Trip to Washington DC (for work!)

I had to go down to DC for work (which was the first time I had traveled for work in literally YEARS) but I was able to squeeze in a little sightseeing on the first day I was there.  I had high hopes for seeing more, but work kept me busy so I wasn't able to. But the trip just reinforced my need to bring the kids here!

Auf Wiedersehen, Boston!

And Hallo, Alexandria, Virginia!  Todd and I used to live in the red brick buildings just to the right of the Beltway (off of the tree lined road that crosses over the Beltway).  That seems like a thousand years ago.

I hopped in a cab and headed for my hotel, which was actually in DC, even though my meetings were in Arlington. Hello Washington Monument and Smithsonian Castle, behind it!

Oh and hello there, Watergate Hotel (that I took a blurry pic of out of the back window of the cab!)

After I got unpacked and did a little work in my hotel room, I headed out for some dinner in Old Town, Alexandria. I took the blue line to King Street and started making my way to the waterfront, past Hard Times Cafe, a place that Todd and I frequented many times when we lived there.

I just love walking down King Street. It really has the best vibe.

I sent this to Natalie - "Look how close I am to where you were born!"

Old Town has really pretty architecture.

Stop!  What??? As a former Blockbuster (Music) employee, I love this!

Ahhh, the majestic Majestic!  This is really a beautiful restaurant on the inside, too!

My destination though, was one of our favorite old bars - Murphy's Grand Irish Pub!

Time for happy hour!  Because they actually HAVE happy hour here. Happy hour is illegal in Massachusetts, which is ridiculous because how else can I enjoy a $4 pint??

After Happy Hour, I continued my stroll through Old Town, stopping in front of City Hall where Todd,  Natalie and I used to go to the farmer's market on Saturday mornings in the summer.

Funny story about this house down by the water.  I love looking at houses for sale on Redfin, and I happened to notice this one for sale.  It's up for sale for a mere $2.7 million and it bills itself as the "home where Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman filmed their hit movie "No Way Out"." HA!

I strolled through Founder's Park, right along the Potomac - which is just across the street from the No Way Out house!

What's the story with this tree?  It sits literally right in the water! I guess the Potomac isn't brackish enough to kill it?

The water always seems to be high here in Old Town.  Sometimes the water is so high, it turns the propeller of the USS Pompon submarine here into a little island. The USS Pompon earned 4 battle stars during World War II before being decommissioned in 1946.

Speaking of submarines, I continued my stroll over to the Torpedo Factory. The Torpedo Factory DID in fact make torpedoes after World War I ended from 1918 to 1923, but was later turned into a Federal Records Center in 1950. In 1973, it became the new Art Center, which it still serves as today.

Are they giving something away at the Fish Market?  (No, it just looked like a tour group of some sort, waiting for dinner.)  O'Connells pub there in the background USED to be the site of our favorite place to watch football on Sundays (you know... before we were married or had kids.)  Todd and I would watch the Pats games and then he would take me to the airport down the street to fly back to Atlanta. Back then though, it was known as Bullfeathers. When we moved to Arlington, it changed to O'Connells and has been that ever since.

We once at upstairs and had a nice meal with Todd's parents and his dad's cousin and his wife. And Pop's Old Fashioned Ice Cream used to have the BEST banana ice cream EVER!  It wasn't on the menu on this particular day.

I love a good little history sign!

I love the buildings and architecture in Old Town.  I snapped one final pic of Murphy's for Todd!

But for dinner, I needed to try the new German restaurant - Village Brauhaus.  They had an excellent beer selection, and the brats were delicious but everything else was kind of meh. 

After a heavy German meal, I walked back to the Metro station to head back into DC. The Metro has it's problems, but I still think it's better than the T!

The next day, I took the bus over to Rosslyn and it dropped me off right here:  Right in front of the gas'n'God here at the United Methodist church that was built over a Sunoco station!  Is that $3.65 for a gallon of gas or my soul??

Being in the DC area is such a unique experience in that Reagan National is very much IN the middle of everything.  The airplanes fly super low over DC, Arlington and Alexandria. I took this picture on my way to my meeting and it will never NOT freak me out that the planes are THAT low!

Well, if I have to be in DC for work, at least I have a lovely view of Georgetown University, the Naval Observatory and the National Cathedral!

One night after we had a happy hour, I walked all the way back to my hotel (in Foggy Bottom) with one of my region 2 counterparts, Trevor. This was the view from the Key Bridge, looking south toward the Watergate hotel and the Washington Monument.

Trevor and I stopped for burgers (he knew the chef!) which were amazing!  This one had bacon and a fried egg on it!

We continued on along the C&O canal which is so beautiful at night!  It was so quiet, you would hardly know that you were in a major city!

I particularly liked this tree that was coming out of the ground at a 45 degree angle, right next to this building.

I liked this walk so much, I did it again by myself on another afternoon! Here, I am approaching Fish Market Square, which has been a market since 1795! Interestingly, it was a much larger market before the canal was built starting in 1828.  The canal divided it - with the left side of the canal becoming the regular market, and this side of the canal becoming the fish market.

