Hey Everyone,
We hope that you are having a good week. This is absolutely the best time of the year for sports in my mind. The Boys of Summer are heating up for October, the boosters and tailgaters are in full swing on game day Saturdays, and the poverty stricken NFLers are back on Sunday. Sadly, my Cards are trying to gut it out for the Wild Card and still have some work to do and the Rams and their injury plagued start might already be finished, but there is one bright spot. My Clemson Tigers are 3-0 after ending Auburn's 17 game winning streak, and they have a huge showdown in Death Valley this weekend against the Seminoles of FSU. It pains me to say, but Ann's Brewers are a shoe-in for the NL Central Title, and the Pack is off to a nice start. If I were a betting man though, I would put all of my money on Ann's UW Lacrosse Eagles. Wow, they are a powerhouse. While we sadly are not getting to see any of this in England, there are some sacrifices worth making, and thank goodness for CNN.SI. I have been tuning in to a lot of the Rugby World Cup matches, and I am loving that sport more and more every day. The English Premier League is back in action as well, so that certainly helps to fill some of those US sports gaps.
Tomorrow, we are embarking on an incredible trip. We are meeting my parents in Istanbul Turkey and spending Thursday through Saturday there. We are then boarding a large sailboat, capacity for about 150 people, and sailing from Istanbul, porting at 2 Turkish Islands and 3 Greek Islands and then ending in Athens, Greece a week from Saturday. This trip has been in planning since before we moved to the UK, so we are incredibly excited. We will certainly have plenty of pictures and hopefully some entertaining stories to share. We are not back in the UK until the 2nd of October, so please excuse the blog inactivity.
Until we blog again, enjoy the last 2 weeks of September, and when you wake up on Saturday, for the love of God, repeat after me, 1-2-3-4, C-L-E-M-S-O-N, T-I-G-E-R-S, Fight Tigers, Fight Tigers, Fight, Fight, Fight.
Cheers
Kevin and Ann
Maldives
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Friday, 16 September 2011
Happy 5 Years
Happy Anniversary Dennis and Emily Kirchhoefer. It is crazy that it has been 5 years today. Needless to say, Ann and I would not know each other or be married or be living in London if not for you all and your wedding. That was one incredible weekend and clearly something that changed our lives. We hope that you have a great day and we will always be thinking about you on September 16th.
Who would have ever thought that the worm and a slow dance to Twist and Shout would have landed me a Senior Director and a ticket to London? I know what everyone is thinking, Ann got the better end of the deal with getting Jack the dog and I, but she is really starting to elevate her value;) Ann, I feel like we have lived a lifetime in the last 5 years through long distance, moving to Minneapolis and buying a house, and now living in London, but I know that the best is still ahead. I love you so much and I can't wait to celebrate another 5.
Who would have ever thought that the worm and a slow dance to Twist and Shout would have landed me a Senior Director and a ticket to London? I know what everyone is thinking, Ann got the better end of the deal with getting Jack the dog and I, but she is really starting to elevate her value;) Ann, I feel like we have lived a lifetime in the last 5 years through long distance, moving to Minneapolis and buying a house, and now living in London, but I know that the best is still ahead. I love you so much and I can't wait to celebrate another 5.
Knapp-King Reunion - Part 2 - Dublin
Hey Everyone,
The highly anticipated Knapp-King Reunion Part Deux, Dublin, has finally arrived. My liver has been on life support this week still trying to break down all of the Guinness, Smithwick's, and Bushmill Whiskey that I imbibed last weekend. Let me start by telling you that there is not much to do in Dublin but drink, as you will see from our experiences there. The Irish expression "Pints Aplenty" could not be more true in Dublin.
