Ahhh, Paris

I consider myself blessed. This is true everyday, but then there are days I feel extra specially blessed. Our first anniversary in Paris was day after day of feeling fantastically blessed. We flew from London to Paris for the weekend to celebrate an amazing first year. Paris earned the reputation of the city of romance. We walked along the banks of the Seine, ate yummy crepes from street vendors (fromage for Mark, nutella for me!), we strolled the Champs Elysees, and of course visited the iconic Tour de Eiffel. I think Paris is a beautiful city year round, but we found Paris at Christmas time to be especially enchanting. Everything seemed dressed for the holiday and dressed immaculately well. There were no garish Santas just a bevy of lights tastefully adorned on every building and street corner.
Here we are in front of Notre Dame's beautiful Christmas tree.
And here we are walking along the Seine looking back at Notre Dame. We stayed on the top floor of a little boutique hotel on the smaller island of Isle Saint Louis next to Notre Dame so we ended up with lots of Notre Dame shots!

And here we are in our room before heading out to for our anniversary dinner at the fabulous Le Grand Colbert courtesy of our friends the Hortons and Lehmanns.

All in all a fabulously memorable first anniversary and a wonderful and fitting end to our first year of marriage spent here, there and everywhere. We are truly blessed.

Back in London

We've been in London for a while now and I've had a few queries as to whether any more blogs would be forthcoming now that we'd be more settled. Whatever that means. Regardless here we are... for a while... I think.
People ask us regularly if we like living in London, how long will we be here, and what we miss about home. And the answers are: yes, I don't know, and friends and family.
But despite only being here a short time we've already been lucky enough to some people come visit... bringing home a little closer. Besides, visitors provide a welcome excuse for some photo ops.
Claudia visited from San Francisco back in October. Yes, I'm slow.
Here we are on the fourth floor of the Tate Modern looking out over the Thames with St. Paul's in the background.

And here we are with Tower Bridge as the backdrop.
This weekend we had another California visitor, this time Kristen from Sacramento. Although, Kristen was here for work, we certainly managed a lot of playtime too!


I'll maybe have more to say in the coming weeks since we'll be hitting the road again, at least a little. We'll be celebrating our anniversary in Paris. And then visiting family and friends in Canada and California. Then, we're thinking the next trip after that will be skiing somewhere in continental Europe this winter. I'll keep you posted!

Sondervig Sunsets

There is a reason I love living on the west coast. Sunsets over the water. And that holds true to any west coast that can give me a nightly show. And the west coast of Denmark's Sondervig certainly delivered.

Sondervig Summer House

About 10 kilometers west of Rinkobing is the resort area of Sondervig. Mark's mom's family has had a small summer house there for a number of years. I won't go into the details of our misguided arrival that had us wandering around looking for the house that Mark hadn't been to in about 15 years, but suffice it to say we were happy to finally kick our feet up. Literally. Mark was a big fan of the hammock. We maintained a rigorous schedule. Up at the crack of 10am. Read Harry Potter by the fire. Take the one minute walk to the beach. Look for amber on the beach. Hit the hammock. Repeat.
I have to say I was convinced, absolutely convinced I would find a piece of amber in the sand during one of our numerous walks. I can't count the number of times I picked up a brown rock and showed it to everyone only to have them (translation, Mark) laugh at me and chuck my rock in the water. Pick up brown rock. Show Mark. Ignore laughing. Repeat. And oh I forgot the part about knocking the rock on my teeth, because amber sounds and feels different than rock on your teeth. At least so I'm told.
After a couple of days of rainy beach weather akin to Stinson beach in the winter, the rest of the Fleeton clan arrived and brought the sun with them. Will couldn't find any amber either.
We had a great time between hanging at the house, playing at the beach, eating fabulous Danish pastries and playing card games into the wee hours of the night.
Mark bought a kite for Will ...
but Will was most pleased with the plastic cleaning bucket.
Climb into the bucket full of water. Splash and laugh. Be removed by adult from said bucket.
Repeat.

