Thursday, December 6, 2007
Fun Birthday
It was a great and fun birthday except a little incident with the chocolate that Josh brought home with a bottle of champagne. They took out Ally's tooth! What a tough chocolate!! Guessed when you get old, your body just started falling apart. (Fortunately, we had insurance here and it was easily fixed.) Anyway, I couldn't let a fallen tooth stop me from having a delicious dinner at an African restaurant. In fact, our order was a big platter that included Ostrich, antelope, and crocodile. They were very delicious. Everybody's dish turned out to be great. That was definitely some food I don't know how to make. I am not even sure where to buy Ostrich, antelope, and crocodile...perhaps if we are living in Africa, I would be able to find them in the backyard.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Lucerne Switzerland


It was a Piano Festival week in Lucerne. There were concerts held in Kultur und Kongresszentrum Luzern (Culture and Convention Center). There were also free piano shows in the local bars and restaurants. So, we picked a restaurant which happened to be a vegetarian restaurant. We enjoyed the music and the candle light dinner very much although we are not vegetarians.
We had a quick stop at the Zürich. The Zürich train station was fulled of Christmas market booths and people. It's so feasted. Switzerland is such a beautiful country. We are definitely going back to visit again...and hopefully in a better weather conditions.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Baking


Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Luxembourg and Trier
When Josh said, let's go to Luxembourg. My job was to research options for transportation and a hotel. Lucky us, I found a special deal on the train ticket and a reasonably priced hotel within walking distance to the downtown of Luxembourg city. Find the deal, make the trip; that's my methodology.
Luxembourg city is a small but very beautiful city by nature. Its wide canyon, which was full of water/ice, showed the Early Jurassic sandstone formation (water retreat marks). We took a two- hour-walking tour around the old town and the lower town. Our tour guide seemed to be a history buff and had a great passion for the city and his job. He gave us so much historical information.. from the early Roman era and the multiple other rulers; from birds,
economics, population, geography, to religions. It was almost overwhelming but totally worth it. There were some interesting stories too, for example, the stature you see on the left...pay attention to the leg. If the horse's left leg was up, it meant the person had died naturally. On the other hand, if the horse's right leg was up, it meant the person had died in war. If no leg was up, it meant the person was still alive when the stature was made. Another one was how an Abby got turned into a prison, then hospital, then a prison again, and now to a culture center with free admission. The tour guide also talked about Trier city (a German city by the boarder) which is the oldest city in Germany.
After the lesson, we decided to leave Luxembourg early and visit Trier since we had to change trains in Trier to come home. The first thing we saw was Porta Nigra (the best preserved Roman city gate north of the Alps) before we entered the old town. Porta Nigra is also known as black gate because the gate turned black
as it aged. We also visited the Trier Cathedral and Roman bath palace. By luck, we came across a festival. We had no idea of what
they were celebrating but it looked fun and interesting. There was a live band, beer booth, and people in customs.
It's always fun when we travel...we never know where we will end up and what we will see.
It's always fun when we travel...we never know where we will end up and what we will see.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Road trip in Lorraine Region France
Loved driving the French countryside... especially on the Deutsch Auto Bahn with a convertible. Downside? It was about 45 F outside and cloudy. We were not going fast but...a "scooter" WAS. It had to be going at least 130 km/hr (about 80 miles/hr). A scooter not a motorcycle...no kidding.
So... it all started pretty good...we had a convertible, borrowed a GPS from a friend, and printed out maps just in case the GPS went kook. With all that, we still got lost... so lost that we had to call our friend Julia to reconfirm our Chateaux's name and address. (Here are two things you should know about driving in the French countryside at night - dark and no sign or tiny sign if you have eyes of owl.) I was so frustrated and my dear husband was trying lighten up the mood by saying, we might see wild boar since we were in the countryside. I said, why wild boar not deer?? Inquisitive wife as always...hehe~ I had no idea where Josh got the idea of seeing wild boar... Anyway, after one and an half hour of being lost and driving on the same road back and forth we finally found a 'road' --size of a bike path (with no sign) leading us to the right town. And a nice guy who jumped into his car and led us to the chateaux. No sign for the chateaux of course...we could have driven pass it without knowing it's there. Finally, we checked in about 10 pm. We were tired and hungry, so we decided to get some food. We were driving and just so happy that we found our chateaux. Suddenly, we turned happy to stunned... wild boar in the road...there was a big wild boar family - a mom, a dad, and countless babies... Josh was speechless...(I guessed he was just joking when he mentioned it earlier) and I just kept saying "pig...pig..wild boar...it's real...they were real...there were tiny pig babies. We probably interrupted their meal or dirt bathing time." Then, the mama and papa wild boar led all the babies crossing the road to hide in the dark. We were laughing so hard and could not stop laughing. That was the highlight of the day after a 5 hour drive which was supposed to be 3.5.