First, I need to back up quickly and provide an entertaining story that started our trip to Dublin. So, as you know, we saw Patrick and Susie off to Ireland last Tuesday morning, and Ann and I continued our work week. Ann also had to fly to Germany last Wednesday morning for some meetings and returned to London on Thursday afternoon, just before leaving for Dublin on Thursday night. We were flying Ryanair to Dublin, which if you do not know, is the low cost carrier of Europe. We have heard some ghastly stories about Ryanair, but we took our chances. It's the airline that has cheap tickets, but they charge you for everything else, including if you do not check in online, which is fine because Ann and I do that all of the time. So, we left for the airport in plenty of time with our boarding passes in hand. We even had time for a beer before heading to our gate. As we get to the gate, and the ticket agent sees our US Passports, she looks at our boarding passes and asks where our stamps are. Apparently, all non EU passport holders have to have a security stamp on their boarding passes to board the plane, and this is written in small lettering on the boarding passes. This is all happening 20 minutes before departure, and she kindly tells us that we will miss our flight. We quickly fell victim to Ryanair on our first journey. It was not very funny then, but we are now able to look back at it and laugh, but we did miss our flight, had to stay in a hotel near Gatwick airport on Thursday night, and pay about a $350 rebooking fee to catch the first flight to Dublin on Friday morning. Needless to say, if I can avoid Ryanair for the rest of my life, I will die fulfilled.
We finally met up with Patrick and Susie around lunch time on Friday at our hotel in the Smiithfield area of Dublin, just north of the River Liffey and right by the Jameson Distillery. Our first stop was at the Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Dublin(see pic above). It was founded in 1198. We had the most amazing Cottage pie there for lunch. From there, we headed towards the Guinness Brewery. Having grown up in the backyard of AB in St. Louis, I was prepared for a mind blowing experience. Unfortunately, the tour was less than thrilling, more museum type stuff than good old beer brewing, but the highlight was having a free Guinness on the top floor "Gravity Bar," where you are treated to a 360-degree view of Dublin. Leaving the Guinness factory, we headed towards the area of town called Temple Bar and home to the Dublin Castle(stronghold for British power) and Trinity College. En route, we popped into The Bank Bar for a cocktail near Trinity, which was originally the location of the Belfast Bank in Dublin. After walking through Trinity's campus, which is majestic, we pursued a local's pub recommendation called Mulligans. A fantastic recommendation it was. After another pint there, we headed back to the hotel to regroup for the night's activities. Our first stop was back in Temple Bar at a pub called The Palace. I decided to take a break from beer and I ordered a vodka soda which prompted the bartender to call me a woman. When I said a double, he said that's a little better!!! HILARIOUS. Departing from The Palace, and after a quick photo of Ann and Susie with the dark complected leprechaun, we made our way into The Temple Bar in Temple Bar. A few pints later, we had a very unmemorable dinner, and that was not due to our level of soberness, but the quality of the restaurant that we picked. For the finale of the night, we were excited to end at a pub near our hotel called The Cobblestone, which is highly regarded for its music scene. We were there for a short bit, and then the AARP contingent of our group(everyone except me) decided it was time to call it a night(no offence to our AARP blog followers). Overall, Day 1 was a huge success.
We got a little bit of a later start on Saturday. We wandered around through some shops near O'Connell St. and then crossed over the Liffey for some lunch at Gallagher's. I had the most delectable Corn Beef and Mash ever. I would go back there in a heartbeat. After lunch, our first goal was to see what else there was to see in Dublin, but after a few minutes of discussion, it was decided that we had really seen the highlights. Therefore, let the Day 2 pub crawl commence. We made our way through an awesome area called Soda towards a beautiful victorian pub called Long Hall. From there, we toured a bit more of the Soda neighborhood and made our way out into St. Stephens Park, a beautiful green space in Dublin. It was once where all of the public hangings in Dublin took place. Heading back into Soda, we found our next stop at the Stag's Head. All of the pubs in Dublin are so incredible because they are all old victorian buildings with stained glass, beautiful chandeliers, and intricately carved wood. The Guinness was not bad either;) The next stop was this incredibly large pub called O'Neills near Trinity College. It might have been one of the biggest bars that I have ever seen. We ordered some sliders that were unfortunately disappointing. Leaving O'Neills, we made probably one of the biggest discoveries in another pub called Kehoe's. It was not so much the pub itself, but the band that we found there called "The Shirt Tail Stompers." It was a 1920's style swing band from London that was there rehearsing before a gig that night. They let us sight in on their "jam session," and wow, that was great. After a few hours there, our final pub stop was at a place called Toner's in the Georgian area of Dublin. It was an old grocer's shop turned pub. Due to Patrick and Susie's 7:30am flight on Sunday morning back to the States, we called it an early night on Saturday. I think that it is safe to say that we had a nice sampling of the pubs in Dublin.