Mark's Famous Ancestry

Do you know the name of Denmark's most famous explorer? And no fair answering that if you're related to him. Ludvig Mylius Eriksen (known by his middle name of Mylius) was a famous Danish explorer who bravely navigated previously uncharted areas of Greenland, he also happens to be Mark's great great uncle. There aren't a lot of descendants of Mylius because he died in Greenland without ever having children.
When we arrived in Rinkobing, Mark's aunt Karen met us at the train station and showed us around the town where Mark's mom and the man whose name she carries (Lene Mylius Fleeton) both grew up. Mylius has his own statue and an entire wing of a museum dedicated to his expeditions.
As we toured the museum and read about what he did, I was struck by two things. One, that I was learning about the history that will be part of my children's history. And secondly that perhaps my husband comes by his wandering nature naturally.
I think it is a shame that Mylius is not well known outside of Denmark. In Denmark, he is certainly known, just ask Mark and Jack who got free beers from some toasted Danes who learned of their ancestry. And speaking of.... this most famous of Danish explorers is getting some new recognition. His own beer. That's right, move over Carlsberg and Tuborg, there's a new brew in town: Mylius. There were some family disagreements over whether or not a namesake beer was a good tribute to Mylius. Now that the decision has been made though, I'm hoping it will be a smashing success at least enough to get Mylius some more name recognition outside Denmark. Give my future children's peeps some props please.

Copenhagen

Arriving in Denmark gave us some serious sticker shock. Especially after a summer filled with plenty of good deals and cheap eats. But on the 100 dollar train ride from Aarhus to Copenhagen we witnessed the most amazing sunrise I've ever come across and it was totally free. The sunrise felt especially gratifying after the long day we had just endured to get to Denmark. We had started the day in the Czech Republic, leaving there about 10am. We took a van to Linz, Austria for a 4pm flight. We stopped over in London for an 8pm flight, arriving in Aarhus around 11:30. Took the shuttle from the airport to the train station and then waited for the 1:30am train to Copenhagen.
We deserved a good sunrise.
I thought it appropriate that we began our trip in Ireland where Mark's dad hails from and would be ending our trip in Denmark, where his mom is from. And we were lucky enough to have relatives to meet us both times. Jack, Angela and Will had been in Copenhagen already for about 6 weeks, so while not exactly locals they did know how to get us around and take care of us.

Isn't that the best to be able to show up and have people there to take you to all the right places? And we had our own personal entertainer in Will. That's one of the many things I love about kids. Everything is funnier when they are around. Everything tastes better too.
Spaghetti sauce:
Milk freshly squeezed by Uncle Mark:
Raisins. Remember when raisins were a special treat instead of part of a healthy breakfast cereal?
And my personal favorite, ice cream!
I learned that very early on in my television career you can't go wrong with a cute kid... people love pictures of babies and puppies.

Seconds, please

I felt excited and a little nervous to be heading back to Prague. Excited, because I loved it so much the first time and nervous because I feared it would be much changed now that Prague had been back open to the west for nearly 20 years.
It some ways, both of those things were true. Mark hadn't been to Prague before and we enjoyed our visit and he could see why I liked it so much. And yet, the throngs, and I mean comparable to Venice throngs of tourists could get a little old. For example the very cool old clock in the main old town square. Every hour, the bowels of the clock open up and the twelve apostles parade around to mark the passing of another hour. And, like clockwork, every hour there are about 200 people crowded around it looking up for the apostolic show.
But there is good reason that so many people want to visit Prague it is a beautiful city that charmed me as much this second time as the first. It is funny going back to a place you've been before. I was convinced I had the general layout and direction of the city in my head from my first visit and therefor could adequately navigate us from point to point. And I did well, generally, in a that general way. Specifically I kept getting us to dead ends. And every time I could look up or around and say, "you see there it is, right there, that way." Actually getting there was always more of a challenge. Despite our misguided wanderings we had a good time in Prague. A good first for Mark, and seconds for me.

