Normandy (5/5)

A moving experience, Normandy humbles it’s visitors. Omaha and Utah beach, where the American’s landed on D-Day, June 6, 1944, still contains military relics, bomb craters, and German stronghold bunkers. The American Cemetery is as overwhelming as it is beautiful with over 9,000 graves overlooking the English Channel. We visited several museums, saw lots of military paraphernalia, listened to ‘40s music, and saw a movie of old new reel footage from the landing and subsequent deployment of military troops and equipment from this site once it was secured. TIME WILL NOT DIM THE GLORY OF THEIR DEEDS.
See our pictures of Normandy here.

Giverny (4/5)

The home of Claude Monet is located 1hr NW of Paris. Giverny is a very quiet town with lots of art galleries, gardens, and tour buses. Monet’s home and studio is open to public and offers lots of opportunities to walk around his beautiful gardens and lily pond. It’s a lot larger than we both expected and we were thrilled to see the Japanese bridge that’s been painted so many times by this great master. Monet is buried just down the street and we were able to spend a very enjoyable time both at his home and in this charming town. We speculated that he’s making more money per day in the huge gift shop than he made during his entire life!
See our pictures here.

Villa Savoye / Paris (3/5)

We stopped by another Le Corbusier masterpiece, Villa Savoye, located in the suburbs of Paris. The house models the architect’s five points of new architecture in every way. We followed a sefl-guided tour and loved it so much we walked thru each space at least 3 times. In the evening we ventured into Paris for some dinner and to visit the Pompidou (Richard Rogers/Renzo Piano) building. See our pictures of Villa Savoye here, or see our pictures of Paris here.

Versailles, France (2/5)

You must see Versailles to believe it. It’s got three parts: the chateau, the park and the other park. The castle is about 2 blocks long (IT’S EMENCE!), but it is dwarfed by the MASSIVE gardens located in it’s “back yard” – it takes one hour to walk from the house to the end of the grand canal (I am not exaggerating!). We spent the entire day strolling thru the gardens, learning about King Louis XIV, XV, and XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Hall of Mirrors. The words ‘shock and awe’ were used by us several times during the day to describe our general feeling for this magnificent landmark. See our pictures of Versailles here.

Belleau Wood, France (1/5)

One hour east of Paris is the WWI battle site Belleau Wood. Nancy’s grandfather, Julian Paul Orem, fought here in 1918 as a Marine. The American Cemetery (1 of 8 for WWI) lies below the woods with 2,038 graves. There is a small memorial in the woods which recaps the battle and an American Memorial overlooking the town of Chateau Thierry which commemorates our brave, young soldiers.

Here's some additional information about Nancy's grandfather:
Julian P. Orem was born September 21, 1898 in Switzerland County, Indiana. He was one of 7 children. His father died November 9th, 1904. By November 22nd, 1905 he was orphaned by the death of his mother Nancy Tabitha Orem.

After a "rocky" childhood, he enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corp in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 13th, 1915. He received his basic training at Norfolk, Virginia, and was assigned to the 8th Marine Company at New Orleans, Louisiana.

After duty on the destroyer Kersarge at Verecruz, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, he was sent to Saint Nazaire, France in late June 1917. He remained with the 8th Company which became the 8th Regimental Machine Gun Company in the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment of the Second Division.

He saw action in the following sectors & engagements: Verdun Sector, Chateau Thierry Sector, Soissons offensive and the St. Mihiel offensive.

He was wounded in the left hand September 12, 1918. He was hospitalized in France for about 10 weeks, and then returned to a military hospital in Norfolk, Virginia where he was eventually discharged April 19th, 1919.

See our pictures of Belleau Wood here.

Ronchamps

Ronchamps in one of several architecutral masterpieces by Le Corbusier. Actually it's called Notre Dame du Haut, but it's affectionatly known by and refered to by the town it is located in. We are taking a driving tour of France later this month and were looking into the locations of several things we'd like to see, Ronchamps being one of them. It turns out that it's less than 1.5 hours from Basel so we jumped in the car for a short road trip.

