ctinabina

Bavaria: Linderhof and Neuschwanstein Castles

2009-11-29T23:28:02Z

We were fortunate enough to take another day trip around lower Bavaria. The first stop was Schloss Linderhof which is about 60 kilometers from Munich and close to Garmish. The drive itself is beautiful and you have a view of the German Alps and Zugspitze.

Linderhof was the primary residence of King Ludwig the II. He is widely remembered as being the "crazy" king because he lived alone, disliked other people, and built these fantasy castles around Germany. He died under "mysterious circumstances" by drowning in a lake a few days after he was forced to abdicate his throne. He was forced to abdicate because (1) he was widely disliked and (2) the royal doctor declared that he was insane. Of course, the tail probably wagged the dog on that one.

Nevertheless, Ludwig's castles are probably the biggest tourist attractions in Germany now. Linderhof was the only one of his castles that was completely finished. Ludwig used Linderhof as his primary residence and it was styled in the extremely ornate rococo style. It was an homage to King Louis XIV and was supposed to be a smaller version of Versailles.

Here's K inside. This is a contraband photo as I was told soon-after that photographs inside were strictly forbidden. Suffice to say, the entire place was decked out in marble, gold, and silver.
Here we are outside of the palace:

The grounds of Linderhof are also beautiful. Ludwig was a huge fan and benefactor of Richard Wagner and he built a fake cave that was intended to be an opera venue. The gardens were also lovely and had a breathtaking view of the mountains.

And here I am on my way to the King's chapel.

Ludwig was also a huge fan of swans and peacocks. Here I am with my uncle by the swan lake.

These swans were very used to people and were practically demanding that bread be thrown to them. Also, as an aside, swans will bite you if they do not get what they want. You have been warned.

Next, we drove to another one of Ludwig's castles- Schloss Neuschwanstein. This is sometimes called the "Sleeping Beauty Castle" because it apparently was the inspiration for Walt Disney's castle of the same name.
And I can totally see it:

The inside of the castle was never completed and it is believed that the King spent less than 100 days in residence. He preferred Linderhof.

But, I am getting ahead of myself here.
Neuschwanstein is in Schwangau, which is the very southern part of Bavaria, right on the border of Austria.

Upon my insistence, we took a horse drawn carriage to the top of the hill on which Neuschwanstein was built.

It was chilly out.

Then, we hiked a ways out to Marienbruke, which is a bridge that overlooks the castle.

The story is that a children's book illustrator drew a fairy tale castle for King Ludwig. Ludwig liked it so much that he decided to build it. It really is stunning.

Then, you can take a leisurely walk back down to town. Neuschwanstein was built in the mid to late 1800's and typifies the heavily romantic style that King Ludwig loved so much. I snapped this photo of K's brother in front of Neuschwanstein.

There is another castle right across the valley from Neuschwanstein. It is called Hohenschwangau castle and it was where crazy Ludwig was born and raised. It dates to the 12th century. This castle is no slouch but compared to Neuschwanstein it's just not that impressive. My uncle jokingly referred to it as Neuschwanstein's chicken coop.

While hiking down from the bridge, you can get a beautiful view of Hohenschwangau and the area mountains.

During the summer months, these castles are positively overrun with tourists and the wait to take a tour of Neuschwanstein's interior can be up to seven hours long. This is partically why Kev and I like taking vacations in November. Sure, the gardens are not in bloom and you have to contend with chilly weather, but you feel like the place is all yours to enjoy.

K and I can't wait to go back to Germany and check out everything that we missed this time around. We still have numerous castles to see and pastries to eat. And that semmelknodel has my name on it.

Day trip to Salzburg, Austria

2009-11-29T22:42:06Z

From Munich, it is super-easy to take a day trip to Salzburg. With the Bavaria Train Pass (called "Bayern Ticket" in German), you can go anywhere in Bavaria and also Salzburg for only 30 Euros. I think that the 30 Euros is good for up to 5 people, too.

Kev and I started our day at Munich's Hauptbahnhof, or Central Station. All of the U-bahns (subways) and S-bahns (above-ground commuter trains) stop at Hauptbanhof so it's easy to get to.
I took a photo with the Bavarian lion statute there.

We were there early so we got a coffee and a pastry (naturally) and tried to read the German newspaper.
The trip there took about 2.5 hours because we had to transfer twice. It wasn't a big deal though, because one of the advantages to traveling by Deutsche Bahn (German Railroad) is that you can peer into the pastoral Bavarian countryside.
Here I am on the train.

The way back was direct, though, and it only took 1.5 hours.

Ok, so we arrived in Salzburg and we bumbled around until we made it to the old part of town.

And here I am close to the Salzbach river.

We crossed the Salzbach river to check out the Salzburger Catherdral ("Dom") and find something to eat.

The Salzburger Cathedral is beautiful. The entry is free, as are most European churches it seems, and the interior is covered in frescoes. It has been in a constant state of renovation since it was first built in 800 AD. It was burned to the ground and endured several remodels but has been in more or less the same state since the late 1600s. It suffered some damage to the main dome during WWII, too.
Here's the inside:

Here's one of the ceiling fresco:

Then we bummeled around to the Catacombs of St. Peter. It was a verdant and overgrown graveyard that dates to early 1620.

I spied this cool tombstone that reminded me of that children's song, "The Worms Crawl In, the Worms Crawl Out."

We were searching for the restaurant St. Peter's Keller, which we did not find until later, but we instead came across St. Peter's Bakery (Stiftsbackerei). It was located in this charming courtyard with a water wheel to pump air into the bakery's wood ovens.

There's Kev on the stairs. You can also see the Salzburg Fortress on the hill in the background.
In any case, we ended up having some wienerschnitzel and a beer at a cafe down in the old part of town.

We needed our strength because we decided to walk to the top of "Hohensalzburg," which is the medieval fortress that towers above the city.
We wandered up the narrow and steep cobblestone street to the castle. The entrance was 7 Euro a piece- well worth it. Here's Kev at the entrance gate and "arrow alley." There were little windows all around that archers used to ambush the enemy. It looked pretty deadly.

