One Year...

It's hard to believe, but today is the anniversary of our arrival in Switzerland.

What a year it has been! It has been full of challenges, but also many wonderful experiences. We love living in Basel, but definitely miss Raleigh more than ever. We've made many new friends, but miss all of our friends and family back home. We've tried lots of new foods, but still miss some good BBQ, an ice-filled sweet tea, a thick, juicy steak, a Chik-fil-a sandwich, a thick, juicy hamburger, and plenty of other foods. We've experienced many new cultures (Maria has already visited 15 countries...Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, Czech Republic, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Italy, Monaco, Vatican City, England, Ireland, Scotland, and the good old US of A. She'll also visit Romania, Netherlands, and Portugal before 2009 is over!), but we miss the friendly waves of random neighbors on the street.

It has definitely been an adventure and we're looking forward to what another year will hold. We're thankful for this amazing opportunity and we're thankful for all those that have kept in touch, whether it be through visiting, calling, or following our blog.

We're a little behind on our blogging because we've been fairly busy as of late. Last Saturday, my parents left us after a week and a half visit. Then Maria's friend, Beth, arrived for a Swiss whirlwind tour on Monday. She left us on Thursday, but then Maria's sister and her family arrived for a two week visit on Saturday. Maria has been in the Alps for the past few days with the Denneys and will return tomorrow. So, the next blog still may not be posted for a while, but keep checking back for updates.

Basel Makes the NY Times... Twice!

I should say Basel "made" the NY Times because it was a couple of months ago, but if you are an art lover or just want to know more about where Nate and I live, take a look at either of these: Article One and Article Two

Summer is Officially Gone

There's a time of year when even before the first leaf falls, you can feel the seasons change. The air is crisp, the summer is gone, and for the first night in a long time, you need a big blanket on your bed. As much as Nate and I love the change of seasons, it is hard to say goodbye to summer. Here are just a few things we will miss...

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Biking to the park, reading a good book, and soaking up some sun.Going on weekend walks in 70 degree weather (this is a field that overlooks Basel).

All of the lush green vines.

This one is outside our kitchen window.

And all the colorful flowers...


The only thing we regret is not swimming in the Rhine. People swim throughout the summer, but we never got around to it. One day, there is a fun swim day and race. We were away on this day, but I found this picture of the event... look at all the people in the water! We might join in next year... we'll see!

We hope that, wherever you are, you enjoyed your summer too.

Ireland's Dingle Peninsula and More Irish Countryside

We had one full day to see the Dingle Peninsula and due to the weather, we couldn't see much of anything. It was extremely foggy, cloudy, misty, and cold. But despite the bad weather, it was still a beautiful place and we enjoyed every minute of being there.

It was such a picturesque beach. We couldn't believe that people were actually getting in the water because it was freezing!
The cliffs and rocks were gorgeous.

We drove along the coast and jumped out when we saw something worthy of a stop... we stopped a lot. We were happy to be looking out at the Atlantic Ocean. It felt a little closer to home.

This is a famous ramp that the sheep of Dingle go down each summer. From here they are loaded (upside down!) in canoe-like boats and sent to a neighboring island to eat the grass there for the season. Not really sure why they do that. It looked like they had plenty of grass on Dingle to us!
We found someone to take a picture of us!

In addition to Dingle's beautiful scenery, it also contains many historical sights. For example, this church was constructed over 1,300 years ago with no mortar and is still water-tight to this day!

Here is another old church. Its graveyard contains the oldest tombs on the Peninsula.

Within the graveyard, there is a much older Ogham Stone. This stone had already stood here 900 years before the church was built and indicated that this was a pre-Christian holy spot. A hole was later drilled through the top of the stone as a place were people would come to "seal the deal." Standing on the graves of their ancestors and in front of the church, they would "swear to God" by touching thumbs through the stone. People also came here to renew their vows, so that's what we did!

Our last sight to see in Dingle were the ruins of the Minard Castle. It was built by the knights of Kerry in 1551 and later destroyed by Cromwell around 1650. This exact picture (minus Nate) is on the front of our guidebook, so we definitely wanted to see it. The only thing missing is the gorgeous backdrop of the ocean, coast, and cliffs!

The next day, we left Dingle and drove further up the western coast of Ireland. On the way, we visited the Cliffs of Moher. These cliffs stretch for over 5 miles and rise as high as 650 feet above the Atlantic!

These pictures hardly capture the enormous size of these cliffs. Click on this picture to see how tiny the people look who are walking along the edge.

There are signs everywhere warning people to stay away from the edge. But, some people want to get as close as possible and as the saying goes... curiosity killed the cat. For over 50 people, these cliffs were the last thing they ever saw.

After leaving the cliffs of death, we headed to the Burren. Basically, it is an empty, 10-square mile limestone plateau. Our guidebook has a great quote about this place, which describes it as, "a savage land, yielding neither water enough to drown a man, nor a tree to hang him, nor soil enough to bury him."