Check out the pictures.

Panama Canal

We entered the Panama Canal at 6:30am. The stern was full of the passengers taking pictures and eating Panama Rolls (sweet rolls with pieces of orange). Our ship only went thru the first set of locks and we took an excursion that allowed us to see and pass thru the other locks. Here are some interesting facts about the canal:

If a ship is just large enough to fit thru the locks it is called a Pana-max
The locks are 110ft wide – our ship was 106ft wide!
There are 3 sets of lock pairs across the 50 mile Panamanian isthmus
The locks are able to function using fresh water from a man made lake (Gatun)
The locks work via gravity; there are no water pumps used
The locks and mechanisms are 80% original from the August 1, 1914 opening
More than 25,000 people died building the Panama Canal
They are currently designing a larger set of locks that will parallel the existing ones
38-40 ships pass thru on a daily basis saving an 8k mile journey around South America
It cost our cruise ship $225,000 just to pass thru the first set of locks

See our pictures of Panama here.

Cruise Highlights

In between all the eating (breakfast, mid-day snacks, lunch, high tea, dinner, dessert and midnight chocolate buffets) we were actually able to make it to Ft. Lauderdale and back without a) careening off the side of a mountain in a tour bus or b) setting the ship on fire. Here are some of the highlights:
•Going to Big Lots for cold medicine and sunglasses before getting on the ship
•Seeing Nancy’s parents for the 1st time since we left (they took the cruise too)
•Half Moon Cay - we have never seen such beautiful water and beaches
•Aruba –cool fish, coral & turtles on our submarine excursion – pina coladas!
•Curacao – Netherlands colony with old world charm, a canoe trip and snorkeling with fantastic, colorful tropical fish
•Costa Rica – thick rain forest, cocoa plants (chocolate), banana plantations, howler monkeys, toucans, and sloths (two AND three toed!)
•On-Board - Jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, old movies, reading on the deck, cheesy stage shows, duty free shopping, exploring the ship, drinks before dinner, origami towel animals, art auctions, BINGO!, losing money in the casino, galley tour, scrabble, shuffleboard, and lectures from a college professor about our destinations. See our pictures of the cruise at Aruba, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Curacao and Panama.

Fasnacht - Basel Carnival

Last week was the Basel "Fasnacht" (Carnival) we've been telling you about. CRAZY, that's what it is... Confetti, drums, flutes, costumes, parades, and floats to name a few. The streets were blocked, the tram and bus schedules were modified, and to make it more convenient, Basel got about 16 inches of snow (all in one day) two days before it started. So anyway, we've told you about this event several times now, so finally, after all the hype, here are the pictures. Enjoy! See pictures here.

Rome Day 3

We only had a couple of hours to see the Vatican, so we decided to see St. Peter’s. We had planned on taking a tour with the same tour company we used before, but we arrived late (because the buses are not on a schedule) and had to make a go of it on our own. We walked to the top of the cupola to see the magnificent views of the city and also the fantastic mosaics up close (you can’t even see them from the ground). Michelangelo’s Pieta was definitely the hi-light of the Vatican trip. See can see our pictures of Rome here.

Rome Day 2

We had a guided tour scheduled for 11am so we walked from the subway station to see the Spanish Steps (of Roman Holiday fame) and then walked to our tour of Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill (the origin of the word palace) is a ruin located between circus maximus and the roman forum – the tour was again, fantastic and we learned that the white togas of the vestal virgins are why we wear white wedding dresses today and that the Romans invented bricks and mortar. We walked through a fantastic park just outside the city to wind down and discuss what we had seen. Italian food was on the menu all three days – not to mention gelato! You can see pictures of Rome here. And our pictures here.