Here's Kev peering out of a cannon window.

Hohensalzburg was originally a monastery that was heavily fortified against foreign warring peoples or, as the case may be, Salzburgers that were seriously pissed off. The bishops and other powerful religious leaders would hole up in there. Construction on the fortress began in 1015 and it was expanded in the 1500s and during the Napoleonic wars. It was also used as a prison in WWI.

There were a few rooms at the very top of the castle that had the medieval decorations still intact.

It was easy to visualize In the Name of the Rose in this place.

The views from Hohensalzburg were unbelievable. Here's one of the Austrian Alps.

Here's another one of the Alps with a view of the other smaller buildings within the fortress walls.

We took the little cog railcar back down (which, might I add, took 30 seconds as opposed to the 20 mins it took to walk up there) and then checked out other Salzburg sights.
First, the Christmas market had already begun in Salzburg. There are stalls upon stalls of Christmas cookies, ornaments, decorations, and presents for sale.

There are also stalls selling punch and mulled wine. We warmed up with a mug of Gluhwein, which is drunk while standing at a table that we shared with some Italians.

We also found the location of Mozart's birth.

Mozart was born in Salzburg but he was not celebrated there until his death. Now, every other thing is dedicated to Mozart here. They have numerous Mozart festivals and the city's chocolatey confection is called the "Mozartkugel" or Mozart marble. Along those lines, before we headed back to Munich on the evening train, we enjoyed another special Austrian dish. The Dampfknodel, or steam dumpling:

The dampfknoedel is a steamed wheat bun filled with sweet stewed plums. It is smothered in vanilla sauce and topped with poppy seeds (I think). Very good. Another specialty is Austrian "nockerl" which is a raspberry and vanilla sauce topped with huge meringues.

Salzburg was beautiful. We got back to Munich at about 8pm, which was perfect because we were pretty tired from walking for 12 hours straight.

Up next- another Bavarian day trip to crazy Ludwig's castles!

Our vacation to Munich, Germany

2009-11-29T21:19:38Z

So, if you've been wondering where we have been for the past week, here's your answer. We went to Munich! We spent approximately a week there visiting the family and all of the Bavarian sights, Griswold style. We also took a day-trip to Salzburg, Austria, which will be the subject of a separate post. The photos of Munich are not in chronological order, rather, they are in order of their location in the city. I thought it'd be easier to follow that way.

We stayed at an apartment on Theresienstrasse, which is close to the universities in Munich. It was a great place that was very central and easily accessible via U-bahn (subway).

We walked our legs off while in Munich. We frequently headed down to the Altstadt, or "Old City", where the Marienplatz and various well-known churches are.

This photo is of the front of the Neue Rathaus, or "New Town Hall". It has the Glockenspiel on the front (which is called a "carillion" in English apparently) and it goes of two-three times a day. The little figurines spin around. The building was built at the end of the 1800's, hence the term "new" town hall. The "old" town hall is adjacent to it and how houses a toy museum. The Neues Rathaus forms part of the Marienplatz, which is the city's main down-town square and named after the statute of Mary with child that is at it's center. Here's a photo of the Rathaus at night:

To get there, you can walk along various pedestrian zones filled with fancy shops.

The photo above is of Kev. I took this photo because this time of year Munich's Christmas market is just about to get going. This is a big deal. All of the stores get decked out in Christmas decorations, which you can see on the white building behind Kev. Also, you can see a wee bit of the Frauenkirche towers in the distance too.
But, before we go to the Frauenkirche, let's stop by the old favorite Hofbrauhaus. The Hofbrauhaus is located behind the new Rathaus on a small plaza called the Marienplatzl.

The Hofbrauhaus is a giant restaurant and beer hall that serves the best of traditional Bavarian food. I had actually never been there before and it was quite a trip. A loud German polka band would play a folk song every 10 minutes or so. The waiters had on lederhosen. It was like year-round Oktoberfest in there.

First, we started with the liter-sized maB. I had a Radler, which is a maB, but the beer is mixed with lemonade. It's good. As for food, Kev got spatzle with a turkey ragout, S got schweinebraten with potato dumplings (kartoffelknodel), and I got a sausage plate with sauerkraut with an order of bread dumplings (semmelknodel) on the side. Oh, and a pretzel, too. I was hungry!

Now, leaving the Marienplatz area but still very close by, is the Frauenkirche.
Heading toward the Frauenkirche:

Here's Kev waving just as we approach the Frauenkirche. The Frauenkirche is one of Munich's most distinguished buildings as it has two twin copper onion domes. The church was almost completely destroyed during WWII so the inside is still pretty bare and austere. It is also called the "Dom" or cathedral. K and I frequently stopped for coffee and a pastry. Here's Kev enjoying an espresso right in front of the Frauenkirche.

Also, around the Frauenkirche are some lively bars. We went to Augustiner am Dom, which looks a lot like a ski lodge. It has been in the same family's hands for the past 100 years.

Here I am at the bar-

At these older places, there are large wooden tables everywhere and you just take a seat where ever there is room. The waitress will separate the bar tab any way you desire.

We also visited the "Alter Peter" which, literally translated, is the "Old Peter." It is St. Peter's Church that was built in the 11th century and then largely renovated in the 14th century and again in the 1600's. Here I am in front of the old doors to the church:

For a small fee (1 -2 Euro), you can climb the 300 or so steps to the very top of Alter Peter and get some awesome views of the city.
Here's Kev climbing the stairs-

You can kind of see the wood beam supports. It's neat.
When you get to the top, there is a very narrow 350 degree balcony.

But the views are great. Here's a view of the Marienplatz and Neue Rathaus:

The yellow building in the distance is the Theatinerkirche (another church close at the Odeonsplatz, which I will get to soon). You can see all the way in the distance the Olympic Park tower and, directly to the right of the tower, the BMW building.

