Completing a six day work week this past week proved to me that I am, at my core, lazy and weak. Josh works a five day work week every week (well, so do most people). But with his job he is always on the go, he is on his feet, he is physically working hard. Every day. It's not that I don't work hard. But I'm not there five days a week. Jumping up to six days was a lot. I know people work schedules like this all the time. Clearly, they are stronger and more motivated than I am.
To help get myself through this past week, I focused on the future when I wouldn't be working so much - specifically upcoming trips. At the moment the only upcoming trip I have planned is to go back to the states in August for my best friend's wedding. My calendar is open. Last year I was brainstorming and had made a list of places I wanted to go see. We made it to two of the four places on my list. I blame Josh's kidney stones and his training for keeping us from the rest of the list. My brainstorming and day dreaming on my drives to and from work have lead me to create another list. This one is bigger... so we may not get to many of them this summer. But, it is out there for the future.
I want to go to:
Strasbourg, France
Colmar, France
Bamberg, Germany
Wurzburg, Germany (I went here for my dental conference. Loved what I saw, but I didn't get to do much around the city itself. This was also on my list last year)
Heidelberg, Germany (this is about two hours away - a big military town... I kind of feel a bit silly since we've lived here this long and haven't been there yet)
Munster, Germany (on my list last year, and we never made it)
I still want to go up to northern Germany to the small down where my great-grandpa was from. Part of me wants to wait to do that with my mom, however she keeps coming to visit during the winter when the weather is crappy... and part of me wants to go see this area when the weather is decent. But that trip remains on my list.
I also have recently found some great hotel deals... and knowing I found a cheap place to stay makes me want to go somewhere. Ha. I have wanted to go back to Paris since I loved it before... and I've found a great hotel/price to do it. It is just a matter of finding a time when we can go.
The other thing I'm currently obsessed with is searching for cruises. When we first got married and knew we were moving to Germany, I told Josh I wanted to go on a Mediterranean cruise as our "honeymoon." Fast forward two and half years, and we're still just talking about it. The real reason we haven't done a cruise was when we first got here there wasn't much opportunity for Josh to take time off, and we've filled our time with other trips. Recently five of my co-workers have gone on cruises. Five. Which has put cruises on my brain in a big way. A patient told me about a website she has used to find incredible deals on cruises. I started searching it, which lead me to researching more about cruises in general... which led me to finding not one, but two cruises for Josh and I. We are seriously considering doing both of them. Excessive? Sure. Do I care? Nope.
The first cruise is in October and it is a Greek island tour. The cruise starts and ends in Venice, and does many of the highlights of Greece. I never would have thought about going to Greece - honestly it hasn't been high on my places to go. No real reason why... there are just other things I want to see more. But. Josh likes Greek mythology, and he wants to go to Greece. A cruise is an easy way to see all of it. Plus, now that I've researched things and seen images of Greece, I want to go. The second cruise is in February and would be over our anniversary. It starts and ends in Barcelona with a stop in Casablanca, Morocco, and then stops in the Canary Islands. Yup. Pretty sure we're going to sign up for both of those as long as Josh can get the time off.
Again, this seems like a lot, even to me. But the six day work week I just endured makes me not care... and makes me want to go on vacation even more.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Two Years!
I should have written this post last week... but as I said, I'm working a lot. When I get home I eat dinner, shower, and then head to be like an old lady around 8 pm. I'm not exaggerating. I keep trying to put this off, so I'm fighting through my fatigue. My apologies for any spelling or grammatical errors. Well, any more errors than usual.
June 20th - now in Germany a whole two years! Last year I did a little recap of our travel. It was fun to look back on. So here is all we've done since last June:
Clervaux, Luxembourg
Bastone, Belgium
Nuremburg, Germany
Brugge, Belgium
Garmish, Germany
Munich - Oktoberfest!