Came back from the dinner and walking to our room without our host was super creepy. It's a real old castle unlike the one we stayed last year (old but been modernized). This one was old too and was kept/decorated in the traditional way. We had to go through two very long and dark hallways to get to our room. And our room was huge and had portraits around the wall. Imaging all the eyes looking at us in the dimly lite huge room...I slept...ok.
So that's the chateaux Autigny-la-Tour...not so creepy in the day! They also had a duck that would follow us around. I called that picture "Josh got a new friend!" Click on "our pictures to share" to see pictures inside of the chateaux and Josh's new friend.
Next night, we stayed at another tiny town, Coussey, since the last one was not available. It was a last minute type of road trip. This one had a very interesting long name - "La Demeuroe du Gardien du temps qui passe" and Chambres D'hotes. It was a cute, warm, and cozy old house. Side notes: The bathtub in the room looked romantic but not very practical. They served dinner also. We had dinner with six other adults and 3 children. It was not much of talking but lots of translations.
Since it's a countryside weekend, we stayed only in the tiny towns, Autigny-la-Tour and Coussey. We also visited the little towns of Neufchateaux and Toul that were not on the tourist book. We just found an old chateaux and decided to drive there and play it by ear after the first night. Well, it's a countryside road trip... how I could describe it. It was green, lots of cow, sheep, and wild boar (we saw a herd of wild boar after our late dinner heading back to our chateaux.)
On the way home, we visited Nancy (pronounces Nuncy in French. We got corrected a few times.) Nancy was a very beautiful city. We only spent a few hours walking around the city. I would like to go back and visit again...but Josh said...there are so many places yet to visit. So...we'll see.
So... it all started pretty good...we had a convertible, borrowed a GPS from a friend, and printed out maps just in case the GPS went kook. With all that, we still got lost... so lost that we had to call our friend Julia to reconfirm our Chateaux's name and address. (Here are two things you should know about driving in the French countryside at night - dark and no sign or tiny sign if you have eyes of owl.) I was so frustrated and my dear husband was trying lighten up the mood by saying, we might see wild boar since we were in the countryside. I said, why wild boar not deer?? Inquisitive wife as always...hehe~ I had no idea where Josh got the idea of seeing wild boar... Anyway, after one and an half hour of being lost and driving on the same road back and forth we finally found a 'road' --size of a bike path (with no sign) leading us to the right town. And a nice guy who jumped into his car and led us to the chateaux. No sign for the chateaux of course...we could have driven pass it without knowing it's there. Finally, we checked in about 10 pm. We were tired and hungry, so we decided to get some food. We were driving and just so happy that we found our chateaux. Suddenly, we turned happy to stunned... wild boar in the road...there was a big wild boar family - a mom, a dad, and countless babies... Josh was speechless...(I guessed he was just joking when he mentioned it earlier) and I just kept saying "pig...pig..wild boar...it's real...they were real...there were tiny pig babies. We probably interrupted their meal or dirt bathing time." Then, the mama and papa wild boar led all the babies crossing the road to hide in the dark. We were laughing so hard and could not stop laughing. That was the highlight of the day after a 5 hour drive which was supposed to be 3.5.
Came back from the dinner and walking to our room without our host was super creepy. It's a real old castle unlike the one we stayed last year (old but been modernized). This one was old too and was kept/decorated in the traditional way. We had to go through two very long and dark hallways to get to our room. And our room was huge and had portraits around the wall. Imaging all the eyes looking at us in the dimly lite huge room...I slept...ok.
Next night, we stayed at another tiny town, Coussey, since the last one was not available. It was a last minute type of road trip. This one had a very interesting long name - "La Demeuroe du Gardien du temps qui passe" and Chambres D'hotes. It was a cute, warm, and cozy old house. Side notes: The bathtub in the room looked romantic but not very practical. They served dinner also. We had dinner with six other adults and 3 children. It was not much of talking but lots of translations.
Since it's a countryside weekend, we stayed only in the tiny towns, Autigny-la-Tour and Coussey. We also visited the little towns of Neufchateaux and Toul that were not on the tourist book. We just found an old chateaux and decided to drive there and play it by ear after the first night. Well, it's a countryside road trip... how I could describe it. It was green, lots of cow, sheep, and wild boar (we saw a herd of wild boar after our late dinner heading back to our chateaux.)
