Heidelberg

This past weekend we took the last of our European travels for the year, to Heidelberg, Germany. We had both been looking forward to this for a while. Rob lived in Heidelberg prior to moving to Baltimore so just before I met him. I had heard tons of stories and couldn't wait to see it and Rob was excited to have a big old reunion with all the people he knew when he lived there.

I found that Heidelberg was very different from most European cities we've visited. Like Weisbaden, there is a large US Govt. presence there. You'll find as many people speaking English as speaking German. Boy is that different than Basel!

We had a great time in Heidelberg. Basically it felt to me like going back to college or even to my summer in Ocean City. Maybe because it is a college town, or maybe b/c so many young US soldiers are there, but it was very much like going to 'vous! Complete with table dancing - only this time it was a large German man, singing "Sweet Child o Mine" at the top of his lungs. Haaaa!!! very funny. Check my Snapfish for more photos of this - I couldn't get enough of this guy breaking it down on the table. And when I say large, I mean well over 250.



The town of Heidelberg is beautiful. It is nestle in the mountains and is bordered by the Heidelberg Castle. I had never been to a castle before so this was a must on our visit. Actually the day was pretty dreary and rainy so we didn't see a sunny spectacular view (does anyone see a theme here with the weather in Europe?) but it was neat to walk around the grounds. I was disappointed that we didn't' get to go inside the main building of the castle but Rob said it isn't like the Monaco Palace or even some of the museums we've been to that are set up to look old. It's mostly a restaurant - no as grand as one might expect. He may have just been saying that since we couldn't get in though? Anyway - it is stunning to see the castle snuggled into the valley with the city.

Our European adventures are winding down. Our flight leaves Tuesday the 19th to return to the U.S. I know that our trip is going to go by so quickly but I intended to enjoy every second of it.

Until next year.....

It's the little things

Yeeeeeessss!!! I was just flipping around the channels and found "A Christmas Story" on TCM, right at the part where Randy "can't put his arms down"! I should probably opt to watch this in French or German to expand my vocab but I am going to sit back and indulge and watch it its original perfect format.

Visitors -- Act II

This past weekend, we had our second group of visitors - two of our good friends from home - watta and katie g came to have so me Swiss and German adventures. Again I was really looking forward to our company - to sharing my experiences with them, and, having some silly girl time!

Katie and watta got in on Thursday. They actually had a bit of drama with their travels - being booked on 2 different AA flights out of JFK to Heathrow (30 minutes apart??!!!) and having a tiny issue with luggage not making it onto the flight to Basel! aaahh!!! they were troopers about it though! we had some lunch, slapped on some coats and went out to check out Basel. I took the girls down the cafe by the Rhien that we like so much and up into the shopping district. And also to the little Wiehnachmarkt (Christmas Market!). The Christmas market must be some sort of German/Swiss tradition. It's a little area where merchants gather to sell their wares. They may be selling candles, ornaments, food - anything! But the one constant is Gluhwein. The translation mean "glowing wine" and it is actually warm red wine with spices in it. Taste to me like warm sangria. It's good and very effective at making your belly warm while you are walking around from stand to stand.

(To see live photos of the Basel Christmas market, go to http://www.basel.ch/en/virtual_basel/webcam/barfuesserplatz )

we met up with Robs then headed back to our place. I made dinner for the girls and we had some regular wine and lots of girl chat! (sorry robs!)

Saturday, we left to head into Zurich where we encountered our second Weihnachtmarkt which was actually in the train station! The highlight of this market was a huge tree (the same one I saw being brought in when Cronin & Karl came to visit) sparkling from top to bottom in Swarovski crystals. Check out my snapfish photos to see it! We spent some time touring around Zurich and the market and then headed to Interlaken for the night.

Interlaken was beautiful! I think that was probably my favorite place we went to. We encountered Christmas market #3 here. This one had much more of a carnival atmosphere to it - with rides and loud music. We found a Gluhwein tent where they were serving it out of a cauldron! The Gluhwein was delicious and we had a pleasant surprise when the guy pouring it, came over to have a chitchat with us. He spoke to us in English - he was from Interlaken but had lived in North Jers near NYC for a couple of years. He was very intelligent and had a much wider perspective on things than most Swiss we have encountered. That he even came over and spoke to us was something unusual for a Swiss native. I really enjoy any encounter we have with someone who is native to the area. They are rare but I feel that they help to widen my perspective as well.

We had a nice dinner of authentic swiss food (except for my poor fajita selection - i miss my taco bell!!) and went back to hotel STEEELLLLAAA for the night.

Sunday Rob and I shipped the girls off to see the breathtaking Jungfraujoch (see Backyard Adventures story) and we spent the day rolling around the Christmas Market.