We also hit up the very busy coffee house that is right on the Marienplatz called Cafe Richard. The reason I'm mentioning it here is because I had a piece of raspberry cake the size of my head there. Of course, I got it with a side of "Schlagzahne" or whipped cream.

Mmmm.

Heading back toward downtown, you will pass by the Museum of Hunting and Fishing. We didn't go inside but I was introduced to the wild boar out front.

We hoofed it to Viktualienmarkt, which is the open-air food market that is very close to the Marienplatz.
It was amazing. We got a couple of cheeses to take home with us and a package of WeiBwurst, a traditional Bavarian veal sausage.

We then headed to the Lowenbrau restaurant and beer garden for lunch.

I ate one of my favorite German dishes, kaesespatzle, which is a type of small, homemade noodle covered with melted cheese and, in this case, fried onions.

Kev had a WeiBwurst sausage and sauerkraut platter.

It was delicious.
Another day, the weather was warm enough for us to eat at a beer garden that was also close to the Vikuelienmarkt. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name. The views were good, though.
Here I am at the biergarten. You can see the Frauenkirche in the background and a bunch of people enjoying themselves with a beer or two.

There was a busy tram station next to this biergarten and people were just stepping off the tram and sitting down for some lunch. It had a good and fun vibe. It was crowded and everyone squished in on the wooden tables and benches.

I had scheweinebraten (pork roast) with semmelknodel (bread dumplings). Kev made an unusual choice and had blood sausage and sauerkraut.

Heading back towards Theresienstrasse you will come upon Odeonsplatz. This is where the Bavarian opera house is as well as the Theatinerkirche, which I mentioned above. We darted into the Residenz one afternoon, which was the city palace of Bavarian royalty. It is gigantic. It was partially under construction so "only" 100 rooms were open for viewing.
This is me in front of the Odeonsplatz lion:

And we also enjoyed some mulled wine ("gluhwein") and tea at a coffee house. This is K and his brother canoodling underneath blankets provided by the cafe. It gets chilly at night but why go inside when you can people watch so much better outside?

Also close to the Odeonsplatz is Kaffee Hag where we went on a different occasion and I had, quite possibly, the best piece of walnut cake of my life. I memorialized the cake in this photograph.

Anyway, we did not get a chance to see a concert or opera this time but we intend to next time we visit. There are a TON of concerts in Munich. K read somewhere in his guidebook that there is an average of 5 concerts a day in Munich! Woha.

Ok, so back to where we were, traveling north from Odeonplatz, you quickly come across Museum row. There is the old, new, and modern art museums. We went to the new and the modern. Here I am on museum row:

The Neuepinakothek ("New Art Musuem") contains European art from the 18th and 19th centuries. It has some of the royal portraiture from that time period up to an including the impressionists. It even contains a Van Gogh Sunflowers.

We also went to the Pinakothek de Moderne which contains art from the post-impressionists and cubists all the way up to present day installations. It also has a good bit of modern furniture and automobile design with a healthy dose of groovy mod and art deco styles.

From the Pinakotheken, our apartment was just a hop, skip, and a jump away. We were right next to the Technical University of Munich, which meant that we could get schweinebraten at any hour due to the late night restaurants geared toward students. We took a day trip to Salzburg (which will be the topic of a separate post) and didn't get back to Munich until late at night. K was famished so we wandered down the busy Schellingstrasse and found a pool hall. Kev got the "farmer's plate" which contained various pork products and bread dumplings.

It hit the spot.
Tune in for another post about Salzburg and then a final post about our day trip to Lower Bavaria's two most famous castles.

Santa Fe: Breakfast Edition

2009-11-15T17:25:53Z

K and I have started something of weekend tradition. We go out for a late breakfast on either Saturday or Sunday. Recently, we've been hitting up the Counter Culture Cafe. The Counter Culture is a counter-service only place with a super-delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu. I'd say that it specializes in baked goods (baked on premises) and fresh salads and sandwiches. That is not to say that it skimps on the New Mexican-style foods. No siree. Their green chile has been nuclear hot recently. It's great place to get a well-priced and beautifully fresh meal.

As far as atmosphere, it's noisy, busy, and attracts hipster/artsy types. Good vibe.

We have also rediscovered The Tune Up Cafe.

It's a neighborhood haunt in the Agua Fria area. We often see people we know there enjoying a cup of joe. The food, though, is El Salvadorian influenced with plenty of classic New Mexican dishes, too.
This time, Kev got a giant cinnamon roll and a plate of chiles rellenos.

I had the special, which was chicken enchiladas smothered in mole sauce with a side of fried bananas.

Deee-licious.
The Tune Up is small but it boasts a sizeable covered patio, which is great to sit on during these warm autumn days and people-watch. The price is nice and it is also counter-service only.

Finally, K and I went to Los Amigos for the first time yesterday. It's on Rodeo Road, close to the corner of Rodeo and Richards Ave, and next to the Chevron station. It's modest exterior hides a delicious, family-run, classic New Mexican-style menu.

Kev got the huevos rancheros "christmas," which means that it was topped with both red and green chile.
I got the "Buenos Dias," which is a plate of cubed potatoes smothered in the chile of your choice and topped with cheese and an egg.

This restaurant is fabulously good and appears to be essentially a local's place, a rare feat in Santa Fe. (Many of my favorite breakfast places have been featured on "Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives" which means that the wait to get in to these places have increased exponentially. And, FYI Guy Fieri, chile is spelled with an "E" at the end, not an "I." )

Also, for those so inclined, K found a very good restaurant review blog for places in and around Santa Fe. It's called NM Gastronome.

Canyon Road: Museum and Fitness Center

2009-11-14T02:58:22Z

It's getting to be cold outside. It's dark before we get home from work. The desire to leave the warm confines of our home wanes. I mean, Santa Fe is all about drinking margaritas on patios and apres ski in cozy sweaters. But what is there to do during the in-between seasons? Kev and I have stumbled upon our new favorite thing- chillin' on Canyon Road at night.