Vienna and The Kiss

Vienna is a city of art, culture and refinement. In addition to being the home to Mozart and a plethora of museums it is also home to the less well-known histories of the “poke a nun” and “beach a bitch.”
Don’t ask.
Okay, well if you must know, Mark narrated a tour of some of the lesser known tourist spots of Vienna for me. A tour not many are lucky enough to experience. No one else in fact I’m sure.
We had major problem during our days in Vienna. It was sweltering. Temperatures of 40+ (that’s 100+ back in the States) and humid. Sticky, sweaty, I don’t care if we do or see anything even if we are in Vienna hot. Fortunately one of the things on my list for Vienna was a certain museum which I figured would be air conditioned and out of the sun. I’ve actually had very few lists during the past months of being away. I am usually (as anyone who has ever lived with me can attest to) a devoted list maker. I make to do lists, shopping lists, what I’ve worn for the past month list (a certain Jane Kim Gauger would want to be sure I included the what I’ve worn list, in any list I make about lists). But I am a relaxed enough traveler that I don’t feel the need to make lists while on the road. Besides I don’t have enough clothes in the backpack to warrant a list of what I’ve worn over the past month.
But, in Vienna as we struggled to get motivated to even leave the hostel, I came up with a list of one item for Vienna.
“The Kiss.”
Photographic reproductions of Gustav Klimt’s most famous painting don’t really do the piece justice. I suppose that’s probably true of a lot of art. Seeing the real thing gives you a real sense of why it is widely considered a masterpiece. For “The Kiss” the pleasure of the real thing lies in the color. Klimt painted with real gold and silver that not only shimmers and shines in person but gives an almost 3-D quality to the piece.
We sat on a bench in the gallery for a good 20 minutes just looking at the painting and soaking up its beauty.
Artistic bliss.
And the bench was right by the air conditioning vent. I’ve never loved a painting more.

Salzburg & Eisreisenwelt (or something like that)

Okay so there are 2 audiences that we’re addressing here:
The sound of music – nice little movie about perfect little kids that skip in the hills and sing songs and play in the hills and “ahem, It’s wonderful really, it’s a nice little place with a great musical…did I mention its my wife’s favorite musical”
I personally couldn’t wait to get out of Salzburg largely due to the heat we experienced there but more importantly with how we would be able to find complete escape from it when visit the largest ice cave on the planet just about an hour to the south.
Imagine the biggest cave you’ve ever seen, and then imagine something a whole lot bigger. This cave is bigger. Its accessible from Salzburg by a 1 hour train ride, a 15 minute walk, a 20 minute bus, then another 25 minute walk, then a gondola ride, and then another 20 minute walk. And at last you come to this:
Did I mention its 42.5 km deep!!! This cave is dark and huge, its so cavernous winds can push their way out the entrance at 120 km/hr. We felt the icy wind, and then proceeded to tour the first kilometer of it which requires you to hike 1500 stairs to get to where you want to be.
And all along the way you see 25 meter ice stalagtites and stalagmites...
ice walls...

ice shapes...
and ice tunnels...
We froze in there, for about 90 minutes but everyone one of those was worth it.

Innsbruck

Some people come to Austria for the Museums and Classical Music of Vienna and Salzburg, others simply come to hike and explore caves, fortunately we managed to do all four. We took our overnight train from Brasov Romania to Vienna managing to see absolutely nothing of Hungary from the hours of 1am to 6am except passport control. Staying all of 1 hour in Vienna with a promise to return we connected to Innsbruck. Kate has been to Innsbruck before when she was 5. Its where JP taught her to skip. And you can see here she still knows how and is delighted to show anyone.
When you’re not skipping chances are you’re hiking, at every point while standing anywhere in the city of Innsbruck if you look up you’re guaranteed to see the top of at least one mountain clambering up a short distance behind any building.
We spent 2 of our 3 days getting up into the hills.
Nice long hikes, all very rewarding...

.... and a bit tiring