Thanks Patrick and Susie for making the trip over. We had such an incredible time. We are already looking forward to Italy next year.
The highly anticipated Knapp-King Reunion Part Deux, Dublin, has finally arrived. My liver has been on life support this week still trying to break down all of the Guinness, Smithwick's, and Bushmill Whiskey that I imbibed last weekend. Let me start by telling you that there is not much to do in Dublin but drink, as you will see from our experiences there. The Irish expression "Pints Aplenty" could not be more true in Dublin.
First, I need to back up quickly and provide an entertaining story that started our trip to Dublin. So, as you know, we saw Patrick and Susie off to Ireland last Tuesday morning, and Ann and I continued our work week. Ann also had to fly to Germany last Wednesday morning for some meetings and returned to London on Thursday afternoon, just before leaving for Dublin on Thursday night. We were flying Ryanair to Dublin, which if you do not know, is the low cost carrier of Europe. We have heard some ghastly stories about Ryanair, but we took our chances. It's the airline that has cheap tickets, but they charge you for everything else, including if you do not check in online, which is fine because Ann and I do that all of the time. So, we left for the airport in plenty of time with our boarding passes in hand. We even had time for a beer before heading to our gate. As we get to the gate, and the ticket agent sees our US Passports, she looks at our boarding passes and asks where our stamps are. Apparently, all non EU passport holders have to have a security stamp on their boarding passes to board the plane, and this is written in small lettering on the boarding passes. This is all happening 20 minutes before departure, and she kindly tells us that we will miss our flight. We quickly fell victim to Ryanair on our first journey. It was not very funny then, but we are now able to look back at it and laugh, but we did miss our flight, had to stay in a hotel near Gatwick airport on Thursday night, and pay about a $350 rebooking fee to catch the first flight to Dublin on Friday morning. Needless to say, if I can avoid Ryanair for the rest of my life, I will die fulfilled.
We finally met up with Patrick and Susie around lunch time on Friday at our hotel in the Smiithfield area of Dublin, just north of the River Liffey and right by the Jameson Distillery. Our first stop was at the Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Dublin(see pic above). It was founded in 1198. We had the most amazing Cottage pie there for lunch. From there, we headed towards the Guinness Brewery. Having grown up in the backyard of AB in St. Louis, I was prepared for a mind blowing experience. Unfortunately, the tour was less than thrilling, more museum type stuff than good old beer brewing, but the highlight was having a free Guinness on the top floor "Gravity Bar," where you are treated to a 360-degree view of Dublin. Leaving the Guinness factory, we headed towards the area of town called Temple Bar and home to the Dublin Castle(stronghold for British power) and Trinity College. En route, we popped into The Bank Bar for a cocktail near Trinity, which was originally the location of the Belfast Bank in Dublin. After walking through Trinity's campus, which is majestic, we pursued a local's pub recommendation called Mulligans. A fantastic recommendation it was. After another pint there, we headed back to the hotel to regroup for the night's activities. Our first stop was back in Temple Bar at a pub called The Palace. I decided to take a break from beer and I ordered a vodka soda which prompted the bartender to call me a woman. When I said a double, he said that's a little better!!! HILARIOUS. Departing from The Palace, and after a quick photo of Ann and Susie with the dark complected leprechaun, we made our way into The Temple Bar in Temple Bar. A few pints later, we had a very unmemorable dinner, and that was not due to our level of soberness, but the quality of the restaurant that we picked. For the finale of the night, we were excited to end at a pub near our hotel called The Cobblestone, which is highly regarded for its music scene. We were there for a short bit, and then the AARP contingent of our group(everyone except me) decided it was time to call it a night(no offence to our AARP blog followers). Overall, Day 1 was a huge success.
