Happy Tuesday Everyone! Marty and I had a wonderful getaway to Pittsburgh over the weekend. We didn’t accomplish everything on our list but we did: get to The Pretzel Shop, The Cathedral of Learning, the Duquesne Incline (we didn’t ride the incline but we took in the views from the top), we attempted to have dinner at Hofbrauhaus (it was PACKED so we decided to skip it) and we walked into Priminti Brothers but weren’t impressed by the look of the sandwiches so we decided on Thai instead. :)

Now for the recap…

We arrived in Pittsburgh around noon on Saturday. There were several things on our agenda but we decided to make our first stop The Pretzel Shop.

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Like I mentioned in my post from Tuesday, I had never actually been to the shop but I’ve eaten quite a few of these pretzels throughout my life. For a mere fifty cents each, we figured we get a bag of them (thirty-eight to be exact.) Before you begin to judge, know that we took more than half of them back to our family and friends. :D

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Even better than I remembered…

After our pretzel snack we headed over to the University of Pittsburgh campus to explore The Cathedral of Learning. As a ‘centerpiece’ of the University, the cathedral is both a study hub and top attraction.

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Among the classrooms are twenty-nine ‘Nationality Rooms‘ – twenty-seven of which are still working classrooms while two others are just on display.

What’s a ‘Nationality Room’, you ask? I could try and explain it but I think Wikipedia.com can do a better job: “Each nationality room is designed to celebrate a different culture that had an influence on Pittsburgh’s growth, depicting an era prior to (or in the singular case of the French Classroom, just after) 1787, which is year of the University’s founding and the signing of the US Constitution.”

The English Classroom
The English Room (An English teacher at his perch)
The French Classroom (Loved that someone drew this on the blackboard!)
The Czechoslovakian Room
The Welsh Classroom
The Scottish Classroom
The French Classroom (Did you expect anything less?)
The Turkish Classroom
The Lithuanian Classroom
The Irish Classroom
The Polish Classroom
The Romanian Classroom (Loved the woodwork in all of the rooms!)
The Chinese Classroom
The Greek Classroom

Aren’t they amazing?

As two proud Germans, we were excited to see the German room.

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After we walked through the different rooms, we decided to take some time and relax in the main study hall. It reminded me of Hogwarts castle.

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Can you spot the husband? :)

Next stop was Carson Street. We decided to find a Happy Hour on this famous street (known for their bars and dining.) We walked about a mile and a half one way and couldn’t find anything to suit our mood so we walked about two miles the other way and finally decided on a bar named Ibiza.

After Ibiza we decided to walk to Hofbrauhaus (one of the restaurants on our list) but the wait was nearly two hours so we decided to enjoy some Thai food instead. Next time we’re in Pittsburgh we’ll have to try Hofbrauhaus again. 

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After dinner, we decided to call it an early evening and headed back to our room (where we watched a couple episodes of New Girl on my lap top! Haha.) Party animals, I tell ya.

We woke to a little snowstorm on Sunday morning. As if Pittsburgh wasn’t charming before – it is even more so in the snow! Something about the age and history of the city that adds to its overall appeal. Our original plan was to stay for lunch but we decided to head back to Columbus a bit early. As we were on our way out of the city, I realized that I hadn’t taken one picture of the two of us! Unacceptable. Since I was driving, I decided to make one more pit-stop (pun intended.) Although the snow was coming down pretty fast, I wanted to see what kind of views we’d get from the top of the Duquesne Incline.

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Not too shabby.

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I wouldn’t say it’s the best photo of us but it definitely sums up our little getaway.

What did you do this weekend? Anything exciting? Have you ever been to Pittsburgh?

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