The Greek God Brian turns 30!

It's official...Brian is old, well at least as old as he feels. Given his birthday activities I would say that puts him around 16! For dinner on his birthday he ate chocolate chocolate chip cake, with oreos, Half Baked Ice Cream, dark chocolate kisses, nutella, and chocolate syrup.

The classic German meal we had for dinner at the airport.

For a birthday celebration we head to Greece! It was short and really more of teaser just to convince us to go back.  With only the weekend to get down there and back we ended up having to stay near the airport in Athens on Friday night. We woke up early Saturday morning and took a quick hop over to Crete and went to our hotel. It had at least 4 pools and beach front!

Hmm... what sounds refreshing? 

And of course some swimming in the Med...it was warmer than the pools!

Our camera works underwater!

Some kite surfing. Unfortunately it was a RED flag day so we could not use any of the water sports at our resort. :-(

At night we went into town for some dinner and Mythos on draft. The kebabs and lamb were yummy!

Walked around a while and essentially got lost in Heraklion (which has like 5 different spellings). Although I must admit its very difficult reading an English map and having street signs in Greek, and the few signs that are in English are spelled completely differently, you basically have to have one person say it out loud, and the other person reads all the surrounding signs.

Sunday we woke up had another breakfast and off we went to Athens. 

 With a 3 hour layover we decided not to waste it and hopped in a cab and took it all the way to the Acropolis. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. Apparently the other people thought it was the place to be as well, it was packed!

The Olympic Stadium!

Over the border to France

Our new location gives us access to a lot of fun and exciting places! Our last adventure was to Strasbourg France, a historical city just across the Rhine River which separates France from Germany. It's amazing that on one side of the river the people speak German and only a few meters away the language completely changes to French!

Driving in Europe is not quite what we expected. It is nothing like driving over to Canada or Mexico from the US, but rather its more like driving from New York to Pennsylvania. There doesn't seem to be any border checks...just a sign saying "Goodbye" and another one saying "Welcome"!

Strasbourg's city center is situated on an "island" surrounded by a tributary river of the Rhine. Much of the downtown consists of cobblestone walking streets, with bridges and watch towers crossing the river every 0.5 km.

The main attraction of this town is the Cathedral Notre-Dame. It is quite an impressive structure, with construction starting in the 11oo's, and was the tallest structure in the world from 1647 up until 1874. The Gothic influence can be seen in great detail on the outside of this enormous church.

Brian and a clock on the church.

The inside of the church is just as impressive, but in contrast is completely opposite the outside Gothic detail. The architecture, angel statues, and stained glass were amazing.

Here is the door and stairway up to the Pulpit.

The massive and ornate organ.

The church has several impressive features including the Pillar of Angels.

There is also an astronomical clock located inside the church. Everyday but Sunday (and holidays) at 12:31pm the clock has figurines that come out and move and perform a creepy little show. Just our luck we visited on a Sunday and didn't get to see the show, but the clock was still impressive. Check out our cool new camera and it's super slick panoramic setting!

And of course it wouldn't be France if there wasn't yummy wine to sample!

Of course there are other refreshments to enjoy as well. Poor Brian is pouting because his beer is empty.