Monday, November 5, 2007
Cagliari Italy

It took us visiting Italy three times (once in 2006, we visited Rome, Florance, and Venice) to adapt to Italian lifestyle. We ate no earlier than 9pm for dinner! Thanks to our flight schedule it was easy for us to adjust... After we checked in at the B&B we went out for dinner... it was already 10pm. In the next two days, we took short naps or breaks between our explorations and dinners. So...we could finally blend into Italian's (or Southern European's) life style - afternoon nap and late dinner. Nothing could go wrong with Italian food so we picked things randomly from menus (no English menus). We were so happy that the dishes we ordered turned out to be mussels, baby octopus soup, seafood spaghetti, Sardinia caviar spaghetti, various fish, and some we could not recall anymore. I also happened to find a traditional Sardinia sweet that it's made of nuts, raisins, flower, sugar, and whatever to make it taste so good. It smelled so good that we had to get it. We had it with a bottle of wine and a shot of local drink from our host before the nap... It was perfect for a afternoon snack!!
We took a bus to Pula to see Nora (a super old ruin), probably the oldest built in Sardinia. The

This was one of our favorite trips - wonderful B&B location and host, beautiful city, tasty food, relaxing schedule, and the interesting ruin.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Bus Episode
When it comes to taking public transportation, it can be really crazy. Most of time, we don't know which train or bus to take and then... it's hard to tell if it's time to get off. Sometimes, we don't even know where or how to purchase the tickets. Usually when we ask those questions, we get "$%^&@%^&)(*" depends on whichever country we are in.
So...about two weeks ago on a trip to Maulbronn visiting the monastery.... we managed to find the right bus to take but couldn't figure out when to get off. Finally, I asked the bus driver "Maulbronn? Monastery?" He of course replied,"&*()_)(*^%$" I looked at him and looked at the only other passenger left beside Josh and I... and repeated again "Monastery?" The driver kept on driving and ignoring us. Minutes later, both the driver and the other passenger signaled us to get off the bus. After we got off, we realized that the bus driver had to turn around the bus and dropped us off at the Monastery. We should have gotten off the bus a long ago...
Bus schedule can only be suggestions in Italy... If we were in the main station, it's always on time. If we were somewhere else, we could never count on it. And we leaned "why" on the trip of Bari. We found the right bus from the airport to the main train station and another bus to the B&B. We had purchased two ticket from the first bus which we took on a second bus to the B&B. Josh asked the second bus driver if we needed to purchase another two tickets but the bus driver said we were okay (in Italian of course...we just guessed we were okay). We didn't understand why...but we believed the driver. Just when the bus took off from the main station, five or six big guys stood up and said something really loud in Italian and signaled to check tickets. Josh hanged over our tickets and I had my fingers crossed (because in the first bus I saw a Italian poster with 100Euro sign ... I guessed it's a fine if we didn't have valid tickets). My guess was right...and for whatever reason our tickets were valid. Whew!!! We saved two hundred Euro. But the guys behind us were not as lucky as we were. All we heard were very loud conversation and argument in Italian and lots of commotion. One appeared to get a 100 Euro fine. The other seemed to have trouble providing any legal ID document. One of the ticket checkers even asked the driver to stop the bus and got two policewomen (who happened to be walking on the side walk) in the bus to arrest the undocumented guy. Josh and I were like....we got to buy bus tickets every time we take bus. Later, we found the bus ticket was valid for as many buses as you needed in 75 minutes from being punched.
So...about two weeks ago on a trip to Maulbronn visiting the monastery.... we managed to find the right bus to take but couldn't figure out when to get off. Finally, I asked the bus driver "Maulbronn? Monastery?" He of course replied,"&*()_)(*^%$" I looked at him and looked at the only other passenger left beside Josh and I... and repeated again "Monastery?" The driver kept on driving and ignoring us. Minutes later, both the driver and the other passenger signaled us to get off the bus. After we got off, we realized that the bus driver had to turn around the bus and dropped us off at the Monastery. We should have gotten off the bus a long ago...