On Monday, Watt, Katie and I headed up to Mainz to meet Watt's friend Katie W. We didn't really know what to expect in Mainz. It was kind of a dreary day with a lot of rain and not a spectacular town but we had fun anyway! Of course we encountered another Christmas market (that makes 4 for those who are counting) and we found a breathtaking Munster (Cathedral). we had a wonderful lunch and then headed back to Katie W's place near Weisbaden. That night, we went to check out Weisbaden and all of us loved it! It was beautiful! An interesting contrast of new and old. A lot of the buildings looked like those that we saw in Paris with the white stone and wrought iron balconies. And there was also a magnificent Casino complex. we didn't go in, but the buildings were beautiful. We we went to the Weisbaden Christmas market (that's 5) and Katie W. and I introduced our visitors to crepes! we had one ham & cheese and one with nutella. I must say - I think crepes are my favorite thing to eat over here. They are SO GOOD! I could eat them every day. I might become a bit large though. Anyway - of course we washed them down with gluhwein.

That night, we had a nice dinner and went back to Katie W's. She was a wonderful hostess to us and I am hoping to meet up with again before Rob and I return for good.

On Tuesday we had more Basel times. We did some serious shopping! Back to the Christmas market and into many of the shops and grocery stores around Basel. For dinner, we took the girls to a wonderful Italian restaurant (remember, Switzerland borders Italy) where we had some nice wine, good pizza and extraordinary mushroom raviolis!! mmm!! (But not as good as yours Mom!)

I had such a good time with the girls! I don't really have any girlfriends over here. I'm not sad about it - it's just the way it is. I'm not lonely - I talk to my girls very often via email or IM - but it was wonderful to have them here. We laughed and talked about silly things. I loved sharing my experience with them and introducing them to new things.

The first chapter of our adventures is winding down with our Christmas return less than 2 weeks away. But I am having the time of my life. Tomorrow we leave for Heidelburg, Rob's former residence. I can't wait to visit and see in person all the things I have heard so much about. I know it was a special time in his life so I am looking forward to it very much.

Thanksgiving?

It was such a surreal feeling last Thursday when I was walking to class. The white grey sky and chilly air were right. But the normal hustle and bustle I passed on my way to class was not. I guess it was kind of culturally ego-centric of me to think that someone might mention thanksgiving in my class - maybe the German teacher who speaks English so well or the Italian guy who also speaks English very well. But no mention or acknowledgment. I mean after all - it is celebrated by just about everyone in the US, regardless of religious beliefs? There I go, being culturally ego-centric again.

Rob and I had a very fun thanksgiving though. We celebrated by taking a trip to London to visit with friends and catch a Gomez concert. (Actually, the first person to mention Thanksgiving to us was the customs officer at London Stanstead airport.) We met up with Rob and Leslie when we got there and went straight to the concert. The venue was the Hammersmith Apollo. It was an old theatre with the seats removed for GA admission to the show. It reminded me a lot of the Recher Theatre in Towson - only the Beatles never played the Recher.

The show was a lot of fun - the band was great! I must say though - I did take some time during the show to have my own thanksgiving and think about what I was grateful for. This year especially there is so much to be thankful for - my marriage to Rob (!), the expansion of the LaGreca family by three new wonderful members (in four months), my incredible adventures here, and the health and happiness of so many of our family and friends.

The London adventures were a lot of fun. I didn't find London to have the same cultural mystique as beautiful Paris or wonderful Rome with its ancient history nestled in among the modern buildings, but we had a great time. I loved visiting with friends and being able to understand the language (mostly). We did a lot of shopping and walked around the town to visit Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the Royal Palace. The shopping was so much fun! London is expensive as we had heard, but with so many shops, you are bound to find a bargain (Like black suede knee high boots for 25 pounds (about $50)). And of course we had to sample the local cuisine. I did not find British food as bad as reported. We had some "pastys" which were like soup/stew in a hot pocket and of course - fish and chips! Rob and I stopped in a local pub close to Oxford Street (a huge shopping street) and had a taste. Oh boy was it good! And low cal too ;)

We also went to a local market. It was like the Basel market only supersized! It reminded me a bit of the Baltimore farmer's market under the JFX. This was under a series of overpasses - I guess that is key with the rainy weather. We got to sample lots of wonderful things - different pate and cheeses and jellies. But I think the best thing we had from the market was warm apple cider with chunks of apple in it. Hit the spot on a rainy London morning!

And so our adventures continue! I am well into my German classes and the lingo is inching along. Haven't been doing too much with the radio station but my homework, house stuff and our travels are plenty to keep me busy. Jenny Watta and Katie are on their way! They arrive on Friday for some Swiss fun. I know we will have a blast. The following weekend Rob and I will be going to Hiedelburg (his home previous to Baltimore) to visit friends and check out the Christmas market. And on Dec. 19th, we return to the US. That will be a wonderful adventure as well.

Backyard Adventures

This past weekend we had the pleasure of our first visitors from the US since I have been living in Basel. Cronin - one of my best friends from college - and her hubby Karl came to visit us for 4 days. I had really been looking forward to it!! I was a tiny bit unsure about my capabilities as a European hostess and tourguide but was so excited to spend time with them. We had such a fun time from start to end.

