Rothenburg ob der Tauber Germany

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is the picture of the typical medieval german town. If you ever had a vision of what a Traditional German look like, you are seeing Rothenburg!

We went to visit it on the weekend of the "Imperial City Fest". It was a beautiful day to do so.

This view above is the most pictured part in Germany. I thought it was pretty funny on that pictures as you can see lots of people taking the picture of it!

Every year the town of Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber celebrate their "Imperial Festival". It was cool to go and visit this beautiful medieval looking town and seeing the history come to life. Music group, the Royal Riflemen parade.

But they also had tones of peasants showing of what a peasant use to do at the time.

The celebration start on a Friday until the Sunday. The first night they have a Torchlight procession and fireworks with music along the facade of the Town hall mark.

And on Saturday they have another Fireworks in the Tauber Valley.

And just for the beauty of it, you can visit the Franciscan Church and when we did, they just had a wedding celebration the day before. The decoration were still there.

Riding on Tricky

So Matt decided to go on a ride and for once I agreed to accompany him. First we had to fill up. It was a beautiful evening. The funny part was that his bike got overheated and we had to stop and stay for a while on the side of the road. The nice part was that we had a gorgeous view of the sunset on the Neckar River in Heidelberg.
This is one of the reason we love leaving in Europe. It is so nice to just being able to pop in and go enjoy the view of a beautiful town.

Strasbourg France

Summer time is the perfect time to go visit Strasbourg. It is a beautiful town with lots of things to see and to do. So when Charmaine's family Pam and Vidhu came to Heidelberg, I took the 3 of them to Strasbourg for some visiting and some shopping. We stopped at a local restaurant and had some nice traditional food. Lots of little shop in the center near the cathedral. And beautiful little house!!!

Strasbourg Cathedral

Needless to say that it was a beautiful and fun day. With beautiful and fun ladies.

It was great. Thanks Charmaine, Pam and Vidhu... we just need to do it again!

Sailing Lesson Drama

We went to my mother for a week in August, and Damien was to take some Sailing classes. Well he did the first day, and the weather was so bad (wind, waves, rain) that he got scared. They were on a pretty fast sailing boat and the guy that was with him was an instructor decided to race the other boat. So it was a pretty fast first introduction to the water/sailing. It was too bad because he was really looking forward to be learning to sail, guess we'll have to go and visit our friend in Nebraska with the lake house and make him learn on the lake. (so much calm water) So Matt went for the rest of the week, as we couldn't "possibly" ask for our money back (even though they were the one scaring the crap out of him) And he enjoyed it a LOT!! See... All smiley!!

Brittany France

During our vacation in Brittany we went to the family farm. When I was a little girl, we went on vacation there, and spend a lot of time on this shoreline. The kids had some fun. Playing in the sand, Rafael was very couragious and went in the water on his own, walking all the way to the water up to the top of his arm.

Needless to say that I was kind of worried, but thought that since nothing ever happened with us children during all those years, there were no reason why something will happen to him!!

One evening we went out and took a little time to cruise the sea shore. You can see the town of Quiberon (oh, and I know it is blurry, I didn't have my tripod with me) This is honeysuckle, this remind me so much of my youth. It was always there around the farm, so this is always special when I see and smell those!

USO Paris July

This visit to Paris was going to be one of my latest visit with the USO tour. So... I did something that I have always wanted to do.

Just cruise.


I enjoyed just checking out Shop windows. Street Vendors, etc...

This one was kind of cool. A Tableware shop diplaying a new Plate design (of Paris monuments) and showing it like you were looking at it from above, but it was in a window (wonder if they used super glue?)

Laduree Store. It is a place where you can go and eat some sweets. The "Macarons" are one of their creation that they are well known for. But apparently it must be pretty good! Look at the line!












Walking around Paris, you can find lots of street performance like this guy. I thought it was kinda cool the way that he stand all day long on the column and be!







This was taken on the "Champs Elysees" not too far from the American Embassy. Did you know that you can't take picture of the Embassy? I was surprised and disapointed, It is such a pretty building, and to be in Paris and seeing the Stars Flowing next to a very old building. Make me want to shoot it. However, I was stopped by a Police officer (yes French) who made sure that I didn't have ANY pictures of the building! Bummer!!! What a party pooper!!













I also went, and that was the place I have been looking to go visit for a while. On the outskirt of Paris, in St. Denis. To go visit the Basilica of Saint Denis (funny because the French call it the "Cathedrale Royale de Saint Denis")
This is the place where most of the French Kings are buried. Nearly every King from the 10th to the 18th Centuries are there.(All but 3 kings are now buried here) Also most Queen were crowned there (King were in Reims)

The last King of France: Louis the XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, his 2 daughters and his sister are buried here since 1806 (Time of Napoleon's exile and the "restored Bourbons" reigns.) The heart of the Dauphin de France (son of Louis XVI) is also there.