Berlin......beauty, history, art and culture...........loved it.

We are currently resting and relaxing in Amsterdam - slowly building up and conserving our energy for the final liver punching leg of our trip - Las Vegas. But for now we need to discuss our stay in Berlin, which proved to be a pleasant surprise.  It boasted fantastic modern aesthetics  blended with an enormous amount of history, culture and art.  We both can't wait to be back there one day.
We stayed at a great studio apartment in a quiet neighborhood in the heart of the city steps away from the Jewish Museum, Brandenburg Gate and a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant which we visited 3 times during our stay - god I love Pho......
During our stay we shopped, ate, drank, strolled through a fair and rode a Ferris Wheel, visited iconic buildings and memorials and museums (like the Pergamon on Museum Island). Then we ate and drank more.

Enough babbling... onto the pics.

Turkish inspired fair a couple of blocks from our apartment. This is one of the views from the Ferris Wheel.

View of the Reichstag

View towards Charlottenburg 

Ferris Wheel :)

At the Gendarmenmarkt 

Section of wall near Check Point Charlie.Notice the rounded edge at the top of the wall. This was a later addition to the original wall to make it even more difficult for people to make it over.

We visited the largest intact section of the wall which also includes a memorial to the victims of the wall.

Shots of the Brandenburg Gate. Amy woke up early one morning to get some shots before the tourists showed up.

She also got some shots of the Jewish Memorial.

Because she got up so early, by the time we made it to the Pergamon, she was a bit cranky.

Ishtar Gate 

 Market Gate of Miletus

Pergamon Altar

Panorama on Museum Island. She's a bit less cranky.

Looking out to Museum Island.

Chocolate store. Significant mood improvement.

We will update again soon with some highlights from Amsterdam.

Putting the L in Lamy,

Lance

Prague: Not the same without Jadian

Hey everyone,

Lance and I are currently in Amsterdam and realized we needed to share some pictures of our time in Prague. We originally visited Prague in September, 2009, with our good friends Jade and Ian. We had a rambunctious, giggle filled, beer fueled time in Prague with them and could't wait to go back. The city did not disappoint this time around, but we did notice that it was slightly less fun without our buddies :)

In honour of 2009, we have a compilation of then and now pics.

Kolkovna restaurant near the Old Town square 2009. Lance and I made sure to drop by the same place for drinks and also lunch this time. We even saw the same waiter as above!

The after party.

Re-hydrating in the park.






The view from our apartment this trip.

Easter Market 2014

Charles Bridge 2014

SWAN!!!! (2014)

View up to the castle

On our first night, instead of hitting up the club, we cruised down the river on the Jazz Boat. Bring on middle age!

Hope everyone is well. We are sipping on mamaosas and coffee looking forward to a night at the museum later (open till 10pm with wine) ;)

Lamy

Vienna: lost, movie sets, sore thighs and early man

Hey everyone,

We arrived in Prague yesterday after spending four awesome nights in Vienna. Our first morning in Vienna we decided we needed some exercise (my muffin top told me so) so we went for a jog into the nearby park called Prater. Prater is one of the largest parks in Vienna and is home to an amusement park and a famous Ferris wheel. Sounded like a good idea! Well, Lance and I got a bit disoriented coming out of the Prater and ran the wrong way through Vienna for a while. We ended up running through a movie set where there was live filming, we asked about four different people for directions,
ran into a metro station to try and find a map and ultimately made it back to the apartment after an hour and a half. Ultimately, I think we ran about 8km that morning which is SUPER impressive for this gal. I think adrenaline took over and I pretended we were in the TV show Amazing Race (minus a $1M reward at the end). We ended up seeing a bunch of the city well off the "beaten path". It was actually quite fun once we figured out where we were and where we needed to be.

What wasn't fun? Well, the next morning, we decided we should do some more exercise and went back to the park (keeping a keen eye on our location). We did some squats, push ups, sit ups etc and went back to the apartment. The following morning it hurt to sit. My thighs and bum were so sore! I think I am still storing lactic acid!


Another highlight of our time in Vienna was visiting the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Fine Arts) and the Naturhistoriches Museum (Natural History Museum). We spent hours wandering around both and barely scratched the surface. In fact, we only made it through the first floor of the Natural History Museum!


Below are some pictures of this grand and magnificent city. They don't do it justice but we tried to capture it the best we could :)

Belvedere Palace

Fountain near Belvedere Palace...not sure what it is called but we think it was commemorating WWII

Easter market with thousands of beautifully decorated eggs. Lance's quote of the day: "They sure are serious about Easter here." Yes, honey, almost like someone died.

Hundertwasserhaus apartment complex, just a block away from where we were staying.

Out and about

"Terror Bird" at the Natural History Museum. No. Shit.

Venus of Willendorf estimated to be 25,000 years old. Amazing!

Dinosaurs!

St. Stephen's Cathedral and a banana on a windy day.

Sans banana.

AND LASTLY, my favourite pictures generated at the Natural History Museum. Ever wonder what the Gillespie's would look like as early man? Perhaps as Neanderthals? Wonder no more:

Hahahahaha! Fun times with technology.

Okay, that is it for now. Time to see Prague but missing our pals Jadian severely :(

Lamy