emilyandmorgansyearabroad

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Catching Up Part III

Paris and London

After Athens I headed to Paris where I met up with my good friends Adam, Jerry, and Heather.  We hung out in Paris for a bit and then headed to London for more sightseeing and good times.

It rained while we were in Paris.......a lot.

Late night drinks at Adam’s favorite Parisian bar, an english pub called The Bootleg Bar.

Adam and I have shared many close quarters over the years but this was our first time sharing a bed in Paris....Adam wasn’t ammused at my attempt to capture the moment.

Enjoying a home cooked dinner with wine pairings in our flat in London.

Adam discovers the joys of the Sunday Pub Roast....one of the best parts of living in the UK.

London Film and Comic Con

One of the things I miss most about New York is the annual Comic Con so when I heard there was a Comic Con here I had to check it out.  The London Film and Comic Con doesn’t measure up to the NY Comic Con but that didn’t stop us from having fun and we even got a picture with Andrew J Robinson, yes that’s right, Garak himself!

Here I am with some authentic Back to the Future props.  Hill Valley is indeed a nice place to live!

Here’s a look at the show floor.

And here is the highlight of the day, Andrew J Robison!  We keep this framed photo up in our home to show off to guests.

-Morgan

#london #paris #pub roast #comicon #ds9 #back to the future

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Catching Up Part II

USA: New York, Columbus, and St Louis

The view from our hotel in Queens...not a bad way to spend breakfast.

During our trip through the US in June we visited New York, Columbus, and St. Louis. Since June is the heart of baseball season I, naturally, had to see a game in each city.

Citi Field in NYC where Rory can often be found worshiping the god of fun, beer.

Huntington Park, Columbus, Ohio. 

Busch Stadium, St Louis, Missouri 

Athens, Greece

Right after our trip through the US we headed straight to Athens where Emily attended a work conference, I was left on my own to explore the city.

Here I am at the Theater of Dionysus.  There has been a theater on this spot at the foot of the Acropolis for thousands of years.  

Sunsets over the Mediterranean are always pretty good but this one was especially nice.

Still lots of catching up left to do.  Stay tuned!

-Morgan 

#london #travel #baseball #athens #sunset

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Catching Up

Oooooooo-kay, it’s been a while and we’re very bad, I’m sorry!

I really wish I had done a better job keeping this up, so many memories will be lost now, like tears in the rain...

Since it’s been so long I’ll just run down the highlights and show you guys some pictures, going forward we’re gonna be good and update this blog lots and lots.

·First we need to show you the end of our Bordeaux trip where we went to St Emilion.

·Emily and Co. went to Lisbon while I visited Morocco on a solo trip.

·Emily and I went to NYC, Columbus, and St Louis in one trip.

·Immediately following the US trip we headed to Athens, Greece

·Immediately following Athens I met Adam, Jerry, and Heather in Paris.

·Following Paris the four of us headed to London.

·June was BUSY!

·London Film and Comic Con where we got to meet Andrew J Robinson, the actor behind one of our favorite Star Trek Characters!

·Barcelona

·Five days in Ireland with some NYC friends.

·Jay visits for Thanksgiving and we take a quick trip to Lille.

·I start a new job as a sommelier.

·Christmas

·We move into an awesome house in Greenwich. (did we mention we’re staying here in 2018 too?)

St Emilion

Inside the walls of the city the streets are paved with these large stones.  Local legend says these stones actually came from England, centuries ago when the entire region was under British control the wine produced here was very popular in England (as it still is!) and ships full of it would sail from Bordeaux to England, only problem was the England to Bordeaux leg of the voyage the ships were empty, so to replace the missing weight the ships were filled with rocks that were dumped upon arrival. Here in St Emilion they were put to good use paving the streets.

Here’s Emily holding the key to the tower seen above.  You have to stop by the tourism office to get a key.  The key is free to borrow but there is only a few keys so they’re in high demand, we just happened to get lucky!

Here is a picture of me being a cool guy.

Morocco

All of my Morocco pictures were taken on my phone since someone called dibs on the camera first and took it to Lisbon....

