Tag Archives: upcoming trips

Sundays

Bill’s beautiful bread & home brewed beer in the basement…

The weather has been really crappy this week. We have snow on the ground that is a few days old, but it’s been too cold for it to melt. Consequently, it’s not very pretty to look at right now. The sky is kind of light grey and foggy; I can see my breath when I breathe; and I just don’t feel like going anywhere.

I’ve been thinking about a few possible travel related topics based on the many trips we’ve already taken. But I don’t know if it’s worth my time to write those pieces, since this blog doesn’t get that much traffic… except for a few curious posts that I wrote ages ago. I probably will write them eventually, but not until I’m feeling especially motivated. 

So, today’s post will be quick and to the point… which could be a very foreign thing, if you’re also someone who reads my main blog. I think I’m writing today’s “travel” post because I want to hear more of my nostalgia playlist before I start practicing guitar.

As I write this, Bill is in the basement preparing to start brewing his latest batch of home brewed beer. He says he’s brewing a stout this time, and he has some new equipment to try out. I am a fan of his hobby, so I’m letting him have at it. Yesterday, he baked me a gorgeous loaf of sandwich bread. I requested it a couple of days ago, because although I like the artisanal loaves he makes in our Le Creuset bread oven, I especially love the old fashioned loaves that I can more easily turn into sandwiches. 

I’m actually thinking of having a piece of that bread right now… 

I used to love baking bread. I found it a great stress reliever. As I’m writing this post, I remember that I used to bake bread in Armenia when I had an oven lent to me by the USDA. And it just occurred to me that when I bought yeast there, I knew the Russian word for it, rather than the Armenian word. I just looked both up, just to be sure… and yes, back in the 90s, we used the Russian word for yeast, not the Armenian one. I wonder if that’s changed. Maybe that’s reason enough to visit there again soon. ;)

Seriously, after we take our upcoming intra-Germany trip with Bill’s mom, we will probably plan a trip to Spain. Spain won the last champagne bucket drawing, and Bill wants to go there to explore whether or not we’d like to retire there. Frankly, I think Portugal could be a better bet… I’d like to visit there again, too. Or maybe Italy. I love Italy… even if it can take a long time to get things done there.

We had sushi for dinner last night. It was pretty great. And I expect Bill will cook a roast for dinner. It is Sunday, after all, and we like our British traditions, even if we’re Americans living in Germany. :)

Anyway, I’m pretty proud of Bill’s work on that loaf of bread. If you’d like the recipe, here’s the link. 

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Champagne Bucket trips, holidays

Anniversary number 21 will potentially be celebrated in…

Regular readers might have noticed that I didn’t write anything in the travel blog yesterday or Saturday. It was mainly because we didn’t do anything noteworthy until last night, when I reminded Bill that he’d wanted to take an anniversary trip in November.

Our anniversary is November 16th, and this year, we wanted to do something exciting. I would have wanted to do something special for our 20th anniversary, but our sweet Arran dog was dying of cancer and we didn’t want to board him. So we ended up taking him and Noyzi with us on a trip to our beloved Ribeauville, France, a beautiful town not too far away that is different enough to be a getaway. We love Alsace, but we’ve been there so many times… This year, we definitely wanted to do something different.

Bill sent an email to our regular boarding facility and confirmed that they had space for Noyzi. Then I got out our trusty champagne bucket, which we often use when we want a little fateful help choosing a place to vacation. I went through the paper slips from past drawings, removing any that we’ve already done or will soon do, and any of those that would not be good for a visit in November. Then I had Bill draw from the bucket…

Bill does the honors…

And the winner was…

ARMENIA!!! And Georgia… but I don’t know if we’ll make Georgia on this proposed trip, because I think we’d need more than the week we’ll probably have for this journey.

Now… it’s not yet engraved in stone that we’ll be going to Armenia. Bill has to get the days off, first. And then I have to figure out the logistics of the trip. Also, I’m still a bit worried about my gallbladder exploding. But Armenia did finally win a drawing, and it’s time we visited. It would be special and different. Bill can finally see where I lived for twenty-seven crazy months of my young life, and if he likes it, we can come back and see the regions.

So, today I will be researching places to go, flights, and the rest…

I haven’t been to Armenia since I left in August 1997. It’s changed a lot! A lot of street names have changed; there’s been a lot of construction and demolition; and in all, it looks like a much nicer place. It also looks a hell of a lot more expensive than it was back in the 90s. I found one luxury hotel that is charging about 400 euros per night. Consider that my first apartment in Yerevan was $50 a month. My second was an unheard of $100. No Armenian would have paid as much for either place, but I got the American rate. 😉

Anyway… wish me luck.

Below are a few photos from this week. See what I mean? Not much has been going on. Bill was away, and I had a cold. At least there are still some pretty flowers.

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Uncategorized

It’s raining again…

Bill is coming home from Bavaria today. I had meant to put another coat of teak oil on the outside furniture this week, but the weather has been very wet and rainy. I’m glad I managed to oil the furniture last week, at least.

I took Noyzi for a walk this morning and noticed the creek was very high. The wine barrel we bought last month is getting close to being full. I’m glad to see it, because I suspect that in two months, that water will come in handy. Lately, the summers here have been pretty dry and hot.

We’ve also been talking about taking a short break at the end of the month. Since we’d have to take Noyzi with us, we’re somewhat limited. He’s actually really well behaved, and I doubt he’d cause as much trouble as our beagles did, but he’s a big dog.

I’d like to find us a self-catering place somewhere rural and beautiful. We don’t have to see or do a lot. It would just be nice to have a change of scenery and access to a Biergarten. Anyway… we’ll see what we can do. We may just stay home and do some day trips. There are still a lot of places near us we’ve never explored, thanks to COVID. We’re also just about to go on a BIG trip that will cost a lot of money.

The creek is wild!

The featured photo is of an ad for an event happening next week. Maybe Bill will be recovered from night shift work by then…

I wish I had more exciting things to write about today, but fear not. Pretty soon, I expect to have many beautiful photos and videos of stunning Norwegian scenery, followed by visits to many other foreign lands. It’s something to look forward to… So hang in there, and bear with me. More exciting posts are forthcoming.

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