St. Alban

St. Alban is an area right on the edge of Basel's city center. Way back when (circa 1300s) it was considered the suburbs. In 1356 Basel was damaged by a major earthquake that crumbled part of the wall that encompassed the city so when they rebuilt the wall, they include St. Alban. Robert had several collegues in from out of town and arranged a tour of the area. It is a quiet and peacful area with lots of old mansions and the nicest youth hostel I have ever seen. Included on our tour was a house that Herman Hesse lived in, a beautiful old church, a wonderful old paper mill with a working paddlewheel, the old city wall and the St. Alban gate. It is a must see if you come to visit...a wonderful part of town. See our pictures here.

Oktoberfest!

A beer-lovers holiday, that's Oktoberfest. The people of Munich are very proud of their heritage and their beer and it all comes together for a 16 day party that ends the first Sunday in October. The fair-grounds are packed with people drinking, enjoying carnival rides and games and eating. Many locals dress in traditional clothing: lederhosen and dirndl (which shows off a copious amount of cleavage!) The event is so popular that we didn't realize that you need to have a reservation to get into a beer 'tent' (only Munich brewers are allowed to have a tent) where they have long rows of tables, traditional oom-pa music and serve liter-size beers. After wandering around for a couple of hours we were shocked that it is almost impossible to get a beer when you are not in a tent. Robert was persistent and knew that it was all about timing in order to get a table outside a beer tent and was successful in doing so within 10 minutes of trying. We had terrific weather, great tablemates, a gargantuan pretzel and several liters of Paulaner beer =) Prost!! See our pictures from the Oktoberfest here.

Note: Sunday was much more subdued - we took in the Neue Pinakothek which has a terrific collection and one of our favoite VanGogh paintings - Sunflowers

Pearl Jam

Yesterday Robert was able to cross something off of his 'things to do before I die' list...we went to see Pearl Jam in concert. The show was general admission (which I thought was funny because they have assigned seats in movie theaters) and the doors opened at 18:00. We arrived at the Bern ice hockey venue little after 19:00 to a mid to upper 20's crowd guzzling down cheap beer in the parking lot (remember - it's legal at 16 here). We were a bit disappointed that the show was inside given what a nice evening it was, but we got in line for the pat down, snagged some ear plugs from some teen volunteers and headed for more expensive cheap beer at the concession stand. By the time the opening band was packed up there were about 5,000 people on the floor and in the stands. We bypassed the mosh pit for comfy concrete seats on the second level - center stage. Alas, gone are the days of lighters illuminating the pre-show darkness, they have been replaced with the blue glow of cell-phone screens through the familiar haze of smoke (some things never change). Eddie and the boys were fantastic - they played a lot of their older music from the 80s and they are still hard-rockin' as ever. The obligatory 1.5hr wait to exit the parking lot came at no extra charge =)

Stuttgart, Germany

We attended the Stuttgart Wine Festival on Saturday night. Lots of people, food and wine spread across three different squares (platz). We had to have some help ordering food because the German menues were SO different than the ones you see in Basel. Stuttgart is home to Porsche and Diamler-Chrysler, so we decided to take in the museums. Sunday we were able to walk to the new Mercedes-Benz museum which just opened prior to the 2006 world cup. The soccer stadium is right next to the museum - an ideal location! It was really a fantastic visit - the content, layout and architecture were terrific. FYI - Porsche is still in the process building their new museum, the existing one is very small. Then we were off to the Weissenhofsiedlung (literally: white house settlement). This neighborhood was built after WWI by many members of the Bauhaus including Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Marcel Breuer. The walking tour was presented in German so we just wandered around looking at the building exteriors since people have been living in the houses since the area was refurbished in the 1980's. Our last stop was the Killesberg Park - part of the "Grun U" (Green U) that surrounds a large part of the city. They have a small train that takes you around the beautiful grounds - it's a HUGE park so once we got our bearings from the train we were able to choose two gardens to visit - the dahlia garden and the beer garden...prost!
See the rest of our pictures here.

Spoiled

Today is my 39th birthday (ugh!) and unfortunately Robert had to start his business trip today. He was feeling a little guilty (not because of me - I'd rather forget the whole thing...) so he really out did himself. My birthday celebration actually started on Saturday: we went to Jungfraujoch, he took me out for Indian food and he surprised me by printing out some of our photos to replace the old ones in the frames. Sunday we went to the zoo, he cooked me a super yummy dinner and I got two 2007 Owl calendars (they are sooo cute!). Monday was the BIG day - he surprised me with a special-order italian cream cake (my favorite!). No one here had ever heard of it so he got a recipe off the internet and had a local bakery create an absolute masterpiece - it was fantastic (I 'discovered' this cake at the cafe in The Louisville Antique Mall)!! We had a terrific dinner out and I got a fantastic, handmade metal owl (the metal shop is in the heart of the city and has been in the same location for over 100 years). Today he arranged for the lady at the front counter of the gym to sing me happy birthday AND he sent a huge bouquet of flowers to my office. I am the luckiest girl alive - I love you Robert!

Basel Zoo

For such a small city, Basel has a beautiful zoo. They have our favorites - gorillas, lions, bears, and owls - and everything else you can imagine: giraffes, hippos, rhinos, otters, penguins, seals, zebra, fish, insects, even a great petting zoo. We are able to walk to the zoo from our apartment and had unusually great weather to do so. We spent a lot of time at the gorilla exhibit because they have so many (including a cute baby gorilla), they were very active (eating, playing and even a little love-action going on too), and they were in very close proximity to the viewers. The otters are always fun to watch and they had some birds and fish we had never seen before. They detail all of their animals on their web site - check it out! See our pictures of the Zoo here.

Jungfraujoch

Jungfraujoch is refered to as 'the top of Europe'. Indeed it is a magnificent sight and it's hard to believe a railway was built this far up starting in 1898! There are two stopping points along the way which allow you to see the glacier and snowy conditions from different viewpoints. They have several things to keep you entertained during your visit: an ice palace complete with ice carvings inside an ice building (floor, walls and ceiling are all ice), a movie previewing the region, area and history, two outside observation areas, dog sled rides, snow treking, skiing, and snowboarding. It is home to a high altitude research station and was also featured in the James Bond movie 'Her Majesty's Secret Service'. Jungfrau is a must see on a sunny day (unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse when we were there and the view was mostly obscured - you can check the current conditions via their webcam =) See our pictures here.