Mom in Germany

For Mom's last full day in the Netherlands we decided to have a little day trip to Aachen. It was Mom's first visit to Germany and a special day for us. The last outing for the Pardo girls all together. 

Mom in front of the Rathaus

I feel very fortunate to have had all this quality time with my mother. It was the first time that we ever vacationed together without the rest of the family. I thought that adding an extra trip outside Maastricht following Amsterdam would be too much, but Flora was extra cooperative that day. She had a record number of naps and Mom and I got to explore Aachen "peacefully." :)

Aachen Cathedral 

What's cuter than this?

I was really hoping that Mom and I could experience something that was typically "German". Mom had some good German beer at an outdoor cafe and for a nice late lunch we had flammkuchen. This was surprisingly delicious!

Then it was Flora's time to eat, so we headed to Starbucks. Not very German, but I still enjoy drinking coffee in a to-go cup. It's a shame that it's still such a novelty here in Europe. (I sound very American now).

Thanks for a great visit Mom and for passing on all your great Mommy wisdom. These two weeks were very special for us. Flora's already looking forward to her first Christmas in NY!

NYE in Vienna

A New Year's Eve post in March...here it goes. Our New Year's Eve began with a visit to the Upper Belvedere to admire the Klimt and Schiele works. We had a cold and sunny stroll to the Belvedere from our apartment and a great visit to one of Vienna's most famous museums. Afterwards we headed to another Vienna institution to warm up, Café Pruckel. 

 A few relaxing hours at Pruckel hit the spot. A delicious Wiener melange, some himbeer soda, and some dessert that we can't remember the name of. It was delicious! One of our favorite's of the trip.

We walked to the Stephansdom, another Vienna icon. The city arranges free waltzing lessons on NYE. How fun. Half the square was waltzing while the other half was watching it on big television screens.

Inside the cathedral

Outside the Oper on New Year's Eve

Hofburg

To ring in the new year, we headed outside for some fireworks. Vienna just doesn't have one fireworks display, they have several. We decided to catch out the display at Heldenplatz. 2012 brought us lots of happy times together and we're excited to see where 2013 takes us!

Fireworks above the Rathaus

Orkest Concert & the Jansen clan grows

We've had a busy week of music making. Several orchestra concerts and Jaap is busy with his party band for the upcoming Carnaval season. Last week we had a series of concerts with our community orkest at the university. These pictures were taken at our concert in Roermond, a city north of Maastricht. I love playing in such beautiful venues. 

Jaap and his French Horn buddy Pasqual

We had two other performances in Maastricht prior to this one. Our concert series for this semester was an 'all Dutch' program. Every piece we performed was written by Dutch composers with a few that lived and composed in Maastricht as well. We gave a performance at a well known bookstore in Maastricht called Selexyz accompanied by a lecture about the composer, Andrée Bonhomme. It was interesting to hear about her life as a composer in Limburg and her studies in Paris and learn a little bit about the music history of Maastricht. I think it brought more meaning to our performances.

My favorite piece was a cello concerto by Hendrik Andriessen. We played with a cellist, Doris Hoscheid. What a treat. Here's a clip of the concertino. Jaap filmed it from the back of the church.

We had nice music highlights last weekend, but the best part was meeting our new baby nephew Simon! Making his entrance into the world a somehwat earlier than expected, we are happy that baby Simon is doing well. What an amazing day. It puts life into perspective for you and helps you realize whats important. We are so happy for the new parents Mieke and Willem. Looking forward to seeing them again, hopefully very soon!

Proud Pop weighing Simon

Our Mosel & Rhine Vacation: Bacharach

Here is beautiful Bacharach! A small town surrounded by vineyards, castles, and  spectacular views of the Rhine river. Our last day exploring this area of Germany was spent with a day trip down part of the Rhine. Of course, this came under the recommendation of Rick Steves. Thanks Rick! (We're a first name basis now).

Bacharach was about 1.5 hours from where we stayed in Ernst on the Mosel. The drive alone was made it well worth the trip. Below is a picture of some of the stunning views we had traveling through the mountains from the Mosel to the Rhine river. 

It was a quiet day of hiking and sightseeing. The city center is a picturesque German town. Very similar to the village of Beilstein, just slightly bigger. Cute little market square (pictured with the Altes Haus below), castle up on a hilltop, and acres of white grape vineyards. 

Altes Haus: Medieval timber-framed house built in 1368

This is only a small portion of the all the surrounding rows of grapes

Ruins of Werner Chapel: 13th-14th century Gothic church

The Werner chapel is a famous church in ruin. There's a sad story of a legend that goes with this chapel. I'll spare you the horrific details, but something along the lines of a young boy named Werner being murdered and the town Jews being blamed for it, ending with the Vatican refusing to make the boy a saint. It's a feel good story. Despite the gruesome tale, the ruin itself is an interesting structure. 

Stahleck castle  turned into a youth hostel

Views at Stahleck

We took the town walk along the former city wall. The city used to have 16 towers surrounding the wall. We passed a few of the remaining ones along our hike. We were very lucky to have sunny and somewhat warm weather for our hike. 

Checking out the grapes

Great views of the ruined chapel

After a nice and hearty German lunch we got back in the car and drove up the Rhine. We passed about half a dozen castles along the way. We couldn't get the camera out fast enough to capture them all. It's truly a unique place. You just can't experience moments like this in North America.

Gutenfels castle

Pfalz castle in the middle on the river

Rheinfels caslte is one of the places Rick Steves recommended. We stopped to use their restroom at the 4 star hotel and then got back in the car. We'll have to save it for another trip!

Rheinfels

That's Katz castle in the middle of that mountain

We wanted to end our last night of our mini-vacation back in Beilstein. It was the perfect ending to a great trip. We did a short hike up to Beilstein castle (now in ruins) and watched the sun start to set. 

And why not do one more wine tasting? Don't worry. We didn't drink all of this, but we tried!

After searching the town for some dinner, we decided to stop here. Mostly because nothing else was open, but it was a good choice. A quaint little hotel with a restaurant and cozy atmosphere. Het was gezellig! I had to pinch myself because I was expecting Hansel & Gretel to walk out from around the bar. The place was so cute, I felt like we in a fairy tale.

Our little Mosel & Rhine vacation has to be one of the most relaxing and refreshing vacations I have ever had. I'm glad we decided to stay along the Mosel river because it was so quiet, less traveled, and serene. I felt rejuvenated and relaxed before our trip home. Til next time Germany. Auf wiedersehen!

A brief hike in the fog through Ernst

Lunch in Cochem, i.e. a Berliner, apfel struedel & heiße Schokolade