George Washington dreamed of a canal that went from DC to the Ohio River Valley, but unfortunately the canal stops short in Cumberland, Maryland.

Coal, lumber and agricultural products were transported along the C&O for over 100 years.  Mules with harnesses tied to the boats would walk along the footpath next to the canal and tow the boats. Poor mules.

Most of the buildings along this part of the canal functioned as mills at one point, and this area was very much an industrial area for many years.

Hello there, Mr. Heron. They'd better shore up that retaining wall, or it's gonna be in the canal soon!

Little homes and shops line the quiet canal, which is MUCH less active than M Street which sits up and behind these buildings.

You can see a few active locks along this part of the canal where tour companies still take tourists on canal cruises. This right here is Canal Lock Number 4, which has a bedrock foundation.

These locks were designed back in 1828!  This one, Lock Number 2 has a timber foundation since the bedrock was so far down into the ground.

You can't really see it because the tree is blocking it, but the original timber foundation from 1828 still exists on this lock!

Alas, my time in DC was too short, and I'm looking forward to going back with the kids. But really, who am I fooling... there isn't enough time for that. Natalie is going to be a junior soon and hopefully heading to college. Sniff sniff.  On my flight back, we flew over Scituate! I spy with my little eye Postscript Lane, where Todd and I met in 2002!  See the two bridges along the populated portion of the sandy beach? Right in between there, but directly ON the beach!

And I spy with my little eye Uncle Billy's old house!  Ahhh, we had such good times there.  His house was a few in from the end, directly on the beach.

Until next time, Washington DC!

Trip Back to Germany - Day 8 (an unexpected day in Munich!)

 Things almost never go right for the Griswolds and this trip was no exception!  First, both kids got sick RIGHT before we left, but thankfully recovered in time (and it wasn't COVID!)  We thought we had all of our travel troubles out of the way after this, but of course, we were wrong!

On the day we were to return to Boston, we had a leisurely morning because our flight wasn't until the afternoon, so everyone enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel. I love these machines!

More meats at breakfast!

And like, a dozen types of bread!

Pretzels for breakfast? No problem.

Weißwurst and bier to go with that pretzel? Absolutely necessary.

We finally got to the airport, all of us very sad to be leaving Germany (well, except Grant, who was ready to be home.) When we got there, we were told we could not check in.  I knew our flight had been changed (I got an email about it earlier in the morning) but didn't look at the fine print.  Our flight wasn't today, April 22. It was TOMORROW, April 23!  And we were no longer going through Reykjavik on Iceland Air. We were now going through Lisbon on Tap Air Portugal. 

After an hour on the phone with Iceland Air (hmm, wonder what THAT will cost me!) they told me they could not get us to Boston on this particular day.  They could get me to Newark, and that was it.  So we made the best of it. We booked a hotel at the Novotel right there at the airport that we have stayed in many times before and decided to grab the bus to the S-Bahn and head back into the city. I told everyone to give me their reaction to having to spend another day in Munich and this is what I got. 

Grant was very unhappy.  Todd was somewhere in the middle but willing to make the best of the situation.  Natalie was thrilled.  I was felt kind of like Todd, but leaned toward how Natalie felt. I purposely booked a flight home on Saturday so we would have a day to recover, do laundry, etc. Natalie also had her confirmation interview on Sunday that she would now have to reschedule. 

But hey, let's go back into the city, shall we?

We "landed" at the Marienplatz and the bells were ringing for us at St. Peter's nearby.

The Marienplatz was PACKED on a beautiful day. We walked under the arches at the Old Town Hall which was originally built prior to 1310. The Grand Hall here at the Old Town Hall was the scene of a speech given by Joseph Goebbels in 1938 that led directly to Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass.  That night, rioters shattered the glass storefronts of Jewish businesses, destroyed synagogues, and raided the homes of Jewish families, injuring and killing some of them. In the end, 30,000 Jewish men were also sent off to concentration camps - all while the authorities watched without interceding.

Here we are, me and the babes, walking under the arches at the Old Munich City Hall.  You can see Grant is less than pleased that we are not on a plane home!

But this gave us a chance to go back to the Hofbräuhaus!

Hofbräuhaus was founded in 1589 by the Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria and was intended to be a brewery for the Residenz. He found the brown beer of Munich SO gross, that he wanted to start up his own brewery!

Here we go again, with the pretzels that are bigger than their heads!

This pretzel DID look pretty tasty though!

Grant was STILL grumpy at this point because he just wanted to go back home.

So we demanded that he smile! Ok ok... he KIND OF looks like his dad here.

Hmmmm. What should I order?

Ahhh yes, a traditional Hofbräuhaus lager!  Only a halb Maß though!

