Basel Autumn Fair

On 11 July 1471 Emperor Frederick III granted Basel's Mayor the right to hold an Autumn Fair "in perpetuity". The fair begins 14 days before St. Martin's day each year, lasts for two weeks and ends on the third Sunday evening. There are also fairs within the fair, the autumn goods fair, the wine fair, and the big market on the Petersplatz. They have hundreds of stands selling goods and craftwork, as well as eating stands and show booths. The range of fairground rides is also large and extremely varied and spread out all over the city. This fair has been around for 535 years - it must be pretty good =)

Basler Half Marathon (aup, aup, aup!)

Ah, another half marathon under our belts: 13.1 miles or 21.5 kilometers, either way, it's a long way. We had a perfect day to run outside, enjoy the weather, and the lovely views during the run. We picked up our numbers and tracking chips on Friday afternoon and the race started at 10:15 on Saturday morning. The Swiss are known for being quite layed back - there was no fan-fare, no music, no pre-race pep-talk...nothin'. Nancy fell on her knee the day before the race, but it was fine by morning - Robert had been talking of 911 and ambulances all week, but made it thru ok. We did a lot more training last year that we did this year although Robert indicated this will be his swan song running event (I don't think he'll miss it). All the people, young and old along the course yell 'aup, aup, aup!' when you run by - we figured it was something akin to 'go-go-go!' =)

Berlin (Day Two)

It was another beautiful day so we decided to visit the Botanical Gardens. They were a little bit off the beaten path but the S-Bahn took us right there and we were able to enjoy terrific fall colors and lovely scenary inside the enormous greenhouses and outside in a 126 acre park. Several web sites suggested that we try to find a bagel when were were in Berlin (I haven't seen one since I stepped foot in Europe). After searching for a little while we found a bagel place and agreed that they were the best bagels we had ever eaten! A disappointment came when we arrived at the Neue Nationalgalerie only to find it closed while they setup thier new exhibit =( Next we went to see The Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. There was also an 'outdoor' museum Topography of Terror dedicated to remembering what happened during WWII. It is located on the site where the original SS headquarters stood (which is now just an empty lot). Nancy wanted to see the Jewish Museum building, so we wandered over to see the outside of this unusual place, but didn't have time to go inside (we saw the architect, Daniel Libeskind, speak at the JCC in Indianapolis two days before we left). Another great meal and we were off to the train station for our journey home. We were able to watch Michael Schumacher's last F1 race at a nearby bar before we ended a great trip. You can see our pictures from Berlin here.

Berlin (Day One)

For Robert's geburtstag (birthday) we went to Berlin on the city night line train. We left Basel at 20:30 Friday evening and arrived in Berlin at 8:30 Saturday morning(it's quite a long way from here, but we were pretty well rested because we had a sleeper compartment). First on the list was the Reichstag and then a quick trip to the Brandenburg Gate. We had terrific weather both days so we spent a lot of time wandering around the city. Potsdamer Platz had been around for hundreds of years, but has just recently become an architectural fan's dream with many buildings by Renzo Piano. Next on the list was the Bauhaus Archives - FANTASTIC!!! The Bauhaus was only around for 14 years, but is internationally known for it's directors, curriculum, and influence on art and architecture even today. Next up was the Tiergarten and then to the sobering Memorial for Murdered Jews. We walked down the famous Unter den Linden and had a terrific dinner at a local steak house. You can see from the pictures that we had a great day AND FOUR beds in our unusual hotel room!

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?

After missing all the great football games last year we have now discovered where to find American Football in Basel, Mr. Pickwicks. Since we are 6 hours behind Eastern time we can see one of the games broadcast at 1pm in the states. Last night we saw the lack-luster first half of the Saints/Eagles game, but it was terrific because now at least it's an option. A couple of beers at the pub cost 17CHF, it gets us out of the house, and it's cheaper than watching the new NFL/Yahoo service at home for $25/week (which I'm sure we'll try out in the weeks to come). GO COLTS!

Our Second Visitor!

Straight from Indianapolis, Cori F. came to visit for a very short week. Another visitor that has never been to Europe it was fun showing her around and getting her aquainted with the town. The weather was good for most of the week, but a bit cloudy on our trip to Luzern so she'll have to come back to see the mountains in full glory on a sunny day. We ate lots of great food, drank lots of great wine, tried our new olive oil from Italy and polished off a couple of bags of chips (paprika flavored!). Exceptional experiences included the full-view ladies toilet at the Bar Rouge (thankfully on the 31st floor), the journey 1/2 way up the Munster tower and some great pastoral views at the roman ruins that are very close by. We hope you had a great time Cori, you're welcome back any time!

Sat: Riccione / Hotel Dory

Our dream bike trip to Italy finally came together at the Hotel Dory in Riccione. The best description of it was a cruise-like atmosphere on land. Everything is arranged just enough that it’s flexible but you don’t really have to think about what to do or where to go. The owner and staff are hands on and very helpful, happy, and friendly. The hotel is 2 blocks from a fantastic beach and great shopping area. The owner welcomed the new riders on Saturday evening and explained how the bike program worked. He spoke mostly in French and English, but there were people from all over Europe and North America staying at the hotel. We agreed by the end of the trip that this was the best vacation we had ever taken!!! Check out all the pictures and and read on…

Sun: Ride – Adriatic Coast

A lovely ride along the Adriatic coast was a bit difficult as the hills were short and plentiful, but provided great views of the sea. There are 4 groups of riders (super fast, very fast, fast, not-so fast). You choose the group that’s right for you – after an hour all the groups convene and you can change groups based if you desire. During our stay there were about 60-75 riders and they dropped the super fast group in favor of two fast groups. Part of the bike hotel service is laundering your bike clothes every day and they provide you with a snack (banana and small sandwich) for your ride. They serve 3 meals per day…beer along with a different local wine (red and white) each night are provided free of charge. We met a very nice gentleman, Donald, on our first ride. A native Scot, he’s with the army based in Moscow for years. We had fun talking with him before dinner about his job, where he lives and our shared passion for biking. See pictures from our bike vacation here.

