Location #3: Elsass Region, France

Back to the great European adventure.

Where was I? Oh yes, after four days in Munich, Germany, and a day trip to Salzburg, Austria, Marcos and I grabbed our backpacks and boarded a train with our Eurail passes in hand for our first major leg of the trip: Munich, Germany, to Strasbourg, France and on to Domfessel...


You know that rumor that pregnancy wipes you out? It's true, so I took as many opportunities to be wiped out as I needed. I'm still not sure how I managed to hammer out those 8-hour days wandering around large cities, but I am so thankful that Marcos and I had this experience for ourselves before our family grows and things change.

But back to the excitement... Our original plan was to travel directly from Munich to Paris, but hearing that my exchange family from high school was vacationing in the Elsass region of France (which is nearly exactly between the two), we decided to stop and spend a few days with them.

The biggest city in Elsass is Strasbourg, where we met my exchange sister Melisande and her boyfriend Jakob for an afternoon of exploring the city. I had been here before, but did not remember the place being this cute. It was almost overwhelming.


Strasbourg has a massive Gothic Cathedral that from the 1600s to the 1800s was the tallest building in the world! So we decided to climb it. Here we are on the roof, overlooking the city.


In high school I learned about Flying Buttresses. Above are flying buttresses that provide a counter force to the heavy roof of the cathedral, which pushes outward on the walls. I am only talking about them because the words are fun to say. Below is a normal view of a normal street in that abnormally beautiful city. I don't think there is an ugly corner of the town...


The above shot is Marcos' favorite. We were in a rush to get back to the train station and did not take the opportunity to take a photo of this spot with us in it, but I wouldn't be surprised if he brings me back here one day to complete the perfect image he has in his mind's eye. It is sort of irrepressibly adorable (and I never use that word).

And then that evening we took the train an hour further into the countryside, to Domfessel, a small village where Melisande's grandmother has lived for many years. We stayed with the Rodenacker family in Oma's house, and this was the view from our window.


And my favorite: the view from the bathroom window...


These were very peaceful days, full of sleeping in, eating very well, wandering the countryside and harvesting plums, blackberries, etc. In America we don't use the word "village" very often, but this was at its very core a French village. There was no place to purchase anything (that had to be done at the neighboring larger village), the barns were out back behind the house, and the country air was filled with the chatter of talking geese and the smell of cow poo.


One warm day during our stay in Domfessel we found a spot behind the barn and set up a table and got to grilling. And wow... the fresh meats from the butcher shop at the neighboring village were so good they put hair on my baby's chest! Melisande's mom Ruth taught us the art of salting meats such as chicken after they are grilled so that the meat stays tender.


Above, Jakob stokes the flames, and below, Melisande's parents Karsten and Ruth chat and wait for lunch. It was really a special feeling to spend time with the family that housed me as an exchange student in Munich ten years ago, and we are so grateful for their kindness. This time I came with my husband, and a baby on the way: a chapter or two farther along than I was the last time I saw them.


The spread. I promise, I would not take this much time talking about it if it hadn't been THAT incredible. Here is Marcos, enjoying his walk in the clouds.


Marcos had no idea I was taking this picture, but I needed it as proof that occasionally he gets full. Below: our wanderings in the fields, preparing our minds for the blackberry harvest.


Marcos has always wanted to try whittling, and finally had a chance. The tom cat didn't get the concept of safety circle, but I understood his difficulty in staying away from Marcos' soft demeanor. Below is my favorite photo of Jakob and Melisande. Can we just be friends forever?


What else did we do in the countryside? Harvest plums, and visit Oma, where she now lives at a not-so-young person's home in a neighboring town.

(O nein, Melisande, ich habe total vergessen die Fotos an Oma zu schicken! Kannst du mir bitte ihre Addrese geben... es tut mir echt Leid. Neulich kann ich fast NICHTS erinnern).


And then there was Le Petit Pierre, a small town in Elsass which has an old castle. Melisande and Jakob took us to wander the paths and explore the area, which looked something like this...


And that is the story of us in the countryside of Elsass, France. I hope you feel well rested, because our next stop is Paris! From country to metropolis in four hours...

The worst five minutes of my recent life

Tonight at book club I told the story of my recent BIG bad decision, and I came home and found these pictures to remind myself of my misery. When Marcos and I were traveling in September in Europe and landed back in Munich at the end of the month, it was only natural that we went to Oktoberfest (as in, The Real Deal Oktoberfest). Besides beer, they also offer fun for the entire family. For some reason I thought this ride looked tame enough for me and my pregnant body.

Luckily, I sat right next to Marcos. While he screamed, "Woo-HOO! This is SOOOO AWESOME!" and we spun at some unhealthy angle above the entire city of Munich, I sat with every muscle tense and my eyes, mouth and every hole in my head pursed shut so that I wouldn't leak anything.

As if I needed ANY help feeling sick...

So very, very happy.

I have been so happy lately. I was trying to figure out why, and I think it's a combination of things.