I met them in Zurich - not at the airport but in the town of Zurich. To me, Zurich seemed like a bigger Basel. Makes sense with them being so close together (relatively, compared to the other Swiss cities). We toured around a bit and saw some beautiful views including one from the main church. We climbed into one of the tower spires and could see all around the city - the church overlooked the water but we could also see into the sides of the city where the leaves were turning vibrant colors in the parks. Beautiful!

Cronin & Karl were troopers about the jetlag so we headed back to Basel and went right out to a cafe on the Rhein for outside drinks like true Basel locals. I took them into our little town so they could see more and we did some shopping and had more outside drinks. Fun times! Robs met up with us and eventually we headed home where I cooked dinner and fortunately did not poison anyone. It was wonderful to have them over for dinner.

On Friday, we went to Frieburg, Germany so Karl could see a bit of the motherland (or the fatherland as he said!). We had a nice day touring around and doing some shopping and sightseeing. Karl, whom all the Swiss and Germans seemed to love (where has the love been for dark haired, dark eyed me???!) had a tiny bit of a run in with a German woman at the wurst stand. Some kind of drama over brotwurst/batworst when he ordered. See - he thinks he is fluent in German (the locals seemed to think so too) until he confused the words and the woman all but threw the wurst right at him. I am laughing out loud now just thinking about it! So if you see him - be sure to ask him about that so you can laugh too.

Friday night, we came back to Basel and had a lovely Swiss dinner. We had some humor in the menu translation that night as well. For the most part, Rob can typically get us through the menu. There was a word that we did not understand though. So we asked our waiter to help us translate the word. He did not know how to say it in English so he went into the kitchen. When he came back out, he said "It is... Bambi." haaaaa! Not venison - not Bambi's mom, but Bambi! (no offense to the vegetarians out there). The translation was hilarious! We understood what he was saying though!

Friday we went to Luzern. The weather was not really cooperating as far as the view, but we had a great time. We took a boat out around the lake and toured around the town. For dinner, we went back to the fabulous Sebastian's restaurant that Rob and I had tried over our Easter visit. It was just as delicious this time. It was so wonderful - to share an amazing meal with good friends.

Sunday was definitely the visual highlight of our weekend. We decided to take a train to Interlaken then another train up to the Jungfraujoch, "The Top of Europe." The train took quite a while to chug up through the Alps and bring us to the summit. Along the way, we switched trains twice and had several opportunities for amazing photo opps (check my Snapfish album if you have time). The Jungfraujoch bahn (train) runs through the solid rock of the mountain and brings you to the top where you can go outside and see the most breathtaking landscape. It was bitter cold and windy but undoubtedly worth the chill to be outside for a few moments in the midst of the Alps. I cannot describe the view. I never thought I would see anything like it and I'll never forget it. Nature's beauty is like no other.

We descended the mountain and stopped in Grindelwald for dinner. We had another traditional Swiss dinner. Well - most of us. Cronin had fondue, Karl and Rob had Rusti (fried potatoes with meats & cheese) and I had a burrito. (I prefer mexicano to Swiss.) It was made with cheese, salmon and spinach though - not your typical taco bell bean variety.

Our weekend was so wonderful. I was so happy to share our adventures with good friends from home. We had such a blast. I laughed until I cried (on several occasions!) and smiled until my face hurt.

OH! I almost forgot another highlight of the weekend! Not only were our guests delightful company, but during our shopping time on Thursday, Karl picked up a French press for us as a little house warming (flat warming?) gift. For those that don't know - that is a COFFEE MAKER!!!! Yeah! Soooooo - Sundai vs. the Cappuccino machine? Game Over.

Finally Paris

For those that know me, I am definitely a city person. When I was young, I always wanted to go visit New York City to see its hugeness, character, culture and energy. I went when I was about 13 or so for the first time. It did not disappoint then nor on any other visit, be it for work or for fun. I had similar excitement toward visiting Paris but was very worried that I would be disappointed after looking so forward to it for so long. From the minute we rose up out of the Metropolitan until the minute we left, I loved it completely.

The city itself, is beautiful. It has the charm of New York with great little neighborhoods with door after door of cafes, restaurants and shoppes but the grand architecture of a city like no other. All of the buildings are light in color - the only black you see is from the wrought iron balconies that adorn each apartment. The residences as well as the landmarks are beautiful. There are many museums and beautiful jardins. And we did not find the Parisians to be rude nor intolerant toward us as Americans which was the nicest surprise of all.

We did everything. Well - all the major things that you should do on a first visit. We ate wonderful notoriously French food - crepes, bread, moules (mussels) and escargot. And ordered things off the menu that we weren't really sure of but all the food was wonderful! We saw the Tour Eiffel and the L'arc de Triomphe at sunset. The tower didn't really do too much for me but the Arc was fantastic! We didn't even get too close - you can see the grandeur from across the block. Wow - unbelievable.