Sun setting over the Sahara Desert.  Picture taken from the back of a camel.

After dinner our hosts treated us to some songs around the campfire.

Riding my camel like a cool guy. Camels are very uncomfortable to ride...

Just a monkey I met.

I don’t want this post to be too long so I’ll stop here for now but expect more VERY soon.

-Morgan

#london #greenwitch #st emilion #morocco #travel #catch up

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Kew Gardens

Today was a bank holiday, if you don’t know what that is it’s a day off for no reason.  Nobody has to pretend to care it’s Flag Day or complain about how Christopher Columbus actually is terrible (he is, see?), it’s just a Monday where nobody has to work, it’s great.  For this bank holiday Emily and I decided to go to Kew Gardens.  Kew Gardens is a 300 acre botanical garden here in London that boasts “the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world”.  It was a beautiful day and we got a lot of great pics, here are some of my favorites:

-Morgan

#kew gardens #bank holiday

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Bordeaux III: The Rest #tbt

So….I got lazy halfway through writing about Bordeaux and left you on the cliffhanger of the century! 

I believe we left off right before we went to La Cité du Vin, which translates to The City of Wine.  La Cité du Vin is a great museum all about wine.  If you have any interest in wine or just want to see a great example of what museums should be like you can’t miss this place.  It was so much more than just a collection of information, all the exhibits were completely interactive and very engaging.  One of the most impressive features was a dining room table you could sit at and become immersed in a conversation being held between holograms….what a time to be alive.  

Aside from being very impressive on the inside it’s not bad to look at from the outside either, see below:

Not too far from La Cité du Vin there was some very cool street art, here is one of our favorites:

On the way back to the city center from La Cité du Vin we noticed a bunch of people gathered around a bridge watching it expectantly.  We surmised the bridge was in fact a draw-bridge so we joined the masses waiting to witness the splendor of watching a bridge go up and down… So we waited…and waited and then it started to move, slowly at first and then continuing slowly, like painfully slowly…so we bailed.

By the time the bridge went up all the way we had completely lost interest and had gotten pretty far away but I could still get a decent shot with our zoom lens, so here you go bridge fans! 

After all the excitement over the bridge we walked through the rest of the city walk they had laid out for us at the Tourism Office and saw some beautiful old buildings including The Cathedral of Saint Andrew of Bordeaux and this other castley building whose name completely escapes me.

That’s all from the city of Bordeaux but I will leave you with this picture of me looking cool in the Vineyards by our Bed and Breakfast.

#tbt Bordeaux Wine LaCitéduVin travel

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

The London Contemporary Orchestra at Printworks

Friday night we were offered tickets to a unique concert experience at an unconventional venue. 

ABOUT THE SPACE: Originally, Printworks was Western Europe’s largest printing facility. Less than a year ago, it was converted into a 5,000-capacity event venue that still houses the machinery that printed the Metro and Evening Standard. 

ABOUT THE CONCERT: The evening consisted of four new pieces of untraditional classical music followed by a DJ set. Each piece hoped to achieve an immersive audio-visual experience and pushed boundaries by either channelling sounds around the space or by combining acoustic and synthesized sound. 

When we arrived, we were surprised so many young people had come out for the event. And while some of them were clearly there for the DJ set that was playing around 10:30, most seemed to be enjoying the show. We ordered some drinks at the bar and explored the space. Even with all the people there, there was still something that felt exclusive (and slightly creepy) about wandering a warehouse at night.

The first piece, Parallel Colour, was very melodic and calming, while the others had more chaotic, spontaneous rhythms. 

Our favorite part of the evening was when we stood behind the orchestra and viewed the percussionists up close--something you rarely get to do in a typical concert hall set up. They ran back and forth across the back of the set playing slide whistles, shaking all sizes of maracas, spinning tops, and scraping combs. 

Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves. It was fun to see new life in a musical genre that is often stereotyped as stuffy and pretentious.

We left around the time the DJ started and wrapped up the night with some gyros from a shop near Camden station, eating them as we walked home.