Mon: Ride - San Marino/Picnic

A beautiful sunny day started our ride to San Marino (which is located on a VERY high hill/mountain). We had two areas of assent that were 10% and one that was 18% - the ride was very challenging, but most of the hills were long with a steady climb which makes it very scenic. At the top everyone stopped for coffee and a rest before the decent. Half way down we were treated to a picnic at the hotel owner’s house: pizza, bread, spaghetti, salad, and wine were all a tasty treat. Dessert consisted of a flat yellow cake followed with two types of grappa (one similar to lighter fluid, the other – lemon flavored lighter fluid). That evening we invited a single traveler, Bill from California, to our table. He shared some great suggestions for other fantastic biking vacations in Europe. What a fantastic day!! Check out the pictures.

Tues: Day Off - Sansepolcro

Our initial plan was to drive to Siena, supposedly only 2 hours away, but our navigation system took us the back way and three hours later we weren’t even half way there so we stopped at the nearest town for lunch, Sansepolcro. This is a very old, walled city that, like the rest of Italy, shuts down between 13:00 and 15:30. We took a chance at the first restaurant we saw and had FANTASTIC Italian lunch…we both wanted to take ‘mamma’ home with us! We found the right road back home and arrived in 45 minutes. After dinner, we had a great chat with two school-teachers from Germany. Turns out they decided to ride today and took a very hilly route over 180km! I’m glad we took the day off =) See the pictures here.

Wed: Ride – Hills of Riccione

Today the weather was a bit iffy, but we only got slightly damp. Since it was threatening rain the whole day, our guide decided to show us the high-points and get us back to the hotel by 2pm. With plenty of time to spare we helped ourselves to the lunch buffet, had a beer and then ventured out for gelato (Robert has recently discovered gelato and had a HUGE serving). We waddled over to the beach to try to compensate for over-eating, but figured that’s what you’re suppose to do on vacation =) Bon appetito! See the pictures here.

Thurs: Ride – Flats of Riccione

The ride was a little flatter today than most because we decided to go in the no-so-fast group. We met some very nice, new people and took it easy, but found that we preferred to go a little faster so moved back to our normal group after the coffee break. Over lunch, we talked with a Dutchman who turned out to be a male nurse working in a children’s hospital. A very charming and engaging fellow we both agreed. In the evening the hotel had a traditional dinner from the area with an enormous banana dessert that was absolutely fantastic. Our waitress succumbed to our begging for a second piece for each of us because it was so tasty! Afterwards, we were able to enjoy the hot tub for a relaxing end to a great day. See pictures of our bike vacation here.

Fri: Ride - Wine Tasting

We’ve heard about this day from lots of others on the trip…a trip to a local vineyard and olive grove. This special place is owned by a family that runs wine tasting out of a building near their house. We all sat at a huge table (20+) with a few stragglers in the other room to sample terrific red and white wine, several flavors of balsamic vinaigrette, a variety of cheeses, breads, olive oil and appetizers. We had a terrific time and were half popped when we had to leave to ride another 15km back to the hotel. That evening we invited a single visitor, William, to eat dinner with us. Turns out he’s a retired British construction superintendent and talked of his last job renovating Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. We had a great time getting to know each other and enjoying the seafood specialties of the region (NEO had an omelet which was perfect). After dinner the hotel owner collected the photos from all the rider’s group guides and presented a sensational 45 minute slide show (with funny commentary, etc.) and concluded by giving a bottle of wine to a special person in each group (decided by the guide) for being helpful or strong or in one case, pretty =) A special cycling jersey was presented to the strongest rider in the group which turned out to be a very nice Dutchman. See our pictures here.

Sat: Bologna

Today we drove to Bologna, home of the world’s oldest university. We wandered around the streets, looked at the very old buildings, towers and the covered terrazzo sidewalks. After a lovely lunch at a local trattoria complete with wine and pasta, we wandered thru an outdoor goods market that had everything from shoes to sun glasses at flea market prices (we understand they have very good bargains, but didn’t find anything we couldn’t live without). Robert wanted to see the local theatre and it wasn’t open in the afternoon, but it was open for an orchestral concert in the evening. As it turns out, the city of Bologna was appointed a UNESCO City of Music on 29 May 2006 so they were celebrating with a series of free concerts. Afterwards, the streets were packed with people enjoying their weekend and we decided on a fantastic place to eat dinner and followed it up with gelato (yummy!). See the pictures.

Sun: Bellinzona

On our way back home with drove on the A1 in Italy and just before you get to Milan, there is a fantastic Santiago Calatrava bridge spanning the autostrada (unfortunately, I cannot find a suitable photo and we weren’t able to take one either =( We have passed Bellinzona several times on our way back from Italy and have never stopped, so lunchtime looming we stopped for a bite and to check out the town. The city is famous for its three castles (Castelgrande, Montebello, Sasso Corbaro) that are now part of the UNESCO world heritage. We didn’t realize we would need so much time to explore and made a note to make a return visit. Here are the pictures.

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!