Canyon Road is lined with galleries and, at night, the art-filled windows light the way.

Allegedly, Santa Fe has the second largest art market in the United States, right behind New York City. There are all sorts of galleries: western art, traditional arts from different countries, modern art, print and sculptural arts. Going for a nighttime stroll is like a brightly lit hors d'oeuvres of arty delights.

But Canyon Road is not only gawking at studios and galleries. No siree. After a few blocks of strolling in the chilly night air, we pop our heads into one of Canyon Road's restaurants for a glass of wine.

The Compound is a Santa Fe legend. It's *extremely expensive* but delicious. And single glass of wine is an affordable indulgence. Another option is Geronimo, which is perhaps ever so slightly less expensive than The Compound but still very, very good (and expensive. Did I mention expensive?) Also- I saw Val Kilmer at Geronimo one time. He's, uh, kind of, um, no longer Batman-sized. Another good place for a drink is El Farol, which is by far the most affordable of the three. El Farol is a busy and loud tapas bar that usually has live music. I am kind of on an El Farol boycott, though. It's a long and uninteresting story but, suffice to say, I prefer other places.

So, yeah. That's what K and I do when we sitting at home and addled by inertia. It's simple but remarkably fun.

Also, along these same lines, Canyon Road is a good place to go running at night. I find treadmill running incredibly boring but it's usually dark by the time I get home from work. The solution is Canyon Road. There is very little traffic at night and the street is lit up by all of the galleries.

Yes, I know I am a big ham. But at least I'm a big glowing ham in running tights. That's gotta be worth something, right?

Edited to add:
I forgot to post this photo I took. It's a shop window on Canyon Road full of neat old things.

Halloween in Santa Fe

2009-11-02T00:57:12Z

Happy All Saints Day! Last night K and I went to the best Halloween party in town, the Santa Fe Reporter Party. The Santa Fe Reporter is the free weekly newspaper in town here, sort of like the City Paper in DC.

K, true to form, made his costume in the span of 45 minutes. He went as a lobster.

My favorite part of his costume were his eyes. We made the eyes by sticking pipe cleaners in styrofoam spheres and then wrapping the pipe cleaners around a headband.

Cute!

I went as an octopus.

I made this costume by tie dying a sweatsuit and 4 additional arms cut off of other sweatshirts. Then, I cut about 1 million circles out of felt and glued them to the arms and legs. I stuffed the extra sweatshirt arms and sewed them to the hooded sweatshirt. I was pleased with the result and the costume was nice and warm in the freezing night.

We also tortured Lucy by putting her bee costume on her. She was not pleased but we sure were!

She's still getting over the indignity of it all.

So, then after having a couple of trick-or-treaters, we headed off to the Reporter Party. It was a new place in town, Milagro 139. It's downtown and across the street from the long-standing Evangelo's Bar. The place was packed and there was a line to get in, which is a rare beast in Santa Fe.

Inside was full, too, and DJ Feathericci was pumping the jams. Feathericci is a DJ around town and seems to have something of a following here. This was the first time I listened to him and, I gotta say, he was good. Real good.
Here's the dance floor, taken from the above balcony.

I especially liked this Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew muppet duo costume:

After the Reporter Party, we headed over to the Catamount- which ended up having an only so-so Halloween party, and finally to one of our favorite dive bars of all time, The Matador, for a quick drink.

So, that's what we did for Halloween. It was a great night, even though I am freaking exhausted today. So much dancing!

La Posada & Haunted Santa Fe

2009-11-01T00:19:42Z

A few weeks ago K and I went to one of our favorite bars in Santa Fe, La Posada. La Posada is also a hotel and spa but the bar is really nice, quiet, and comfortable. The bar is located in the old Staab House. The Staab House is named after its original owners, Julia and Abraham Staab, and was built in the 1880s. The legend is, Julia Staab committed suicide in her bedroom and the Staab House has been haunted ever since. Her bedroom is actually the largest suite in the hotel and the haunted room demands a premium. Here's a link to the whole story.

Here we are, sans ghost, finishing up a glass of wine in the bar. It was chilly so we sat by a fireplace.

I actually had one of their delicious cocktails- a Lemondrop. mmm. Also, I am no photographer so I caught the flash in the mirror above the fireplace. Oh well!
Here's a photo of the hallway leading to the bar. The story is that the ghost of Julia Staab is frequently seen to be walking down the stair (which are behind me in this photo) and into the hallway below.

I learned about this story last year when I went on a Santa Fe Hearse Tour. This is an awesome nighttime activity where you tour around in a modified open-air hearse.

On the way back to the car, we passed another haunted area. Here's a creepy photo:

This is an abandoned mental hospital. No joke. Well, it was once a mental hospital, then at some point became a nursing home, but now it is mostly abandoned. The rooms are rented out to film production companies and other short-term enterprises. It's really the strangest thing because it's a large plot really close to downtown. One would think that it'd be a prime candidate for either remodel or tear down. It's probably the fact that it's incredibly haunted that detracts potential developers.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Early Snow!

2009-10-29T01:49:03Z

The past week has been cold. Very cold. Winter has arrived!

I generally like the winter months. The beautiful white powder blankets, the cozy down blankets, and the freshly baked goods are a-ok by me. So I was not terribly upset to wake up and see this in my back yard:

SNOW!
It ended up snowing most of the day. Not a whole lot has stuck around, though, because the ground is still too warm. Nevertheless, I'm happy.
So, reminder to those coming to visit this winter- bring warm clothes!

Santa Fe Farmers Market

2009-10-10T20:23:28Z

This morning I went to the Santa Fe Farmers Market . It's a fantastic market and this is the prime time of year for it. It is a year-round market. During the winter, though, it shrinks significantly and features mostly meats (including super delicious Pollo Real chicken, Pecos Valley Grassfed Beef, buffalo meat vendors such as LaMont, lamb meat and yarn, and yak), long-storing, winter vegetables, preserved foods, cosmetics and baked goods.