Brussels, Belgium
Paris (without Josh)
Christmas markets in Cochem, Trier, Koln, and Bernkastle
Baden baden, Germany
Cochem Castle
Keukenhof, Netherlands
Wurzburg, Germany (without Josh for my dental conference)
Wine tasting in Bernkastle
Normandy
Lucerne, Switzerland
Reims, France
Breendock, Belgium
So... still a respectable travel year. More that I wish we had done/seen. There were a few months (when I was looking back at my blog) where we didn't do much. Josh had kidney stones last June, which shot traveling in the foot. He was gone for all of August and part of September for training. Then from January until I got back from the states in April we were simply busy preparing to move, moving, unpacking. SO. Maybe not as many big trips as I had hoped for. But, still some good trips. Here's to another upcoming year! May we have more adventures.
June 20th - now in Germany a whole two years! Last year I did a little recap of our travel. It was fun to look back on. So here is all we've done since last June:
Clervaux, Luxembourg
Bastone, Belgium
Nuremburg, Germany
Brugge, Belgium
Garmish, Germany
Munich - Oktoberfest!
Brussels, Belgium
Paris (without Josh)
Christmas markets in Cochem, Trier, Koln, and Bernkastle
Baden baden, Germany
Cochem Castle
Keukenhof, Netherlands
Wurzburg, Germany (without Josh for my dental conference)
Wine tasting in Bernkastle
Normandy
Lucerne, Switzerland
Reims, France
Breendock, Belgium
So... still a respectable travel year. More that I wish we had done/seen. There were a few months (when I was looking back at my blog) where we didn't do much. Josh had kidney stones last June, which shot traveling in the foot. He was gone for all of August and part of September for training. Then from January until I got back from the states in April we were simply busy preparing to move, moving, unpacking. SO. Maybe not as many big trips as I had hoped for. But, still some good trips. Here's to another upcoming year! May we have more adventures.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Fort Breendock
As you may have noticed, in the past month we have done a fair amount of traveling. Part of it was me finding good deals, part was me just wanting to get out and do stuff, and the other part of timing. I had agreed to cover for some co-workers who were taking vacations this summer. These people have covered for me many times when I've traveled, and it was time to return the favor. Unfortunately, returning the favor means I am working 4-6 day work weeks for most of June and all of July. Now I know that sounds ridiculous to most as any full time job is usually a 5 day work week. But... I don't work full time. I'm used to doing my 2-3 days a week. So this past week has been a bit rough. Exhausting. I didn't have any plans for this Saturday. My plan was to do some homework and get my house together. When I got home Friday night Josh and I started talking about possible plans on Saturday, and we decided to get out for the day.
One of Josh's favorite things to do is to drive to Belgium (we can be across the border in about 45 minutes) and go shopping to stock up on beer. Over here 98% of the beer comes in bottles, and you must recycle the bottles. I'm glad we're able to recycle, but that means my basement is full of bottles and beer racks. It is a disorganized mess. If Josh goes to buy new beer, he takes all the old bottles to return/recycle them. I was glad to go beer shopping if that meant we could clear out the old bottles. So off to Belgium we went.
Recently Josh has had some new people come into work. When people arrive at the base, one of the many things they must do is attend a new comers briefing. Josh came home one day with a piece of paper he snagged when he dropped off someone at the briefing. It is a "Bucket List" the base has written to give to new people. I think it is to excite people about Europe, to encourage them to go do things, ect. Josh and I poured over this list and had a grand time checking off everything we've already done, but we also found our curiosity being peaked about some things we haven't done or hadn't heard of. One thing which really stood out to me was the entry which said, "Visit the concentration camp in Breendock, Belgium." Whhhhaaaattt??? There is a concentration camp that close to us? How did I not know this??? Although it sounds morbid, I want to go visit concentration camps. I want to see as many as possible while we are here. I have a lot of reasons why, but the main two are that I am interested in the history, and I want to bear witness to the tragedy which surrounds the camps. Anyway, I decided to turn our beer trip into a side trip to Breendock.