Emily

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Dorking around

We read there were some nice hiking trails in Dorking. Sorry, not nice. Outstanding! The Surrey Hills are designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. And with that kind of distinction, we knew we had to check it out. Also, we really wanted to say we were dorking in Dorking, but I’m assuming you already guessed this about us. 

The weather hasn’t been great lately: 65-70 degrees, overcast, lots of rain. But Saturday turned out to be beautiful. 

We started our hike crossing a river by stepping stones.

Then we hiked about 500 earthen steps (I may be exaggerating…) to get the top of one of the hills.

We thought about grabbing some wild berries as a snack, but then remembered what happened in the Hunger Games and decided against it.

The view at the top was well-worth the climb.

At the top, we took one of the trails that had a few points of interest on the map. It included this grave where a man was buried face down, so they call this the upside down grave.

And this old fort used in the 1800s.

On our way back to the train, we noticed some signage for Denbie’s Wine Estate and decided to check it out. Turns out it’s the largest vineyard in the UK and is known for its sparkling wine!

Here’s Morgan with a decorative English Oak wine barrel in Denbie’s cellar. If you can’t tell, this barrel represents the maturation stage of the winemaking process.

After getting a tour of the inside facilities, we headed outside for the train tour of the property. I know–we were excited about a train too! Turns out, it was a jeep with trolley cars attached to it, but still!

After the train, we stopped by an old Canadian tank that was dug up on the property two months ago. British made, this tank was used during WWII. When it was over, no one knew what to do with the tank, so they pushed it down the hill and buried it. 

Overall it was a pretty great day. We finished up trip in the only way we knew how–dorking it up.

Until next time,

Emily

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

We’re back!

We know you’ve all been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for our next post and we really left you hanging back in Bordeaux! We’re really s’sorry! In an attempt to get back on track, we’re starting fresh with new posts on what’s currently going on with us. And for fun, we’ll do some #TBT posts each week until you’re completely caught up with May through July.

Highlights to look forward to:

The completion of the Bordeaux story: the wine museum, a very French vineyard open house, some delicious food, and Saint-Émilion and its monolithic church and bell tower.

Emily, Ashley, and Julia visit: Lots more food eating (a common theme of all our adventures), the National Portrait Gallery, TEA AT THE ORANGERY, Westminster Abbey, THE HARRY POTTER STUDIO TOUR, stomping around at Ashley’s alma mater, A TRIP TO LISBON (all the castles), and lots and lots of RuPaul watching.

While the girls and I are having a dessert adventure, Morgan escapes the girl invasion and heads to Fez, Morocco for a desert adventure.

In June, Morgan and I spend over three weeks on whirlwind trip. New York, Columbus, and Saint Louis to start. We spent every second with friends and family catching up. And it was amazing. We even fit in some ball games, a baptism, brunch (which is so much more fun with friends. When it’s only us--let’s face it--it’s just breakfast), and a wedding.

After that, it was straight to Greece for my work conference. It averaged 110 degrees while we were there, but it was worth walking around in the heat to explore the city and the Acropolis. 

Adam, Heather, and Jerry visit: Morgan headed to Paris after Athens and picked up some hitchhikers along the way. We had such a great time while they were here, catching up and hearing all sorts of embarrassing stories about young Morgan and his shenanigans. We went to Shakespeare’s Globe to see Romeo and Juliet, Morgan cooked an amazing dinner with a wine paring for each course, and the gang visited the Tower of London.

Meghna and Josh visit: A trip to Brick Lane (surprise, more food!), J&M taught us how to play D&D (and now we’re addicted!), and lots of walking around town.

The London Film and Comic Con: Among other things, we got our picture with a celebrity that none of you will guess!

Into the Unknown exhibit at the Barbican: more nerd stuff!

Emily

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Bordeaux II: Actually Bordeaux

When we learned that our winery tour wasn’t going to happen we were fairly close to the city of Bordeaux so we decided we should just go into town and see what there was to see there.  We parked in an underground garage that I had to circle around a few times because I don’t speak French and honestly had no idea where I was supposed to be going. Our BnB hosts had showed us on the map where we should park so that we’d be right in the thick of all the stuff we wanted to see which was great because we never would have found it otherwise.  