The Farmers Market has, within the past year or so, relocated to its permanent home at the fancy new Santa Fe Railyard. The Railyard is the shiny new happenin' place around here. When it's cold outside, the market moves indoors. But on a gorgeous day like today, it was mainly outside, like so:

Each farmer has a booth underneath the wooden awning.
The railyard is also the last stop of the Rail Runner train, which connects Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Belen. I have never been on the Rail Runner. A predicament I hope to remedy tomorrow.

The above photo is the Rail Runner rolling into the Farmers Market. You can see the permanent Farmers Market building on the right, partially obscured by a tree.
The tourist train also leaves from the Railyard:

You may remember that K and I rode the tourist train for his birthday a few years ago. Here's a link to my old post on that adventure.

Anyway, I ended up with quite a bounty, including a gorgeous bouquet of flowers:

And 1000 pounds of fruit and vegetables:

(Starting from the carrots and moving clockwise --> bosc pears, loaf of wheat bread, 2 eggplants, 2 small watermelons, a couple of turnips, a head of green cabbage and some red beets).

Now, to start cooking it all up! Mmm.

The Richest Deadman Alive

2009-10-09T17:32:04Z

Last night, I had the pleasure of going to see The Richest Deadman Alive, an original play presented by a local company here called Theater Grottesco. It was also “pay as you wish” night, which was nice because I’m a cheapskate. :)

The comic play is actually quite funny; I even laughed out loud at several points. I rarely laugh out loud when watching TV shows or movies, so take it from me that it was funny. What happens is a hapless man, plagued by severe allergies, is accidentally locked outside of his home by a well-meaning but dim delivery man. Because the outside world is full of asthma-inducing things, the hapless man dies from exposure to pollen. His wife and friends mourn his passing and lay flowers on his casket. Enter the twist. Apparently, the hapless husband had been paying on a life insurance policy for many years unbeknownst to his wife. The insurance agent comes to the wake, cuts the wife a giant check, and leaves. Enter the second twist: the flowers laid on the casket muster up some crazy-strong allergic reaction that sneezes the husband back to life. There is rejoicing… and scheming.

The husband and wife blow all of their money on a vacation. They return home, wondering what to do now that they are broke. Unwilling to get a job, they decide that insurance fraud is the way to go and they start cooking up plans to fake the hapless husband’s death again. Hilarity ensues.

The end is a little strange and contains some social commentary that is uncharacteristically poignant (and a little jarring) for this slapstick comedy. It was rushed and abrupt. Also, there was a some over-acting that caught me in an eye roll or two, but for the most part it was appropriate for the play which contained a good bit of physical comedy and puns. On the whole, The Richest Deadman Alive gets 2 thumbs up. Oh, the stage and set design is simple but genius.

The Richest Deadman Alive was great. It was entertaining and an all-around good time. I recommend going. It’s playing at the Armory of the Arts (on Old Pecos Trail) and is running until October 18th.

La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Adventure

2009-10-04T22:43:29Z

This afternoon K and I decided to go on an adventure. We originally were thinking about heading to El Rito, which is a town near Abiquiu. El Rito was having a gallery crawl this weekend that sounded like fun. We opted not to, though, because El Rito is a several hours drive from us.

Instead, K heard of some petroglyphs that are practically in our backyard. They are on BLM land in La Cieneguilla, which is right off of Airport Road in Santa Fe. Neither K nor I had ever been there before and, I gotta say, it was pretty awesome.

To get there, continue on Airport Road past the intersection with 599. Pass the horse stable place and Calle Debra. You will see a nice fenced-in parking area on the right hand side of the road. Park there and the trail head and trail is very well-marked. Like so:

The trial moseys along a barbed wire fence for a while, but eventually cuts toward the escarpment. There were A TON of petroglyphs up there. I took some choice pics. Here's one of a cool looking bird and some deer/horses:

Here's a close up of a turtle/lizard/horny toad:

Here's K with a whole bunch of awesome ones (and some electric green moss):

And another one of K with the glyphs:

And me and some additional petroglyphs:

The trial climbs up the cliff side and then you scramble over rocks to walk the length of the cliff. It's a beautiful view up there. Those are the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the distance:

We ended up scurrying up some rocks to the top of the mesa and taking an alternate route back to the car. It was a lovely, short, easy to moderate hike around.

When we got back to the car, we picked up a bunch of cans which we collect and take to the scrap yard for cash-money. What is it with people throwing their garbage all over the place here?

Check out that sky!^

Edited to Add: I forgot to post this petroglyph of a dog/coyote:

I liked this one because I thought it looked like Lucy (she's the one on the right):

Fall Foliage

2009-10-04T16:25:37Z

Yes, it is that time of year when everyone scurries up to the mountains to look at leaves. We are no different.

On Friday evening, K and I drove up to Aspen Vista which is in the Santa Fe National Forest. It takes about 20 minutes or so to get there from downtown Santa Fe. We went up to catch the sunset and hike around in the moonlight.

This is what we saw:

The story is this large aspen stand was created by a fire many years ago. The fire cleared out all of the pine trees which made room for the aspens. Over time, the aspen stand is getting smaller and smaller as the pine trees encroach. It's perfectly natural; the pine forest is the older stage of the forest.

We watched the sun go down, which was very beautiful. Unfortunately, I don't have mad camera skills. But I did the best I could:

We took the girls with us and a bottle of wine.

The girls hiking-

We crossed Big Tesuque creek:

We luxuriated:

We walked back to the car with the full moon:

It was beautiful and the girls liked it, too.

The following day K and I returned for the Big Tesuque Trail Run. A race, unfortunately, I was not able to participate in this year. K ran, though and beat his previous time. I took some photos with K's camera that I haven't downloaded yet. It will accompany a separate post hopefully later tonight.