I loved the Louvre as well. What a beautiful building - and that's just on the outside! The inside is magnificent as well. I was overwhelmed and almost brought to tears when standing in front of the Mona Lisa. As many have said, the portrait is not spectacular nor large. But to me, the notion that many millions, billions? of people have stood in front of it as I did, viewing it over centuries, really moved me. We spent quite a bit of time in the Louvre but did not even come close to seeing everything. The museum is immense.

The first night we were there, Rob brought me to the Cathedral de Notre Dame. I had booked the hotel with his guidance and wanted to make sure we were close to that so that we wouldn't stand a chance of missing it. It was one of the first things we saw and probably my favorite. My art history classes at JC and UM had taught me what a spectacular structure it was. We first saw it at night, huge and glowing next to a full moon. Just thinking about it now gives me chills. We went back to visit the inside at the end of our visit. The inside of the Gothic style churches in Paris is very plain. The real grandeur and mystery is on the outside, in the detail of all the intricate carvings. Wow - it was incredibly beautiful.

I could write more about Paris - all the details and more stories about what we did and what we saw but I think of it as a romantic and somewhat mysterious city. Probably many of you have your own ideas of what it would be like so I leave that to you and invite you to come and see it for yourself.

Halloween Swiss Style

Another morning - another fight with the Grand Crema cappuccino machine! argh!! This time it was my fault though - oopsie! just when I think I am making advances, we have another little spat! all cleaned up now though!

So happy post Halloween everyone!! thanks so much to everyone that sent photos! We had to kind of improvise our Halloween since they don't really do it in Switzerland - or at least in Basel. The only Halloween event I heard of was a children's costume party sponsored by the American Women's Club Basel! haa

Anyway- wanted to share some of what we've been up to. We stayed in Basel over the weekend (we are headed to Paris on Friday!!). Did our Saturday morning ritual of going down to the market. We got lots of goodies again! mushrooms, sundried tomatten and olives. some kind of soft cheese from the Italian guy, more chevre with chive and one with pepper and a big slice of squash! (more on that later!). Later on Saturday, we went to the normal grocery store and also took a stroll through the big fall festival in Basel. It is actually held in many locations - we went to the one closest to us. We had a delicious bratwurst (I think that is what it was called) but it was just like "white sausage" to me! yummy! they just give you the sausage on a plate with some mustard and you can add bread as you like. We also saw little kids eating what looked to me like a variety of hot dogs in pastry. It was basically some kind of skinny sausage put into a small loaf of bread with the inside dug out. seemed like a lot for a child to eat to me but it must be like a hot dog at a baseball game - all the kids had them! We did get our own treat at the carnival. Fondue is very popular here - I believe it originated in Switzerland? Well they had fruit dipped in chocolate on a stick with nestle-crunch style crunchies on the outside. We got a stick of strawberry & banana. mmmm!!!

Saturday night we went to the movies to see "The World's Fastest Indian" with Anthony Hopkins. Again with the no-popcorn thing but thanks to another carnival spot closeby, we smuggled some in! haa! The movie experience here is totally different from that in the US. (as in NO POPCORN!). It is very expensive also. The cost for each of us was 16 chf (about 14 dollars) but they added another dollar to the fare for each of us b/c the movie was more than 2 hours long! So the total was 34 chf! would have been 36 chf if the movie was over 3 hours! crazy, huh? AND no popcorn! but the flick was good! Sir Anthony gave a great performance as usual.

Sunday morning was raining but Rob was able to motivate me to go out for a run. plus I snagged his water resistant jacket! heh :) so we had a nice run & came back and had our little smoked salmon brunch and hung out for a bit. That
afternoon, we went to the Basel Weinmesse which is basically this big old wine convention/tasting. It kind of reminded me of the fancy food shows we used to go to in Chicago only with vino instead of food! This event was the best value we have found in Basel to date! 10 chf to get in - that's it! (so about $8). We met so many new wines that day! Mostly Italian (why mess when it is so good!). We tried several kinds of Barberesco (Piemonte area) and met Nebbiolo d'Alba (also Piemonte), Primitivo (Puglia) and my new fave - Nero d'Avola (Sicilian area) mmmm! (Actually I think some of those can be grown in a number of regions so don't quote me on my wine knowledge!). And we saw some old faves - Chianti, Montepulciano, etc... We had a lot of fun trying the wines and talking to the characters manning the booths. Then home for football! (yeay ravens! sorry jets & philly birds).

