The Almalfi Coast - Wow!!

I have to say again... I LOVE Italy! There are so many cool, chic, relaxing, exciting, historical and beautiful towns to see. We flew into Naples just over Mt. Vesuvius and took a bus to Sorrento. We stayed in Sorrento for three days, spent a day in Capri, and then we stayed in Positano for three days. The views were just spectacular!




Capri. This place was just gorgeous. It was described as Octavian Augustus Ceaser's playground, and they were not kidding. The views were just spectacular!

We were very lucky to take a trip to Pompeii, an ancient city destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius eruption in 79 A.D. The city was covered up for over 1000 years before excavation work began. This place was HUGE! The volcanic ash completely kept the city intact.

This is a dining room in Pompeii. You can still see the paint.


The eruption happened so quickly and no one had seen such a sight before. Therefore, many people stayed put waiting to see what the eruption would do. The above picture is a plaster cast that was formed within a hole in the ash/muc during excavations. The hole was where this body had died.

Over 2,000 years, the body decomposed as normal, but left a vacant space within the ground. Plaster was poured into the wholes to see what would result. Once the plaster dried, the archeologists peeled the dirt of the figures and discovered shapes of people in their last moments on earth.

This would have been a still fountain in someones foyer. The pool itself was made completely out of marble.

We took a 4 1/2 hour hike from Positano to Priano. It was called "The Path of the Gods." It really lived up to it's name due to the high cliffs, beautiful views, and unbelievable nature.

It ended up being a much harder hike then we expected. This sign tells us that we have already climbed 1700 steps. We had at least 300 left to get to the top of the cliff.

You can see where the path takes us along the cliff side.

Back at our hotel room in Positano, we were able to relax and take in the views from our balcony.

I believe Positano is the most picturesque city in the Almalfi Coast. Capri is of course unbelievable, and Sorrento was busy and fun, but I really loved Positano.

If you would like to see more pictures from our trip, click the link below.

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=193231240510816370/l=709417016/g=7389791/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Lisbon with just the girls

I was lucky enough to travel with two great girls, Nadia and Molly, to Lisbon, Portugal for four days during my two week Spring Break. We had such a great time!






This church was almost completely destroyed in an earthquake. It's now an open air museum. Just beautiful.
We took a trip out to Sintra, a town just west of Lisbon, and ended up in a beautiful castle with gardens. This is a picture of a grotto we found after we were running through a dark cave.

Here is just a small part of what was in the gardens at the castle in Sintra.

Nadia, Molly and I had a picture taken from the castle in Lisbon overlooking the entire city.

We also ended up in Cascais, a great beach town up the coast from Lisbon. Of course I had to have a picture in front of a pink house!

Walk like an Egyptian...

I think this trip may qualify as one of our favorites due to the simple fact that we had the best of both worlds. We stayed in a great resort on the Red Sea with great food. We had beautiful climate to lay on the beach. Plus, we traveled 2 days throughout Egypt to visit some of the oldest historical sights in the world. If you hadn't noticed, Scott and I are sort of dorks when it comes to preparing for trips. We always read through travel books, watch documentary's, and read some historical fiction books about the area. I'd have to say we prepared more for Egypt than most of our trips.


Our room right off of the Red Sea.

This is a Sheesha. It's very similar to the Hookah that we have in the states. I think this is what gave me a nasty cough at the end of the vacation. =)

One day we took a bus to Luxor to see The Valley of the Kings, Queen Hatsepsuts Temple, and the Temple Karnak. Wow! We visited King Tut's tomb as well as 3 other Pharoah's on the Valley of the Kings. The Temple Karnak is 62 acres large!!! Can you imagine? It was being built for 1,000 years. Each Pharoah would build onto this amazing sight.

I bought a bracelet in Egypt that shows the cross like symbol in the above hieroglyph. It means to have a good life.

The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. The first Queen of Egypt to name herself a Pharoah.

Cairo. This place was crazy! It was similar to Mexico City, but you can see the pyramids in the background. !

We first went to visit The Citadel in Cairo. We had to take our shoes off as soon as we entered the mosque. Beautiful.

Scott inside the mosque.

We went into one of the pyramids, but we couldn't take pictures. It was very small, and it was almost scary because we had to go up and down stairs while bending down through the small tunnels. Unbelievable

St. Moritz ski trip with the Beckmans!