Batman: The Dark Knight review

2008-07-30T15:39:17Z

Ok, so here's the review I promised.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not familiar with the Batman comic books. I know they exist in the general sense but I've never read one myself. I preferred to pilfer my sisters' Wonder Woman comics, personally.  So I come from a place of ignorance.

I thought the movie was "fine." Hey! Quit throwing tomatoes! Allow me to explain.

The Dark Knight has that same super-cool feel of the acclaimed Batman Begins. I really liked Batman Begins, actually. Gotham City is a skeevy place where everyone seems to be a corrupt, tortured soul. I dig. From this evil ooze springs The Joker, a role that was masterfully played by Heath Ledger. The Joker was, hands down, the BEST part of this movie. Ledger creates a funny yet deeply disturbing picture of The Joker, complete with a unique voice, consistent body twitches, and a sick sense of humor. Seriously, The Joker was fantastic.

The story is about how Batman sees hope in Harvey Dent, the new DA. Harvey isn't corrupt and vows to clean up Gotham. Batman realizes that Harvey can do what he can never do, because Harvey can be the face of change that everyone needs as Harvey doesn't have to hide behind a mask and fly around in the dark. Very emo, I know. Harvey also happens to be in a serious relationship with Rachel. As we know from the first movie, Batman pines for Rachel in a strange, sixth graderish way. Like, Batman thinks that if he reveals himself as Bruce Wayne Rachel will respect him or something, but he doesn't want to reveal himself, so he instead acts like a jerk towards her. My eyes just can't roll enough in disdain for the Rachel-Batman subplot. But, to get back on track, Harvey and Rachel are an item.  This results in Batman being conflicted over his need for Harvey (because Harvey will clean up Gotham) and his hate for Harvey (because Harvey's gettin' with his love interest, Rachel.)   The Joker appears on the scene suddenly and without backstory. The Joker is essentially hired by the Gotham mobsters to take out Batman. The mobsters, however, didn't really understand The Joker and his motives. It becomes clear that The Joker isn't really out to kill Batman. He just likes anarchy, chaos, and to prove that people are really all evil, deep down.  There is also a short but significant appearance of the villian known as Two Face. I don't really want to get into it because it will give away too much.

So, that's basically what's going on. The reason I only gave the movie a "fine" rating (on a scale of boo, meh, fine, good, and super rad) is because of the following:

1. It's really long. We're talking looooong. But more than it, it was needlessly long. I found myself eagerly waiting for the movie to end because, well, I was getting bored. Too many plot twists and extraneous characters can do that to a movie goer.

2. Rachel. I already talked about this above. I don't like her preachy, holier-than-thou attitude. She also serves no purpose but to be an object of Batman's pathetic pining and, eventually, and object with which to manipulate him. She's superfluous and all-around lame.

3. Batman's voice is laughably contrived. Bruce Wayne's voice is normal while Batman's voice is excessively gruff and deep. Oh, and spoiler alert- Bruce Wayne is Batman. They're the same person. Everytime Batman would speak my eyes would start rolling again. It was just that terrible.

4. There's too much stuff going on. This ties in with #1 above. There's the Rachel subplot, The Joker subplot, the Harvey Dent subplot, the Two Face subplot, the Police Commissioner sublot, the guy who makes all of Batman's stuff subplot, the convicts on a boat subplot, the Wayne Enterprises employee who threatens to expose the real Batman subplot, the mobsters getting played by The Joker subplot, the guy who steals the mobsters' money subplot, and the copy-cat Batmans subplot. Not to mention the random appearance of the Scarecrow for three minutes.

However, all of this negativity is neutralized by the strong positive points of the movie. These include:

1. The Joker. For real, his character is just that good.

2. Morgan Freeman's short appearances as the guy who makes all of Batman's gadgets. He seems like a real person. He also engineers cool stuff. When he's on screen, you will be entertained. Also, Freeman is part of the "Wayne Enterprises employee who threatens to expose the real Batman subplot" and has a very funny couple of lines.

3. The convicts on a boat subplot that mirrors The Prisoner's Dilemma.  In the movie, there are two boats. One has a bunch of convicts on it and the other contains regular citizens of Gotham. At a certain time, both boats will blow up. The only way to save your boat is the blow up the other boat. There's a cameo by Tom Lister, Jr. who I really like. He's best known for his portrayal of Deebo in the Friday movies.

So, there's my review. Has anyone else seen it? What do you think?

ETA: I found a video about the Batman's gruff voice that is pretty funny (and accurate, too!) Here's the link: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1824339

Na na na na na na na na

2008-07-17T19:28:02Z

As most of you know, I'm a refined movie goer. I'm very exclusive and I only find worth in foreign films. As such, K and I just got tickets for the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight! It's opening night tomorrow and we got tickets for 9:50pm. That will give me enough time to take a nap after work because I'll be staying up way past my bedtime. I'll be sure to write a review.

Yes, I'm as alive as ever.

2008-07-17T00:20:05Z

Stuff is good in the good ol' City of Holy Faith. I just spent a lovely birthday eating Spanish tapas, throwing a riotously fun BBQ at my house, playing obscene amounts of Wii sports and Super Mario Galaxy, and checking out the wares at the International Folk Art Market. We bought a couple of cards and a nice wood block print by Jose Borges. We're getting it framed. Those of you who will be visiting us can check it out. I also got a couple of pillow cases that are embroidered with strange looking animals. The only animal I can identify is an elephant. The other animals look like some sort of jaguar/pig/horse combination. Scary and perfect for our new, as of yet unpurchased, sofa. I'm not even sure what country these pillowcases originated from as I bought them at a multinational UNESCO table. Based on the animals, though, I'd have to say it was sewn by Umberto Eco.

In fact, the birthday party is still going strong. K and I may check out famed local storyteller, Joe Hayes, at the Wheelwright Museum on Friday. Then, we're off to see Radamisto at the Santa Fe Opera. Radamisto is an Italian opera written by Handel. It's described as "a musico-military spectacular" that celebrates the power of fidelity in marriage. O...K. I'm sure it will be great (how could it not at the awesome opera house?) despite it's off-sounding description.