We got a little bit of a later start on Saturday. We wandered around through some shops near O'Connell St. and then crossed over the Liffey for some lunch at Gallagher's. I had the most delectable Corn Beef and Mash ever. I would go back there in a heartbeat. After lunch, our first goal was to see what else there was to see in Dublin, but after a few minutes of discussion, it was decided that we had really seen the highlights. Therefore, let the Day 2 pub crawl commence. We made our way through an awesome area called Soda towards a beautiful victorian pub called Long Hall. From there, we toured a bit more of the Soda neighborhood and made our way out into St. Stephens Park, a beautiful green space in Dublin. It was once where all of the public hangings in Dublin took place. Heading back into Soda, we found our next stop at the Stag's Head. All of the pubs in Dublin are so incredible because they are all old victorian buildings with stained glass, beautiful chandeliers, and intricately carved wood. The Guinness was not bad either;) The next stop was this incredibly large pub called O'Neills near Trinity College. It might have been one of the biggest bars that I have ever seen. We ordered some sliders that were unfortunately disappointing. Leaving O'Neills, we made probably one of the biggest discoveries in another pub called Kehoe's. It was not so much the pub itself, but the band that we found there called "The Shirt Tail Stompers." It was a 1920's style swing band from London that was there rehearsing before a gig that night. They let us sight in on their "jam session," and wow, that was great. After a few hours there, our final pub stop was at a place called Toner's in the Georgian area of Dublin. It was an old grocer's shop turned pub. Due to Patrick and Susie's 7:30am flight on Sunday morning back to the States, we called it an early night on Saturday. I think that it is safe to say that we had a nice sampling of the pubs in Dublin.
Thanks Patrick and Susie for making the trip over. We had such an incredible time. We are already looking forward to Italy next year.
Monday, 12 September 2011
Knapp-King Reunion - Part 1 - London
Ann and I have picked up and moved twice now, first to Minneapolis, and now of course to London. If you have made moves like this, you know that often times you leave family, friends, and familiarity behind. For Ann and I, we love the adventure of discovering new places, meeting new people, and pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone, and the great thing is that we always have each other. We have discovered with each of our moves though, especially as we get a bit older, it gets more difficult to meet people that you want to call friends. We found this to be the case in Minneapolis, and maybe even more so in London. If you would ask either of us, I would say good friends is the thing that we miss most here. I have started this entry with this because the last week and a half we were reunited with our incredible friends Patrick and Susie. They too had moved to Minneapolis shortly before us for Susie to attend law school, and it just happened that Patrick and I started at Target the same day. Well, a man-crush formed then as we reminisced about these last 2 weekends, and the rest is history. When we shared the news about London, I think that it was harder to tell Patrick and Susie than it was our parents!!! They were the first people to book their trip over here to see us, which seemed like forever ago, and it finally arrived last weekend.
We had such a blast last weekend on their London leg of the trip. Due to their overnight travel and exhausted state, we took it pretty easy on Friday night. We hit the Churchill Arms for a few pints and then a great dinner at the Ark in Notting Hill. It was so fun to be able to catch up and be in the comfort of great friends. Saturday, we awoke with a half day agenda of sightseeing(Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, The Horse Grounds, Downing Street, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, and lunch at Borough Market) and then a fantastic pub crawl for the remainder of the day and night. The day lived up to absolutely every expectation. It was their first time to London, so it was fun to see them register what we live and breathe every day, and just see the amazement on their faces of the architecture, insane history, unique pubs, and cellar temperature beer;) Saturday was filled with a lot of laughs, especially Ann and Susie getting into an abortion argument which prompted Patrick to get up and go and randomly sit down with a table of English University students. The highlight of the night had to be Oliver(random old Irish guy in last pub) that was obsessed with Susie and Ann. It started because he had asked Patrick to play the Doors on the Jukebox and from there we invited him to sit down with us. At one point, we actually even got shooshed from the bartender. Who gets shooshed in a pub at midnight on a Saturday?
