It's Been a Long Time

We just officially celebrated our one-year anniversary of living in Switzerland. To say it's been a whirlwind would be putting it mildly. I was just looking back to last year's posts from this time and realized, humans are great at adapting. We've certaintly gotten used to quite a few things that we're originally shocking.
1. The cost, of everything from Starbucks to shoes to chicken or beef; I knew when I spent 11.60 on a pack of bagels & didn't even flinch, I'd become just a bit Swiss.
2. Not understanding what is happening around you. Previously frustrating or annoying, now just sort of blissful. Sort of like living in a happy, ignorant bubble.
3. Reach out & touch me. By now I have almost enjoy the cosiness (aka cramped) atmosphere of our apartment. We are both physically & emotionally closer because of it.
4. Chili's, Panera, Schnucks white long johns, Whole Foods; while we may still talk about the foods that we miss, and drool a bit, we've gone so long without it all now, it's sort of hard to reconcile with the fact that we used to eat out a lot & eat a lot while we were at it!
5. The trains, buses & trams; we've become quite efficient at managing all the public transport schedules, plus, we've encountered a lot more "interesting" people that way. This summer has been a bit warm, so hopping in the car & turning on the A/C would have been a delight, but why have A/C in the car if the house, gym, school & work don't have it? (In reality, I would take that Volvo / BMW in a heartbeat, though)
6. Skiing (Joe only); he never thought he would like skiing as much as he does. He is already talking about it again constantly. And although his Swiss co-workers say he looks like their "90 year old grandpa on skiis", he is more ready for another season (lucky me).
7. All you all. Of course being away from family & friends isn't easy sometimes. However, between Skype, emails, visitors & yearly trips home, we've gotten used to it. To quote a sage Mags, "WOoowww, one year already, I can't believe it! I hope all the years you are gone go by this fast."

Beer Country

We arrived into the Amsterdam airport early on Sunday morning, picked up the beautiful Toyota rental car (at least Joe was excited) & headed out for Belgium. Mags & I spent most of the 3+ hour car ride recovering from Street Parade (aka sleeping like rocks in the back seat) while Dad drove & Joe managed the generic TomTom. We stopped into Brussels for lunch & an afternoon walk. Immediately we felt grateful that we were staying in Bruges for our time in Belgium. Brussels was nice enough, just completely & utterly over-run with people. So, after we sampled the famous Belgian fare - beer, frites (tasted just like fries), and waffels (the one joe had was burnt), we peaced out of there. But, first we attempted a stop at Waterloo (Napoleon's last stand), which I suppose we expected would be well-marked when we arrived. After driving through the entire town (again, the ladies were sleeping), the boys were ready to cut their losses & head along to Bruges, but Mags wasn't having it (once Joe woke her up), so we stopped off at a gas station for assistance. Turns out we were about 200m away from the site, so we stopped in for a pleasant look around & a long history lesson (don't quiz me now, I must have blocked that 30 min lecture out of my mind).

Finally, we got back on the road again & an hour and a half later, we breezed into gorgeous Bruges. On the car ride into town we made a loose itinerary (including the restaurants that we wanted to eat in). Sunday night all we had time for was checking in & relaxing for a bit before it was dinner time. Dinner time - the highlight of the vacation! We had (sort of randomly, thanks again Rick Steves) decided on a place called Tom's Diner on the outskirts of town. The place had only about 8 tables, just one chef/owner, exposed brick, cozy environs. We were happy immediately. Then, we each ordered a different delicious Belgian beer & they came with tiny snacks of olives & homemade Goldfish crackers, and we knew, this was love, love at first bite. Dinner was impeccable, drool is forming in my mouth now, just thinking of it. Jokingly, I said to the waitress, we should make a reservation for tomorrow night. Towards the end of the meal she came up & said they had only one table left for the following evening, did we seriously want it? We didn't hesitate, of course we did! We were excited about it all the next day, oh my gosh, we are hopeless foodies. We broached the subject of Tom, the chef, becoming our private chef, so if anyone out there wants to contribute to that fund, feel free.

Beyond the amazing food & beer, Bruges itself is a perfectly preserved town with a fabulous old brewery, a Michelangelo statue, canals, quaint little streets & fabulous shops. If they had any industry there other than tourism, it would be tops on my list for where to live next.