Monday was pretty low key but I figured I would share my Halloween adventures from yesterday! in the morning, I set out on my hunt for the great pumpkin (or the medium pumpkin) for our little crib to carve up and cook! I found the perfect sized guy but he was 18 chf at the outdoor market. no dice! they really only had 2 to choose from. I'm telling you - the do not do Halloween here hardly at all! So I continued on my way and found a good little guy for us in a grocery store (at the florist section?!). I came home and found a wonderful trick or treat in our mailbox - CDs of our wedding photos!! (so I am hoping the will be up on Pictage soon!!). I took a peek at them and then settled in to listen to the radio program (Tuesday nights at 6:30). Robs came home and went to work on the pumpkin! He scooped out the guts and roasted the seeds - with o.o. and salt and pepper mmm so good! I put some cinnamon on mine - don't worry - it was good! and we had a fun pre-dinner app of pumpkin seeds! Rob also went to work on the big squash from Saturday. It was cut like a big slice of cantaloupe. he cut it off the rind and threw it in the oven with some sugar (no brown sugar to be found in Basel), cinnamon & nutmeg. We had dinner and then pulled out the squash. It was okay - I didn't loooove it - but Rob grabbed some Movenpick "Vanilla Dream" ice cream from the little store on the block. Boy was it good then! So we settled on the couch and watch "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" (yeah youtube.com) and then went through our wedding photos.

Definitely not a traditional Halloween but a very special one to me.

Roaming along the Route des Vins

This weekend we made plans to take a visit out to Munster, France and journey along the Alsace Route des Vins. I didn't really know what we were in for - Rob made all the plans to rent a car, got directions and info from friends at work as to where to go and what to check out. we scooped up the car early on Saturday (it was a VW golf - ha ha ha!!!), and headed out on our way. It was a bit overcast when we headed out but the weather held up! Rob had burned a copy of our wedding CD so we had lots of good tunes to listen to on the way to Munster!

We got to Munster around 10:30 or so and found a little cafe to have some breakfast. Mmmmmmmmm!!! we both had coffee (french is much better than Swiss - not as dark!) and shared two crepes. One was stuffed with ham, cheese (Munster cheese I guess?), onions and peppers. It was fantastic! the other was stuffed with Nutella! MMMMMM!! what a way to start the day! Next, we roamed around the small town a bit. By this time, most stores had closed for the afternoon break (most closed from 12-2:30 or so) so we peeked in the windows. We also found the town farmer's market and got some goodies! We got some spices for Italian cooking, some sugared ginger (ooowww! strong!), two little pumpkins (the woman told us to cut off the tops and bake them with creme fresche) and a little wheel of the stinkiest cheese I have ever ever met!!! Then we walked around a bit more - people were starting to pack up so we were getting ready to go - and some old French farmer flagged us down. he had a HUGE pumpkin so we went over to chat. I'm not 100% sure of all that he said to Rob but I know that we ended up with a 3 euro bottle of "apple wine" (my theory is that it is moonshine) and a hilarious conversation about Switzerland, Germany, Canada and the U.S., all kind of jumbled in french German and all LOUD AS COULD BE. The guy must have come straight out of the farm to the market - all kind of grubby and dirty but hilarious. The last thing he said to us was that he did not like our president. Ha ha ha ha! I really wish I had taken a photo of him. it was just too funny. First visitor - beware - he told us to chill the apple wine shine for 40 days so we'll serve it to our first guests!

After this, we got back on the road to move along the route des vins. wow - it was gorgeous driving through the countryside. We saw nothing but hillsides covered in vineyards. (we learned in Tuscany that hills are ideal for grape growing as the water runs down and produces an ideal dry climate for the grapes.) Among the hills and vineyards are small villages nestled inside. The ones that we visited seemed to be very small with some shops and restaurants and a church or two. Absolutely gorgeous.

Before we stopped at our next place, we hit a roadside apple farm. we did not pick the apples off the trees but we did pick them out of enormous bins! (see photos on snapfish http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=53680066/a=6122351_6122351/t_=6122351
The place had samples of each of the apples you could try and they were delicious! we bought 2 large bags of two of our favorites as well as some perfect apple juice and some cherry juice that has yet to be sampled. it was great!

Also along the way, we stopped at a couple of "caves" where you could taste wine and carry it out. At the first one, we tried a Riesling and a Guwurztramer - both sweet, white wines. we preferred the Riesling so snagged a bottle of that. At the next cave, people were buying wine in boxes upon boxes!!! we had some time to sample a couple of wines while waiting for those in front of us to check out. So we tried a delicous pinot blanc and a pinot noir as well. And took some with us!

We also stopped in a vineyard in the Turckheim area and got out to walk through the rows of wine. It was simply breathtaking! By this point, most of the grapes had been harvested and the leaves were turning vibrant gold and amber colors. we tried a few of the grapes too! and took some video pictures of the peaceful vineyards and the tiny towns within them. We took many pictures but they just don't show how amazing it was.

we stopped in a small town called Riquewihr (ricky weere?) and had some adventures there. all the buildings in the town were in the Alsace style and there many little outdoor cafes. we stopped at had lunch at one that I think was enchanted with Santa's elves. (see snapfish photos.) we had some wonderful escargot, flankucken (a local pizza specialty) and a salad with warm chevre and endives. YUM!!!! I really liked this ricky town and would like to take
some of our guests there perhaps! It was charming.