Sunday, we toured Camden Town in the rain and then caught a canal taxi from Camden to Little Venice. We could have walked faster than the boat moved, but it was still a fun experience. We went for a very traditional Indian meal on Sunday night. There are some incredible Indian restaurants in London, and we have grown to love Indian food. Monday, Patrick and Susie took a day trip out to Cambridge and then the 4 of us actually had a dinner in at our flat on Monday night. Tuesday started Patrick and Susie's 2nd leg of the trip, Ireland. They flew to Cork on Tuesday morning where they were renting a car to drive up through Dingle and Killarney. As planned, Ann and I were flying on Thursday night to meet up with them in Dublin for their final weekend abroad.
It was so comforting to be reunited with great friends and share our lives in London. The Knapp-King Reunion - Part 2 - Dublin to follow soon!!!
Cheers
Kevin
We had such a blast last weekend on their London leg of the trip. Due to their overnight travel and exhausted state, we took it pretty easy on Friday night. We hit the Churchill Arms for a few pints and then a great dinner at the Ark in Notting Hill. It was so fun to be able to catch up and be in the comfort of great friends. Saturday, we awoke with a half day agenda of sightseeing(Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, The Horse Grounds, Downing Street, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, and lunch at Borough Market) and then a fantastic pub crawl for the remainder of the day and night. The day lived up to absolutely every expectation. It was their first time to London, so it was fun to see them register what we live and breathe every day, and just see the amazement on their faces of the architecture, insane history, unique pubs, and cellar temperature beer;) Saturday was filled with a lot of laughs, especially Ann and Susie getting into an abortion argument which prompted Patrick to get up and go and randomly sit down with a table of English University students. The highlight of the night had to be Oliver(random old Irish guy in last pub) that was obsessed with Susie and Ann. It started because he had asked Patrick to play the Doors on the Jukebox and from there we invited him to sit down with us. At one point, we actually even got shooshed from the bartender. Who gets shooshed in a pub at midnight on a Saturday?
Sunday, we toured Camden Town in the rain and then caught a canal taxi from Camden to Little Venice. We could have walked faster than the boat moved, but it was still a fun experience. We went for a very traditional Indian meal on Sunday night. There are some incredible Indian restaurants in London, and we have grown to love Indian food. Monday, Patrick and Susie took a day trip out to Cambridge and then the 4 of us actually had a dinner in at our flat on Monday night. Tuesday started Patrick and Susie's 2nd leg of the trip, Ireland. They flew to Cork on Tuesday morning where they were renting a car to drive up through Dingle and Killarney. As planned, Ann and I were flying on Thursday night to meet up with them in Dublin for their final weekend abroad.
It was so comforting to be reunited with great friends and share our lives in London. The Knapp-King Reunion - Part 2 - Dublin to follow soon!!!
Cheers
Kevin
Thursday, 1 September 2011
37 Years and still going strong...
Just wanted to give a shout out to my parents on their 37th wedding anniversary!! For those of you who know my parents, you know that they have an incredibly special marriage - they are truly best friends and enjoy every moment they have together. Their love is selfless and one that is envied. I feel very blessed to call them my parents and feel very lucky to be surrounded by their love.
I know my dad has been feeling under the weather but I still hope they can get away to their paradise - the cottage - to celebrate their special day. Its a place where they have many wonderful memories from their marriage including friendly competitive games of shake-of-the-day, Tolf, bags, fishing tourneys and of course, sequence!!!
Wish we were there to celebrate in person but you have been on our minds all day. Love you both!!