After our two nights of deliciousness in Bruges, we headed back to the Netherlands, stopping at the Kroeller-Mueller Museum, which houses the second largest VanGogh collection in the world (just behind the VanGogh Museum in Amsterdam) within a large forest preserve. The park has free white bikes (or as Ron says - at no additional cost) that are for the use of all guests. We hoped on the one-speed, hand-brake bikes & headed up the museum while Nick rested (and wandered the parking lot like a vagrant looking for loose change - fortunately he found enough to cover parking). The museum was fantastic. They have no shortage of uber-famous VanGogh works, all housed in a low-key, relatively uncrowded museum. We saw VanGogh's Cafe Terrace at Night, which was one of the highlights of my art-going life. We had the opportunity to get up close to it 3, 4, 5 times, viewing it from afar with little distraction, checking out the thickness of the paint around the light fixture on the painting, which radiates light all over the canvas. It was a great museum and the bike ride to and from the museum topped off the afternoon perfectly.

It was early evening before we pulled into Amsterdam & our 'penthouse suite' which was at the top of three very very steep sets of stairs. The place certainly could have used a bit of updating, but we were able to make dinner a few nights & play cards on the balcony while enjoying a few Belgian beers that we had imported. We jammed out to Jimi Hendrix, cooked up a scrumptious dinner & hit the hay early. Amsterdam included a whirl-wind of city walking tours, Birkenstock sightings, Anne Frank House (sobering & beautifully well-done), VanGogh Museum (obnoxiously crowded, people were waiting in line even within the museum to view the paintings), Red Light District walk, complete with wasted, flabby, shirtless Brits (this was at 2 in the afternoon), more Birkenstock sightings, Kettle chips (we brought some back with us to Switzerland!), and a ton of lines/tourists everywhere. Luckily, we are freakish planners & we had bought tickets in advance to the major attractions we wanted to visit, while Nick rubbed it in to anyone that would listen that he wasn't waiting in the obnoxious lines (I would have stepped up the job, but he took care of it so well).

The trip was fabulous, we ate amazingly well, drank delicious beers & knocked a few more places off our "to-do" list (which continues to grow despite all the valiant effort we've made this year)!

Switzerland: Welcome to the Good Life

Just one day in Switzerland with only Mom, before Dad arrived on Wednesday. Tuesday was spent going for a nice bike ride, then enjoying my grocery store curcuit (we went to 4 that day), doing laundry, etc. More of a 'get shit done' sort of day, but we topped it off well with some shrimp veggie pesto pasta & a bit of wine. On Wednesday, before picking up Nick from the airport, we went up the Uetliberg, walked around a bit & enjoyed the views of Zurich. It was a bit hazy, but enjoyable none the less. Dad was doing just okay after his flight, so we enticed him to stay awake by imbibing in a few beers at the outdoor 'Octoberfest place.' It does have a real name, but of course, we neglect to ever entertain it. It was a beautiful afternoon, topped off perfectly at Eisenhof (steak on a stone, another favorite place to take guests). Thursday, Mags & I accompained Nick to Olten where he was meeting with some distributor. Not too much to do in Olten, but we walked around the town, stocked up on some Jack Wolfskin gear & enjoyed another beautiful day. Mom & Dad headed to Luzern & Mt. Pilatus by themselves that afternoon & I headed home to prepare for our little party we were hosting the following night.

Friday we went down to Neuchatel while Joe again slaved away to fund all this fun. Mom & I spent the entire time on the Areuse Gorge hike (which was much more intense than I recall from last fall, but still absolutely beautiful) while Nick spent his afternoon at an outdoor cafe along the lake drinking a few beers. I am not sure which party got the better end of the deal, but we were all content & comfortable enough to doze on the train (something I am always comfortable enough to do). Friday night, a few of our friends came over for an apero, so we threw together a few appetizers, Joe prepared a few margaritas & we enjoyed a great, if not crowded, evening in the living room. Saturday's events deserve a blog post all of there own, which will follow later once I gather some incriminating videos & photos. Sunday we left early for Bruges, Amsterdam & Brussels, all of which I will include in their own post as well.