Rome Day 1

Our first full day we took a bus tour to orient ourselves with the city. In the middle of the bus tour we got off to see the Victor Emmanuel Monument dubbed the “wedding cake” by the American GIs during WWII – just look at the picture, it is aptly named. Just behind this monument is the Roman Forum and behind that is the Colosseum…Circus Maximus is just down the street. Each of these historic sites is completely unbelievable and that they are within easy walking distance is amazing.

Oh, you should see the Colosseum, Spaniard: we missed our tour bus connection and stumbled into taking a guided tour of the Colosseum. The Colosseum, it’s history, our tour and the guide were AMAZING! We learned about how and why it was built, that it had a retractable roof, how the floor worked, who attended, who fought, the bathroom facilities, the earthquake in 1349 that destroyed half the building and that the marble and iron was stripped out of it to build St. Peter’s.

We also took a walking tour of the city in the evening that was a great opportunity to find the hidden treasures in the labyrinth of city streets where cars aren’t allowed. The highlights were: Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio, Mussolini’s balcony and the adjacent Napoleon balcony, many Egyptian obelisks which came to the city between 50 BC and 45 AD, the magnificent and HUGE Trevi Fountain, and the just to round it out – The Pantheon. Click here for pictures of Rome, or you can see our pictures of Rome here.

Rome MMVI - Prelude

We had a long weekend and decided to spend it in Rome. There is a low-cost airline that flies out of the Basel airport (EuroAirport) and goes to many popular destinations. The flight to Rome was about 1 ½ hrs and once there, we enjoyed getting to know the city. Italy has much different views on rules, punctuality, and litter control than is evident in Switzerland, but after understanding and accepting these differences we were able to go with the flow. Here’s a great web-site that has a lot of information about all of the sites we visited.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Once upon a time there was King Ludwig. He was the King of Bavaria. King Ludwig loved to build castles and Neuschwanstein was the grandest of them all. He dedicated this castle to Richard Wagner and had the rooms painted with scenes from his operas (there is even a CRAZY cave room that is on the 4th floor of the castle). The castle is almost as unbelievable in person as it is in the pictures. The Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disney World is based on this castle. And we all lived happily ever after. The End. You can see our pictures of the castle here.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Located in southern Germany (a mere 5-6 hrs from Basel) is Garmisch. In 2004, Robert had the opportunity to meet a Roche colleague, Robert Huber, and his family (Gaby, Daniela, and Florian). The Huber’s invited us to visit for the weekend – they were gracious hosts and fantastic tour guides. Garmisch-Partenkirchen is Germany’s largest alpine resort and consists of two towns that were merged for the 1936 Olympic Winter Games. We spent half a day sight-seeing (see castle blog), a day and a half skiing and the rest of the time eating and enjoying the Huber’s fantastic German hospitality. Mr. Huber spent time teaching Nancy how to ski while Florian introduced Robert to slopes that were a bit more challenging. The weather didn’t allow us to see all the great mountain views while we were there so we’re planning a return trip in the summer – we can't wait! You can see the pictures from Garmisch here.

2006 Winter Olympics

Top ten reasons why WE deserve a gold medal for attending the 2006 Winter Olympics:

