The very first picture I posted from the trip to Charlottesville is from when we were driving through Wine Country. Virginia is basically a Wine State. Earlier, when we were on the highway, Lucy made the comment that most highways display signs for the nearest McDonald’s but highways in Virginia display signs for the nearest winery. It’s awesome.

Frist stop: Blenheim Vineyards:

Since she lived in Charlottesville, Lucy’s been to a lot of vineyards, and she was surprised to drive up to this one and see a giant barn. I had never been to a vineyard so I didn’t know any better. But if you look behind the barn at the building that is sort of underground, that is where the wine tasting happens.

This is what wine tasting looks like. Inside these banisters were glass windows and you could see the barrels of wine below. Neat-o. And then the wine tasting began:

Wine tasting at Blenheim was $5 a person for 8 different kinds to try. My favorites ended up being a 2009 Viognier ($19/bottle) and a 2008 Cabernet Franc ($18/bottle). Please ignore my fingerprint on this glass:

As you can see, outside of the winery was dun dun dun… a giant vineyard! A really nice backdrop. And now for a fun fact: The Blenheim Vineyards are owned by the Dave Matthews family. Intervesting. And he designed this label, which apparently he designs a new one every year:

I’m pretty sure I liked that one too. I just like all reds in general, typically, and have yet to develop a more discerning palate. In the mean time, on to the next!

Kluge Winery & Vineyard. The best part was the outdoor garden:

So pretty. So Kluge is a bit more fancy, and the wine tasting was a bit more expensive. They had two different sets you could get, one more expensive than the other. We got one of each to split among us. I think one was $10 and the other was $14? We also got some chicken salad and some cheese. Manchego cheese is my new favorite, which gets me thinking – how do they make cheese? How are there so many different kinds?! I’m clueless. And going to another wine and cheese party on Sunday after church. Moving on.

This is how the wines came. So that was different. You’re supposed to go from right to left and follow along on the list. Apparently they do have traditional wine tasting as well, and I think I like that experience better, when someone pours it in your glass and explains it to you each time. But I did like the setting and being outside.

Here, I could not tell you what my favorite was because honestly, after awhile they all started to blend together to me. I know Susan had a favorite white and that I like wine tasting. The end. Long post today, folks!

Hi! This is where I’ve been the last few days. Myrtle Beach, SC. Spent the weekend with nine of the coolest people and it was the perfect break. I don’t seem to have too many pictures, since we spent hours on the beach and I didn’t want to drop my camera in the sand (like somebody…) This picture of the beach was taken from the balcony of the condo. I replaced traffic noise with beach waves.

Proud Papa in his new SC digs, picking out some tunes.

This picture is why it’s fun to let other people use your camera. Thank you, Jeff, for capturing this lovely moment.

Gawking at the crazy fish at Broadway at the Beach. Broadway at the Beach is this strip of touristy shops and restaurants, not to mention the strangest area of bars like Senor Frogs and Fat Tuesday. Half Spring Break Central and half Bachelorette parties. I saw at least five. Also 100% very interesting folks. These people are the SOUTH. The hair, the clothes, the accent, the tribal tattoos (yes). We had a lot of fun putting on fake Southern accents ourselves. It was a different world. Anyway, the fish that live at Broadway at the Beach are disgusting. If you’ve ever been to Cedar Point (America’s Roller Coast), it’s like the fish by the Iron Dragon. If you haven’t been, just know it’s not pretty. But we carry on:

Because we found dinosaurs!

Myrtle Beach 2010! Ha. I’m lucky that I know people who will travel and we can take trips in groups. It’s so much fun. Also, exhausting. I am one sleepy, sleepy bear today. One more Myrtle Beach post for tomorrow, as we went to a seafood buffet. It may or may not be what you imagine. ;)

Happy Monday!

FYI, as you’re reading this I am actually on a plane on my way back from Amsterdam (we went back for one day before heading back to the US). But this post is about one of my last days in Berlin. Also, this photo is not of Alexander Platz. Alexander Platz has been one of the major points in this trip, it’s kind of the center of everything and it’s also the first place my German friend Alex took us when we saw him on Sunday. Alex in Alexander Platz. There you go.