I did some online research into Breendock, and I thought I knew what we were in for since we've been to Dachau. However, this was something completely different. Dachau has a lot of pictures of the way the camp was, and some things are still in place (such as the crematorium), but a lot of the buildings were knocked down. At Breendock, the majority of the buildings are still there, so it made everything feel more real. Breendock wasn't an actual concentration camp per-say, or not in the way you would think of one. It was a prison for political prisoners (specifically people from Allied forces and resistance groups), but there were some Jewish people there as well. Prisoners were subjected to slave labor, poor living conditions, starvation, abuse, and torture. There were actual torture rooms where members of the SS would torture prisoners to try to get information out of them. Prisoners died at Breendock from exhaustion, injuries from beatings, torture, sickness, or general horrible conditions. This was a place of unimaginable suffering, but unlike other camps there was no crematoria or gas chamber. Still inhumane and disgusting.
You walk through the fort at your own pace and are given an audio tour. The audio tour does a great job of explaining the conditions and circumstances of the camp. The fort has a man-made moat surrounding it in addition to the fence and barbed wire. The fort is solid concrete - ominous to look at. The inside is cold and damp (keep in mind it is June right now. I can't imagine what January would be like).
The last photo is of the area for the firing squad. During the tour they talked about how sometimes, for no apparent reason, guards would select prisoners to be killed. Then the next day a new batch of prisoners showed up to take their place.
I don't know if the pictures do it justice, but being inside of the prison was seriously creepy. I was incredibly creeped out. I had goosebumps all over my arms and was jumpy. Josh and I were the only people there, so when I would hear noises it just sent chills through me. The classic, "If that wasn't us, what made that noise?" Josh found my anxiety funny. I don't know what it was, but I just... I felt sad about how people were treated here, and what they had to endure... but I also felt... like you could feel more there. I don't know how to explain it without sounding ridiculous, but let's just say I was freaked out by the whole place. However, I'm glad we went to check out Breendock. I didn't realize it was so close to us, and I now have another piece of the puzzle of World War Two history.
One of Josh's favorite things to do is to drive to Belgium (we can be across the border in about 45 minutes) and go shopping to stock up on beer. Over here 98% of the beer comes in bottles, and you must recycle the bottles. I'm glad we're able to recycle, but that means my basement is full of bottles and beer racks. It is a disorganized mess. If Josh goes to buy new beer, he takes all the old bottles to return/recycle them. I was glad to go beer shopping if that meant we could clear out the old bottles. So off to Belgium we went.
Recently Josh has had some new people come into work. When people arrive at the base, one of the many things they must do is attend a new comers briefing. Josh came home one day with a piece of paper he snagged when he dropped off someone at the briefing. It is a "Bucket List" the base has written to give to new people. I think it is to excite people about Europe, to encourage them to go do things, ect. Josh and I poured over this list and had a grand time checking off everything we've already done, but we also found our curiosity being peaked about some things we haven't done or hadn't heard of. One thing which really stood out to me was the entry which said, "Visit the concentration camp in Breendock, Belgium." Whhhhaaaattt??? There is a concentration camp that close to us? How did I not know this??? Although it sounds morbid, I want to go visit concentration camps. I want to see as many as possible while we are here. I have a lot of reasons why, but the main two are that I am interested in the history, and I want to bear witness to the tragedy which surrounds the camps. Anyway, I decided to turn our beer trip into a side trip to Breendock.
I did some online research into Breendock, and I thought I knew what we were in for since we've been to Dachau. However, this was something completely different. Dachau has a lot of pictures of the way the camp was, and some things are still in place (such as the crematorium), but a lot of the buildings were knocked down. At Breendock, the majority of the buildings are still there, so it made everything feel more real. Breendock wasn't an actual concentration camp per-say, or not in the way you would think of one. It was a prison for political prisoners (specifically people from Allied forces and resistance groups), but there were some Jewish people there as well. Prisoners were subjected to slave labor, poor living conditions, starvation, abuse, and torture. There were actual torture rooms where members of the SS would torture prisoners to try to get information out of them. Prisoners died at Breendock from exhaustion, injuries from beatings, torture, sickness, or general horrible conditions. This was a place of unimaginable suffering, but unlike other camps there was no crematoria or gas chamber. Still inhumane and disgusting.
You walk through the fort at your own pace and are given an audio tour. The audio tour does a great job of explaining the conditions and circumstances of the camp. The fort has a man-made moat surrounding it in addition to the fence and barbed wire. The fort is solid concrete - ominous to look at. The inside is cold and damp (keep in mind it is June right now. I can't imagine what January would be like).