This weekend we went to St. Moritz, a beautiful ski town, with our friends Leah and Derek Beckman. Leah and Derek lived in Chicago while we were there, but they moved to London about the same time we moved to Zurich (They are in our London blog as well). I took one day of lessons before we went to St. Moritz, and Leah and I decided to take some more while we were there. All ended well, but I'm still not the best skier.

This kind of trip was right up Scott's alley. He LOVES skiing.

The boys went skiing one day while the girls hiked through the snowy hills and found ourselves right in the heart of St. Moritz. Those are horses right on top of a frozen lake. They were getting ready for a full out polo game on the ice!

St. Moritz is definitely a town of style. We found amazing outdoor seating just about anywhere.

Saturday night, we headed to the center of St. Moritz to the Palace Hotel. This place was luxury to its fullest. After dinner at Le Bistro restaurant inside, we stopped by the Kings Club bar. To our surprise, the beers were $30 each. Ouch!

The fresh snow in the night made everything really light up!

On the trip home we took the Glacier Express train. A friend of mine commented that it looks like the train to Hogwarts from Harry Potter. I can see the resemblence. =)

Our second visitors in Zurich!

Alexa and Noah, friends of ours from Chicago, came out to Switzerland during the holidays. They went to many different places in Switzerland, but we were lucky enough to have them come stay with us for a few days. It was so nice to have friends from home here to share in this interesting experience with us.

These two have been friends for years, and I mean years! They meet in middle school and still keep in touch today. We love you Alexa!


It wouldn't be a visit without a picture on the trams.

Us too!!!

Alexa and Noah,

Thank you so much for taking some time to visit us on your holiday. We had such a blast with you both, and we can't wait to see you again in the future!

Love your friends,

Scott and Brooke

Holidays in Michigan

Christmas in Michigan was so wonderful. Spending time with family really means so much more to us now that we live so far away. Here is a new family picture of the Martyns.

Matt and Julie, Scott's brother, Matt, and sister in-law, Julie, took a great picture with the Merchant's kids.

On Christmas Eve we spent the day with the Edmonds family. My brother enjoyed sitting and talking "shop" with Scott. You never know what kind of stuff these boys chat about while drinking a beer.

I couldn't believe how big my nieces Brenna and Julia got while we were away. They are turning into girls! Oh my! Brenna is going to be five in February and she loves to write and play at daycare. Julia is 3 years old and loves to talk! She is really great with rhyming and singing too.

My mom (aka - my best friend) is the best woman in the world. We had such a wonderful time catching up and just giggling together.

My parents decorated their house so cute this year. Plus, they bought new furniture for the bedrooms and dining room.

I had some time to see my friends too. Melinda and Jody are both married and living in Michigan. We email really often, but it was so cool to see them in person again.

Scott and Angie's husband, Zach, played fusball most of the evening to avoid the girls. =)

Little Miss Angie. I miss you so much. Steph was supposed to be here this evening as well, but the weather and sickness kept her away. We were 3 peas in a pod in high school. Now, we all live far about, but we are so lucky to talk with one another regularly. These girls have been so supportive of Scott and I.

Jaime had us all over her house for a fun "family" night out. Everyone brought their husbands and kids.

Scott's brother Matt and his wife Julie went to the Windsor Casino with us one night while we were home. I am the only one who made money, but my husband lost enough for the both of us. In the end we came out about even. =) Either way, we had a fun time playing games and hanging out with each other.

Here is a view of Detroit from Windsor. It actually looks really nice from here.... just don't go downtown at night.

We started a new Martyn tradition of bowling. The boys team won, but the girls team was much more stylish.

Matt and Scott sure do resemble their dad. At least they all chose Christmas colors!

Here is an action shot.

We also had some time to see my girlfriends from home. I'm so lucky to stay in touch with these girls as much as we do. They all have been a huge support system for me this year. From the left top, Ang, Steph, and Nikki. On the bottom row is Kirby, me and Andrea.

My brother brought the girls over right before we left so we could hang out. They LOVE headbands, an it just so happens that their Aunt Brooke does too. We all switched headbands that night.

My brother recently bought the wii, so we all went over to play some sports. Here is my dad bowling. I think he did pretty good!

My mom was pretty good at baseball too.

I think this is our favorite picture of my nieces. They put napkin rings around their eyes (this was on there own) to look like glasses. They seriously crack us all up constantly.

Thank you all for going out of your way to see us. We wish we would've had more time to spend with everyone, but 2 weeks goes by really quickly. Until next Christmas.......