Right after we parked we headed to the town visitors center to grab a map or two and ask for recommendations. The visitors center is located in this picturesque square and is a perfect welcoming mat to the city. 

The woman working the counter showed us a good walking tour we could take and also pointed us in the direction of the La Cité du Vin, which is a rather impressive wine museum, but more on that later. 

The first stop on our tour was the Monument aux Girondins located in the Place des Quinconces, which is one of the largest squares in Europe.  The monument was built between 1894 and 1902 and honors the memory of the Girondists who fell during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. 

Remember how I said this was in one of the largest squares in Europe? Well, this day the square had been put to good use, a huge swap meet was happening and while there was lots of cool stuff for sale we couldn’t really take any of it with us, but where there’s lots of people in an outdoor area there is fried food! 

Look at that French guy over my shoulder, his face clearly says, “Vous êtes la poubelle américaine” 

Before getting too far along the walking tour we decided to walk down the Garonne River to the Cité du Vin and learn about (and hopefully drink) wine!

Next time on Emily and Morgan’s Year Abroad: Cité du Vin and a bridge that may surprise you....

-Morgan  

#bordeaux #travel

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Slow Start in Bordeaux

Ok, we’ve been bad about updating the blog.  Bordeaux was...about 4 weeks ago, damn. One of the reasons we’re behind is we have been very busy, so there is lots of cool stuff to update you on and I intend to do so within the next few days or so, the other reason we’re behind, and I can’t stress this enough, we are LAZY.  I can admit it.   Anyway! Bordeaux.

As some of you may know I have been spending time this year studying wine with the hopes of pivoting my career into that world. So I decided that I simply had to see a major wine producing area first hand as soon as possible, what better place to start than Bordeaux? Bordeaux is perhaps the most important region for top quality wine in the world. Aside from the wonderful (and expensive) wines produced here the country side is gorgeous, the history is rich, the food is amazing, and the people are welcoming.  I would go back in a heartbeat.

After a fairly quick and painless flight we picked up our rental car and drove to the BnB.  One thing you may not know about Bordeaux is, it’s huge and because it’s old they don’t have big, straight, 4 lane freeways like back in the states; so it took us about an hour to arrive at our BnB but the drive was very pleasant. After checking in our host recommended a couple places we could visit in the afternoon before it got too late and everything closed.  The fist stop was a winery that we arrived at just as it was closing, but No Matter, there was still the castle in Duras that did tours at 6:00....except that wasn’t true.  What we failed to understand was they didn’t do tours at 6:00, they stopped doing tours at 6:00! We thought we were on time but really we were just barely missing out on another attraction.  No Matter!  The outside was pretty neat and the views around the castle weren’t too shabby.

We got dinner and (of course) some wine and decided to call it a night, after all we had a big day, starting with a tour of a very prestigious winery that I was really looking forward to. 

We had a 10:00 am appointment to visit Château Pontet-Canet, which had been producing wine since 1705 when King Loius XV’s master of horse (pretty cool title) Jean François de Pontet bought the land after being named Governor of Médoc.  In 1855 this winery was classified in the prestigious Grand Cru Classe classification as ordered by Napoleon III in preparation for the Exposition Universelle of 1855 which was being held in Paris.  In short, great wine and great history...I was psyched. 

The next morning we* had a little trouble waking up on time and we* took a little too long getting ready and we* weren’t ready to leave when we needed to go.  So, we (again!!!) were running a little (a lot) late. As soon as we* were finally ready we left as quickly as we could speeding for the other end of Bordeaux to try to make the tour we’d booked. As it became apparent that we would be more than just a few minutes late Emily called ahead to see what we could do, was it ok that we were late? could we join a later group?  The answer was no and no....  

No matter! Actually, matter!  Now it’s getting out of hand. Aside from eating and sleeping we hadn’t actually done anything and I was wondering if the whole trip was just going to be a big waste. Fortunately this was the end of those worries and from this point on the trip was wonderful every second of the way....but more on that tomorrow. That’s what we call a cliff hanger.

