A visit to Rome

Last weekend I took a short jaunt down to Rome, Italy for a four day holiday. It was my first time to ever visit Italy, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect -- my only Italian contacts were of course expats.

What I did discover however is that there are more tourists in Rome than Italians, so I still don't know what to expect in Italy. That aside, I did enjoy seeing the many beautiful sites of Rome and the Vatican.

Rome, Italy

Vatican

A visit to Tübingen

This past Saturday, a friend of mine brought us up to the city of Tübingen in southern Germany. It's a decently sized city at about 90,000, and holds a rather ancient (by US and German standards) university which dates back to 1477.

We only took a day trip, but we were able to see a lot of the Altstädte if only in a hurried fashion. After a fantastic local lunch, with a dish called Maultaschen, we decided to take a short hike. We headed up to the forest north of town and hiked to Bebenhausen, a small and ancient community built around an abbey.

A river runs through it

I just returned yesterday from a week in Austria, where my company tortured us by forcing us to spend some quality time in the Austrian Alps. All 2400 of us took over this small town of Sölden, Austria.

Many thanks for their hospitality, and I most certainly recommend a visit to anyone who likes to ski or just sit around and enjoy a beautiful view!