L'aventure américaine

And so the final leg our journey commenced with just Sterling and I cruising along in the Opal.  As previously stated, we headed to Luxembourg first for two reasons: 1) I couldn't seem to navigate to Strasbourg and 2) We thought Luxembourg might be as cool as Liechtenstein.  So, we arrived in Luxembourg City and although hungry, we were happy! Luxembourg was just a little bit of a bust though.  It was Sunday, so everything was closed except the extremely expensive restaurants that were open due to a marathon in the city.  We did get to walk quite a bit though, enjoy some views and saw some Luxembourgian hookers near where we parked (still better than Pisa...  nothing was stolen!), so it was all in all, a satisfying trip. But, we headed to France and decided to stop in Verdun, since the name sounded vaguely familiar.  (It was a big battlefield during World War I and is famous for the amount of devastation that occurred during the time.)  It was a wonderful place to stop and

On our last day in Germany, we decided that we wanted a third car for our adventure.  That is, the grinding brakes of our 2nd Panda decided this for us, so Sterling and I headed to the Stuttgart airport to pick up Opal (Opal Corsa, that is).  Sterling realized as we arrived that the Stuttgart airport had tree-structures that he had designed in college, without knowing that Stuttgart already had them in place.  Quite exciting to see them!   We then set out to find some sort of elevator/ferris wheel in Stuttgart and meet the rest of the Jochim's.  No go on the elevator/ferris wheel (closes on weekends), but we had to head back to Esslingen anyway to get ready for Daniel's birthday bash. And it was a good one!  Daniel ate his risotto and loved his presents.  I erred a bit when deciding to open presents before cake, and Daniel had quite the meltdown during his birthday song when I took him away from all of his exciting gifts for cake.  He recovered by the time he ha

Sterling and I have safely arrived in Detroit and are waiting for our flight to Phoenix. In other words, one 8.5 hour flight done, one 4.5 hour flight to go. We enjoyed our stay after Germany. We left early Sunday morning after a great birthday bash on Saturday night. Then we headed to Luxembourg to warm up my French before stopping in lovely Verdun for the night. We walked around the city a bit (saw a star fort!) before leaving for Fontainebleau, home of nearly all the French royalty pre-Louis XIV and post-Louis XVI. It was beautiful. We slept in a modern hotel, closer to Paris last night and headed to the airport this morning. Four movies later, we arrived here in Detroit! But, I can see that we're starting to board... Until the next time... Or until I have a new computer!

I've been basking in the European Jochim presence these past couple of days and for those of your that follow Daniel and Josephine on the Cute-o-meter, the numbers have only gone up. Thursday we all went to the zoo, which was quite fun. Daniel saw elephants and giraffes and bears and monkeys (Josephine saw about half of that, since she dozed through the first half of the zoo). It was a delightful time by all, but I would say that we were all having meltdowns by the end. Sterling returned Thursday night and joined us in our Esslingen activities yesterday. We wandered around town and went up to the castle that overlooks the town. We also had lunch in a Biergarten, which was kind of a point and shoot selection until the waiter realized that we didn't speak German. (He said that Charles and Elisabetta's German had been so perfect that he didn't realize we were foreign.) Then it was easier to order. I, for example, got "Mouth Pockets differently" and Charle

So, picking up after our stay in Rome... We drove to the Tivoli Gardens, an Italian renaissance garden that was started in the 1550s and includes an organ fountain that plays music while spraying water up in the air. It was a beautiful little stop and we did our first purchase of our meat and cheese lunch that kept us full and happy throughout Italy. We left Tivoli, struggling, but succeeding with Italian roadsigns and headed to Orvieto. We met two of Jennifer's friends from her architecture program and shared a delicious meal in a restaurant in a grotto! Truffles are currently in season, so, of course, I ate pasta with truffles (the start of a three night run of this). Incredible. We camped outside of Orvieto that night near a little town called La Rocca. The campsite was beautiful and full of peach, cherry and apple trees, but unfortunately, it rained on us and clothes were quite wet. It also precipitated a sharp drop in temperature, so camping was put on hold for the time

Greetings from Esslingen, Germany! It has been a whirlwind trip so far and I am about to head to bed, but I'll quickly load a few pictures and hope to write in more detail tomorrow. Quick recap: Thursday: we arrived in Rome and took a walking tour of the city as the last post stated. Friday: Picked up our Fiat PANDA and headed out of town to Tivoli Gardens and then to Orvieto where we camped near La Rocca. Saturday: We packed up, visited a couple more sites and stocked up on meat and cheese and drove to Sienna. Sunday: After lovely Sienna (oh so pretty), we went to my personal favorite: Volterra where we stayed in a seminary built in 1002. Fantastic little town. Monday: We drove northwest, stopping for a very unfortunate hour and a half in Pisa (stupid *&#$%ing Pisa, as it is now known) where our car was broken into and my laptop and computer were stolen. Black Panda was sent for repairs and the White Panda was picked up, so we could happily leave Pisa and continue onto Cinq

A quick post before we leave Rome for our Italian adventure as I stand in the street outside of a locked Notre Dame building while Vespas speed by: Sterling and I arrived yesterday morning at 7am, a bit sleep-deprived, but ready to go! We saw Jennifer's (Sterling's sister) apartment at la Piazza Trilussa next to the river in a beautiful area of the city. We proceeded to take a pedestrian tour of some of Jennifer's favorite spots like the delicious Caffe San Eustechio. (They featured a photo of Kissinger sampling the coffee) It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking up Palatine Hill, staring up at the Pantheon, eating gelatto at the Frigidarium and then again 15 minutes later at Il Teatro (where Jennifer and I tried rosemary/sage, white chocolate/basil, kiwi, and apple cinnamon flavors... delicious!). Dinner was a Rick Steves' recommendation that we had trouble finding due to his terrible map and then forgave him promptly when eating the incredible dinner (pecori

Last week my good friend Kristi and her pal, Andrew, flew into sunny Arizona for a week of desert fun. So, what did we do as soon as I got out of work last Wednesday? Hopped in the car and left the state, heading to California to Joshua Tree National Park. It was a visit that we Arizonans weren't as thrilled about (we live in the desert... we want to see more desert?), but once we arrived and set up camp in Jumbo Rocks, we realized that it was the perfect place for a desert vacation. Nicole, Kory, Kristi, Andrew, Sterling and I had a wonderful time cooking gourmet meals over the campfire and exploring the park. We hiked to the top of Ryan Mountain (at just a little over 5000 feet) and explored Barker Dam. Our favorite activity, however, was the many off-trail, rock-scrambling adventures where we cautiously or not so cautiously jumped from rock to rock. A couple of Joshua Tree facts for those desert enthusiasts... Joshua Trees are pollinated by a single type of moth; they