-Morgan 

#bordeaux #vacation #travel #wine

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

West Horsley Place

Better late than never! On March 25, we got a special invite from my boss to see a sneak peak of the new Grange Park Opera House in West Horsley. 

We hopped on a Southwest train from Waterloo Station and amazingly picked the perfect car for Cindy to join us from the Clapham Station a few stops later. For any of you who have ever tried to actually make this work, you know how difficult it can be!

This sprawling property was given to the opera and the history of families who have lived in the house on the property is pretty amazing. They are still researching its full history (and from what we learned, there was more than one owner that got his head chopped off!), but we were given a private tour of the house and gardens as well as the still-under-construction opera house. 

Wonder how the construction is going? Check out the live feed of the progress they are making on the theatre.

After our tour, we had lunch at a nearby BnB with Cindy and headed back into London. 

We can’t wait to go back when the season is in full swing and have a picnic in the gardens.

Emily

#westhorsleyplace grangeparkopera

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Windsor

We made the mistake of traveling to Windsor Castle mid-morning on a bank holiday. The crowds were ridiculous and I felt the familiar rage that I typically reserve for Times Square before a Broadway show. Not pictured below: crowds of tourists and children--you’ll have to take my word for it.

Instead of waiting on-line for hours to get into the castle, we made lemonade out of the lemons by stopping into a local bakery called Limes. I ate eggs and toast and Morgan went full out with a slice of lemon drizzle cake and a scone with jam and clotted cream (our new favorite British treat!).

The ladies running the bakery were very helpful and offered us a walking map of Eton when they found out we hadn’t pre-bought our castle tickets. We were ready to escape the crowds so we took their advice, picking up some bon bons from the local candy store before crossing the bridge over the Thames into Eton.

Want to take the tour with us? Grab your bon bons, download your very own brochure, and come on!

Once we got over the bridge into Eton, the crowds thinned and we had the town all to ourselves. Most of the shops as well as the majority of the college were closed for the holiday. Here’s a few of our favorite moments during the walk.

Eton College with the chapel in the background.

A view of Baldwin’s Bridge from the tributary bed below.

Lamp post near Timberalls, the boy’s house where Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, once resided. Coincidentally it’s numbered 007.

The part where i played on some of the college training equipment that may or may not have been off limits. American Ninja Warrior--here I come!

Open fields.

The part in the guide where it quaintly tells you to walk through a gap in the hedge and follow the worn tracks.

Sir Anthony Gormley’s Edge II Statue that was added to the campus in 2002 as part of a quest to purchase the best modern art.

After we completed our 2-mile walk, we headed back to the train with plenty of time left in the day for a quick nap, a wine study session for Morgan, some knitting for me, and a homemade stir-fry dinner. Morgan also made a tiramisu for my coworker who placed an order for dessert. 

We are looking forward to taking the castle tour on a less busy day, but are definitely glad we left the crowds behind and followed our own route to discovering Windsor and Eton.

Emily

#Windsor EtonWalkway

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The garden is off to a great start!

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Munich

For our first, and frankly overdue, trip to the continent Emily and I decided to visit Munich.  Now I know that our fans out there are going to say, “Didn’t you already visit Munich just last year?” and you’d be right!  We wanted to go back for a few reasons, 1) We loved it the first time.  2) It rained a lot so we were kinda limited in what we could do. 3)And this is the BIG one, we had a free place to stay.  Big thanks to Manja and Volker!  They were out of town and were nice enough to let us use their place.

Last time we were in Munich we didn’t have a car so we couldn’t really see anything unless the public transportation or the tour busses went there, it also meant I couldn’t experience the fun of driving on the world famous Autobahns of Germany.  So after we got off the plane our first stop was to pick up our car.  Once inside the car I realized I couldn’t remember how to drive a manual transmission.....ok, that’s not entirely true but I couldn’t figure out how to get the car into reverse so off we went with the hope that I wouldn’t have to back up!  