Bus schedule can only be suggestions in Italy... If we were in the main station, it's always on time. If we were somewhere else, we could never count on it. And we leaned "why" on the trip of Bari. We found the right bus from the airport to the main train station and another bus to the B&B. We had purchased two ticket from the first bus which we took on a second bus to the B&B. Josh asked the second bus driver if we needed to purchase another two tickets but the bus driver said we were okay (in Italian of course...we just guessed we were okay). We didn't understand why...but we believed the driver. Just when the bus took off from the main station, five or six big guys stood up and said something really loud in Italian and signaled to check tickets. Josh hanged over our tickets and I had my fingers crossed (because in the first bus I saw a Italian poster with 100Euro sign ... I guessed it's a fine if we didn't have valid tickets). My guess was right...and for whatever reason our tickets were valid. Whew!!! We saved two hundred Euro. But the guys behind us were not as lucky as we were. All we heard were very loud conversation and argument in Italian and lots of commotion. One appeared to get a 100 Euro fine. The other seemed to have trouble providing any legal ID document. One of the ticket checkers even asked the driver to stop the bus and got two policewomen (who happened to be walking on the side walk) in the bus to arrest the undocumented guy. Josh and I were like....we got to buy bus tickets every time we take bus. Later, we found the bus ticket was valid for as many buses as you needed in 75 minutes from being punched.
Bari Italy
Flat, lots of olive trees, and unusual houses were the scene from the Bari airport to city center. It was not much too see and I started wondering what we were going to do here.
Next day, we took a super slow and old train (we are spoiled by the German fancy train system) to Alberobello 56 Km southeast of Bari. We were not sure what to expect or to see besides a little description from tourist information office. After a little walk later, we found the so called Trulli*.
It was very interesting to see. When we walked around the trulli village, Josh kept wondering if these trullis would have leakage problems since they were built by piling up limestone. It didn't appear that any dirt or clay was used from the outside until we went into the gift shops... he saw that the inside of trulli was nicely constructed with no holes on the roof. It was too bad that the museum was closed. They had weird open hour (generally, people in the south close business between 1-3 in the afternoon) except for the gift shops... luckily... we got some unique souvenir for my roof collection.
*According to World Heritage, "the trulli, limestone dwellings found in the southern region of Puglia, are remarkable examples of drywall (mortarless) construction, a prehistoric building technique still in use in this region. The trulli are made of roughly worked limestone boulders collected from neighbouring fields. Characteristically, they feature pyramidal, domed or conical roofs built up of corbelled limestone slabs."


We spent another day exploring Bari's old town which was a fish market way back when. Streets were narrow; buildings were crowded; people's laundry stuck outside of their balconies (I happened to pick a street without the laundry for the photo shoot...it's really everywhere.) We also found anther roof tile that was originally from the Cattedrale San Sabino and the price was ONLY a thousand Euro. We both decided to pass. It was a raining day and windier by the coast. Our umbrella was totally destroyed at the end of our trip. We ended up spending our time in various neighborhood coffee/bar to avoid the bad weather. Fun and interesting, but not the sun filled Italy we had hoped for!
Next day, we took a super slow and old train (we are spoiled by the German fancy train system) to Alberobello 56 Km southeast of Bari. We were not sure what to expect or to see besides a little description from tourist information office. After a little walk later, we found the so called Trulli*.
*According to World Heritage, "the trulli, limestone dwellings found in the southern region of Puglia, are remarkable examples of drywall (mortarless) construction, a prehistoric building technique still in use in this region. The trulli are made of roughly worked limestone boulders collected from neighbouring fields. Characteristically, they feature pyramidal, domed or conical roofs built up of corbelled limestone slabs."
We spent another day exploring Bari's old town which was a fish market way back when. Streets were narrow; buildings were crowded; people's laundry stuck outside of their balconies (I happened to pick a street without the laundry for the photo shoot...it's really everywhere.) We also found anther roof tile that was originally from the Cattedrale San Sabino and the price was ONLY a thousand Euro. We both decided to pass. It was a raining day and windier by the coast. Our umbrella was totally destroyed at the end of our trip. We ended up spending our time in various neighborhood coffee/bar to avoid the bad weather. Fun and interesting, but not the sun filled Italy we had hoped for!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The wonder land - Netherland
Whichever city we visited, we usually picked a couple of museums to see. Here in Amsterdam, I went to Van Gogh Museum. The more I got to know him...the more I thought what a depressing guy lived such a bitter life. However, that's probably why his paintings were so great. Too bad that he didn't live to see his own success. Then, I went to Heineken Experience to cheer myself up.
There were so much to see with so little time. I only got to see a fraction of Amsterdam and Netherlands. I hope to visit the country again in the near future.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Maulbronn Monastery (Kloster)
Maulbroon Monastery was a significant historical architecture site. It was designated a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Herrtage Site in 1993. It is just like the Pyramids of Gizeh, the Great Wall of China, or the Spanish Escorial.
