The Hills are Alive...

We're a bit behind on our posting, so we have some work to do to bring you up-to-speed on our latest adventures.

In early September, we were extremely excited to have my parents, the Dierings, come to visit us. After they adjusted to the jet lag, we headed off to Salzburg, Austria. Maria graciously offered to be our chauffeur and she became the first Diering to drive the streets of mainland Europe. Six hours later, we arrived safe and sound!

Salzburg is probably best known for being the city where the Sound of Music was filmed. For a greater appreciation of our trip, watch this video, then browse through our pictures below.

Oh, it's also the birthplace of some guy named Mozart.

He's no Julie Andrews, but he still gets his own statue.

In the 16th century, the Prince-Archbishop decided to build the "Rome of the North." As a result, Salzburg is considered the greatest Baroque city north of the Alps.
The city's most famous Baroque building is its cathedral.

Mozart was baptized here and later became the organist for two years. St. Peter's cemetery, the inspiration for the scene in the SOM where the von Trapp family hid from the Nazis.

As you can see from this picture, the Mirabell Gardens had a spectacular view! Maria is pretending to be Julie Andrews finishing the "do-re-mi" song. I didn't believe her when Maria, my wife, not the one from the movie, claimed that the song ended with this pose. Don't believe her either? Judge for yourself at the end of the video attached above.

The SOM crew danced around this statue in the Gardens at the 3:58 mark in the video above.

They also pranced around this fountain in the Gardens at the 4:45 mark in the video above.

After much dancing of our own, we headed up the cliffs that soar above the city. Yes, this view also made the movie. See the 1:50 mark of the video above.

We ate some schnitzel for lunch at a fantastic restaurant on the cliff's edge, but we first had to pass through the medieval city wall in order to reach it.

The restaurant shares the cliffs with the Hohensalzburg fortress. Since its construction over 1,000 years ago, this fortress was never captured.

The view from the cliffs underneath the fortress.

We took a bike ride along the Salzach river to the Hellbrunn castle.

The von Trapps also enjoyed the city's bike paths. See the 3:00 mark of the video.

After biking for about half an hour, we had a much different view of the fortress.

The "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" gazebo...the real reason we visited Hellbrunn castle. It was so romantic!

After a busy day, we enjoyed one last stroll through the city at night.

What a Year It's Been...

We've lived in Europe for just over a year now and it has truly been an incredible experience. We have learned a lot, been challenged a lot, and have been able to see a lot of fascinating places. Here are a few of our favorite pictures. Can you identify all of the places? Impress us with your knowledge!

So, if you're up for a challenge, leave a comment and name all of these places! (top to bottom, left to right)

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!