Once we found the apartment we were staying in we set off on foot to a nice little restaurant nestled in a park called St. Emmeramsmühle where we enjoyed traditional Bavarian food with giant mugs of beer.  Since pork belly and a big mug of dark beer were pretty much the only thing I needed from this trip I was already set and happy for the remainder of the weekend.  

Emily is enjoying a mug of delicious dark beer, call me crazy but beer just tastes better in Munich!

With no plans for the rest of the weekend other than a desire to use the car to go somewhere we’ve never been we scoured the internet for recommendations for fun day trips we could take around Munich.  After seeing dozens of things we would love to do we settled on Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  Rothenburg ob der Tauber translates to “Red fortress above the Tauber” and that’s exactly what it is.  

Rothenburg was first settled in the year 950 and in the 1800′s laws were passed preserving the city in its current state as a piece of living history.  

After getting our road trip snacks ready to go we hit the Autobahn as fast as we could go on the way to Rothenburg.  I literally mean as fast as we could go, there wasn’t a speed limit for much of the trip and our little car topped out at about 160 kph, about 100 mph for all you Imperialists.

Here I am driving while I am either talking nonsense or singing.  Notice the bed-head!

Once we arrived I almost instantly knew we made a good call by going to Rothenburg once I saw the ancient city gates and stone walls that surrounded the city center, I could feel the history coming to life.

Here is the wall and one of the gate towers.

I even got to walk down into where the moat used to be.

Once inside the city wall you couldn't help but be charmed by the unique character of the town.

Since it was Easter weekend much of the town had the appropriate decoration, including this fountain.

In the city center there is the magnificent gothic style St Jakob’s Church that is entirely too large for such a small town but then again, if you’re gonna build a gothic style church you better make it big and ostentatious.

I didn’t take this first picture because I don’t have a helicopter but the following ones I did.  You’ll see statues carved into rock that are kept outside behind a metal gate at the foot of the church. 

Sun dials are a big thing in Rothenburg, apparently, too bad they never got adjusted for daylight savings time.....

Since the town is mostly devoted to keeping history alive it has become quite a tourist destination, hence the many hotels.  These aren’t your typical Holiday Inn Express though, since they aren’t allowed to destroy any old buildings or erect modern structures boutique hotels with attached cafes are all the rage.  Here is one we walked by a couple times by the outer wall that I would love to stay in someday. 

 On the opposite end of town from where we entered there is a large garden that juts out over the very steep hill on the west side of town  I don’t have much to say about the following pictures I took from that are other than it was breathtakingly beautiful and if these pictures capture a small fraction of what it was like in real life I know you’ll really enjoy them.  

In the center of town there is a great, tall tower that you can climb up to see a wonderful 360 degree view of the town and surrounding area.  By climb I really mean climb!  There was a woman who gave up and had to wait for her kids, she didn’t look like she was having as much fun as we were!

Pictured below is the town square where market vendors have been collecting to sell their merchandise for centuries and still do to this day....just not right now because it looked like rain was coming.

After touring the sights of the town we decided it was time to peruse the local wares.....as long as I could eat or drink them.

We stopped into a bakery for a variety of Schneeball, a wine shop for some locally produced Riesling and shop that made in house smoked and cured meats.  I could have lived off the small of that last one.  I wasn’t sure what to order at the meat shop so I basically gave the woman behind the counter carte blanche to grab a bunch of different stuff, I loved it all.

After we had stocked up on wine, meats, and pastry we decided it was time to head back to Munich.  After getting back we had a nice quiet dinner at Seehaus, which is a restaurant that had the look and feel of a place that would be packed on a typical Saturday night but was strangely empty.  It seems Easter weekend turns the city into something of a ghost-town.  After dinner and a long day of sightseeing (not to mention four hours of driving!) Emily decided to pack it in, leaving me to drink the whole bottle of Riesling all by myself.

Jesus may have risen on Easter but Munich sure didn’t!  Almost everything was closed for the holiday but we ended up finding a hotel to have breakfast in.  After our surprisingly satisfying, yet unsurprisingly expensive, continental breakfast we decided to spend our last day in Munich exploring south and looking for mountains. 

