Fish &Chips: The Koenig's Do Europe

Friday, 27 March 2009

An unwanted visitor...

As per Mom's request, I'm blogging this little story, as she, among quite a few others, have found it quite hilarious!

The other day, I was sitting on the sofa, watching a little TV, surfing the net and I see something out of the corner of my eye, I look over and perched next to the conservatory doors is a little mouse! Where might the puppy who is supposed to be protecting me be, you might ask? He was laying not even 2 feet from this little visitor, sound asleep!

I stand up and go to open the conservatory door so I can at least trap him in there and I'm trying to be quiet so Angus doesnt wake up and eat him, and he takes off running into the kitchen. So, thouroughly icked out, I call Christopher, who's at work, and he tells me just to leave it alone, he'll set traps the next day and take care of it.

So, I go about my business the rest of the day and as I'm getting dinner out of the oven, I hear the wild screams of a mouse in the balance and the gleeful grunts of a Cairn Terrier who's caught a prize. I start screaming, almost burn myself on the oven, and run to the kitchen hallway where all the commotion was.

I'm still screaming, because well, I'm just not a creepy crawly, rodent type of girl... Angus spits out the mouse who drops to the ground, looks up at me, who's screaming all over the place, and takes off running behind the fridge.

Needless to say, I lost my appetite, set out some poison and Angus and I marched upstairs and holed up there the rest of the night.....

Monday, 16 March 2009

House Again...

I know I posted the link to pictures from when we first moved into our house, but here are pictures now that we're settled in! And the link to the kitchen pictures isnt working, but it looks pretty much the same...lol

The living Room

The Downstairs bathroom

In the living room, looking to the foyer

Foyer

The library! (at the top of the stairs from the foyer)

The Guest Bedroom next to the Library (there's a balcony through the door)

If you go up the stairs in the library, it takes you to the 3rd floor, which is our bedroom!

My Vanity in our room

And if you go down the stairs on the other side of our bedroom, you get to the guest room (which is on the other side of the house from the library and other guest room...it can also be reached from the stairs in the living room)

Pictures.

Happy Monday! (And also, Happy Birthday Mymom!!!)

We havent been too busy lately....not doing too much travelling. Angus is all vaccinated up and can walk around on a lead now, so we're working on that and he's doing really really well. Here's a few pictures for you guys to enjoy!

He LOVES to chase his tail and he always catches it...lol

After he caught his tail...lol

The other night we were cleaning up getting ready for our house inspection by the landlord and all was quiet downstairs, so we went to check on Gus and found him like this... (Please excuse the messy sofa)

Outside in the Garden (excuse the hand on the Hiney...lol, I liked this picture!)

All of us!

Saturday, 7 March 2009

Some random pictures....

Here's some pictures we've taken the last couple of days...

Gus and Me in the Garden!

The Monster himself....Gus Gus... weighing in at a whopping 10 pounds!

In the garden:

And we decided, since he's such a meany we were going to pack him up in everyone's birthday box and send him to NC...lol

And so he chewed on the tissue paper in protest...lol

I was sitting in the window watching Christopher and Gus play in the garden and he snapped some pictures

And a funny one of 2 swans bottom's up in the river by the house!

Happy Birthday!

Well, Thursday was Christopher's 24th birthday! And though we weren't in Paris, I think he had a pretty good birthday!

He went early that morning for an eye appointment and got 2 new pairs of glasses and some contacts...thank goodness, apparently his prescription had changed dramatically since his last eye exam and he's been having really bad head aches because his old glasses werent strong enough.

After that, we headed over to a place called Pop Bellies, which is our favorite restaurant out here. Its one of the first places we ate at when we first got out here and we've been there many times since and havent been disappointed. Christopher had his favorite, a traditional English Breakfast (sausage, bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, beans, mushrooms, and toast) and I had pan fried wild mushrooms on focaccia bread. Mine was absolutely phenomenal! When they said wild mushrooms, they meant wild mushrooms! They were pan fried in butter and herbs and it made the best sauce! And of course, Christopher looooved his breakfast!

Once we finished brunch, we headed to the base to check the mail and stop by the BX, where we got Christopher's birthday present.... a Wii!!! We also bought WiiFit and the original Super Mario Bros game that we used to play when we were little, so we've been having a lot of fun the past couple of days!

I made him Chicken Marsala for dinner and Mymom's Peanut Scotch Pie for his birthday "cake". Everything turned out really well and the Birthday Boy loved it all! He even danced around the kitchen with his pie...lol...seriously, he was dancing to "Phantom of the Opera" (I was listening to it while cooking dinner).

*Also, February and March are the birthday months for our families and friends, so Happy Birthday everyone: Poppy, Denise, Brandie, Kasey, ME, Kellea, Jeff Sierzenga, Christopher, Jared, Izzie, Mom Wofford, Parker, Aaron, Mymom, Ashley Sierzenga, Josh, and Lisa...and I think that's everyone, though I feel like I'm missing someone....*

Thursday, 26 February 2009

Paris, France!

Before you start this, go put on a pot of tea, and get settled in, because this is going to be a long entry! We covered a lot of Parisian ground in a mere 2 days!

We basically hit the ground running when we landed in Paris on Tuesday. It was a little after lunchtime by the time we got checked into our hotel and upon the receptionist suggestion, we headed over to a restaurant called La Petit Uachon. I quickly realized as we sat in this quaint French cafe that it has been 8 years since I took any French lessons, and upon realizing that, I remembered that when I sat in Mrs. Young's French 1 and French 2 classes, Amber Simpson was in there with me and we did a lot more goofing off than we did paying attention on how to conjugate words and make sentences. Not a good feeling. I could manage to decipher random words, so I could pick out what we were eating at least. I had escargot (snails) and Christopher had some type of delicious fish dish. We had no idea what it was, but it was absolutely delectable.

