Happy 4th of July!

Feel free to look at all our pictures. Click on this link http://picasaweb.google.com/cmsears04

We have now been in Europe for 2 weeks and have learned a lot. We are settling in though. Have been asked for directions twice now! And was able to direct them both times :)

Adventure's of MillRose is our blog we have created to share our experience living in Germany. MillRose is the name of our stuffed cat that so happened, by our brother Andrew, to be tied and dragged by our getaway car from our wedding at Mill Rose Inn. This battered, dirty, and yet still meowing cat has been on our adventures with us. Despite her torn off mouth and dangling nose, she has had a great time in Athens and Santorini on our honeymoon.

This is where it all started. We arrived at the airport with 11 boxes and 5 suitcases. Each of us pushing two carts through the doors of the airport was quite a task. We arrived at our apartment in Garching. This is a picture of their apartment complex that we are staying in until we find a place in Munich city.
It is 30x10 feet room. Really small, but it works. It has a balcony at least. It is close to Chris's work and very close to the grocery store.






Enough with the moving, lets explore! This is Garching. The town is in the distance if you look close to the picture on the left.









We don't have pictures of Garching city yet. Maybe later.








After finding out the buses do not run on Sundays, we had to leave at 6:15 am on Sunday for the airport. Instead of the bus and the train that would take us about 30 minutes, we had to take the train into Munich city which is the complete opposite direction, switch trains and literally go right back where we started but only a small distance to the northeast. It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes instead. We thought of a taxi that would take only about 15 minutes but we couldn't figure it out since we had no phone yet and we tried the online reservation we found, but it did not work. So a really early start, but here we go!

Athens, very busy, very populated. It definitely gave us the historical trip and the tourist trip we wanted part of our honeymoon to be.
Our hotel room. Room was just okay but the rest of the hotel was nice.

We were so hot and tired.













Funny outfits on the guards post outside the presidential palace.
They couldn't move so another soldier had to fix the guard's skirt when the wind blew it!


It was sooo hot and windy at the Acropolis that her wiskers went sideways! (Actually, another scar of being dragged.) The Acropolis was amazing.
"What out, it is very slippery. So many people are falling!" said Millrose.



Some friends Millrose met.
There were stray cats and
dogs everywhere! Mostly
dogs in Athens and cats in
Satorini.

And Chris just loves cats!



Who do you think is going to win the staring contest?







So much exploring, it was nice to go for a swim in the sea. We enjoyed the busy beach at Athens for the last day.

And what better way to end the night, sipping wine on the roof of the hotel with a view like this ---->

Off to Santorini...very romantic and beautiful place. Definitely recommend!
Our ferry to go over. They have assigned seats!Our hotel was amazing. We had a patio off our room with a view!










This makes up for all they put me through!











We took an excursion on a "sailboat," a boat that actually had no sails and was motorized with about 150 people. It took us to the center of the volcano where we hiked up to the top to view the center pits and see the view from there. Then it took us to the island across the way from the mainland, had lunch and walked up a very steep long climb up stairs to the top of Thirasia, thinking there were some shops, but only residences we found. Thirasia, at one point was connected to the mainland, making Santorini an almost complete circle rim of the volcano. Then the sailboat took us to Oia, which is the tip of the mainland, to see the sunset. We again had to hike up the very steep long staircase to get to Oia. Three times of hiking up to the top was not easy! We were so hot and tired. A lot of people rode donkeys up the steps. Wish we did!
But got some really great pictures!





Here is the hike up to the top of the volcano.
















That squiggly line is the stairs! Here is the view from the top of Thirasia.











We are pretending we have the energy to stand. We are on the way up to Oia.





























Here are just a couple more pictures. These are from Fira, the town our hotel was in.


















We went to the other side of the volcano, to the beach side. It looked only maybe a 30 minute walk but actually took 1 hour 30 minutes. Bad judgement in distance!






Our last night, we ate at the hotel restaurant. Chris's plate had lobster where they nicely decorated the plate!







On our arrival back from Greece, we met all these people at the airport watching the soccer game on the big screen, cheering for Germany.
Millrose made it home with her new friend,