Ann and Kevin
I know my dad has been feeling under the weather but I still hope they can get away to their paradise - the cottage - to celebrate their special day. Its a place where they have many wonderful memories from their marriage including friendly competitive games of shake-of-the-day, Tolf, bags, fishing tourneys and of course, sequence!!!
Wish we were there to celebrate in person but you have been on our minds all day. Love you both!!
Ann and Kevin
Estonia
Hey Everyone,
First, I have delayed blogging this week as I have wanted Ann to continue basking in the limelight after her entertaining post last week. She was quite excited with herself after she had completed it. Granted, it took her a bit longer than it did Thomas Crapper to invent the flushing toilet, but she worked diligently and created a nice piece of writing, on time as well;)
We hope you are well and getting excited for Labor Day weekend. We have to give a big cheers to the Annual Labor Day Weekend extravaganza at the Berenz High Climb in Hancock, WI. Every Labor Day at Ann's family's cottage, the Berenz, McGrath, Klotz, and Nelson Families get together for a weekend of debauchery. There is the annual flip cup tourney, bags, washers, "Tolf," late night bonfires, and usually some kind of costumed karaoke adventure into Sneaky Pete's or the Hancock Hotel. Be safe up there this weekend and I have $20 for the team that finally dethrones the overrated "Champs" in the flip cup tourney. They are rubbish. The Senior Director thinks that team is untouchable, but if you would look at the amount of beer spilled from their cups, you would know that they are just cheaters!!!!
We had our form of the UK Labor Day weekend last weekend. We flew to Tallinn, Estonia for the weekend, and wow, it lived up to all of the hype that we had heard. Estonia is a small country that sits just south of Finland and West of Russia on the Baltic Sea. You can just imagine how cold it must be in the winter as the Baltic Sea freezes over in many places. The poor country finally just got its independence about 20 years ago after USSR collapsed as it had been a communist country since after WWII. Before that though, it had been ruled by the Danes, the Swedes, and the Germans for almost all of its history. The Etonians, we discovered, are an incredibly proud people though and were able to maintain their heritage and tradition despite all of the oppressive rulers. The old part of Tallinn is this incredibly amazing walled, medieval city with winding cobblestone streets. It was like stepping back into the Middle Ages. On Friday night when we arrived, we had been given a recommendation for this restaurant called Olde Hansa, a traditional Estonian establishment(see pic above). As you can see, all of the tableware was wooden, and you order these set feasts. I have to give you a rundown of this Wild Game Feast that we ate because it was just an awesome experience:
Starters:
- Juniper Flavored Beef with Horseradish Sour Cream and Quail Eggs
- French Royal Poultry Liver Pate with onion jam
- Andalusian Salmon
- Pickled Cucumber Lavonian Style
- Saffron Pickles
- Berry Sauce and Herb Bread with Nuts
- Rye Bread with Lard
- Cheese
Main:
- Smoked Grilled Salmon with nut sauce
- Bear, Wild Boar, and Elk Game Sausages
- Mild Game Pork
- Roasted Rabbitt
- Wild Boar Steak
Dessert:
Rose Pudding
To be perfectly honest, I have had better wild game, but the experience was unmatchable. They had this brilliant cinnamon beer too that was tasty.
Saturday, we started the day walking and taking in the sights of Old Town, and then decided to do this 4 hour Kayaking tour on the Baltic Sea that had been recommended to us. The Port of Tallinn was built as quite a stronghold for the German and Russian Navies and consists of multiple harbors that were once used for building naval ships and submarines as well as a prison. Today, the Berenz fleet of boats on Fish Lake in Wisconsin is most likely more formidable than the Estonian Navy, but there were still some old war ships and cool structures to see. We also kayaked out to one of the many islands in the Baltic near Tallinn and took in one of the nicer beaches. Overall, I think we kayaked about 6 or 7 miles, so it was a really fun experience. We said to each other who ever thought that we would be kayaking on the Baltic Sea. Most importantly, Ann kept pretty calm in the front of the kayak where she had no power over the rudder and ultimately which direction we went. I had to take her lead with paddling though, so it was a nice display of team work, and despite some raised voices at times while we paddled into the wind and over white caps, we got out of the kayak still speaking to each other!!!! Saturday evening, we decided to see how the night life was in Tallinn. We started at the beer house, which was pretty funny. Ann was obsessed with the local Estonian people dancing and tried to convince me to dance with an 80 year old woman. After the beer hall, we ended up stumbling(not literally) into this beautiful little outside restaurant completely enclosed by walls off of a main street. They had a great 3 piece band and we ordered some delicious scallops and a cocktail before moving on. We finished the night in a couple of classic karaoke bars(Estonians love Karaoke apparently).