First of all, I feel great. After feeling sick for nearly three months, it is amazing to feel well. There is no substitute in this world for physical health and wellness.

Second, I am working and I love it. I work part time for Rebecca, and it feels satisfying to be part of something hip and happening. It's busy, and I think that secretly I thrive off of a little chaos. I am still learning how to do a lot of things necessary to assist with a photography business, and I am tripped up daily by my clumsiness on a mac, but it is important for me to feel useful and needed, especially as the business launches into the crazy holiday season.

Third, it's autumn. Has anyone noticed? I can't get over it. When I come home mid-afternoon from work and the sun is shining but it's cold outside and the leaves are starting to turn colors and fall from the trees, I just can't help but have a spring in my step. Or even better are those days with RAIN! Yes, the rainy days mean just a few things to me: hot chocolate, and hot chocolate, and maybe a good book.

Fourth, the mood in our house makes me so happy. We have been listening to old school and jazzy Christmas music for a week or two now, and that coupled with the coldness outside, the beginning of coat and scarf weather, and having friends over really puts me in a great mood.

Fifth, the holidays are approaching fast. I think it has something to do with being pregnant, but I am in such a nesting mood! All of a sudden, I want to start ten new meaningful holiday traditions for my family, I want to bake gingerbread, and I want to make holiday gifts. I am reading Something Wicked this Way Comes for a book club and it's making me think that possibly, just possibly, I may even be inspired to find a Halloween costume this year...

Sixth, I have a great husband. He reads to my chubby growing belly at night if he's not too tired, and he switched out the underwear drawers so that mine is on top and I don't have to lean over. He bought me five bags of expensive frozen fruit so that I could make smoothies, and he is just a real winner of a man. At a time in my life when I don't always feel or look my prettiest, I count it a blessing to have a companion who makes me feel gorgeous every second of the day...

recent me

Here I am again. I left you hanging in Salzburg, Austria, and then sprung my news about the baby, and then took a merry departure while we entertained guests. Isn't ironic how as soon as you have lots to talk about, you're too busy to write?

Well, here's the recap so that you can appreciate the barrage of upcoming photos:

When we came home from Europe, we had about a week of down time before Marcos' brother Danny, his wife Marie and their little girl Kaitlyn came into town to visit from Utah. They left for home this morning, and we already miss them! Stay tuned for the chapter of their visit.

And now we're back to just us. I'm not sure how to breach the topic, but I know that some people have asked about the pregnancy, so here's a little idea of what that is like. The first trimester was pretty hairy, but not in a terrible way. I survived three + weeks in Europe marching around cities for hours on end, sometimes with a very heavy backpack, and I think the distraction of postcard-worthy sites kept me moving and distracted. I doubled our travel budget with my ravenous appetite, but for Marcos that is one of the perks of my pregnancy, because every time I eat he thinks he can too.

Now that we're a few weeks into the second trimester, I feel so much better. My timing in saying that isn't great because I just emerged from a very hot tub after throwing up all over the rental car, but you know, I like to think that was a special, isolated moment. I am still learning how to balance my eating intake and water intake so that I don't have gastric upheavals like the one this morning. Where did that come from, anyway?

So that's where we are. I am not sure where to start with the Europe photos, pregnancy updates and stories of our time with our family, but I hope to get it all organized in the near future. For now, I'm off to put my baby down for a nap and I'm guessing that I might fall asleep too...

We interrupt this program to announce...

...that we're going to have a baby!

Yes, it's true. After 14 weeks of grinning and bearing it through the green first trimester, we are officially announcing that we have a baby on the way! Surprised? We were too! Excited? We are too!

On Tuesday morning of last week we had our first appointment with the midwives, and we were able to hear the heartbeat of our baby. As a first-time pregnant woman, I was starting to wonder if anything was still in there, but our baby's heartbeat was so strong, happy and fast like a superstar that we came home very excited to tell everyone our great news. I haven't felt extremely sick, but during the first trimester I was nauseated and fatigued enough that on some days I really wished people knew so that I could have permission to look how I felt inside, and just be spoiled by the people around me.

And so we are looking forward to having a new addition to the Prieto casa at the beginning of April of next year! At this point our baby's due date is April 1st, but with our ultrasound appointment in three weeks, we will be finding out gender and possibly getting an update on the due date depending on the size of our little tyke. Now that the news is out, we will definitely keep updates on the blog, so stay tuned!

Location #2: Salzburg, Austria

In my mind, planning for four days in each place was perfect, but Talya was right: it was a little too long for most cities. So for one of our Munich days, we took off on a day trip to Salzburg, Austria, which was only two hours away by train.


This is back when I was still really enchanted by trains, and found them romantic. Now, a kazillion trains later, I think I can wait a while before we purchase another Eurail pass...