However, as you can see at the end of the Switzerland photos, we topped off Mom & Dad's time here this past Saturday (15.08) with a trip to the Berner Oberland for some time in the mountains. We hiked the same path that we did with Ron & Mary in June. It was so impeccably beautiful, we could not help but feel guilty. Here we were, enjoying yet another cloudless day in Switzerland, compared to their soggy, rain & fog filled Swiss adventure. The cows were all out to pasture (their stench filling the air), and there were a heck of a lot more people (we had to stand for a good part of the train ride with all the crazies & their bikes), but it was worth the 3+ hour commute each way. We basically did the walk, then came back down & met Nick in Interlaken. We boarded the DB (Deutschbahn) for the first leg of our journey home. Nick had scored us a compartment unit (whose heating/cooling system was working perfectly) and we all relaxed into our journey home. After the first stop, our train came to a sudden halt in the middle of the tracks. They began making some announcements in German, French & finally English (if you can call the jibberjabber that the person spewed English). Turns out there had been an "accident," code in Switzerland for suicide, we later learned. We were told to remain calm & stay in our seats, which we did without question for the first hour. Boredom & hunger began to set in, so Dad went in search of the restaurant car. We decided on a few hot items & just as the first one came out, another announcement came on, stating we were being evacuated & had to all walk to car nine to walk onto another train. Almost 2 hours later, after having scarfed a few sausages & a crummy mini pizza, we were on another train that was hot as hell, heading for the next town, just to dump us all off there & have us connect to yet another hot train that would finally take us to Bern. Everyone was aggitated, hot & hungry. So, I stood up & opened the window right above our seats. A huge no-no in the Swiss world. They hate the breeze & they really hate the noise. An elderly woman in the adjacent four-seater, gave me death stares while making endless comments to her husband in German. She even went so far as to cover her ear with her jacket (as if it's hideous, flimsy red material would be capable of blocking out some of the noise). The Asian tourists in the seats behind me were struggling to open their window as well, and finally asked me to assist them. Unfortunately, it was stuck, as I was really in the mood for ticking the old lady off even more by opening additional windows.

A total of 6 hours post-departure, we arrived in Zurich, sweaty, cranky & hungry. We all showered in record time & ate dinner (for the first time) in the restaurant (Cafe Pergola) across the street. Nick could not live with the fact that we hadn't eaten there yet, so we all complied. The menu was in Italian, convenient, right? So Joe & I both ended up ordering some dishes that basically burned our tongues off, whilst simultaneously tasting good. Nick's cordon blue was by far the best one I have ever encountered, but there is just something about simply walking across the street for dinner that doesn't sit well with me. We felt like tools just getting up, and walking over, then being capable of spying on our fellow diners from the apartment window. So, although the food was good, I just don't think we'll be rushing back across the street anytime soon.

Way to co-operate this time Switzerland!

Death March

I had arrived home to Zurich the night before from Greece at about 7pm, sans luggage. Not the best start to my 12 hour turnover before leaving Friday morning for London (I do realize I am bitching about too much vacation right now, I do). With Joe's help & patience, we got me packed & ready to go again.

I met Mom at our hotel early on Friday morning (almost 3 weeks ago!) after her long flight over the ocean. Our hotel claimed it was a 3 story, lift free establishment, with our room being on the top floor. I am not sure what counting school those people went to, but lugging Mags' luggage, as well as ours, up the 5+ flights of stairs was a great way to begin the trip. Just great. Additionally, I neglected to "fully plan" our first day in London. This led to a bit of aimless wandering, and perhaps a bit too much walking. We did pick up a great city map from an Asian travelbook that Mom found in the pagoda she is pictured in. Guiltily, we ganked the map & left the Chinese guidebook behind. Goodness, did that Asian map come in handy though! Mags jet lag didn't set in until about 3.30, but when it did, it hit hard. It may have been around this time that I was accused of "putting her on a death march". This just after we visited the Imperial War Museum (by accident, thinking it was the Churchill Museum) and were sombered by the well-done Holocaust memorial. Choosey Mom's, not choosing their words so well ;)

Joe arrived later Friday night & we kept Mags out & up until 10pm! Complete success. The rest of the weekend was spent hitting London's many hightlights, Tower of London, National Gallery, Tate Modern, Starbucks, British Museum, and finally on Monday morning after Joe left the dreadful changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace & Harrod's. Nothing makes it easier to say "bloody cheerio" (fyi cheerio is how the Brits say goodbye, explanation probably required as even Joe wasn't aware of this and he was just there..) than the Monday morning tube rush (one misstep & I swear, they would trample you to death, just to catch their connection), the insipidly stupid tourists & their idiotic comments while waiting for the guard to change & horror of the Diana & Dodi Al Fayed "memorial" in the lower level of Harrod's.
So, cheerio London, gruezi Switzerland!

Thessaloniki Fotos (24.07-30.07)

It's been a long long time since I've played purely like a child. We did handstands in the water, flips, dives, looked for shells, dug around in the sand, snorkeled, did those cannonball type things where I put Cal's feet in my hands & then shot him up out of the water, into the air for a moment, then back into the water, played war, danced 'an irish jig,' and laughed histerically while the kids raced the dogs on the beach & then jumped into my arms to escape the dog. The trials did come, basically the exact same day that I said everything was going well. But, they were not frustrating enough to garner sufficient attention.

Get ready for an onslaught of Mags & Nick updates, coming as soon as I get 250 photos organized! Miss you all!