A Royal Visit in Bury St. Edmunds - Freedom of the Borough Parade

Last week Bury St. Edmunds received a very special visitor - Prince Charles, son of Queen Elizabeth II.  He was in town to honor and present Operational Service Medals to 110 British troops for their bravery while deployed in Afghanistan (click here for a full news article about the event) .  I was lucky enough to attend the ceremony in our town center - it was so special to see the families and the troops and the pride they had for what they do. 

It was also a really special event because the Apache helicopter was heavily featured.  Brian works with the Apaches in his current job, so I've learned a bit about them recently.  They actually landed one right in front of the Angel Hotel in the center of town (the hotel where Brian and I lived for 6 weeks when we first moved here).  They also shut down the gardens across from our house so the Prince's helicopter could land there.  In the evening after the ceremonies, the Apache took off from town center - it was such an incredible sight to see it up close and personal.  We even took Lilo to see her first helicopter take-off.  =)  She did pretty well until it started moving into the air - then she panicked and sat right in my lap until it was safely gone!

Here are some of the pictures we were able to get that day.  They don't do justice to the event or to the feeling you had being there that day, but hopefully it'll at least give you an idea of what was going on in Bury.  And for those who are interested, here are links to videos of the Apache landing and taking off in town.  Hope you enjoy!

The Apache in front of the Angel Hotel in Bury St. Edmunds

Prince Charles saluting the British troops

The Apache leaving Bury St. Edmunds that evening

Visiting Family in Croatia

After quite the adventure on the train, we finally arrived in Croatia.  We went there to meet and visit a part of Brian and Crystal's family for the first time.  I never thought I would visit Croatia, but I'm so glad I had the opportunity to do so - it ended up being one of our most favorite parts of the trip!

Our hosts could not have been more wonderful.  We feasted like royalty on homemade Croatian food, including vegetables grown in the family's own backyard garden.  Brian and Crystal were esepcially happy to have some Croatian dishes they remember their grandmother making when they were young, specifically apple strudle and dumplings.  We also learned two new drinks in Croatia that were big hits - Gemist (white wine and sparkling water) and Bombus (red wine and Coca-Cola). 

On Saturday, we spent all day at the family vineyard eating and drinking of course!  It was one of the most peaceful places I have ever been.  We enjoyed lunch under a canopy of grapes and vines and learning about the wine-making process.  The family makes about 1,000 liters of wine each year (and I think we drank about half of that over the weekend as we continually made Gemist and Bombus!)  =)

That night, we went into the town center for the town festival and to get gelato and of course more Gemist and Bombus.  It was very surreal to realize we were partying in Croatia, and it is a memory I will always remember. 

Brian and I are already planning a trip back hopefully sometime in October so we can be a part of the wine-making process this year!  For now, here are some more pictures from this final part of our Italy-Croatia trip with Crystal. 

Overnight Train to Croatia

After an amazing two days in Venice, it was time to make our way over to Croatia to visit Brian’s family (more on that part of the trip tomorrow). In the meantime, though, I had to write about the trip there. Venice is so close to Croatia that there isn’t a flight between the two – the best way is to go by train. Being the smart, economical travelers that we are, we thought “Great, we’ll do an overnight train there to avoid a night of hotel cost.” Brian thought the trip was fine, but I’m pretty sure that’s the last time Crystal or I will do an overnight train…

It was so hot in Italy, and I was worried about not having A/C on the train – sure enough, when it pulled in, we saw that it just had windows that you could put down. Brian convinced me this was better because there would be good airflow and the air would be cool at night. As we made our way to our car though, we realized that we actually had an “air conditioned” compartment without any windows. The compartment was off of a hallway on the train and had 6 seats, 3 on each side facing each other. Brian got on the train first to get the A/C going. He told me it was getting cooler, but when I got on the train 15 minutes later, the cabin was still really hot. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make 9 hours – luckily, we did have a portable mini-fan that Brian set up for me to make it more bearable. The sign on the door to our compartment specifically said to keep the door closed to make the A/C work the best. But when Crystal got up about 1 ½ hours into the train ride, she noticed that the hallway was much cooler and had better airflow. So we finally opened the door, which made a HUGE difference. In fact, by the middle of the night, we were all so cold we had to wear sweaters!