Here we are at Alexander Platz:

The first picture in this post is the Charlottenburg Palace, which according to Alex, I should be moving into soon. I was nice enough to let my mom pick out her very own room to live in it too, even though he suggested most of the rooms should be filled with my household staff. Sure, that sounds nice.

This palace was quite a surprise though. When we got there it was closed for tours of the interior but we walked around the side and were able to explore the giant garden and park behind it. It was the kind of palace and garden you see in the movies, the ones where there’s drama and women running away in their long, fancy dresses. But this garden was open to the public and there were people running around it and dogs and tourists and people just sitting there reading a book. It was lovely.

My mom and Alex are best friends now. It was so cute when he introduced himself to my mom. He was like, “Hello, Mrs. S., I am Alexander Lehmann.” Oh, if you’re wondering how I know this Alexander Lehmann, I met him when he was on holiday this summer in New York. And now we hang out in Germany. The world is not so big!

After exploring the palace grounds we went to another area in Berlin, one we wouldn’t have even known existed had it not been for Alex driving us there in his fancy car. How nice it is to ride around in a car in the city. Berlin, New York… it makes no difference, anytime being in a car is a treat. We got some German food, drank some German beers. This time my mom got some raspberry beer and I got my beer with Fanta. Yum!

So it was a very good day. Thanks, Alex, for being our tour guide.

And now, I am on my way back to New York! YAY! See you soon!

We sat at the fish bar for awhile trying to figure out what was going on before my mom decided to ask the youngest chef guy there, “Do you speak English?” “Yes…” So he was really nice and he gave us an English menu and we were able to order successfully.

There is the nice young man we ordered from and here is the grill where all the action was.

Yum, yum, yum. Also, I got a glass of wine. White German wine and my mom says she’s going to start feeding me wine more often.

Here’s our food. Our meals also came with small salads and bread.

Delicious! And I love love wine with dinner. Except this was lunch, so…

Anyway. I was feeling a bit buzzing after that glass of wine. You know I had my smiley face going on and we wandered our way over to the childrens toy section on one of the floors and I found me a new Steiff friend to take home with me from Germany.

Yep, yep. There’s me and my bear. Ok, not the big bear, the little bear. He’s my new friend. I picked him up and carried him around KaDeWe with me before finally purchasing him and now he is sitting on the bed, waiting for me back at the hotel. He is such a dear. I’m going to name him something German… perhaps after one of the areas in the city? But for now I’ve just been calling him “Bear.”

Bear!

Oh you know, I’m just lying on the grass in front of the Reichstag Building. That’s one thing that I like to do that my mother does not. I just like to chill and take it all in, get a feel for everything and she doesn’t like to sit still for more than two minutes. But after our little bike tour I definitely needed a break.

After sitting there for less than I would have liked, we got in line to go up the Reichstag Building which has this really cool dome on the top that you can sort of see in that picture.

In line to go into the building, these giant butterfly people on stilts appeared and held up a sign over the line. If I knew German, I would know what it said but I don’t. The authorities didn’t like them being there so they kicked them off the steps and they had to go down to the grass, which I’m guessing is public space and the stairs were private.

It was really funny to watch this conversation between the officers and the butterfly men. I can only guess what was being said.

The security to get into the Reichstag Building was insane, my mom kept saying there was more security there than at the airport. They let groups of people into a room, shut the door and made them all go through security before letting any of them go into the elevator that takes you upstairs. Then, on your way out, they do the same thing, and put you through a room that only opens one door at a time. Crazy.

Anyway, those are walkways inside that dome and people walking on them. The top of the dome ceiling is completely open. We were there during the sunset which was pretty cool.

And on our way to the underground station to get back to our hotel, we had to pass by the Brandenburg Gate.

Pretty nice.

And no, I will not stop wearing the same thing. I’m pretty much out of things to wear, I’m wondering what the German equivalent to Old Navy is. Ha.

Today we went on a bike tour with this lovely fella, a part of Fat Tire Bike Tours. Four and a half hours of easy riding through the city, seeing all the sites and learning stuff and seeing naked men in the gay nude area in the park (seriously). And our little tour guide was a handsome one, always was a plus. This picture doesn’t do him justice, he’s half German, half American and all rugged. Haha. So that was fun.

We went alll over town.