That's all that's fit to print!

For those of you concerned about my lack of photos on my post, it's because I permanently misplaced my camera at a drinking establishment several months ago. This is extremely strange considering I never lose things. Seriously. I'm very organized.

I'm still alive!

2008-06-17T15:06:59Z

Ok, I know I've let my LJ languish for a month. It's inexcusable, I know.

So, let me tell you about what I've been up to in a concise bullet point list.

- K and I went up to Boulder for Memorial Day. We ran (I walked) the Bolder Boulder, which is gigantic 10K race. We saw a bunch of pals and had a fantastic time.

- We adopted Frank the Tank, our new african pigmy hedgehog. He's somewhat malcontented; he's always huffing and trying to spike us. That silly Frank!

- We've made some progress on our floors. As many of you know from my incessant whining, K and I are replacing our wall to wall carpet with engineered hardwood. It's only about 700 square feet of work but it's been a painfully slow and annoying experience. Let me just say this, I will NEVER buy from Home Depot again.

- We went rafting in Taos 2 weeks ago. One of K's pals is a rafting guide, so we got to live it up with a *private* trip. That makes us practically celebrities! The river was flowing very well because of the copious amounts of snow we got this winter.

Ok, that's about all I can think of right now.

Come on ride the train!

2008-05-07T14:12:21Z

Recently, K had a birthday. He's the big 32 now. But he doesn't look a day over 31, does he? :)

To celebrate, we took a Santa Fe Railroad train ride from Santa Fe to the Galisteo Basin. We've been meaning to do it for a while because it looks so cool. They have two coach cars that are old wooden passenger cars from the 20's. There is also a "silver" class car that was built in the 50's. We took the silver class car because we're high rollers. Apparently, the silver car was once Liz Taylor's.
Separating the cars is a flat, open car for people to observe the scenery and wave to passers-by.
Here's Kev on the flat car:

Now, here's me:

You can see the bright yellow engine car. This was taken near the Galisteo Basin. It was a beautiful day for a train ride.
I packed a lunch for us to eat on the train as the ride took a little over two hours. Onlooking passengers were quite jealous of our vittles, considering that the bar on the train only sold Cheetos and Funyons.

It was pretty darned fun.

Up next: Guest Blogger Frank the Tank

Home Improvement Ninjas

2008-04-29T15:28:51Z

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. It's been a crazy month.

1. Kevin and I moved into our new house! Yay! Even though I despise every aspect of moving house, I'm very happy that we're in our house now. If you need my new address, email me or message me here.

2. I went to Hobbs for a week and I got to fly on a really small plane. I actually have pictures of this. I'll post in more detail later.

3. I went to Washington, D.C. on a work-related boondoggle. I saw my fam and friends. Can you believe that Cheeky McGee is already 8 months old?!?

4. We had our first home disaster. Of course, it happened on a Sunday evening. A valve connecting to our water heater broke causing water to flood the garage. Luckily, nothing was damaged except some carpet that is soon going to be torn out and replaced with nice wood. Once the wood is in, though, it better not happen again.

5. We had a joint garage sale with the in-laws. It was very successful and sort of fun, actually. If only it hadn't snowed the day before. Brrr!

6. Kev had a birthday! We went on a train ride from Santa Fe to Lamy. It was ton of fun. I have pictures of this, too, and I'll post in more detail later. Perhaps I'll do another photo montage post in the near future.

7. Two words: stripping wallpaper. Time consuming and not fun.

So, in sum, we've been busy little bees! We also don't have internet at our house yet and I happened to have lost my camera recently. I'll get back on the livejournal bandwagon soon, though.

Pomp and Circumstance

2008-04-01T16:39:48Z

I'm a very proud dog-mom! Lucy graduated from Beginning Dog Training class yesterday. She did *very* well and she even got a diploma.

She had the largest crowd of supporters (maybe even larger than at my college graduation... hmmm.) All of the commotion made her a little distracted and she refused to perform her roll-over trick, but all of her other tricks and commands she performed 100%.

After the graduation, Lucy (and Ginger, too, because I couldn't very well leave out the Old One) went for a walk around the neighborhood and received some extra special treats.

Good dog!

T minus 7

2008-03-19T14:16:12Z

So, I think that I can safetly post about this now. I've been waiting so as not to jinx it. Kevin and I are 7 days away from being homeowners! WOo hoo!

We found this lovely house. It's a territorial style one-level house. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Well, let me just show you some pictures.

Here's the front of the house. That big tree is a Pinon tree- so we'll be able (in theory) to harvest pine nuts. Mmm.

Here's one of the nicest features of the house. A sunroom! It's entirely glass, so it gets lots of lovely light and warmth. It overlooks this fantastic garden that the owners have painstakingly raised.

Here's another picture of the garden:

Apparently it has over 35 different varieties of irises in there. It also has a plum, pear, and a peach tree that allegedly fruit! Yay!

We close next week on the house. The current owners want us to do a walk through soon so they can explain how to take care of the garden- what fertilizer goes where, etc.

I'm really excited. The house is modest but still much bigger than where we live now. We'll have a guest room so once we're settled, visits are in order!

Fav Web Pages

2008-03-03T03:15:28Z

I happened to stumble upon this website: www.bookcrossing.com

Essentially, you register a book that you've already read and ready to get rid of. You "release" it- which basically means you leave it in a public place for another person to find. Then, when other people find it, they go on to bookcrossing and say where they found it and where it's going. It's basically the book version of wheresgeorge.com.

I released my first book yesterday. I hope someone picks it up and registers it! It'd be cool to see if it floats around Santa Fe or if it gets taken to some exotic locale.

I love the idea of bookcrossing. Not only is it cool to see where your books travel if they get picked up and registered, but it helps with my other recent obsession- decluttering my house!

