Rob's Trip so far

So I am sitting in the airport in Hong Kong and wanted to give an update of my travels so far. It has been a whirlwind trip. I started out leaving Dublin last Saturday and flew to Tokyo via London Heathrow. Once in Tokyo I was able to do a lot of cool things, one of which was seeing the final day of the Sumo tournament. This is a picture from our seats. This is the SuperBowl to the Japanese. It was an earth-shattering event.

As you can see we were sitting pretty far back, but we could see the athletes just fine. The best part is when one of the Sumos falls off of the platform for whatever reason. He literally falls on top of the spectators. Some folks were really up close and personal with the action.

From Tokyo I went over to Shanghai for a conference. I stayed in the Grand Hyatt. It is one of the tallest buildings in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_Mao_Tower

This is the view from INSIDE the building from the door of my room. If you have a fear of heights DO NOT stay in this hotel.

You really do get dizzy as you walk from your room to the elevator. It is an experience.

This next picture is from the window of my room. They continue to build and build in China. It was an interesting feeling.

Once you spend some time in Shanghai you really can sense why the prices for oil and metal are going up. There is a lot going on there. I thought I was in a tall building until we went to the top and looked out the window and saw this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_World_Financial_Center

This is a tall building. It really dwarfs anything I have seen, pretty impressive. The cool part though is in China they shut all the lights off at 11:00pm. It is an energy saving policy. So if you don't catch a look at the skyline before 11 you are out of luck.

From Shanghai we flew to Hong Kong. It is a cool city. I ate some strange stuff like frog, pigeon, snake, shark fin soup, and many other. I took this picture as we crossed over the water to Kowloon. Hong Kong is such an interesting mix of cultures and time. It was a great time.

From here I am headed to Sydney for a couple of days. I have some work to do and then back home to the family. I will update more later.

-Rob

Happy Birthday Owen!

We celebrated Owen's 1st birthday yesterday. I can't believe he is one already...it went so quickly. Some things about our 1 year old munchkin:

He loves to walk around with a play hot dog (pictured) or french fry in his mouth
He is a thumb sucker
He is a walking machine
He loves Nutri-Grain bars and black beans
He thinks Easton is hilarious even though Easton torments him constantly
He is pretty much the sweetest thing.

Christmas and thensome

I am playing a bit of catch up here. We spent a week in Germany and then Christmas and New Year's at home in Dublin. Here are some of the highlights:

I don't think this picture gives our tree the size justice it deserves...it was large. Easton got to help trim.


We got our house all ready for Christmas and then headed off to Germany. We were a little scared to go, seeing as neither of us speak a lick of German...and we were planning on driving a lot. It was a great trip though even if we did get stuck for 7 hours in a blizzard.
It was really cold there and one of the main reasons we were going was to see the Christmas markets all of which are outside. We just had to bundle up...

I think Owen still has some pent up hatred toward us for this. He really despised this snow suit thing.
Our trip started in Cologne (Koln). It is a really pretty city. The Christmas markets here are really cool, one especially is right next to this huge Gothic cathedral, The Dom.




We went from Cologne to Frankfurt to see the temple there:

But didn't spend much time there because we were trying to get to Dresden by late afternoon. And this is when we spent 7 hours completing what was supposed to be 3 hour drive. Lots of snow and ice on a downhill and semi's don't mix and thus we were stuck for 4 hours. Boo. But our kids did pretty well and we were alive so to Dresden we continued. Again, didn't spend much time there either since it was all eaten up by the blizzard but we did stop in neighboring Freiberg to see the temple there:


We continued on to Berlin. We did more Christmas Markets and some touristy stuff. We ate a lot on this trip:


Some melted cheese and potato on bread goodness.

Lots of gingerbread.

I didn't actually try these and I am really regretting it.

'Berliner' doughnuts.

We loved the Checkpoint Charlie museum in Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie was the American entry/exit tower and the only access point over to West Berlin from East Berlin when the wall was still up. The building is now a museum with tons of pictures, stories, memorabilia, etc. from everything that surrounded the Berlin Wall. It was so interesting. Rob and I could have easily spent 3 hours there but instead spent 25 minutes since we have 2 wee children. Maybe some day we'll go back...in the summer.

Outside of the museum.

Remnants of the wall.
We really liked Berlin and wished we had more time to explore there.

A Berlin Christmas Market

We came back to Dublin feeling a little bit more Christmas-y. Here are a few pics from Christmas:


I like this picture because it almost looks like Easton is being patient and sharing with Owen:


Two of my fave gifts of the season: The Puma's (thanks mom) and the socks (thanks dad and Nancy). I needed them both.


Owen enjoys "fishing"



Rob carves the turkey for our get together:


We missed all of our family but had a nice quiet Christmas.
And just because this post isn't long enough:

Mr. Undies he has named himself.

The kids favorite morning activity. I swear we've never used that thing.


Come and visit us in Europe...you'll have to wear one too when we go swimming!

Happy 2010 everyone!!