I don't know if the pictures do it justice, but being inside of the prison was seriously creepy. I was incredibly creeped out. I had goosebumps all over my arms and was jumpy. Josh and I were the only people there, so when I would hear noises it just sent chills through me. The classic, "If that wasn't us, what made that noise?" Josh found my anxiety funny. I don't know what it was, but I just... I felt sad about how people were treated here, and what they had to endure... but I also felt... like you could feel more there. I don't know how to explain it without sounding ridiculous, but let's just say I was freaked out by the whole place. However, I'm glad we went to check out Breendock. I didn't realize it was so close to us, and I now have another piece of the puzzle of World War Two history.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Reims, France
A few months ago I read the book "Jackdaws" by Ken Follett (a good book, by the way). It is a fictional book about the French Resistance during World War II, and the book takes place in Reims, France. While reading the book, I googled Reims to see where, specifically it was. Reims is about a three hour drive from our house (not too far), and the images which I found when searching Reims were beautiful. I wanted to put an image to the place, and thus began my desire to go there. I had been looking for a good hotel deal for Reims (without much success... then again, I didn't search that long or hard) when the base announced it was going to do a day trip to Reims. Sold.
The best part of this trip was the date on which was scheduled. As you may remember from my post last year, June 15th is my parents wedding anniversary, but it is also the anniversary of the date I had my heart surgery. This year is the 25 year anniversary of my surgery - a bit of a milestone. It also happened to fall on a Saturday, and on that day the base had a trip to Reims. Double sold. I found the way I wanted to celebrate. Reims is the center of the champagne region, so the base had scheduled a champagne tasting to go along with the trip. It sounded neat, but I honestly could have cared less. I'm not a huge fan of champagne (maybe it is memories of the horrible hang over I had the night after my reception where I consumed entirely too much champagne. Sadly, I was one of those brides). My focus was more on the seeing the city.
We left base in the morning and arrived in Reims around 10. We went for the champagne tasting first, which I will admit I was not enthused about. I'm all for enjoying myself, but drinking champagne at 10 a.m. seemed a bit extreme, even for me. We had a tour of the champagne "cave" as they call it. It really is like a cave - we were about 30 feet under ground in the old cellar where the champagne was made and bottled (the company we visited currently has moved their production out of the city). It was interesting to learn about how champagne is produced, and how the production has changed over the years. The inside of the cellar was interesting as well.
We did enjoy the champagne tasting. We tried four different kinds of champagne. Honestly... I couldn't tell much of a difference between them. I will say this: French champagne is completely different and 100 times better than the cheap crap most of us buy in the States. To this you are probably thinking, "Well, DUH." But, it is the truth. It is much better. Some people on the tour bought cases of champagne. I was happy to buy one bottle to remember the day by. Since Josh and I don't drink much champagne, I'm sure this bottle will be saved for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
After our tour we were free to roam about the city. We went to find lunch. Josh and a friend of ours ordered fried frog legs. I don't have any pictures of this, but I will tell you what... those frog legs came out still looking like frogs. I had no interest in trying out frog legs. Everyone told me they tasted just like chicken, but I had zero desire to try it out. My sense of adventure is not that strong.
One of the things I was most excited to see in Reims was the cathedral. It is called the Notre Dame Cathedral, and it looks like a smaller version of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Even though it is a smaller version, it is still stunning. So much detail. We were there at the perfect time of day where the sun was shining through the stained glass windows. It was stunning.
After the cathedral we made our way through Reims. Reims, like so many other places, has touches of Roman influence. There is an underground area which they believe was once a marketplace or an arcade. There is also an old Roman entrance to the city (which while we were there the circus was dominating the area near this gate). It did remind me of the Porta Nigra in Trier, which we've seen numerous times as it is only a half hour away.