A Very New Mexico Drive

2008-02-28T01:12:24Z

Today, while driving back from Alamogordo, NM, I saw a very elusive New Mexican object. It was a WIPP truck! It must have been carrying radioactive material from somewhere up north as I saw the truck near Glorieta, NM. There are nuclear triggers produced in Los Alamos, NM and the radioactive waste is trucked somewhere down south for disposal. I could almost feel my face melting off as I drove by.

Here's a pic I stole off the Los Alamos National Labs website depicting a WIPP truck driving toward Espanola:

#1 K!

2008-02-08T01:39:10Z

K had been hinting to me for a while that he was planning something "big" for Valentine's day. Last week he started sending me these cryptic clues via email. All I knew was that I was supposed to meet him in Albuquerque on Friday night with a toothbrush. I ended up forgetting to bring a toothbrush.

After a delicious (srsly) dinner at La Cuisine French Bistro in Albuquerque and walking past this hilarious building:
See? It looks like it says "Hendren Blog." hilarious! But I digress...
Kev revealed the big surprise...

A TRIP TO LAS VEGAS! Squee!

We headed out on a Saturday morning flight. I had no idea but Vegas' airport is basically right on the strip.
K had planned our stay at the Luxor. The Luxor is this neat hotel/casino/restaurant complex that is built in the shape of a giant black glass pyramid. The decor on the inside is all ancient Egyptian-like.
Here's the view from our hotel room:

Cool sphnix, eh? One of Luxor's acts right now is Carrot Top, no joke.
We spent a few hours shopping at The Forum (Caesar's Palace) and Planet Hollywood. Here I am taking a breather after scoring big-time at Nanette Lepore.

I am sitting in front of a really cool aquarium. The aquarium was gigantic like everything else in Vegas.
We did a bit of walking around. This is the front of the Bellagio.

If you notice, to the center-left of this photo are a pair of what can only be ninjas. Here's a blow up:

I'm perplexed by this because ninjas move too fast for the naked eye. But what else could 2 guys in all black in a small inflatable raft outside of the Bellagio be, if not ninjas?
K had another surprise up his sleeve. He had arranged a helicopter tour up and down The Strip at night. It was really awesome. This is the view of the Luxor from the Excalibur, where the helicopter shuttle picked us up.

We got all dolled up and rolled over to the Mandalay Bay where we checked out the thousands of people leaving the UFC fight and had a great bite to eat at Red, White and Blue.
Here I am in front of the Luxor, waiting for the little tram to shuttle us over to the Mandalay.

I'm wearing the fruits of my shopping in that pic. That is the sphnix behind me.

We left on Sunday afternoon after eating at another great restaurant at the Mandalay Bay called the Border Grill.

It was a fantastic trip and I already can't wait to go back. Unfortunately, K and I didn't get our Superbowl bets down in time because the lines at the casino sports books were extremely long. It really was a shame because we would have won, too.
K and I already have plans to improve our blackjack skills by practicing at the local casinos here in New Mexico.

Happy Valentine's everybody!

Weekends

2008-01-29T04:10:01Z

K and I had a great time in 'Burque. We ate at Siam Cafe with my pal, Tee. Siam Cafe is an unobtrusive little place off of Osuna in Albuquerque. My rating? Two thumbs up!

Tee and I headed to the Albuquerque Art Museum and we checked out the Ancient Egypt exhibit. The museum itself is a beautiful building. The Egypt exhibit was sort of small but I liked it. I liked eavesdropping on the docent's tour, especially her bit about Hatshepsut (recall my Halloween post of yesteryear?) We also scoped out the permanent exhibits featuring New Mexican artists of such renown as Maria Martinez.

After the museum, K had a special surprise planned! We went with some pals to Starry Night at the Albuquerque Natural History Museum. The museum opened after hours for an Hors d'oeuvers buffet and cash bar. Then, there was a 30 minute planetarium show that featured the currently visible constellations. After the planetarium show, there were telescopes set up on the observation deck outside. It was purdy neat.

Here we are in front of a star map.
After the planetarium, we headed over to our pal D-o-double-G's house for a libation. D-o-double has a motorcycle so I tested out the reliability of his helmet for him 'cause I'm nice like that:

All in all, it was a good day. K's parents looked after The Girls (Lucille and Ginger). When we picked them up, their expressions were something like this:

Nice, Ging, nice.

I forgot to add this picture!

Here's kev and some prehistoric crocodile models. K is the one on the left, in case you can't tell.

Movies and Talkies

2008-01-26T16:30:30Z

K and I saw Cloverfield last weekend. Cloverfield is a newly released movie in which an alien monster attacks New York City. No, it's not Godzilla. The movie is entirely shot with a camcorder from the viewpont of a participant - something like The Blair Witch Project. My opinion? Thumbs down. The "avant garde" camera work was not only vomit-inducingly shaky, but it was also a cheap trick. I mean, hello? It's been done before... in The Blair Witch Project! Seriously, though, it was so shaky and jarring that K and I both felt nauseated for the remainder of the evening. Boo, hiss!

The past work week, however, was productive and totally un-shaky. K spent the week doing some auditing in El Paso, TX. Yes, this is the same El Paso of "Pass the Old El Paso" salsa. K seems to like El Paso, contrary to every other person I've ever met.

I spent the week here in Santa Fe. I slaved over an oral argument on a Motion for Summary Judgment. I prepared, practiced in front of the dogs, reviewed case law, and all that jazz. Then, mere hours before the hearing, it was canceled. Boo, hiss! Which means I'll likely have to do this all over again when the hearing is reset for a few weeks from now.

In other news, I plan on spending the day in Albuquerque today. I rarely go down to Albuquerque. This is because it's an hour away and far inferior to Santa Fe. That being said, I decided to tag along with K today (he's doing some kind of financial statement training at work) and hit up a museum or two. Maybe get some lunch, too, in the Vietnamese part of town. Maybe check out Talin Market for any bento box materials. I'll let you know how it goes.