When traveling from Italy to Croatia, you cross through Slovenia and then into Croatia, which is not part of the European Union. As a result, we went through a few passport checks, which were pretty unsettling experiences. The first time, we were pulling into a station when I had the brilliant idea to go to the bathroom. As I was there, we stopped and all of a sudden, someone was trying to open the door and yelling at me in a language I didn’t understand. I opened the door to find out what was going on, and it was an officer demanding to see my passport which was back with Brian in the compartment. He was not happy! A few hours later, we had turned off the lights in our compartment and were half-sleeping when a large group of officers came on the train at another stop. An officer came to our compartment, switched on the bright light, and demanded to see our passports again (we still didn’t understand the language, but the message was clear enough!) Finally, after numerous ticket checks throughout the night and not a lot of sleeping, we pulled into Koprivnica, Croatia…

A Tour of Italy with Crystal

When Brian's sister was coming over to visit, she said she wanted to see Italy, and boy, did we set up quite the Italian adventure!  In hindsight, it was a lot to do in less than a week, but we wanted to make sure she got her money's worth and saw different parts of Italy. 

We started in the Tuscany region of Italy where we stayed in an Agriturismo and did wine tastings and food tastings throughout the region.  An Agriturismo is like a farmhouse or vineyard house - you're basically staying with a family in the countryside.  Unfortunately, we needed a designated driver so only 2/3 of us could do wine tastings at a time, but in the end, I think we can all say we enjoyed a lot of Italian vino!  =)

After Tuscany, we made our way to Florence, which Crystal and I had never seen before.  It was a completley different feel than Tuscany, more of a big city obviously.  We stayed in a great B&B that had color-themed rooms.  Ironically Crystal got the orange room and we got the blue room - GO GATORS!!!  =)  Florence was a bit overwhelming, and it was really hot.  I know my friends and family in Florida will say it's nothing compared to Florida's heat, but it's hard when most places don't have A/C where you can escape to! 

Two nights later, we took a 2-hour train ride to Venice, a city I have always wanted to visit.  It was more beautiful than I even imagined.  We took a waterbus to our hotel (because of course you can't drive anywhere!), and it was just so beautiful to see the architecture from the Grand Canal.  One of our favorite parts of Venice was shopping for glass in the little stores - it's so amazing to see them make such intricate pieces of art out of glass!

We finished up in Italy, but our adventure was not over.  From Venice, we boarded an overnight train to get us over to Croatia to visit Brian and Crystal's distant family who we had never met before.  The train was quite the event.  More details on that tomorrow!  In the meantime, hope you enjoy some of other pictures from beautiful Italia!

Bed and Breakfasts vs. Hotels

We have stayed in all types of accommodations while traveling through Europe, some really good and some really bad. The major theme we have discovered though is that 95% of the time, we prefer a B&B to a hotel. Here’s why:

• The B&Bs we have stayed in have ALWAYS have been spotlessly clean, much better than hotels. I’m convinced it’s usually run by these great families who are dedicated to having a high-quality B&B for their guests that is as nice or nicer than their homes.
• You feel like a personal guest, not just another person staying in a hotel. We’ve really enjoyed talking to our B&B hosts and hostesses to learn about how they started their business, why, and where they enjoy traveling. The people we have stayed with always seem to care that we have a good stay and will do anything they can to make us comfortable.
• The food is good! At most B&Bs we stay in, breakfast is included and we’ve had some good ones! It’s usually the man or woman of the house back in the kitchen making a breakfast that is traditional for that area.
• B&Bs have character. For us, nothing beats staying in someone’s home to really see what life is like in a country.

We do stay in hotels too, particularly in larger cities or areas that don’t have a lot of B&Bs. But if it’s economical and we have a choice, we will ALWAYS choose the B&B.  Here are some pictures of our favorite B&Bs - enjoy!

Breakfast in Europe

A good breakfast is a requirement when you are embarking on an adventurous travel day. And man, have we had some good breakfasts! The thing that we have loved the most is seeing how each country we visit does breakfast. Here are some details of our favorite European breakfasts:

England – England’s breakfast is synonymous with a heart attack it seems! The traditional English breakfast includes a poached egg, bacon, baked beans, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, and toast. It’s good on occasion, but definitely not one that we could do every day!

Scotland – Same as above except you add an interesting item called black pudding, which is “is a type of sausage made by cooking blood or dried blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding).

Germany – A German breakfast is right up my alley. Usually you will see a hard-boiled egg and a great selection of breads, meats and cheeses so you can make your own breakfast sandwich. My favorite part is always the German coffee too!

Spain and Italy (Italy pictured on right) – Breakfast is almost forgotten in these countries because based on our experience, people are still sleeping at traditional breakfast times! =) Usually we just end up with a small sandwich, quiche or croissant and some coffee or espresso to hold us over until lunchtime.

And as a final note, we NEVER feel guilty about any calories we eat at breakfast because we ALWAYS burn them off during the day! =)