This "mini-Stonehenge" is called the Poulnabrone Dolmen. Over 4,000 years ago it was grave chamber, but now it just looks like an old stone table. It also looked like if the wind blew hard enough, that it would topple over!

After a long day of driving and sight seeing, we spent the night in Galway. The next day, we took one last scenic drive in Ireland. This was our fifth day here and we still had not had a day of blue skies. Our first stop was the Kylemore Abbey located on an idyllic setting on a lake.

This monument in the Doo Lough Valley, memorializes those who died in the valley during the potato famine. They had walked 12 miles hoping to get food from their landlord, but were turned away.

As we've all seen in the movies, Ireland is portrayed as a country with rolling green hills and sheep everywhere. That stereotype was not fulfilled until the last day. As we finished our drive, we saw tons of sheep and beautiful green pastures. I was SO happy!

The clouds even parted and we had blue skies! I just love this picture because THIS is Ireland to me.

It took forever to get all of these posts up from this trip, but we hope you enjoyed following our adventures through England, Scotland, & Ireland!

Ireland: From Dublin to Dingle

Our previous two nights in Scotland really tired us out and it finally caught up with us. When we arrived in Dublin, we both felt like we were getting sick. We only had one day to spend there, but neither one of us wanted to get out of bed. It was raining anyway, so we justified spending most of the morning in. When we did venture out, we took it easy. We walked around a little, read in a park, went to a museum, and had a great dinner. And that is "taking it easy" for us in cities!

Little tidbit: If you ever go to Ireland or the UK, remember to "Look Right" instead of left when crossing the road. I almost got hit the first time I stepped out into the street.

Trinity College

Shopping street jam packed with people...

The National Museum of IrelandWe weren't allowed to take pictures, but I found this image on the internet. This is a bog mummy that we saw. We had never seen anything like this. Most of the bodies have been preserved in the bog for over 2,000 years and were just discovered around the 19th century. It is unbelievable how well the skin is preserved!
Dublin pub street in the evening. The famous Temple Bar is the first on the left.

Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. It was SO yummy!

The next morning, we drove to the Dingle Peninsula, which is the southeast tip of Ireland. By this time, Nate was an old pro at driving on the left side of the road, but nothing could prepare us for this...

The road was really narrow and to make it worse, we were in a cloud! I had to laugh at this sign... it says, "Turn Back Now," but it only applies to buses and big trucks.

The clouds broke for a bit, so we stopped for a break. It was a gorgeous spot.

Downtown Dingle

We had a late lunch on the road and we weren't too hunger for dinner, so we just bought some popcorn at a festival that was going on and found a nice place to sit on the water... so peaceful.

Sleeping with Strangers in Loch Ness

Our last night in Scotland was a little unexpected. Our room in Portree was given up (that's a long story, so I'll spare you the details), so the first night we stayed in Portree, we had to sleep in a single room, which means we had to share a single bed, as in, for ONE person. That was not a pleasant night's sleep, especially when you're used to a King sized bed! The next evening we decided to go on to our next destination, hoping that we'd have better luck finding a hotel or b&b on the way there. We had no such luck. We saw the sign, No Vacancies, about 301 times. But we continued on towards Loch Ness and tried to enjoy our evening. We had great views on the road and I even got to drive a little! It was really scary and unnatural to drive on the left side of the road. I didn't last that long because driving just shouldn't take that much concentration! So I handed the driving reins back over to Nate.

I hate this picture, but Nate thinks it's funny...

We stopped to take a few pictures of this castle. The setting was simply beautiful.

Back to the hotel search. We finally found a Holiday Inn and the parking lot was pretty empty... but we soon found out that there were no free rooms there either! The lady at the front desk tried calling around and she said there was nothing available in the area. I explained our situation to her and then asked what we should do... sleep in our car?! It was certainly looking that way until she said... "you know what, I get off in 30 minutes, why don't you come stay with me?" So I went back to the car to tell Nate the situation and he was a little skeptical of staying with strangers, but he agreed and it turned out just fine! They were a sweet family from Latvia, but had been in Scotland for over 5 years. Her 15 year old daughter just loved us (she was texting all her friends that Americans were staying at her house!) We stayed up late hanging out and talking with them. They kept saying how we sounded like actors from the American movies! (Haha) It was such a crazy, fun, and certainly, unexpected experience that we will never forget. It's too bad we forgot to take a picture with them because they were a great family to take us in like that and we were very grateful.

The next day, we went to the famous Loch Ness. You can't go to Scotland and not visit this place! Nate & I had always thought of the Loch Ness monster as a silly myth, but while we were there, we were actually keeping our eyes out for it!

The Castle on Loch Ness

I think I see the monster! Okay, just kidding, I didn't. But I think I made some people actually look where I was pointing.
Me & Nessie
That concludes our Scotland part of the trip. Ireland posts coming soon!