After the Roman ruins, we went to the Museum of the Surrender. I didn't know this until I was planning a trip to Reims, but the start of the surrender of World War II started in Reims. German officials met with Allied officials in Reims to discuss surrender. The Germans wanted to surrender only the western front, but the Allies demanded they surrender on both fronts. In the early hours of May 7th, the Germans signed the official surrender on all fronts. The next day May 8th was when documents were signed in Berlin and the surrender was announced to the world. The signing of surrender in Reims took place in what once was a school. Now it is a museum. There are a lot of photos surrounding the announcement of the end of the war in France as well as the signing of the surrender itself. The room in which the surrender occurred has been preserved as it was. This was one of the things I really wanted to see on our trip.
After our time at the museum, we had time to wander around Reims (which has a great pedestrian walking area) and do some shopping. I think Reims would be a great place to go shopping with girlfriends. To add to my bottle of champagne I bought myself a bottle of perfume - so very French. We finished up our day and got back on the bus to head home. We learned from last week - we sat in the front of the bus where the A/C worked the best.
I really loved Reims. It was all I hoped it would be, and it was a wonderful way to spend my heart-a-versary.
The best part of this trip was the date on which was scheduled. As you may remember from my post last year, June 15th is my parents wedding anniversary, but it is also the anniversary of the date I had my heart surgery. This year is the 25 year anniversary of my surgery - a bit of a milestone. It also happened to fall on a Saturday, and on that day the base had a trip to Reims. Double sold. I found the way I wanted to celebrate. Reims is the center of the champagne region, so the base had scheduled a champagne tasting to go along with the trip. It sounded neat, but I honestly could have cared less. I'm not a huge fan of champagne (maybe it is memories of the horrible hang over I had the night after my reception where I consumed entirely too much champagne. Sadly, I was one of those brides). My focus was more on the seeing the city.
We left base in the morning and arrived in Reims around 10. We went for the champagne tasting first, which I will admit I was not enthused about. I'm all for enjoying myself, but drinking champagne at 10 a.m. seemed a bit extreme, even for me. We had a tour of the champagne "cave" as they call it. It really is like a cave - we were about 30 feet under ground in the old cellar where the champagne was made and bottled (the company we visited currently has moved their production out of the city). It was interesting to learn about how champagne is produced, and how the production has changed over the years. The inside of the cellar was interesting as well.
We did enjoy the champagne tasting. We tried four different kinds of champagne. Honestly... I couldn't tell much of a difference between them. I will say this: French champagne is completely different and 100 times better than the cheap crap most of us buy in the States. To this you are probably thinking, "Well, DUH." But, it is the truth. It is much better. Some people on the tour bought cases of champagne. I was happy to buy one bottle to remember the day by. Since Josh and I don't drink much champagne, I'm sure this bottle will be saved for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
After our tour we were free to roam about the city. We went to find lunch. Josh and a friend of ours ordered fried frog legs. I don't have any pictures of this, but I will tell you what... those frog legs came out still looking like frogs. I had no interest in trying out frog legs. Everyone told me they tasted just like chicken, but I had zero desire to try it out. My sense of adventure is not that strong.
One of the things I was most excited to see in Reims was the cathedral. It is called the Notre Dame Cathedral, and it looks like a smaller version of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Even though it is a smaller version, it is still stunning. So much detail. We were there at the perfect time of day where the sun was shining through the stained glass windows. It was stunning.
I really loved Reims. It was all I hoped it would be, and it was a wonderful way to spend my heart-a-versary.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Lucerne, Switzerland
Yesterday we spent a whirlwind day in Lucerne. I loved every moment of it except one.
We did our trip through the base. Josh isn't the biggest fan of sitting on a bus for long periods of time, but as I've mentioned before, getting to Switzerland (and sleeping in Switzerland) is expensive. I figured using one of the base's trips would be the easiest and most cost effective way to get there. Speaking of expensive... everyone we talked to about Switzerland who had been there told us how expensive it is. I thought I was prepared for this. I really wasn't. The exchange rate between the dollar and the Swiss Franc really isn't bad - a better exchange rate than with the Euro - it's close to 1 to 1. It's not the exchange rate which is the problem. Switzerland is a wealthy country and things are priced high. Period. For example, our tour stopped in the morning at a truck stop for breakfast. We had planned ahead and brought sandwiches for ourselves for breakfast, but we both wanted coffee. We ordered two regular cups of coffee. 10 Francs, or about $11 for two cups of coffee. Later in the day we got two small, one scoop ice cream cones... another 10 Francs. It isn't just the food. As we walked past stores I couldn't help but try to look at the price tags on things. Most items of clothing (even a plain cotton t-shirt) was above 50 Francs. Shoes "on sale" were 100 Francs. So you can see... just priced expensive. I knew that going in...
