Burgundy, France

Yeah! We made it back to France once last time! I love France. The more that we travel there, the more I realize it. I think I'm one of the few people that doesn't like Paris....but the small towns & countryside are just so beautiful and charming. Now if only we spoke more than 2 words of French....

We just spent a long weekend in Beaune in the Burgundy region of France - only a 3 hour drive from Zürich. When we first arrived, we thought that Lukas might be reaching travel-saturation - he was completely whiney, didn't want to leave our hotel and refused to walk anywhere. Ugh. Unfortunately we also didn't have his stroller with us - so we had to schlepp him through town on our shoulders. Luckily, after a 2 hour nap back at the hotel, he later was back to being a good little travel companion. Good thing - because his good manners were really put to the test as we experienced the quintessential 2+ hour dinner that night! We were the typical Americans, I guess, waiting on the sidewalk for a table the minute that they opened for dinner at 7pm. Although, we still didn't get seated till nearly 7:30.


Our bistro was outside on a square with lots of people watching & distractions. Plus, Beaune was having a musical festival so there were bands playing throughout the town for added entertainment. Still, the dinner felt long for us too since Lukas just learned to rhyme that day. Our dinner "conversation" was: "Do you see that dog by the log? ha-ha" "hey, don't eat my pork off your fork! ha-ha"....and so on and so on..... Dinner was delicious, though, and both Lukas & I tried escargot for the first time:

No problem trying the snails, but wasn't all that impressed (nor was I).

But the real reason we were in Burgundy was to go biking throught the vineyards. We had both a bikeseat & trailer for Lukas. He was a happy camper & the trailer also came in handy for the wine that we bought along the way.

Gearing up for our ride


Just starting out....



The bike route took us through this pretty garden lane in Pernand Vergelesses

Most of the route was on designated bike paths or very small country roads with few cars.

Umm....adding a little crispness to the 2008 vintage.

On our last day, we toured L'Hotel-Dieu, a hospital built in 1443 for the poor after the devastation of the plague. Sounds kind of odd, I know, but it turned out to be interesting and impressive.

Rob & Lukas in the courtyard of L'Hotel Dieu

We finished up our trip with lunch on the square in Beaune and one last ice cream/tart/coffee break - a perfect ending for a really nice trip. Maybe we can still squeeze in one more wkd to France.......

Baguette lunch on the square in Beaune

Happy Father's Day!

Here's some of the adventures of my 2 favorite guys over the past year....

Auslanders: 1 Grumpy Neighbor: 0

I'm am feeling soooooo smug today. You know how when you have an argument with someone & then afterwards you replay the argument in your head and think: "If only I had said this.... " or "....that would have been a better comeback" . Well, imagine an argument where you are completely satisified with all of your comebacks AND the argument took place in a foreign language. Ha-Ha! That just happened to me with a confrontation with the Grumpy Neighbor!!

I won't go into the details of what spurred the confrontation but let's just say that he reached a new level of grumpiness. At first I stormed over to his apartment to talk to him. Luckily, he wasn't home so I was able to simmer for a few hours and plan what I was going to say (and check the grammar on the internet). Anyways, I caught him right as he was entering his apartment - just minutes before the Swiss soccer match was about to start. (Strategic move #1). Of course I addressed him in German which I think actually threw him a bit since I don't think he realized that we do speak a little German (since he has never bothered to talk to us - just pounds on the wall). I started out super nice & naive. But then I ZINGED him with a direct question (Strategic move #2). This Swiss avoid direct confrontation at all cost - so this was not expected & caught him off-guard. If he answered "yes" to the question - then he was basically admitting his guilt, but if he answered "no" - then he basically couldn't continue his childish behaviour. He was actually squirming as he tried to answer the question. (He answered no at first & then changed his answer to yes.) I then made a few references to the landlord and the Renters Rights Board in Zurich (Strategic move #3). Funny how if you mention any authority in Switzerland, the Swiss immediately become compliant - they are definite rule-followers. I ended the whole exchange with a saccharin sweet "Great - I'm so glad everything is worked out."

I realize that this post might not make total sense or be that interesting. But I don't care - it gives me a chance to relive my moment of glory. There have been so many instances in Switzerland when Rob & I have had to "grin & bear it" - because the language barrier makes it too difficult for us to complain or argue. It felt so good to stand up for ourselves this time!

Fussball Fever Hits Zürich!!

Giant 17 meter tall replicas of most team captains. The display is set up at Zürich's main train station.

On Saturday the Euro 2008 Soccer Tournament started (http://www.euro2008.com/) . The games are being played in Switzerland and Austria, and the preparation and excitement in Zürich has been building for months. Yesterday we headed out to downtown Zürich before the Germany/Poland game to check it all out. The game wasn't even being played in Zürich (and it wasn't the Swiss team), but you wouldn't know it by the crowds! The city has been totally transformed: huge viewing platforms and restaurants built out on Lake Zürich itself, dozens of large screen TVs set up around the city, about a hundred food booths, dozens of sponsor booths with games, and several major streets shut down to cars & trams. The tournament lasts for 3 weeks, & we're curious if everything will be shut down for the entire 3 weeks or just for wkd games. (Most movie theatres are actually closed down for the duration of the tournament since they expected such poor movie attendance.) Yesterday was just a reconnaissance outing, but we plan to head back another night for a full night of eating, watching & cheering.

"The Steep, Scary Part"

Last weekend we had another sunny day so, of course, we headed to the mountains. We were too lazy to research any trails so we just picked a mountain area http://www.buerglen-kinzig.ch/ & gondola & hoped we'd find a good trail when we reached the top. We needn't have worried....at the top we had a choice of about 40 trails....




Hmmm...which trail to choose...

Hiking is a family sport in CH with many mountains offering a playground at the top.

We hiked for about an hour until we stopped for lunch. This time we found an actual designated picnic spot right next to a little waterfall. The spot had a firering & firewood so our wurst-grilling was easy.

Grilling with a view

After lunch, Lukas was tired of hiking so he rode in the backpack. We hiked a little ways until we reached the gondola that we had planned to take back done. By this time, Lukas had fallen asleep. It was so nice out that we thought that maybe we should just hike down to the midway station of the gondola. I BRIEFLY checked a trail map that was posted on the gondola and it looked like there MIGHT be a trail that headed that way. In my defense (which will become obvious shortly), I told Rob that I wasn't completely sure.

We started down a trail that headed straight down but slowly & surely disappeared. Before you knew it we were trudging across cow fields and hopping barbed-wire fences. We tried different directions but each way just seemed to lead us to a huge ravine that we couldn't cross. Rob was fuming a bit at me by this point. His mood wasn't helped by Lukas either, who, by now was wide awake and asking questions and adding comments: "Why are we lost?" "I don't like this." "This is too scary." "You are going the wrong direction." "I don't want to fall." "I think you should go this way." He was in the backpack, so this never-ending commentary was only inches from Rob's ears.

We finally had to bite the bullet & hike straight back up the mountain to the start of the gondola. It was soooo steep!




Heading back up to the gondola -even this photo doesn't fully show how steep it was!

Now whenever we talk about hiking, Lukas chimes in with "But I don't want to do the steep, scary part again!" That makes 3 of us.