Pulling into Salzburg is really quite incredible. The old city with its impressive fortress is visible along the Salzach river, and with the mountains looming behind and that blue sky... *sigh*... Below are the Mirabella gardens, where young Mozart used to perform. For those of you who, like us, needed a bit of brushing up on your Salzburg history: the city's claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of Mozart, and the location for the filming of The Sound of Music.


The process of trying to take a self-portrait of two heads and something of import in the background was always tricky. Above we are standing in front of "Mozarts Geburtshaus" (Mozart's birth home), and below is The Queen in front of a chocolate shop.


Salzburg seems to celebrate Christmas all year round. One of the local fine crafts is decorated blown eggs, which were hung from trees. They were so beautiful, and there were decorated eggs of every color. I wanted to bring a few home, but the most beautiful cost upwards of $30 each!


After deliberating whether to join a walking tour around the old city of Salzburg, we ducked into an internet cafe and in three minutes found a word-for-word narration of a T.V. travel documentary of the city. We printed it out, and gave ourselves our own tour, which made us feel mighty fine about our thriftiness.

I know that someday we may look back at these pictures and think, "Yay. Another picture in front of a church", but while it is all fresh and meaningful, I am going to enjoy sharing them with you. Apparently, when this church was built, it was all the rage to style the churches after the Italian mode. After seeing a lot of dark, somber Gothic cathedrals in our travels, we really appreciate the usage of light and color in the interior of this church in the old city of Salzburg.


Remember that fortress on the hill, from the photo taken as we pulled into Salzburg (I'll give you a minute to scroll up to those first photos)? Well, these photos were taken inside the fortress, which was built to be completely self-sustaining. Actually, the citizens of Salzburg did such a great job with the fortress that it was never used in battle: standing ominously at the top of the hill, it did its job completely by deterring enemies from even approaching the city.


I like to laugh a lot, and here Marcos caught me in the act. I really like the photo below, which is rare since a stranger took it and all sorts of ugly usually came out of that experience. In the photo you can see the massiveness of the fortress walls, and catch a glimpse of the peacefulness of being above the city, looking out over the river and mountains.


And that was Salzburg, in the smallest of nutshells. With its richness of history surrounding Mozart's life, we didn't have time to do quite everything we wanted to do in one day, but now we have a reason to return...

Okay, okay, okay. Let's talk travel.

Daunting. There is no other word to describe the task of coming home from a European vacation with 1,216 photos and trying to put them into some type of reasonable presentation. There is also no other word to describe the process of trying to answer the question, "How was it?". But I've been trying to come up with a few satisfactory words: fantastic, smooth, crazy, incredible, sometimes exhausting...

I thought about doing a day-by-day recap, but even my mother would be bored by the end of the 23th entry. So, here you have it more or less by location. Without further ado, here is our life in Location #1: Munich, Germany.


We arrived in Munich on September 3rd. This is a picture of Marcos on the airplane - either excited about going to Europe, or very delirious after our overnight flight during which neither of us were comfortable enough to sleep even five minutes.


Before we left, I deliberated for weeks before deciding that we should travel with backpacks. I've traveled with packs before when I was young and bohemian and although it worked great then, I thought that maybe we could be a little more 'posh' this time. However, traveling with packs was one of our better judgment calls. For as much traveling around as we did, there is no way we would have enjoyed dragging our little wheeled suitcases through dog poop on European sidewalks, and down thoroughly uneven Renaissance streets like the unhappy hoards of other travelers we saw.


Munich! This is where I lived in high school for a semester, and so we called it our touchdown spot. We stayed at the home of my exchange family from so many years ago, and it was a lot of fun showing Marcos some of the places that I have loved from my life there. Above is a spot in the English Gardens, and below is Marienplatz, the center of town, and the old city hall. About half-way down the main tower is a green-ish outcropping called the Glockenspiel - the clock with moving, dancing figures that entertains the entire plaza of tourists every day at 11am and 5pm. This photo was taken from the top of a church we hiked up with our friends Philipp and Louisa.


Odeonsplatz, where Hitler kicked off his infamous career. Adolf Hitler stood at the top of these stairs and rallied support in Munich. Below is us with sweet Louisa, the wife of my friend Philipp who saved my social life when I first arrived in Germany as an exchange student.


Fact: Marcos becomes more handsome every year. It's baffling. Below: Marcos, Louisa and Philipp in the English Gardens. I love this picture.


Sites from downtown Munich. Marcos panting outside the butcher shop. Me at Viktualienmarkt in front of the flower stands, reproducing an exact photo I have from ten years ago when I was young.


And then this. I loved being at home with my exchange "brothers" (who used to be smaller than me, for the record), and sitting down to eat together. Below is our regal meal: artichokes, some kind of amazing salad, and bow-tie pasta with meat.


Brother Gwion playing with friend Karsten, and future sister-in-law Martina with brother Gwion. They are dating, and we have our poker chips on her. Amazing.


Brother Johannes and his pasta. Although some of the places we saw in Europe were 100% breathtaking, I think it was these moments over dinner with our friends that will top the cake of memories to love. Stay tuned for chapter two: Elsass!