Winstubs and Weinstuben

We just got back from a one-week trip through Alsace and the Mosel and Rhine valley regions in Germany, with our frieds Dru and Roger. Pictures are here.

Our first destination was the Rhine waterfalls near Schaffhausen, then we crossed the Black Forest and stopped in Freiburg. We spent the first few days in the Alsace region in France, famous for its good food and wine. We saw Colmar and a few small towns nearby, and spent a day in Strasbourg.

Then, we went on to Germany, drove down the Mosel valley, and took a river cruise along the Rhine valley between Koblenz and Bacharach.

On the way back, we stayed in Heidelberg, and explored the beautiful park around the Schwetzingen palace.

Glacier Express

Cynthia’s aunt Phyllis came to visit us – all by herself, all the way from Seattle, and she’s in her late 70s!

Well, when in Switzerland, you want to see the Alps, and the most convenient way to do that is from a Swiss train. We took the Glacier Express from St.Moritz to Zermatt. You get great views from the rail cars with glass roofs … and you also get more sun from above than I care for.

You spend about 8 hours on the train, and you pass through multiple seasons, as it were: it was warm and spring time (April) at the start, and snow and wintertime up on the mountain pass.

Lessons learned for next time: get a 1st class ticket (fewer noisy kids), don’t order the lunch (it’s late and not that great), and bring sunscreen!

Pictures are here.

Pilatus

In late August this year, we went to the top of mount Pilatus, in central Switzerland. This was a round trip starting and ending in Lucerne, it involved taking a boat across Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstädtersee), a cogwheel railway, a large gondola on an aerial cableway, a small gondola, and a short busride – keeps you busy all day.

The Pilatus Railway is is the world’s steepest cogwheel railway, at 48% gradient, it has been running for more than 100 years.

At the top, at 7000 ft (2100 m), there’s a breathtaking view of Lake Lucerne and the surrounding mountains.

For more pictures, click here.

Cheese, Chocolate and Cows!

Life in Switzerland can be characterized by cheese!, chocolate, and cows!

Cheese is a staple in the Swiss diet. Grocery stores – big and small – typically have a cheese counter from which the shopper selects the variety and the amount (in grams). Getting used to some of the smells takes a while. At times I think it would be a good idea to have a separate refrigerator (similar to a “dorm fridge”) just for the cheese. An interesting note, the cows are taken to the high alpine pastures for summer. Due to the altitude, the cows drop in weight during the summer pasture season, producing a lower fat milk, and therefore, lower fat cheese. And no, there is not a “Swiss Cheese” – over here it is all Swiss cheese. What is labelled “Swiss” in the US is the Emmental variety.

Red wine, foie gras and Armagnac

No, we didn’t eat all the time, we also hiked along the vineyards, spent time on the beach, and tried to keep out of the rain …

More pictures here.

We spent two weeks in France, in the Aquitaine reqion, which includes the Périgord, famous for its duck and goose products, including foie gras, and the area around Bordeaux, famous for – well, the wine, and the Armagnac region in Western Gascogne, famous for, well, its brandy.

We visited the Clos des Menuts chateau and its wine-making facilities, and we got a tour of the Domaine d’Ognoas brandy distillery and cellars. We came home with more bottles of Bordeaux wine and Armagnac brandy than we care to admit, but it just tastes different once you’ve seen how they make it …

The most remarkable hotel we stayed at was the Domaine de Paguy, a little 16-century chateau in the middle of a vineyard.

A Long Weekend in the Swiss Mountains

Last weekend – which started on Thursday – we went to the region around Interlaken, on Lake Thun. It doesn’t get any Swisser than that! Nice lake, the snowcapped mountains in the background, and really heavy bernese Swiss German …

More pictures here.

We took the boat across Lake Thun, then the cogwheel railway up to Grindelwald and Kleine Scheidegg – where we were surrounded by Japanese tourists and a Bollywood film crew …

On the last day, we visited the open air museum in Ballenberg, which shows original historic Swiss farm houses from the different parts of the country, in their typical architecture, including the original furniture and farming tools.

Back in the USA

We traveled to the US for the holidays, first to see Cynthia’s family in Minneapolis, and then to Chicago to spend New Year’s Eve with our friends Dru and Roger.

In downtown Chicago, we saw the “bean”, the big outdoor sculpture with a polished mirror surface – which makes you look even fatter than you really are after all that rich holidays food …

Incredible India

In October, Cynthia and I spent a week in Northern India, after I went to the RE’07 conference in Delhi. We did the classical “Golden Triangle” tour of Rajasthan, including Delhi, Agra with the Taj Mahal, and Jaipur.

Many more pictures are in the picture gallery.

Tuscany, May 2007

For two weeks, we stayed in a small village halfway between Florence and Rome, and we explored Tuscany and Umbria.

We stayed at a 16th century villa called Macciangrosso, which now has 4 apartments and a couple of hotel rooms. Because it was still pre-season, we had the whole house and garden to ourselves.

Here we are, with our friends Dru and Roger from Chicago. Many more pictures are in the picture gallery.