Year in Review - 2022
Looking back on 2022, it looks like we were permanently on vacation which is almost the truth. With Mark‘s job, there is a four-day holiday designated every month, so taking quick trips is pretty standard. Trains and flights are also wildly cheap compared to the states, so we‘re doing our best to capitalize on our short amount of time in Europe.
Here‘s how we spent our days this year:
As it seems fairly status quo at this point, JANUARY started off fairly quietly with us saying “Auf Wiedersehen” to my family who spent the holidays with us. Our days were spent recharging with walks in the woods, knitting, and celebrating my birthday sans alcohol for our first #dryJanuary.
FEBRUARY was essentially a sequel to January with more hiking in the woods, finishing my most complicated knitting project to date, and a #followthruFebruary sans alcohol.
By MARCH, we (mostly me, let’s be honest) were getting a little stir crazy, so I took a quick weekend girls’ trip to Nice, France before Mark and I headed to Dublin, Ireland with friends for Spring Break. After a two year streak of good health, my luck finally ran out and I tested positive for COVID-19. Naturally, I blamed Mark as the disease pigeon that brought it into the house (spoiler: he did not). Thankfully, due to vaccines, my case was fairly mild and my mandatory quarantine took place between our planned travel.
More travel was on the horizon in APRIL, as I joined a friend on a last-minute trip to Budapest, Hungary. We had a fabulous time walking the city, wandering the ruins bars and relaxing in the thermal baths, all while making sure we had our daily langos. At the end of the month, I took my first solo trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands and was joined by Mark a few days later for tulip time near The Hague.
We took an extended vacation in MAY to visit my cousin in Spain since her overseas teaching program was ending. We spent the first half of the trip in Granada, having all of the tapas (it was invented there) and tinto de verano we could get our hands on and then relaxing in the exquisite Turkish baths. My cousin met us in Seville where we continued eating our way through Spain, which essentially meant Mark had sardines and Iberico every few hours. It was so cool to visit her after we showed her around Germany last December. Pro tip: any time you can travel with someone who is fully fluent in the language of the country you’re visiting, jump on it.
As the temps and gas prices rose in JUNE, we took full advantage of the Deutsche Bahn 9-Euro-Ticket with little weekend excursions to towns near Stuttgart. We also drove up to Spangdahlem to visit friends before they moved back stateside.
In JULY, we found our happy place among the turquoise blue waters and alpine mountains of Interlaken, Switzerland. I also used my 9-Euro-Ticket to crash my former boss’ vacation in a random town in the Black Forest. Mark’s dreams came true as we saw the incredible John Legend live, which was our first concert since 2019! At the end of the month, I was proven wrong in my theory that Mark had already had an asymptomatic case of COVID when he tested positive. His case was even more mild than mine, and we spent his week in quarantine swapping our office and bedroom spaces and reclaiming the yarn from a tank top that I knit and was never going to wear. The takeaway: vaccines work, even if you still get sick.
With a crushing heatwave throughout Europe, AUGUST was utterly unbearable most days. Temps were in the mid-90s, which would be fine, except that almost all buildings lack air conditioning. We tried to keep it cool with our 9-Euro-Ticket on the weekends by visiting Lake Constance and taking the dogs on a wine hike. I also snuck in a few more girls’ trips with a road trip to Bolesławiec, Poland for the annual pottery festival and a couple of days in the Mosel Valley wine region, hiking to castles and sipping riesling. We ended the month with a weekend in Brussels, Belgium with friends for a craft beer festival.
We kept up with our jetsetter ways in SEPTEMBER, with a Labor Day weekend trip to Porto, Portugal. We loved walking the streets and learning more about port, one of our personal favorites. I was home for a day before I took the train up to Paris, France to show my parents around for five activity-packed days. When I got back, we donned our fest gear and took my parents to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany and Volksfest in Stuttgart (the second biggest Oktoberfest celebration in Germany).
By OCTOBER, we were ready to slow down just a bit… after we all made our return to half marathon racing in Bruges, Belgium. It was one of the worst runs I’ve ever had, but Mark pulled out his third best effort. No matter how we finished, we all celebrated with as many waffles as we could possibly consume in a weekend. At the end of the month, we celebrated Mark’s promotion to Lt. Col.
NOVEMBER was all about the festivities as we journeyed up to Cologne, Germany for Karneval which starts at 11:11 a.m. on the 11th of November. For Thanksgiving, we headed to Prague, Czechia to relax in their beer spas and officially start the Christmas market season.
Last year, a lot of the Christmas markets were cancelled amid yet another COVID spike, so this DECEMBER we tried to make up for lost time by visiting as many markets as possible in France, Germany, and Switzerland. We ended the year with a weeklong road-trip through France, visiting the Champagne region, spending Christmas in Paris, walking Omaha Beach, catching St. Mont Michel at golden hour, touring Hennessey in Cognac, learning all about wine in Bordeaux and hitting up foodie paradise in Lyon.
This year was busy, but it lacked one important element… WE DIDN‘T HAVE TO MOVE! We‘re thoroughly enjoying our second time abroad and are seizing every opportunity we can to explore Europe. We‘re excited and ready for another amazing year!