Look at the color of trees in the picture. Don't you love fall. It's so beautiful.
Oktoberfest (Volkfest) in Stuttgart
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Photo time
On the left are some pictures from a very interesting day.
We spent the day touring Taiwan...from mountains to ocean....one hair-style to the next....dress after dress. Yes we participated in the Chinese wedding photo circus.
A whole street in Taipei dedicated to shops selling the whole package... dresses, make-up, tux, photographer...
...the end result. Two photo books, a 24" blow up picture, but best of all we get one super sized portrait....
Well, it was a LONG day, but pretty fun....and Ally looked pretty hot in all those outfits.
Click on Our Pictures to Share for more...
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
3 Fs
What do Josh and Ally do in Taipei? The answer is "3 Fs - Family, Friend, and Food" We meet with family or friends for lunch, afternoon tea,snack, dinner, or after dinner snack. In the picture, Tony is my main contact with the college friends. He always contacted everyone and made reservation for the restaurant. This time, he was also a tour guide and photographer for Josh and I. We biked around Tam-Sui river and visited Guan-Tu Temple.
As you can see the bike on the bottom left of the picture...Can you believe that I even got (rented) a pink bike... cool!
The tranditional antique Guan-Tu Temple... Don't you want to take a closer look yourself... It's really magnificent.
Ally's dad and mom at Taiwan Beer Brewery in Yi Lan. We took a day trip to the east coast of Taiwan and drove by the brewery.
We couldn't actually see the beer making process but visited the souvenir store...and brewery memorial hall. It was interesting to know about Taiwan Beer's history.
The tranditional antique Guan-Tu Temple... Don't you want to take a closer look yourself... It's really magnificent.
Ally's dad and mom at Taiwan Beer Brewery in Yi Lan. We took a day trip to the east coast of Taiwan and drove by the brewery.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Little sister
Hot, Cold, Hot, Cold...changed in seconds
Crisp air, brisk wind (felt warm to hot in an instant...then cold to freeze in the next few seconds), pricey (about 3X the continent)... that's Oslo Norway... but not all...there are ocean views, tons of art statues, and friendly English speaking Norwegian.
Oslo is a surprising artistic city but doesn't have much of old town flavor like other cities we visited. A couple places that we loved the most this trip were the home museum of Edvard Munch (famous paintings such as Scream and Sick Child) and the Vigelandsparken (Vigeland Park).
The park displays sculpture works by Gustav Vigeland whose form extra-
ordinary tableaux of fighting, play, and love. It's quite the opposite of Munch's paintings which were about sickness, jealousy, and death. We took a lot of pictures in the Vigeland Park...you can click on 'our photo to share' link to view them. They were incredible.
We also visited Nobel Peace Prize Center, Akershus Slott (castel), Vegeland Museum, and Oslo city hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented.
Great Seafood too!!!!!!!!!
The park displays sculpture works by Gustav Vigeland whose form extra-
ordinary tableaux of fighting, play, and love. It's quite the opposite of Munch's paintings which were about sickness, jealousy, and death. We took a lot of pictures in the Vigeland Park...you can click on 'our photo to share' link to view them. They were incredible.
We also visited Nobel Peace Prize Center, Akershus Slott (castel), Vegeland Museum, and Oslo city hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented.
Great Seafood too!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Our Favorite City - Vienna continues...
Stephansdom (Stephansplatz) - beautiful and interesting church where contained an impressive collection of works of art and buried many important bishops. We took a tour down to catacombs to see where they kept the jars of organs, coffins of bodies, and some public grave yards with exposed bodies. We could actually see piles of bones (not kidding.) Pretty creepy~
Schönburnn Palace and Gardens
We had some more chocolate desserts at the end of our second day...AND the next morning to finish the wonderful, beautiful and "sweet" Vienna trip.
Have I said enough beautiful yet? We love Vienna.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Beauty of Paris and Order of Germany - Vienna
Chocolate croissant, tiramisu, and a coffee... guess which meal of the day I was having .... Breakfast! I was not the only person who had desserts for breakfast. Everyone in the coffee shop was. How lovely to start your day with chocolate and cakes! I love it!!
Vienna has the beauty of Paris and the order of Germany, Josh said. Everywhere we looked, we could not help saying "it's so beautiful." As we turned around and looked behind us, we would again said "oh...it's so beautiful...and that...oh...is so beautiful..." We must have said it at least a hundred times.
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