We stopped at one more little town before leaving the routes des vins called Ribeauville. It was bigger than ricky but not as neat. Although there was a torture chamber there that would have been good to check out in about a week!

On the way home, we had our most American experience to date. We stopped at some mega complex near colmar, off the autobahn. We could see the complex from the highway - rising up out of nothingness - it reminded me of white marsh. We found our way to this mega store called "cora" which must mean "super wal-mart" in French. holy cow it was huge!!! we did some serious damage in there - the prices were MUCH less than anything in Basel. We got two different packs of excellent Belgian beer for less than 5 euro each! and we got fresh fish, salmon, ground porc & veal, veggies, so many goodies! It was kind of disappointing to see something so Wal-mart in the midst of the french countryside - but quite a relief to the wallet! (And also the mega store had a Sephora outside the front of it - so how cool is that??!!)

We got home & made dinner with the salmon & some basil past we had gotten.

Sunday was wonderful too! We had a great run along a little offshoot of the Rhien up along the Germany border. Then a wonderful lunch of some of the goodies from the Cora store - including smoked salmon! mmmmm!! and for dinner we made gravy with veal & pork meatballs. I could go on and on but I have written enough for today!

Hope you are enjoying the adventures along with me!

The Job

Good morning everyone!!

hope it is a lovely day on the east coast and clear today after that mess of rain yesterday. I am just logging on after another bout with my nemesis - the espresso machine. Just when I think I have it figured it out, something goes wacky! But it is getting better. My coffee is not awful today! That is the one thing that I miss so far - some of you have been asking what I miss. Coffee to go!!! I miss my run into royal farms to mix some flavas together or running into Dunkin Donuts to grab some vanilla spice (and a sesame bagel with veggie cream cheese!). There is no "coffee to go" here in Europe - anywhere that I have seen. Even at the Starbucks, you sit down with your mug, relax and enjoy! It's actually a very good concept. Just takes some getting used to!)

The week is going well!! On Monday, Robs and I cooked up some delicious chicken burritos! There is not "mexican spice pack" at the Migros so we improvised with our own spices! And - we made fresh guac from an avocado with some olive oil & seasoning - yum! and some re-fried, warmed up with garlic & onion - the best of all!!

Yesterday, I went to "dePost" and asked the man to mail my letters in German! wahooo! I am catching on! I have a little book of cheat phrases (thanks Katie!) that is a huge help to me!

Also, yesterday I heard from the guy at the radio show. It's called "The English Show" and it's the only show of its kind in all of Switzerland. Pretty cool, huh? It's run out of a building over by that cool university area that Rob showed me on Sunday. Anyway- he invited me to come down for the show (it is broadcast on Tuesdays from 6:30-8pm) to see what I thought. So I rolled down last night to check it out. It was great! The people are very cool! Matt, my main contact, is actually from Jers - "warren county" he said - not too far from P-burg! And there is a British woman Melissa, an Irish guy, Andrew who is the producer and a couple of others that pitch in here & there. I sat behind the board while Andrew ran the show. It was flashing me back to my JC days on the sound & lighting crew - haaa!! I'm such a dork! Anyway, the guest of the week was a local band. Actually a team of two that write and record music pretty much just for their friends. Pretty neat! The show basically brings in a guest or two and otherwise provides news and information on local events in the Basel area to do and see. I really enjoyed it! My role is going to be more behind the scenes - I think I am going to be writing reviews and posting them to the web and trying to enhance the web in other ways - but they let me give a shout out at the end of the show last night. haa! Sundai Valcich hitting the airwaves! Anyway - I am excited about being able to contribute and keeping some sort of marketing going on while I am here. The people seem great too.

Last night, post broadcast review, I came home to my hub. He had gotten "a little chicken" (you know - those pre-cooked chickens they have) and we had some yummy salads with chicken and watch the Chapelle Show. I think it's funny that they show that over here - kind of seems like a US-focused humor to me - but it was funny as ever. They broadcast it in English and run German subtitles so I was learning some new words last night ;)

In other news, Rob and I booked our airfare to London on Thanksgiving day. We are going straight to the source for our thanks! Actually we are going to a Gomez show and to visit Rob and Leslie. It should be so fun! I am very excited!!! Rob's boss is encouraging him to take some time off to fit within the allocated hours so it is working out for some weekend trips! We are also peeking at Paris. wahoooooo!!

Okay friends! All is well here - miss and love you. Will talk soon.

