Interlaken, Switzerland - one crazy weekend!

June 19-21, 2009

Mark and I loaded up the back packs and took a train ride south, to Interlaken, Switzerland. We stayed in a hostel, and spent two days trying to kill ourselves...
We checked in Friday night, roamed around in the rain for a while, then hung out in the hostel's bar to listen while DJ Freakadelic threw down the hits. The hits from the 90's. And the 60's. And whatever other era he randomly chose. But it was really funny, none-the-less. Here's the view from our room's window:


Not too shabby a location for a hostel.

Wood carving seemed to be popular in the area:



Saturday we got up, grabbed breakfast, and loaded in the van to head off for Paragliding. After a brief drive, we hiked a bit to the launch site.




After donning the necessary safety gear,



we strapped in and 3, 2, 1, RAN!

Check out that lake view! One to the left,

and one to the right.

We survived!

The view of Interlaken was gorgeous. But we just did not get the rush we thought we would. It was more relaxing than anything. I was not ready for it to end. But we had a schedule to keep! So off to lunch (uh, at Hooter's, actually) and then to the next appointment.

At 4, we headed off for some White Water rafting. First time for both of us on this sport as well. We figured, hey, let's just jump right into some grade 4 rapids. (Well, technically we didn't know this until AFTER we were done...)

Eventually, they let us put the raft in the water. They were very happy to point out that a mere 3 hours prior to being at our spot in the river, the water was a glacier. We could tell - even with all the gear on, our paddling hands were frozen.

This was great. The river eventually dumped into one of the lakes, and a few of us went for a bit of a swim back to shore. The water was so much "warmer" in the lake, you couldn't pass it up.

This finished day 1 of extreme sports, and we headed back to town to find some dinner and try to sleep through a party in the bar... Yes, we are wild and crazy and like get to bed by 10pm...

Sunday, we headed down for the fabulous breakfast buffet (white bread, dried cheese, coffee, etc - but some really great apples!) and roamed around town a bit more. Around noon, we headed off for the final event - Canyoning! Yeah - we didn't know what it was before we got here either... They drive you up river, you take a bit of a hike, then you start rappelling, jumping, sliding, swimming, climbing - you name it, to get back down river. It was fantastic!

The canyoning was, by far, the best event! I still have the bruises to prove it. And if you're ever in this general vicinity - you have to check out the company we did all the stuff through: http://www.alpinraft.com/ This will be a tough weekend to top!

Sunday June 14th - welcome to Medieval Times!

Sunday, Mark and I headed to Weil-am-Rhine - just across the border in Germany. They had a weekend-long Medieval festival that we wanted to check out. Now we'd never been to a medieval festival before, so what better place to check one out than Germany! We missed the first day, as we were hanging out at the castle in France, but managed to make it to the park around lunch-time on Sunday.

Here are a couple of the more elaborate costumes on display/for sale:

There was live music - sometimes on the stage, and sometimes just randomly in the park. They were actually really good:

Sunday was family day, and here's a shot of a guy demonstrating blacksmithing techniques to the kids - in between turning around to smoke his cigarette:

Must have the occassional damsel in the stockade. And apparently, she must beg you for your ice cream/water/beer as you walk by...:

The day was hot and sunny - not exactly typical here, and it was gorgeous. We had some meat on a stick, grilled sausage, kraut with bacon and some German noodles, and Mark had a cherry flavored beer. And of course we had ice cream. It was a good day of just hanging out in the sun and people watching. And lots of walking. We finally made it home for dinner, watched a movie, and crashed after the crazy weekend!

Saturday, June 13th continued...

Part two of Saturday - the trip to the wine cave...

We were late getting there, but fortunately Joseph's friend kept the place open for us. I'd never been to a wine tasting before - much less a wine tasting in an authentic "Wine Cave" in France. We tasted 5 different wines in all - and purchased 4 out of the 5 to bring back to the apartment. I seriously doubt any of them will make it back to the States...