We left base in the middle of the night (2:30 a.m.) and rode to Switzerland on the bus. I, by some miracle, was able to sleep. When we arrived in Lucerne we were given the day to do what we wanted. There was no particular site I wanted to see, I just wanted to see everything. We started out at the Lion Monument, which honors the fallen Swiss Guard who were killed during the French Revolution. Pretty cool looking.
Afterwards we made our way through the streets of Lucerne, stopping to take ridiculous amounts of pictures. Recently we've been having chilly, rainy weather. Par for the course for Germany. However, it has finally started to warm up with some sunshine. Lucerne was full of sun and the temperature was in the 80's - a huge leap from what we're used to. It made the water of Lake Lucerne and the river sparkle, and the buildings seemed even brighter. Perfect picture weather.
There really isn't much to tell. It's better to show you pictures. Lucerne has a wooden bridge which spans the river, which is beautiful. We went inside of a church which is said to be the most beautiful church in Switzerland. It reminded me a lot of the church in Oberaummergau. We walked through the streets admiring the buildings - many buildings have intricate paintings and designs. We did a lot of window price tag shopping. We did sample and buy chocolate - how could you go to Switzerland and not have chocolate. High prices be damned - we came home with chocolate.
After walking through the town, we decided to take a lake cruise. This gave a whole different perspective on the look of the town, and we got some great views of the mountains. The lake (although I didn't feel it) appeared to be quite cold. It made for a nice temperature drop during our lake cruise - a welcome relief from the heat of the day.
Josh spent a lot of the day convincing me that yes, we were in Switzerland, no this wasn't Flathead Lake, and yes, the Alps are indeed bigger than the Mission Mountains. For most of the day I found myself debating if the Alps were really that big... because I swear the Missions look that big... I really enjoyed Lucerne. It is quaint, beautiful, easy to walk around... and in a way it reminded me of home. I would love to go back. I feel we saw everything we wanted to/need to, but I just liked being there. I would love to have a chance to go up the mountains - it takes a bit of time as you have to take a train out of town, then walk to a cable car which will take you up the mountain. Something we didn't have time for, but I would still like a chance to do it.
After my praise of Lucerne I bet you are wondering what is the one part I didn't like? Surprisingly, it wasn't the cost of things. On the bus ride home the air conditioning in the bus wasn't working. After walking around all day in 80 degree weather, we were hot and sweaty. Then we sat on a bus - which had been baking in the sun all day - for 6 hours with no air conditioning. No air flow whatsoever. I kept going through phases where I would be overwhelmingly tired from the heat and would nap... and then I would wake up and be so hot I felt sick. It was awful. We got home late last night and the first thing we did was take a shower. Followed by drinking tons of water. I woke up this morning kind of feeling like I had bit of heat stroke... Ugh.
However. Even the hellish bus ride can't take away from the beauty of Lucerne.
We did our trip through the base. Josh isn't the biggest fan of sitting on a bus for long periods of time, but as I've mentioned before, getting to Switzerland (and sleeping in Switzerland) is expensive. I figured using one of the base's trips would be the easiest and most cost effective way to get there. Speaking of expensive... everyone we talked to about Switzerland who had been there told us how expensive it is. I thought I was prepared for this. I really wasn't. The exchange rate between the dollar and the Swiss Franc really isn't bad - a better exchange rate than with the Euro - it's close to 1 to 1. It's not the exchange rate which is the problem. Switzerland is a wealthy country and things are priced high. Period. For example, our tour stopped in the morning at a truck stop for breakfast. We had planned ahead and brought sandwiches for ourselves for breakfast, but we both wanted coffee. We ordered two regular cups of coffee. 10 Francs, or about $11 for two cups of coffee. Later in the day we got two small, one scoop ice cream cones... another 10 Francs. It isn't just the food. As we walked past stores I couldn't help but try to look at the price tags on things. Most items of clothing (even a plain cotton t-shirt) was above 50 Francs. Shoes "on sale" were 100 Francs. So you can see... just priced expensive. I knew that going in...