10. The determination to make (seemly) hundreds of decisions once we decided to actually attend this once in a life-time event: which days to go, which event(s) to attend, purchasing the tickets, finding a hotel, researching train fares, deciding to drive, planning the route, buying a parking space, etc.
9. The constant repetition and resulting pain that was required to pay an unbelievable number of tolls (drive, stop, pay, drive stop, pay…) to drive thru the French and Italian Alps.
8. A test of patience and orientation skills, the Turin tram system is not in any hurry to get thousands of people anywhere in particular. Even BAD signage, information, or maps would have improved on their faulty ESP navigation concept which obviously didn’t work in the pouring down rain.
7. The ability to prevail against all odds to find THE street in Turin that had it all: lunch, a bank machine, the Olympic Store, beautiful Italian architecture, the entrance to the Metal Ceremony Square and GELATO!
6. The concentration required to figure out who in their right mind would approve those mascots - Neve & Gliz?!? She’s a soft, friendly & elegant snowball; he’s a lively & playful ice cube…riiight.
5. Hours and hours of dedicated practice, hard work and sweat put in to trying to pronounce the name of the venue for women’s freestyle skiing qualifications: Sauze d'Oulx!
4. Enduring an ankle-deep snowfall in 2-hrs that twice delayed the event and the only beer available was Budweiser. Fortunately the event was cancelled at 20:30 before too much damage was done.
3. WALKING, 1-hr, down hill, in the snow, fighting off bears with our cool, souvenir pins with thousands of our closest friends because the fan buses were unable to navigate the snow-covered road.
2. Overcoming doubt and confusion came when we were getting directions home from two non-English speaking Italian fire-fighters who gave directly conflicting information even after 3 attempts at clarification.
1. The final test of endurance had us arriving home at 3:48 for a quick nap and off to a fully productive day at work. All that and we only got to see two practice jumps…now THAT deserves a medal!
You can find pictures of our adventure here.

Red Cross Museum

Geneva is home to the International Red Cross and the Red Cross Museum. The Red Cross was founded by Henry Dunant who was horrified to find the wounded soldiers lying abandoned on the field after the battle of Solferino in 1859. After bringing the Red Cross into being, the members also drafted the first Geneva Convention. The museum is very compelling in its content: the founding, evolution and continued efforts around war and disaster relief are a testament to what one person can do to change the world for the better.

Hiromi Concert

On Saturday night, we went to see a jazz artist that Nancy had seen in Seattle two years ago. She was promoting her new album and was at the Marians Jazz Club. The club is located in a hotel across the river on a bluff overlooking the city. The room was plush and windowless – she played to a sold out crowd of about 100 people. Hiromi and her band (a base player and a drummer) are AWESOME. She’s plays the piano like she has 10 hands – we were lucky to be able to sit right behind her and see her hands – absolutely incredible!

Bern Switzerland

Bern, the capital of Switzerland, is hands-down our favorite Swiss city so far. It’s about an hour drive from Basel and is located in a U-shaped area surrounded by the Aare River. It was a nice, sunny day, so we decided to take the city walking tour suggested in the tour book we have. We were greeted with stunning overlooks of far away mountains and the river as well as beautiful old buildings, bridges, squares, clocks, and churches. The bear pit – Bern’s most visited attraction - contains two, live brown bears which are the symbol on the Bern coat of arms – it’s not in a zoo, just a deep pit across a bridge where people gather to see the bears. The buildings on the main shopping street are somewhat unique – the sidewalk is fully covered to create a long, arched passageway. Outside the passageway are what look like cellar doors and when open, have stairs leading down to more stores located beneath the sidewalk. Because you can’t see these stores from the passageway, they have glass display cases in the passageway showing you their name and wares (neat-o!). In one of the squares there was a lively game of chess going on, but instead of a regular game board the players were standing up and moving knee-high pieces on an oversized board that they had to stand on. Spectators were either shouting out advise to each player, or cheering and groaning about the last move. We walked up 240 steps of the highest church steeple in Switzerland (100 m) that had a fantastic view of the city. Finally, we visited Albert Einstein’s apartment where he came up with the formula E=mc2. See our pictures of Bern here.

French Countryside

We’ve spent several hours driving around Germany, France, and Switzerland just getting a feel for the outskirts. We’ve noticed a lot of cars parked along the side of the road and walking in wide open fields. It’s sort of a strange sight, but it seems a very popular past time. We decided to do the same this weekend and went to a nearby town in France called Steinbach. They have quite a large forest area with lots of walking trails and the history of metal mines in the area (we couldn't read any of the signs, but guessed from the pictures what they were talking about). We agreed it’s just like Turkey Run only with no water feature and all the trails go up at a 45 degree angle. Robert got some great pictures and the elevation got our hearts pumping to keep us warm. You can see more pictures from this trip here.