Mark in front of one of the barrels:

This particular wine cave has been owned by a family for generations. The pictures carved into the barrels tells the story of the family members through the years. Elise, one of the daughters of the most recent generation, is the person who explained everything and hosted the tasting. We even bought two bottles of the wine that was named for her and developed the year she was born. It's very good!

A picture of the village we were in for the wine tasting:

We made it back to Basel around 8pm and 5 of us headed to a fantastic Italian restaurant for dinner. Then home to bed - Sunday we had plans to hit the Medieval Festival in Germany! That, of course, is another blog.

Exploring Alsace

Saturday, June 13, 2009 - Off to a French castle!

I met up with Mark and a group from Jet for a tour of a French castle on Saturday. We had two wonderful French guides, Sophie and Joseph, also from Jet - they shuttled us to lunch, the castle and then on to a wine cave. We are very thankful for their hospitality, as we could never have gotten all of this done as a group! After stopping for a wonderful lunch at a French restaurant, we headed further north to Colmar - home of Haut-Koenigsbourg, the only restored castle in the region, if I remember correctly... We had a great guided tour (in English...) that made the visit so much better than just roaming around would've been. Tons of pictures follow:
The short but steep hike up to the castle:


The view of the valley below was magnificent - as are most views we've had so far:

Our first glimpse of the castle:


This is one of our French friends/tour guides/chauffeurs, Sophie (on the left):

Another breath-taking view - this one from inside the castle:

A ceramic "oven" - very inspiring for the ceramist in me!

Weapons, anyone?

Some furniture from the 1500's - not original to the castle, but cool none-the-less:

French dorks:

And what trip would be complete without a picture of a door?

This really was a great day. After the castle, Sophie and Joseph hauled us all back to a border town of Switzerland for a wine tasting! See part two of today's blog for the wine story!

Roma!

Mark and I took a long weekend trip to Rome! We left around lunch time on Thursday and took the 3 hour flight from Basel (via Lyon, France). We decided to take a shuttle directly to the hotel from the airport to "save some time." Turns out it would've been faster to just take the train, but then we would've missed out on all the excitement of Italian driving - only second, in my experience, to the craziness of bus drivers in Cancun...

Our hotel was amazing - and more importantly, in an amazing location. We were right in the heart of Rome. We walked everywhere - starting with dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel. While the dinner was a bit of a surprise, everything was great.

Just so you know, neither of us is overly fond of heads and tails being attached to our food:

(Mine was better than his)

We hit the streets for a preliminary tour and found ruins around every corner.

The next morning we headed to St. Peter's - specifically around the backside to get into the Sistine Chapel. I was even able to take a few photos inside the chapel before they announced the fact that photos are prohibited. OK, and maybe a few after they announced it, too...

We managed to eat gelato an average of 3 times per day, and I think I had pizza every day as well. The food was great. But nothing was as impressive as the never-ending history.

Literally, every where you look in Rome is another famous work of art. And we were able to see just about everything you can think of. We took over 500 photos, but I'll try to narrow them down to a few dozen shots...

We spent Saturday roaming around with our tourist map, checking sights off as we found them. Most of the time was spent at the Colloseum - it was incredible! But we also had plenty of time to run all over and try to find random things we wanted to see. All of the giant heads made me laugh, especially the ones with silly expressions:

Just so happens the final leg of the Giro d'Italia was on Sunday.
Looks like Mark may've been having a little trouble finding it:

You'd think all the big pink banners would've given it away...

While I hope you enjoy the photos, I've got to say that nothing can compare to seeing this place in person. Even if you don't care about the art, the city itself is worth the trip.

We spent the first half of Sunday searching for and exploring some of the catacombs. Then we spent the afternoon watching what we could see of the final time trial of the race, then headed to the airport (via train this time!) Our flight was about 45 minutes late taking off, so making our connecting flight did not come close to happening. Fortunately, AirFrance took care of everything, as the next flight was not until Monday morning. AirFrance arranged a room, dinner and breakfast for us and made sure we were on the next flight. It was so much more pleasant than missed flight experiences we've had in the States. (take note, AA!)

Next up - Art 40 Basel!