Fun Fall Weekend

Rob and I had a very fun fall weekend this weekend! Saturday was great. we woke up and headed down to the fresh market where we got so many goodies. One of our first stops was to the cheese guy - we got chevre with black pepper and chevre with herbs - it is soft goat cheese coated in the herbs/pepper. so good!!! we also got some fresh veggies - plum tomatten and more zucchini!! and some apples, pairs and figs. We went to the Italian guy and got fresh parm- the woman cut it from a huge wheel of parm that was sitting out - bigger than a cake! - and some delicious mushrooms, artischoken and olives with pumpkin!! the cart has all kinds of goodies for antipast. among them are many different flavors of olives - we had to go for the pumpkin one! and we also got some pumpkin ravs at another stand. homemade of course! all of the homemade past looks so delicious - lots of tortellini and ravs stuffed with fresh goodness. mmm!!! we saw lots of cute pumpkins & gourds and picked some up to decorate our place for fall - along with some sunflowers and pansies!

Then we carried everything back and went back out for a run. i was thinking of everyone running the marathon as we did our 6 mile run around the river. (hope it went well for those of you that ran!!) we went down to a dam that allows the big boats to come through and around on the other side of the river. it was perfect fall running weather! i was pretty tuckered out after 6 miles but it was a great run!! we had some lunch (leftover past & chicken with some egg - runny for robs, hard boiled for me) then went back out to finish the grocery shopping at the grocery store. we got some wonderful bread there (it was still warm when we picked it up)and some veal (it's a staple here!) and chicken and fish and other goodies.

Came back to the crib and had some wine & watched some simpsons DVDs. then rob cooked up the fish (he's the inhouse chef on the weekends!) with some artischoken and lemon and past. de-licious! and we watched pirates of the Caribbean and also had some tiramisu ice cream :) it was a great day!!!

Yesterday, we hung around the house in the morning. One of my projects is trying to bring the basil plant back to life (we'll see how that goes!) so we had some plant time in the morning. had a good lunch - chicken with the plum tomats, artichokes and these wonderful little pasts that look like grubs and then went to take a walk. the day turned from overcast to nice! we walked over the bridge and into a part of town i had not seen yet. Rob said there is a college in that part - it seemed artsy and cool! we saw this great restaurant - tapas! It is right on the water on the otherside of the river with lots of big windows. hardwood floors and little tables - it looks like a US restaurant to me! It was closed but we will be headed back there to sample soon!

We continued our walk back to our side of the river. since it had gotten nice out, there were tons of people outside enjoying the day. there are a few little restaurants with outdoor seating right on the river. we stopped and had a beer and coffee (not one for each!) and enjoyed the beautiful day and all the activity. we saw a couple at the restuarant getting huge ice cream sundaes - one for each! so we will be back to sample those one day too!!!

we came home and relaxed in the place. we watched a couple of family guys and then some football! (reverse order from normal!) Rob was able to rig up some yahoo sports action to watch any of the 1pm (7pm for us) games. the ravens feed was pretty inconsistent so we watched the eagles (shout out to the Philly peeps!). It was a good game but unfortunately both the bird teams lost. boo hoo - maybe next week. while we watched, we had an app of fresh mozz, the olives with pumpkin and the tomatoes tossed with olive oil and with some delicious fresh bread we had gotten warm at teh grocery store. Dinner was veal cutlets with sauteed zuchs, mushrooms and the pumpkin ravs. the pumpkin ravs were delicious but rob and i agreed that they wold be better as desert than with dinner! we saved most of them to experiment with this week!

Today we woke up to some very good news - Mets won! yeah! and jets won! so at least rob's teams did well last night! Also, Carol, one of Katie's good friends and now my friend!, is in Heidelberg, Germany randomly for work. it's about a 2.5 hour train ride from here and I am going to try to go visit her today or tomorrow!! I've been waiting to go to Heidelberg with robs - that is where he lived right before he moved to bmore! I'm going to see if i can swing it - it would be good to have a little adventure and see Carol!

That's it for now. Enjoy and talk soon!

The week rolls on

Guten Tag Fruends!
My first week in Switzerland is moving right along! I've been busy!! haa! it's true!

Tuesday went well. It was another sunny day! I took a walk around to drop off the recycling - at a little park - and also try to recycle the empty beer bottles. only i went to the wrong store. when i held up the empties, the lady said something? I translate it to "nope, soddie!". Then i held up the phone charger card (to put more minutes on the cell phone) and I'm not sure what she said but it was probably something along the lines of "you're loco". so off i went to continue my day. i picked up some schwein pieces (more pork) for dinner. and some other veggies and some chocolate. :D can't miss out on that Swiss way of life! Oh! and some popcorn!! how could i forget that? I came home & did some laundry and ironing and stuff. haaa! actually it wasn't too bad - most of this stuff is that hard when you have actual time to do it. I make it fun by putting on the radio or listening to rhapsody online so I can play all my faves. Tuesday night, Rob and i went for a run along the rheine. it is so beautiful there! there were tons of people out enjoying the nice weather. it was dusk when we ran. my favorite time of day and it was gorgeous. I am going to take photos of the river this week to share.