About an hour south of Munich is a small mountain resort town called Schielersee that I am sure is wonderful to visit any other time, unfortunately, much like Munich, the locals were taking the day off.  We didn’t need their shops and restaurants anyway, what we really came for was the mountains, unfortunately, much like last year, it was cold and rainy. The cold rain didn’t stop us from taking a walk around the lake to try and snap a couple of photos, and besides, what else did we have to do?

After seeing the base of a mountain it was time to head back to London.  Something I learned from our trip home is that London is not a 24 hour city like New York.  Our flight arrived around 11pm and we got home to our flat at 3am.  After we got off the plane we realized the train that was to take us into the city was closed for repairs so they had a bus ready to take us in....and by ready I mean we waited an hour and then had to ride the bus for an hour.  Then we were going to take another local bus home and after waiting for that for about 15 minutes we learned that the bus wasn’t running due to road work so we had to hunt down a cab.  Eventually we made it home.  From the time we left our place in Munich to the time we got home was 9 hours...only 90 minutes of which were spent on the airplane.

I hate to leave you on a sour note because the trip was so enjoyable but that’s the way it happened, so there.   Stay tuned because we leave for Bordeaux in 10 days!

-Morgan

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Baking, Gardening and My Transformation into a Domestic Goddess

Oh hey, I bet you thought we forgot about you, huh?  Well, we did.  I’d love to say there is a good reason we haven’t updated in a while but the real deal is....I’m lazy. 

Let’s start catching up by showing you what we did this weekend.

Weeks ago Emily and I booked a bread baking workshop at Bread Ahead in Borough Market and Saturday was the big day.  Since we moved to London I have had much more free time to rediscover my love of cooking and baking and have been regularly baking bread here at home.  Even though I have baked a loaf or two in my day I wanted to expand my knowledge and simultaneously introduce Emily to the wonderful world of bread making.  

Look how excited to learn she is!!!

Our class ran all afternoon, 6 hours, and we were joined by 10 other students and our instructor Barry.  We made focaccia, ciabatta, soda bread, bread sticks and an overnight white bread.  Between the two of us we brought home a mountain of bread.  Emily brought a few loaves to work and her co-workers quickly polished it off and I can say for myself I have been doing my part.  I have been working bread into three meals a day all week.

Here we are with our finished breadsticks and our overnight white loaves having a table rest in front of us.

Here is Emily with her perfectly manicured focaccia bread ready for the oven.

And here is what everyones focaccia looked like after the bake.  That’s mine front and center.

For the ciabatta everyone in the class made their own portion of dough and then we combined all of them and made this giant batch here.  This is after it has risen and right before shaped it and baked it.

And here is the fruits of our labor, all the bread we baked.  At this point we’ve eaten most of it if you can believe that.

Here I have put the bread to good use on a delicious sandwich with a side of crisps.  That’s right I say crisps now, chips are fries!  Bonus points if you can tell me who Bart is going to shoot and what episode of The Simpsons is on the telly.  That’s right I say TELLY now!

Following a full day on Saturday you’d think we would take it easy on Sunday, but then you’d be wrong.  Seeing as it was such a gorgeous day we decided we should do a little gardening, so we set about planting and potting and puttering around the garden.  We planted Chard, Carrots (two kinds), Tomatoes (two kinds), Peppers (two kinds), Poppies, Dahlias, and Rocket (that’s right, I say Rocket now, don’t know what that is? Look it up!) 

Here I am getting our garden ready, hopefully we’ll have a big harvest later this summer!

Well, I think that just about does it for now but stay tuned, we have lot’s of exciting things coming up including trips to Munich, Bordeaux, Morocco and Portugal...and thats just the next month and a half!

-Morgan

#London Baking Gardening BreadAhead Travel Bread Sandwich Simpsons

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Today employees from companies with office space in New Street Square descended a 180-foot-high building to raise funds for Wide Horizons, an organization that helps disadvantaged young people experience the outdoors in an inspirational way. Feeling inspired? You can support the cause by donating to my coworkers who participated today. 

Emily

[emilyandmorgansyearabroad]

Lazy sunday reading with the windows open.

#springhassprung