Sunday was a fantastic day as we had covered most of the major sights on Saturday. We slept in and had a nice morning and then ventured on a couple of bus tours that took us through some sights outside of the city. Sunday afternoon, we found this quaint little restaurant back in Old Town called Von Krahli Aed. The food was incredible. Ann had a mutton chop that was extraordinary. Sunday night, we actually found a movie theater and went and saw "Midnight in Paris," Woody Allen's new film. It is funny because we usually do not have time for movies in London, so this was a perfect opportunity. It has not been officially released yet in Europe, so we actually watched it in this 40 seat screening theater with these huge plush, leather arm chairs. It will be hard to sit in a regular theater again.
Anyway, that was Estonia. We flew back on Monday afternoon as we had a holiday last Monday. As I type, our friends Patrick and Susie are just a few hours away from heading to the airport in Minneapolis to board their flight for London. We are so incredibly excited to see them. We stayed at their house our last 2 nights in Minneapolis last December after the movers had come before we made the trek to Fondy and then London, and that is the last time that we have seen them. It has been too long and we are just so looking forward to the comfort of great friends here with us. They are here in London until Tuesday and then heading to Ireland. We are going to meet back up with them next Thursday night in Dublin and spend their last weekend there. I am counting down the hours to their arrival.
Enjoy the long Labor Day weekend. Perhaps we will get the Senior Director blogging a bit more since she has revealed her skills!!!
Cheers
Kevin and Ann
First, I have delayed blogging this week as I have wanted Ann to continue basking in the limelight after her entertaining post last week. She was quite excited with herself after she had completed it. Granted, it took her a bit longer than it did Thomas Crapper to invent the flushing toilet, but she worked diligently and created a nice piece of writing, on time as well;)
We hope you are well and getting excited for Labor Day weekend. We have to give a big cheers to the Annual Labor Day Weekend extravaganza at the Berenz High Climb in Hancock, WI. Every Labor Day at Ann's family's cottage, the Berenz, McGrath, Klotz, and Nelson Families get together for a weekend of debauchery. There is the annual flip cup tourney, bags, washers, "Tolf," late night bonfires, and usually some kind of costumed karaoke adventure into Sneaky Pete's or the Hancock Hotel. Be safe up there this weekend and I have $20 for the team that finally dethrones the overrated "Champs" in the flip cup tourney. They are rubbish. The Senior Director thinks that team is untouchable, but if you would look at the amount of beer spilled from their cups, you would know that they are just cheaters!!!!
