Long Weekend: London 2016

Originally, we planned that our last big trip in Europe would be a road trip around England and Scotland right before we moved back to the US. Then, we looked into the cost of such a trip and decided maybe we weren't THAT interested. Greg was very insistent that he wanted to the London one more time before we left, so we decided that one long weekend trip was probably within our budget.

Surprise!

...The surprise being that I am updating the blog.

Middle Rhine Valley in October.

Obviously, I haven't taken the time to update this with the second half of our Norway trip or any of the adventures we've done since then.

Since August, we've enjoyed our last fall living in Germany, our last Christmas markets, a short trip to France, a visit from Greg's sister and brother in law, an ill-fated "ski" holiday to the unusually warm Alps and a recent trip to London. Now, we're gearing up to say goodbye to Germany, and (more importantly) the Army, for good.

Partnachklamm

I recently found out that I was accepted into one of the three grad school programs I applied to. I am still waiting to hear from one sometime in the next few weeks and another has invited me for an interview in February which I am debating whether or not I want to attend. I'm feeling pretty confident, though, because the one program I was accepted into is probably the most selective, only admitting 8-10 students per year.

Greg has started preparing for his upcoming job hunt and is feeling very positive about the end of his military career. We're ready to move on with our lives. There are a lot of things that we are going to miss about Europe, but we can always come back in the future if we would like.

Tower Bridge

We're debating about whether or not we will do any more traveling in our last few months here. There are a few more places we would like to visit, but may not make it to all of them. And, ultimately, that's okay. We've had a lot of fun in the past 3 years but we're ready to focus on our next stage of life: building careers that we value and enjoy.

What will happen to this blog? Well, depending on where I decide to go to grad school, there may still be some extensive travel in our future. In the meantime, I should probably just focus on updating all of the fun things we've done before we return stateside!

Weekend Trip: Prague, Czech Republic

This weekend, we decided to take our first true road trip since we've moved to Germany. We've talked about going to Prague for the past year. In order to take a train to Prague, it would take about 9 hours rather than the 5 it takes to drive. After much debate, we decided to have our first road trip since May 2013.

Cruising the Mediterrenean Part 5: Dubrovnik, Croatia

After leaving Greece, we sailed along the Albanian coast before reaching the final destination of our cruise, Dubrovnik, Croatia. When I first booked the cruise, I sort of shrugged off Dubrovnik as being just another location like Bari that we didn't particularly care to visit. After a little bit of research, we quickly changed our minds.

Day Trip: Cologne, Germany

Today, we took our first real adventure outside of the comfort zone of our city or a neighboring military installation. We packed up the GTI and headed to Cologne!

One Year

A week ago, Greg and I celebrated one year of being happily married. Even though we've only spent a month of that time living together, it was great to get away and reflect on the roller-coaster that was our first year of marriage. With so many military members having these miserable marriages that end so quickly in divorce, I'm happy to say that Greg and I are adjusting very well back into our relationship together since he's been home.
We drove out to Pagosa Springs for a long weekend of snowboarding, hot spring dipping and drinking. As is typical for us, we took more pictures of the stops we took on the way to our vacation than our actual vacation. On the way there, we stopped at the Royal Gorge to walk Augustus and generally terrify myself on the giant bridge to nowhere. Augustus had an intense stand-off with a bighorn ram, but somehow, we all managed to make it out of that park alive.

Imagine a rickety wooden bridge swaying over a million foot drop to jagged rocks.

The scenery everywhere was awesome. I wish we lived farther west in the Rocky Mountains where everything is beautiful all the time and it snows in increments of feet.

Pictures don't even do it justice.

On Sunday, we spent the day at Wolf Creek, where they actually had 4 feet of real snow on the slopes. No need for the fake snow they have to throw down on most ski resorts in Colorado. I took a snowboarding lesson while Greg boarded the most difficult slopes alone. We are at two very different skill levels, obviously.

It was about 5 degrees outside by 3pm

The rest of the time we ate, drank and froze our butts off getting in and out of the hot springs. On New Years, I was so exhausted I passed out around 10 pm. Guess we're getting old? Augustus had to sleep in a cage because the cabin owners were heartless chihuahua haters. He was happy when it was time to head home.

Along the way back, we stopped at the Great Sand Dunes which really just looked like giant snow drifts this time of year. Augustus chased Greg around off leash to get out some of his energy and then passed out the rest of the way home. 

Just a man and his chihuahua

It was a great trip! Next year, I'm thinking Paris for our anniversary and New Years. I mean, we'll only be a short train trip away, right?