Europe

I love going to Europe. It's my favorite place to go on vacation. I've never been on a tropical vacation (although that will soon change with an impending trip to Hawaii), but I can't imagine enjoying it as much as I've enjoyed my trips to Europe.

I think part of the reason why I like it so much is that Miriam really likes it too. The weird thing is that Miriam and I don't really have the same taste on many things. But loving to go to Europe is one of them, so it's something that we both probably enjoy equally, which heightens my personal enjoyment of it, if that makes any sense. So we have some great memories together there, as well as great memories individually.

I first went in the summer of 2000, on a summer school type trip through UCLA. Definitely the best academic experience I had while I was in school. We basically spent a month in Stratford-upon-Avon and studied every play they were doing that season at the RSC (except for Henry V, which premiered after we had left), as well as getting the chance to see the plays. At the same time, Miriam went to Germany to begin her year abroad. So after my program was over, I trekked over to Germany and stayed with her for about 2 weeks. It was very nice - we were in Goettingen, which is a quaint university town, so it was pretty peaceful and we just enjoyed the good food, the Europe-ness of the city, etc. It also had the best hostel I have ever seen in my entire life - I got a single room for about $10 a night. No lie - I'd rather stay there than most of the hotels we've stayed in.

I ended up going back the following year with Miriam's family at the tail end of her year abroad. That was an interesting experience in itself, but there was a lot of good travel. England again, Germany again, but we also went to France. Probably the highlight of that trip was going up to Normandie, to Bayeux, and going to visit the American cemetery, the one they show in Saving Private Ryan. Very spiritual experience.

Finally, we went to Europe on our honeymoon. This time to Austria, where I had one of my top 2 musical experiences in seeing the Vienna Philharmonic (up there with seeing Michael W. Smith on the Acoustic Tour in 94, I believe - I can see Miriam cringing right now), then back to England where we got to see Dame Judi Dench in All's Well That Ends Well, which could have been our theme for that night. Quick story - so we had to catch a train out of London to Stratford - it's about a 2+ hour train ride, if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, I somehow had read the train schedule incorrectly, so when we showed up at Paddington Station, there was no train leaving when I thought it was leaving. Turns out the next train we could catch dropped us off at Stratford about 15 minutes before the play was supposed to start. We had luggage, had to check in to our hotel, and the really bad news was that it said that if we didn't claim our tickets by 15 or 30 minutes before the show started, they could give them to stand by patrons. So we get off the train, and straight book it to the playhouse - we end up getting there with about 3 minutes to spare, with luggage in tow, sweating like maniacs (at least I was), and totally out of breath. Thank God our tickets were still there. I put our bag down by the coat rack, we go in to our seats, and just have time to settle in when out comes Judi Dench to begin the play. I can't tell you how much command and presence she has on stage - it's a sight to behold.

Anyway, this is a pretty boring entry. Here's a pic of us standing in front of the house where Herr Mozart was born.