The Hofbräuhaus has been in this location since 1607 and simple folk like you and I weren't able to drink this beer until 1828. This particular beer hall was established in 1897 after the original brewery moved out to the Hofbräukeller in the Haidhausen district of Munich.  A fire destroyed the malt house in 1987, and the brewery was then moved out to Riem (a suburb east of Munich) in 1988. 

The building was heavily damaged on the night of April 25, 1944 in World War II, although the beer hall (or "Schwemme") itself was mostly spared.

A Stammtisch is a "regular table" - or a place where locals can sit (think of it like Cheers - where everybody knows your name!)  If you're not a regular, you don't sit here unless you're invited!

The fun just keeps on going!

Baileys at the Hofbräuhaus!

Now we're talking!  I was just trying to eat pretty much all of the kartoffelsalat that I could before I had to return to mayonnaise based potato salad in America. YUCK.

You'd better not be eyeing my kartoffelsalat because I'm not giving anybody ANY of it!

We finally finished up our meal and headed back outside to walk around for a bit.

A last family selfie at the Hofbräuhaus!

Munich was really hopping!

Another adorable manhole cover of Munich!

As I mentioned above, the actual Hofbräuhaus brewery USED to be here at the beer hall, but it moved out to the suburbs in the very late 1800s.  In the early centuries, they called the beverage we know as beer "barley juice!"  Another cool fact: When the Swedes (!!!) occupied Munich during the Thirty Years War, they were paid with 344 pails of Hofbräu Maibock so that they wouldn't loot and burn down the city! 

We were looking for a place to grab a table to watch the remainder of the FC Bayern München game, but didn't have any luck at this Irish pub.

But we did find a table at the Hard Rock Café (good enough!) Unfortunately, Bayern München lost to Mainz, 3-1.

We didn't eat anything, but we did have a couple of beverages while we watched the game.

I don't remember why he was doing this, but it made me laugh so I had to add it.

Ok, time to head back to the train station - but I don't want to leave!

Natalie is noticing the Sparkasse bank witch (??) that's up above her. Across the street, you can see the Heilig Geist - the Catholic church of the Holy Spirit.  This was a hospital church since 1271, and a city parish since 1844.  It was destroyed in a fire in 1327, and they rebuilt it in the Gothic style before renovating it in the baroque style in the 1700s.  It was again largely destroyed in World War II.  The frescos and stucco work were painstakingly renovated after the war and the interior is once again in the really pretty baroque style.  I'm putting this one on my list for the next time we visit Munich!

We made our way back to the Marienplatz (although we didn't get to see the Glockenspiel run today!)

On the train, you could tell that Grant really loves it when she does this.

Ahhhh!  It's not quite yet the vibrant yellow that we are so used to seeing in the month of May, but the rapeseed fields are starting to show it's yellow flowers!

We got off the bus near the hotel and walked back under the setting sun.

If we can't be in our own beds, it's good to be back in a familiar hotel.

We waited an extraordinarily long time for our dinner at the hotel though (they were swamped - which made me wonder if there were issues on other airlines too?)

I'm not gonna write a whole different post for our journey home, but the story does deserve to be told. We got to the airport and once again, we couldn't check in.  We got our bag tags, but no boarding passes. So we got in line (which was much shorter today) and the desk agent told us "not to freak out" because our tickets from Lisbon to Boston said that we were "standby" - even though we had seats.

Ok, peace out Munich, but honestly, I'd rather be stuck here than in Lisbon!

As we were landing in Lisbon, I spotted the Sanctuary of Christ the King overlooking the Tagus River! (It's just over the engine).

Can you see the Castelo de St. Jorge and the National Pantheon in the Alfama?  The Barrio Alto is in the foreground. I had a great view of downtown Lisbon!

Meanwhile, we finally landed and of course, the plane was parked about as far away from ANYTHING at the airport as you could get.  We had to get on the bus to go to the terminal, go through passport control (#1), and hustle to our next gate only to find that we had to go through a secondary passport check.  Once we went through this passport check, you couldn't leave again (so... no going to grab a snack or a soda).  We went up to the counter and the lady looked at our "standby" tickets and said, "Oh don't worry - just find a seat wherever on the plane. Join group C for boarding." Only... that isn't necessary because we actually HAVE seats. 

So we waiting with group C and of course, as they scanned our "tickets" - there was a problem. They asked us to pull aside and have everyone else board while they tried to figure it out.  It turns out Iceland Air had not yet paid Tap Air Portugal for our seats. Major face palm. Finally, they just waved us through!

The flight was unusually bumpy, and drink/food service didn't start for almost THREE HOURS into the flight. I was over it!  Funny story though - I decided to watch the movie Hot Pursuit (please, give me comedy so I can laugh instead of cry at this point!) with Sofia Vergara and Reese Witherspoon.  Suddenly, there's a scene with a news anchor talking about these two ladies who are on the run from the law - and the news anchor is none other than my graduate school classmate, Nicondra Norwood! Talk about a fun surprise!

Until next time, Munich! (And Portugal - I haven't seen the last of you, either!)