One of our stops was a beer garden! I hope I get to go to another while I’m here (hopefully with my German friend Alex who we are meeting up with on Sunday) but it was wayy cool. I got a radler which is half beer, half Sprite, cause let’s be honest, I’m not a huge beer drinker. I like Blue Moon and I used to think I liked Yuengling but that’s pretty much it. So this half beer/half Sprite thing was amazing. It would have been even better if the bees weren’t swarming me but I’d still say it’s pretty good. I wonder if I ordered that in a bar in NY what they would think of me.

We also got some food.

My mother got Nuremberg Sausage that came with fries and that whitish stuff which I thought was cole slaw and maybe it was but it was served warm so who knows. I went for the potato goulash with sausage which was A-mazing and also had lots of veggies.

I’m thinking German food is pretty good so far. I’m also thinking I’m a huge fan of beer gardens.

Cheers!

We tried to go to the TinTin museum TWICE and it did not happen. It’s actually a museum about the creator of TinTin and all his other works too but I just wanted to go there for TinTin and we failed. We took the wrong train the first day and when the guy collecting tickets looked at ours, his eyes almost fell out of his head. Then he spoke to me in either French or Flemmish (or both) and I just starred at him til he told us to get off and go to platform D at the next stop. Well, there was no platform D at the next stop so we just got off and rode the same train back and went shopping instead.

Today was our second attempt, but this time we were cutting it wayyy too close with our flight to Berlin. By the time we finally got to the correct stop, we had to turn around and go all the way back again. It was a lot farther than we had anticipated. And so we made another train dude’s eyes fall out of his head when he saw us on the same train after it had made its last stop and turned around again.

Oh, well. No TinTin for me. There was, however, a tiny little store in Brussels and I bought two little reusable TinTin bags which I will be happy to use when I get back into my NYC subway kind of life.

It is WEIRD to not know where the hell I am going all the time. I’m so used to people coming and me telling them where to go and what train to take to get to what and in some of these cities I was absolutely clueless. At least most of the trains are pretty easy to figure out though. Berlin is gonna be easy peasy.

So yes, we are happy to be here because Brussels sucked. The only thing good was that I got to go to Pull and Bear which is this clothing store based in Spain that I actually went to in Athens years ago and was now able to go there again. I just got some weird leggings though, no cool shoes like I did last time.

Belgium as a whole is sweet, it’s just Brussels that isn’t so good. There is one other good thing though:

WAFFLES! I never order waffles in the States. I think they are bland and nothing special and I’d just rather go with something else. But in Belgium, oh no, that is not the case. First we made the mistake of ordering our waffles with chocolate which was just DROWNING the waffles in the damn chocolate and then one day I decided to try one plain and it was the best thing ever!! This one was in Brussels and we bought it out of a truck and it came off so hot that my mom had to set it on the napkin on top of a railing for a little bit. But once we could finally eat it, it was delicious! I don’t know if there’s just sugar on there or what but they are just a perfect, light little treat. It makes me excited because there’s a Belgian waffle truck that goes around NYC and I haven’t tried it yet, but now that I know there really is something to this Belgian waffle thing, you can bet ya I’m gonna find that truck. I mean, I already follow it on Twitter…

Back to TinTin for a sec… another good thing about Brussels (and I swear this is the LAST) is that there are random cartoons drawn on buildings all over the city.

For example.

It’s TinTin! I really cannot believe we never made it to the museum. I mean, watch it wasn’t anything that great, but I mean we tried to go there TWICE! And when will I ever be in Brussels? (NEVER!!!) But, oh well, I can watch TinTin online when I get home all I want and it’ll be exactly the same. Except not.

More cartoons:

Also, the city of Brussels is OBSESSED with this statue and I should probably look up its history but I’m paying for internet by the hour here so it’s not gonna happen.

It’s a boy peeing! Again, I have no clue of it’s significance but I don’t really care, it’s a boy peeing! And this boy was everywhere! I could have bought a thousand little boy peeing statues to bring home to you people. He was everywhere. INCLUDING a Coca Cola Ad on one of their machines in the Brussels airport. Because who wouldn’t want a Cola after seeing a picture of a boy PEEING right on top of it? We didn’t get it.

Aaaand one more cool thing from Brussels. Most of it is really well preserved and there really are some fantastique buildings, but we walked down this one street and I thought this building was the coolest of all:

Au revoir.

