Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Our 7th Anniversary

Our anniversary day had the most perfect weather! After Carson had finished work for the day, we decided to sit by Lake Aa and enjoy the sunlight. 

We'd picked up this Bacchus from the Juliusspital in Würzburg over the weekend and enjoyed it as part of our little picnic while watching the ducks











 Later, we changed into slightly nicer clothes and decided to walk into the Altstadt for dinner. 




We were going to walk and find something for dinner, but ended up spying Lazzaretti and deciding to have dessert before dinner. We chose something else when we first glanced at the menu, but saw someone else order this and it looked good so we shared one too.

After deciding we didn't really know what we wanted for dinner, we decided to just pick something up on the way home. Now that it gets dark so much later (9:30pm), it doesn't feel like it's dinnertime just yet so most places were closing. Carson picked up some pasta and a calzone for dinner and we enjoyed it on the couch with comfy clothes!

We decided to go off our usual traditional anniversary gifts this year - they would typically be copper and wool - and Carson got me Birkenstocks (the buckles are a copper color) and he got some Toms to replace his long-loved and very work tennis shoes (they are gray which is a color I associate with wool soooo... maybe they still count?!). 

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Groningen, Netherlands

Carson had a last-minute opportunity to go to Groningen overnight for a conference. It was a great trip for him! He had some great academic conversations, felt more encouraged in his study track, and got to see a fun little city! I don't really know much about the places he saw, but he took a ton of pictures, so here you go!














Carson stayed in a hostel and it was relatively quiet and inexpensive!










Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Weekend in Würzburg

We just went to Würzburg for the weekend! Carson ran a half marathon with several of our friends, and we spent the remainder of our time exploring the cute little Bavarian city. 

Our trip started in Münster! Lloyd arrived at 11pm the night before, and we got up early on Saturday morning to show him around the city a little bit before hitting the train station to head East. 

Jaime gave us a tour of the city when we arrived. We walked around the outside of Juliusspital, a winery owned by a private hospital. I can't find this information online, but I'm told that the proceeds of the wine actually pay for the stays of the patients inside, so that's a creative business plan!



Maypole at the Würzburg Cathedral. I haven't seen these in our part of Germany, but I'm told it's a big thing in Bavaria.



St. Killian Cathedral


Marienburg Fortress. We never made it up here, but we had a nice view of it from the bridge, Alte Mainbrücke. This is a place where tourists and I think locals go to drink wine. It's very popular and they sell wine by the glass out of the nearby windows. We went to dinner and then headed back there. 















That night, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the American-style cheesecake that Jaime had picked up for us while playing a rousing game of Settlers of Catan. We had more players than we should, so Jordyn and I were a team. The game was very long and at one point we decided to just end it so some people could catch the tram back and so that everyone could get some rest before the race. We decided to make the winner the person with the highest points - and it was Jordyn and I with 8 Victory Points!


The Half Marathon
The race didn't start until 9, but everyone wanted to make sure they made it into the city before the trams stopped running, so they left at 7:30. I stayed behind at the hotel, along with Jordyn's friend, and we went into the city several hours later to meet the group toward the end of the race.

Our Fulbright racers.

While waiting for the tram, I received a text from Carson (yes, he texted while running) saying that the race route actually was very near our hotel, so Joel and I walked over there in time to see Jordyn race past and then Carson not far behind.



We made it into the city but had to walk a decent way (not 13.1 miles though!!) to get to the finish line. We met up with Jaime, who had finished in a little over an hour and a half, and she watched Lloyd, Jordyn and Carson run past on the way to the finish line with us. She ran in college, so she was their little trainer and cheerleader.



I also have to say that Carson put this face on to be funny. At least I think so!



By the time we'd located them in the crowd of finishers, everyone was enjoying their post race pretzels and snacks, along with (non-alcoholic) beer. All finishers were awarded a medal as well!




We walked back to the closest tram stop, Jordyn and Carson groaning at the sight of stairs. 




 After everyone had freshened up and we'd checked out of our hotel and then walked back into the city to meet up and get some lunch. 

Everyone got their own pizzas from Locanda for lunch. I too thought this was excessive, but I also didn't run a half marathon, so I kept my mouth shut while everyone else ate their entire pizzas. They were pretty cheap for such cheap ones - 7 Euro or so!




After we'd eaten, we all headed back to the train station where everyone said their goodbyes. Carson and I took a Flixbus to Frankfurt and then a train from there, enjoying a little 80mph ride on the Autobahn. 
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