Looking at the map:

Speaking of food, the bread and pastries in Paris were amazing. The "french baguette's" you get in the grocery store in the states have nothing on real baguette's. It was the best bread I've ever put in my mouth. Perfectly chewy and crusty and an absolute staple in French diet. People would literally walk around holding a baguette in their hands on the street. And the croissants? The flakiest, most buttery, melt in your mouth pastry. Delightful!

We spent Tuesday walking around the streets of Paris. We ended up walking about 15 miles, I'd say. We've learned that by walking around, you get to see so much more of a place than if you just take cabs or buses everywhere. We walked along the Seine River, munched on fresh crepes from a street vendor and made our way to the Eiffel Tower.

Both of us, honestly, were not expecting the Eiffel Tower to be very impressive. We knew it would be kind of cool, but nothing fantastic...boy were we wrong! It is absolutely MASSIVE! It almost makes you dizzy to look straight up at it! We were going to ride the elevator to the top, but the line was so long, so we decided we'd do the stairs. I'm pretty sure weeks of training need to be had before managing the stairs at a decent pace. By about the 175th step, we both were exhausted and out of breath, but we pressed on and made it up 328 steps all total! And that only brought us to the 1st level. We rested at that level for a bit, taking in the breathtaking sights of the city, then we took the elevator the next level, which still didnt bring us to the top. We spent the sunset up on the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower and it was, cheesy as it sounds, incredibly romantic! The line to go to the very top wrapped around the 2nd level twice, and it was getting colder and colder, so we headed back down (luckily on the elevator) and headed back to our hotel.

Kisses at Sunset atop the Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower all lit up!

Being only a couple of minutes from the Louvre and having an obvious language barrier, we had our taxi drop us off at the Louvre instead of our hotel and got to lay eyes on the most amazing art museum in the world! Pulling up to the Louvre is a dramatic experience. The building itself was erected in th 12th Century by Phillip II as a fortress. After many additions to the building, the actual Museum opened 10 August 1793 and housed royal and church property. Napoleon managed, through military campaigns, to acquire many works of art, that, after the French were defeated, many had to be returned to their original owners.

The largest pyramid:

The metal and glass pyramid's that stand outside the building were complete in 1988, and they're an amazing site to see! After spending close to an hour just walking the grounds of the museum, we stopped into a cafe near our hotel and got some food to take back for dinner. I got a Croques Monsieur (a fancy ham and cheese sandwich) and Christopher got a baguette sandwich. We got dessert from a Patisserie, 2 lemon tarts that were exquisite!

The next day, on my 24th Birthday, we had croissant's and crepe's for breakfast and then headed to the Louvre. The Louvre we know today is home to 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art in 652,000 sq feet. Which, if you can imagine, makes it extremely huge and it is impossible to see everything in one day. I would venture to guess that its impossible to see everything in a month! We didnt leave the ground floor in 4 hours and I know we didnt come close to seeing everything on that floor!

It was amazing to be surrounded by some of the world's best art! To see things in person, to be in the presence of the works of the great master's, was indescribable! Christopher and I both had goosebumps the entire time!

La Grande Odalisque by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres 1814:

And I think what's taking place as my new favorite painting, The Virgin of the Rocks:

And of course, the Mona Lisa, herself:

Besides seeing some of the most beautiful paintings in the world, we also got to see Statues like:

Venus de Milo:

The Winged Victory of Samothrace:

and Eros and Psyche:

And also lots of Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Iranian arts and artifacts. Among them, the mummy of a man, lots of sphynx's & sarcophogi.

And me, standing at the inverse pyramid inside the Louvre on my 24th Birthday!

That night, after a quick cat nap to rest up, we got all dolled up and headed to Montmarte, the city on the hill above Paris that was home to the Bohemian revolution at the turn of the 20th century. Its a place where artists lived and worked and among said artists, Van Gogh, one of my favorites, made his home here for some time. We walked around the streets and quickly realized after counting up all the, shall we say, adult stores, that we were in the red light district of Paris and made a note not to stick around too long after dark.

We had reservations at none other than the Moulin Rouge, for dinner and a show. The Moulin Rouge is one of the most famous Cabaret's, and is where the French Can Can originated! Those of you who know me well, know that the Moulin Rouge movie starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman is one of my all time favorite movies, so this was something I was really looking foward to!

Some of the paintings at the entry way:

We ended up at a long table with 6 other people at it and 4 of those people were from England, so we got to talk to them through the whole show, so that was nice. The show itself was really awesome. I'm not really sure what I was expecting out of a cabaret, having never been to one, but it was bright lights, high energy, great music and costumes, and as Christopher said, Tattie overload! It was relatively tasteful, as tasteful as a French Cabaret can be anyway, and it was really fun. They ended with the Can-Can in the full, ruffled skirts and everything, so that was really neat to see.

After that, we took some pictures outside in front of the infamous windmill that was all lit up and then headed back to our hotel.

We left early the next morning and were sad to go, but excited to head back in the next few months to see more. The good thing about going for such a short time, was that we still have lots to see, like the Arc du Triumph, Notre Dame, and we even passed by a Church claiming to have artifacts from the Passion of the Christ, which we really want to go back and see. So, we'll have plenty to do next time. And poor Christopher, after spending my 24th birthday in Paris, he says he has no idea how to top it for next year's 25th birthday! I do have to say, it was one of the best birthday's ever!