We left base in the middle of the night (2:30 a.m.) and rode to Switzerland on the bus. I, by some miracle, was able to sleep. When we arrived in Lucerne we were given the day to do what we wanted. There was no particular site I wanted to see, I just wanted to see everything. We started out at the Lion Monument, which honors the fallen Swiss Guard who were killed during the French Revolution. Pretty cool looking.
There really isn't much to tell. It's better to show you pictures. Lucerne has a wooden bridge which spans the river, which is beautiful. We went inside of a church which is said to be the most beautiful church in Switzerland. It reminded me a lot of the church in Oberaummergau. We walked through the streets admiring the buildings - many buildings have intricate paintings and designs. We did a lot of window price tag shopping. We did sample and buy chocolate - how could you go to Switzerland and not have chocolate. High prices be damned - we came home with chocolate.
After walking through the town, we decided to take a lake cruise. This gave a whole different perspective on the look of the town, and we got some great views of the mountains. The lake (although I didn't feel it) appeared to be quite cold. It made for a nice temperature drop during our lake cruise - a welcome relief from the heat of the day.
Josh spent a lot of the day convincing me that yes, we were in Switzerland, no this wasn't Flathead Lake, and yes, the Alps are indeed bigger than the Mission Mountains. For most of the day I found myself debating if the Alps were really that big... because I swear the Missions look that big... I really enjoyed Lucerne. It is quaint, beautiful, easy to walk around... and in a way it reminded me of home. I would love to go back. I feel we saw everything we wanted to/need to, but I just liked being there. I would love to have a chance to go up the mountains - it takes a bit of time as you have to take a train out of town, then walk to a cable car which will take you up the mountain. Something we didn't have time for, but I would still like a chance to do it.
After my praise of Lucerne I bet you are wondering what is the one part I didn't like? Surprisingly, it wasn't the cost of things. On the bus ride home the air conditioning in the bus wasn't working. After walking around all day in 80 degree weather, we were hot and sweaty. Then we sat on a bus - which had been baking in the sun all day - for 6 hours with no air conditioning. No air flow whatsoever. I kept going through phases where I would be overwhelmingly tired from the heat and would nap... and then I would wake up and be so hot I felt sick. It was awful. We got home late last night and the first thing we did was take a shower. Followed by drinking tons of water. I woke up this morning kind of feeling like I had bit of heat stroke... Ugh.
However. Even the hellish bus ride can't take away from the beauty of Lucerne.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Weinkeller
My favorite part of this new house is the little nook int he basement which I have attempted to turn into my own personal wine cellar, or weinkeller, as the Germans say. I'd say success!
Saturday, June 1, 2013
My New Ride
One of the first things I noticed about Germans is they ride their bikes everywhere. You will see them riding from one village to another to go to the grocery store. The idea of this ha appealed to me. I have a bike, but it is a mountain bike I've had since I was 13. Although it's in good shape and it works, I haven't ridden it much over here. Somehow it doesn't appeal to me. What I wanted was a basic, bare bones, plain bike. No gears, big ol' granny seat, and a basket. That is the bike I have been dreaming of. More than one person has giggled at my idea/vision of my bike. But I have stood by my dream.
I worked today (working on a Saturday is always lame), and Josh rode along with me to do some maintenance on my car while I was working. When we got home he asked me to help him put some things away in the garage, which isn't typical of him. I went into the garage to discover this beauty waiting for me.
I know you're jealous.It's how I roll.
I worked today (working on a Saturday is always lame), and Josh rode along with me to do some maintenance on my car while I was working. When we got home he asked me to help him put some things away in the garage, which isn't typical of him. I went into the garage to discover this beauty waiting for me.
I know you're jealous.It's how I roll.
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