Wednesday was another nice day. I am afraid I am jinxing myself but the weather has been great! I finally finished going through all the emails from the past month! reading them at least - and i did some stuff around the house. I am hoping to hear from the radio station this week. the contact emailed me back and said he thought they'd be able to use my writing skills! No word from him in the morning though so I took my ipod and went out for a walk along the river. another picture perfect day. I was so happy walking along and listening to my tunes. ipods are the best! After the walk, I was craving a Coke. Those of you that know me well, know how much I love coke. I didn't want to be the American tourist who had to have her coke, but I was! I got a bottle in the correct store for the beer bottles! the plastic coke bottle also required a deposit - .50 just like the beer bottles! I took the cokie home and it was sooooo goood!! the secret formula is the same!

So then I did some ironing & listening to rhapsody. Then it was time to get my act together to go meet rob and some of his friends from work for a drink. i took the little tram down to meet rob and then his friends jens and markus met us. both very nice guys. They are both German but they spoke very good English. we went to some new Irish bar (haa - isn't that funny? Americans, Germans in the Irish bar in Switzerland!). anyway - we had some of Guinness and "crisps" (potato chips). Then we went for Italian (no I did not have my fill of it in Italia!). robs had some crazy roll thing with procuit and cheese. I did not love it. but I did love the pizza that i got with "Artischock", priscuit, and schwarz oliven. and also the bread with olive oil. the bread in Switzerland is MUCH better than the Italian bread. shocking but true!!!

So far today has been pretty low key but I did get to talk to both Russell and Joy so that made my day. I called joy at 6:30 her time - teds - i am proud of you for being so alert at that time of day!! and Russell on IM, just about immediately after i got off the phone with joy so that was wonderful!

okay - off to get some stuff done & work on uploading those honeymoon photos!!

ciao for now!

First Day

Today is Oct. 10th and my 2nd day chillin in Basel, Switzerland. I came over to Europe a couple of weeks ago with my new wonderful hubby Rob (or Robs as I like to call him) and we spent the past couple of weeks on a mediterrean cruise for our honeymoon. we started with 3 days in Roma, then the beautiful cruise and ended in Nice, France. C'est manific! (probably not spelled correctly)

So we came back on Sunday night (the flight from Nice was 45 minutes - yeah!!!) and yesterday was my first day getting acclimated while Rob went to work. The morning was great - clear blue skies and lots of sunshine -- which can be very rare in Basel! i started the day by trying to find a cool radio station to listen to like I do back home in Bmore in the mornings. I found a station that plays a diverse range of music (much like wtmd in Bmore), and also much like tmd in bmore, most of the songs were in english! yeah!!!! turns out they even have a program called "the english show" that airs on tuesday nights and has info on things - going on in Basel - all in English - wahoooo!!! i am going to see if I can get involved somehow.

the rest of my day was good! i spent a lot of time going through emails and then journeyed out around 2:30 (or 14:30 here!) for my first swiss grocery store visit on my own. I forgot to bring my own bag to the store but luckily my wonderful hub called me just after I got in to remind me how to say "tasche" (prounounced "tasha") so i could ask for one at checkout. he's so great!! so i roamed around the store and I think I was okay i think! Everything is written in German, French and Italian (the 3 languages spoken in Schweiz) so the old French from high school/college helped me out a little bit with some things. i did order a pork loin or "schweinefleisch filet" from the butcher. kind of a cop out since I didn't have to do any metric conversion but hey- it was my first day!! my only other hiccup was when i went to pay for my salad lunch and the man behind the counter was asking me something and I had no idea what it was! luckily he did a hand motion for a drink so i could figure it out. note to self - the german word for drink is "gertrank."

So i came home with my groceries - a short walk in the beautiful sunshine - and everything was fine. i had some of my little salat (had eggs, olives, smoked salmon and some kind of pea/carrot/mayo mixture) and played on the computer a bit more. For dinner, i cooked (yikes - scary when the hub is such a good cook) but i made the pork loin with olive oil, fresh rosemary from Rob's herb garden and some basic s&p (thanks Jenny & Rusty for the italian cookbook for the shower gift!). I also made a kind of sauce with the mushrooms and chicken broth I had gotten in leiu of the fig sauce in the cook book - one thing at a time you know??!! Plus some salad and some past and some fresh kase (cheese) and brot (bread - potato bread with nuts (nusse)) that I had gotten. All in all, pretty good and I don't think I poisoned the hub so it is all good!!!

our evening concluded with some Mets highlights - on to the next round of the playoffs!!! and some Grey's Anatomy reruns. And check this out - Robs figured out how to change the language on the tv from German to English (or French). it doesn't work for all shows (booo Sex in the City) but it did work for Gray's. it's last season's but no compliants here.

So here I am on day two, having thoroughly survived day one and excited for the adventures ahead. I am going to go for a walk today to drop off the recylcling (you have to bring it to a designated location) and run some other errands.

Hope you enjoyed my chat from day one. Ciao for now!
msv