand. There was sun, gelato, and picture taking for everyone.

Unfortunately, it's back to reality which means laundry, cooking dinners, and dog walking. ::sigh::

We also returned to crap weather which has resulted in hanging up my flip flops and breaking out the umbrella. It's not right for May.... even in Stuttgart.

Anyways, I took a lot of pictures. I just move pretty darn slow these days and sleep usually always wins out over blogging. Hence the delay. But here we go...

(typically I would start in order with Venice and Croatia but iphoto has different plans so we'll come back to that in the future...)

So we'll begin with Izmir, Turkey where we visited Ephesus (one of the seven 'Antique Wonders of the World' you see) and the House of Virgin Mary. We also bought a Turkish rug... but that's an entirely different blog in of itself. Moving on.

For those of you historically challenged people like myself, Ephesus is an ancient Greek city in Asia Minor. During the Roman period it was the second largest city in the Roman Empire, with only 15 % being excavated at this time.

Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia and is mentioned in the book of Revelations (courtesy of Wikipedia... because I was too hot to listen to the tour guide).

In it's hay day, it was quite a happening city. With this large population it was one of the biggest cities in the World... and now it looks like this:

They've done a remarkable job excavating this place... even preserving the latrines (or odd shaped hole in rocky surface... cozy). I would also like to mention that I was about to pull my pants down and put these to good use... it took all my will power and clenching to hold my now useless bladder.

After Ephesus and a fabulous Turkish lunch, we stopped to see how Turkish carpets are made. You wouldn't want that job... trust me.

There's worms in there... in case you didn't know. Silk worms of course.

After our Turkish carpet purchase... we visited the House of the Virgin Mary. Many believe that this is the home where Mary lived out her final days. Apparently it is known that John the Apostle was at Ephesus and Jesus asked John to take care of Mary after his death and so it makes sense that if John was somewhere, Mary would be near. Also, a German nun had revelations about Mary's house and described it perfectly as it is situated today. The nun had never been outside the country but could describe this home in great detail. And so it has become the House of the Virgin Mary.

Until next blog...

T