Tag Archives: Falconry

The Perfect Recipe – Great Friends, Food & Tons of Fun

Sometimes living abroad is hard.  Like when you miss a good friend’s wedding in upstate New York – an event that turned out to be the social gathering of the year (according to Facebook pictures and word of mouth). Thankfully Dave and Jill completely understood when we declined to come.  Or when one of your best friends tells you that he’s planning on “popping the question” via email, because there’s really no easier way.  Those are the types of conversations that should be reserved for a late night in a neighborhood bar, complete with lots of back pats and free rounds for the groom-to-be.  Thankfully, Josh was great about keeping me in the loop, sending us pictures of his wonderful proposal to Abby in Charlestown earlier this year (and even calling us via FaceTime shortly afterward).  So, yeah – living abroad can be hard when you miss these special moments in your friends and families lives.  However… when we’re able to host our friends and family here, we are always grateful for the experience abroad.

Abby, Josh, Jill, Dave, Jen and Julia

For that reason, we were absolutely thrilled when we heard that Josh and Abby were going to come visit us.  We coordinated the timing of their trip so that they would be visiting during a beautiful time of year and the start of Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.  As soon as they booked their airfare, I reserved our train tickets to Munich, which I’ll write about in the upcoming post. Continue reading The Perfect Recipe – Great Friends, Food & Tons of Fun

A Castle? OK… I’ll Take Two!

I did it!  I saw my first castle.  It was wonderful – so tender and caring.  And it lasted all morning!  A first I’ll never forget!
Hohenwerfen Fortress

When we drove into Austria, the hardest part after visiting Innsbruck (read about it HERE) was choosing which castle to visit.  We had already planned on visiting Salzburg next, so I carefully chose among the four major castles near the city.  I settled on Hohenwerfen Fortress about 40 km southeast of Salzburg.  The plan was simple – leave Innsbruck early and drive straight to the castle.  We would spend an hour or so at Hohenwerfen Fortress and then head to our hotel in Salzburg.  My plan was solid – but I underestimated how much fun we’d have at the castle, and we ended up staying nearly four hours. Continue reading A Castle? OK… I’ll Take Two!