We had our form of the UK Labor Day weekend last weekend. We flew to Tallinn, Estonia for the weekend, and wow, it lived up to all of the hype that we had heard. Estonia is a small country that sits just south of Finland and West of Russia on the Baltic Sea. You can just imagine how cold it must be in the winter as the Baltic Sea freezes over in many places. The poor country finally just got its independence about 20 years ago after USSR collapsed as it had been a communist country since after WWII. Before that though, it had been ruled by the Danes, the Swedes, and the Germans for almost all of its history. The Etonians, we discovered, are an incredibly proud people though and were able to maintain their heritage and tradition despite all of the oppressive rulers. The old part of Tallinn is this incredibly amazing walled, medieval city with winding cobblestone streets. It was like stepping back into the Middle Ages. On Friday night when we arrived, we had been given a recommendation for this restaurant called Olde Hansa, a traditional Estonian establishment(see pic above). As you can see, all of the tableware was wooden, and you order these set feasts. I have to give you a rundown of this Wild Game Feast that we ate because it was just an awesome experience:
Starters:
- Juniper Flavored Beef with Horseradish Sour Cream and Quail Eggs
- French Royal Poultry Liver Pate with onion jam
- Andalusian Salmon
- Pickled Cucumber Lavonian Style
- Saffron Pickles
- Berry Sauce and Herb Bread with Nuts
- Rye Bread with Lard
- Cheese
Main:
- Smoked Grilled Salmon with nut sauce
- Bear, Wild Boar, and Elk Game Sausages
- Mild Game Pork
- Roasted Rabbitt
- Wild Boar Steak
Dessert:
Rose Pudding
To be perfectly honest, I have had better wild game, but the experience was unmatchable. They had this brilliant cinnamon beer too that was tasty.
Saturday, we started the day walking and taking in the sights of Old Town, and then decided to do this 4 hour Kayaking tour on the Baltic Sea that had been recommended to us. The Port of Tallinn was built as quite a stronghold for the German and Russian Navies and consists of multiple harbors that were once used for building naval ships and submarines as well as a prison. Today, the Berenz fleet of boats on Fish Lake in Wisconsin is most likely more formidable than the Estonian Navy, but there were still some old war ships and cool structures to see. We also kayaked out to one of the many islands in the Baltic near Tallinn and took in one of the nicer beaches. Overall, I think we kayaked about 6 or 7 miles, so it was a really fun experience. We said to each other who ever thought that we would be kayaking on the Baltic Sea. Most importantly, Ann kept pretty calm in the front of the kayak where she had no power over the rudder and ultimately which direction we went. I had to take her lead with paddling though, so it was a nice display of team work, and despite some raised voices at times while we paddled into the wind and over white caps, we got out of the kayak still speaking to each other!!!! Saturday evening, we decided to see how the night life was in Tallinn. We started at the beer house, which was pretty funny. Ann was obsessed with the local Estonian people dancing and tried to convince me to dance with an 80 year old woman. After the beer hall, we ended up stumbling(not literally) into this beautiful little outside restaurant completely enclosed by walls off of a main street. They had a great 3 piece band and we ordered some delicious scallops and a cocktail before moving on. We finished the night in a couple of classic karaoke bars(Estonians love Karaoke apparently).
Sunday was a fantastic day as we had covered most of the major sights on Saturday. We slept in and had a nice morning and then ventured on a couple of bus tours that took us through some sights outside of the city. Sunday afternoon, we found this quaint little restaurant back in Old Town called Von Krahli Aed. The food was incredible. Ann had a mutton chop that was extraordinary. Sunday night, we actually found a movie theater and went and saw "Midnight in Paris," Woody Allen's new film. It is funny because we usually do not have time for movies in London, so this was a perfect opportunity. It has not been officially released yet in Europe, so we actually watched it in this 40 seat screening theater with these huge plush, leather arm chairs. It will be hard to sit in a regular theater again.
Anyway, that was Estonia. We flew back on Monday afternoon as we had a holiday last Monday. As I type, our friends Patrick and Susie are just a few hours away from heading to the airport in Minneapolis to board their flight for London. We are so incredibly excited to see them. We stayed at their house our last 2 nights in Minneapolis last December after the movers had come before we made the trek to Fondy and then London, and that is the last time that we have seen them. It has been too long and we are just so looking forward to the comfort of great friends here with us. They are here in London until Tuesday and then heading to Ireland. We are going to meet back up with them next Thursday night in Dublin and spend their last weekend there. I am counting down the hours to their arrival.
Enjoy the long Labor Day weekend. Perhaps we will get the Senior Director blogging a bit more since she has revealed her skills!!!
Cheers
Kevin and Ann
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