Another day in Bruges. We went on a boat tour through the canals and the tour guide was saying everything in at least three languages. Now, that takes talent. Sometimes I pretend I can speak a little French but there’s no way I could get away with doing that here. Pretty much the only word I’ve understood so far is “chocolat.” Yeah, baby.

Speaking of chocolate, there are literally chocolate shops on every corner. Sometimes two. And they make everything in the weirdest shapes. I’ve seen lots of ducks and things and today we were walking down a street and we saw some chocolate boobies. Out of nowhere. This is not Amsterdam, this is an old medieval town with a lot of history, beautiful cathedrals and chocolate boobies. Weird.

We finally saw an old-fashioned wind mill today which was one of my goals for this trip. And making my mom take pictures of me has produced some hilarious results.

I told my mom to take a picture of me in front of the windmill and she kept making me march further up the hill, saying she couldn’t get both me and the windmill in the picture. Well, she did it! And now I’m the size of my baby toe. Oh, mommy.

Our other feat of the day was climbing the Belfry tower, all 366 steps. Let me tell you, the stairs are narrrrrow. And I have a thing with stairs to begin with, certain ones just freak me out. Once in college I was looking to sublease an apartment for the summer and I immediately dismissed one because I didn’t like the stairs. So, needless to say, as we were trekking up these super steep, super windy and super narrow stairways, I was a little nervous. I just don’t like it when I can’t see around me, I’m just surrounded by endless steps above and endless steps below. Freaks me OUT. But we made it.

Now, in the movie, “In Bruges,” (which I am talking about again because my mom and I seriously just watched it on my computer) you can see the main square by looking down from the tower. Well, I sure didn’t see the main square when I was looking! I think maybe you can see it from some of the lower levels, but you just can’t look straight down from the top. And also they have those barriers, which I’m wondering if they’ve been added since the movie or if they were there before. Anyway, it was QUITE a long way to the top and the hardest part was that people were using the same staircase to go up and down so sometimes it seemed almost impossible for you to pass someone without knocking them (or yourself) down all 366 stairs. Somehow, we survived.

And here’s a picture of exactly what we conquered.

Alright, next stop: Brussels!

We are in Bruges and if you haven’t seen that movie, I suggest that you should. It’s pretty stellar.

Now, would you like to see the view from the room in our hotel?

Yep, it’s gorgeous. We have a huge window in our bedroom and also in the bathroom and I leave them wide open and the breeze comes in and it is just so LOVELY. I wonder what it takes to get a view like this in New York. I mean, my view of Prospect Park is pretty nice, but…

So I like it here. Would you like to take a carriage ride with me?

Dinner on a Canal?

Or maybe chocolate penguins are more your thing?

Let me know, ’cause I’m down.

When I pick which photos I want to include in my posts, I “flag” the ones I like most when I upload them in iPhoto. Right now I have 50 “flagged” photos. It’s just too beautiful here.

This morning we spent some more time in Antwerp, our first stop in Belgium. Unfortunately it was a Sunday so a lot of the shops were closed. But we did get to check out the Cathedral of Our Lady and it was pretty impressive. And huge. When we first stopped in, it was Mass so we had to come back later to look at all the paintings and architecture.

I’m about to change the name of this blog to, “My Mom Turns Around in Pictures.” Seriously, she NEVER lets me take pictures of her. And she thinks it’s a game, since you can CLEARLY tell she’s got a big ol’ smile in this picture. So, thanks for coming to Europe with me, mom, and all the pictures I now have of your ponytail. Haha.

Myself, on the other hand… I do not mind sitting pretty for a picture in church. I mean, really, when am I going to be here again?

The other thing we did today in Antwerp was buy some chocolates (and eat them). They had chocolates in the shape of the cathedral and in the shape of hands from some legend about a giant who would cut off people’s hands if they didn’t pay a toll. And they had chocolates with the letter “A.”

Here’s me at Centraal Station in Antwerp (which is also the picture at the top) waiting for our train to Bruges (or Brugge) with the A’s. They were filled with a darker chocolate that had a bit of a coffee taste to it. So far my favorite chocolates have been just solid dark, white does not do it for me.

And here’s a sign I thought was pretty sweet:

Final note: wish we had a hairdryer.