Switzerland is Gorgeous....and Cold!

Yesterday we had a little bit of a down day with shopping in Rothenburg. Specifically we spent about 2 hours looking through the Kathe Wolfhart christmas stores. They also have a History of Christmas Musuem as many of our Christmas customs originiated in Germany. We had another awesome dinner and followed that with a night tour of Rothenburg.
















It's led by a night watchman who tells many stories of the city. Lora feels that Jeff missed his calling and should probably start a night watchman tour in Saratoga or Los Gatos. The night watchman gets 6 Euro (~$9) per person for the tour and last night there were at least 70 people on the tour....not a bad night's pay.

Today we arrived in Switzerland and are staying with our friends Bruno and Brigitta. Bruno met us on the highway as we entered the Swiss border and escorted us through the scenic Mountainous area known as Appenzell. It's like a cross between New Hampshire and Glacier National Park in Montana. It's beautiful but also cold up on the mountain tops.








Huge mountains and a green landscape seem to be everywhere you look and would make remarkable postcards.





Tonight Bruno and Brigitta are hosting us for dinner with a traditional Swiss meal called Raclette. Will let you know what that is in the next post :-)

The "Great Wall" of Rothenburg

Today we arrived in Rothenburg after a very nice stay with Gaby in Bensheim. Gaby hosted us and was an awesome hostess for the two nights we were there. She cooked us a few homemade German meals. Sauerbraten and red cabbage were our favorites...different than anything in the states. Lora wants to get the recipes so she can try to tackle making these for us sometime. We also did lots of hiking with Gaby through the surrounding area with one hike having the greatest destination of all...a beer and wine shack overlooking the Benshiem area.

All hikes should lead to a place that serves beer and wine! It is walnut season so while we hiked we scoured the ground for walnut shells that we could take back to Gaby's and crack open.

Lora found a great number so she thinks she came close to replenishing the number she ate.

We decided to take a more scenic route through the hills to our next destination of Rothenburg (about 2 hours away) and along the way we avoided a major accident. We were driving through an intersection and clearly had the right of way, but a car that was stopped to make a left turn began inching his way out into our lane. I had a feeling he didn't see us coming so luckily I had slowed a bit. I was able to swerve into the other lane and avoid him. After driving the insane streets of Paris and the super narrow single lane roads of the small German towns, who would have thought our closest call would come on a country road in the middle of nowhere!

First stop in Rothenburg was a restaurant for beer and lunch. We then walked all around the Old City walls to get a little exercise and a nice overview of the city. Melissa, you may have walked some of the Great Wall of China this summer, but we walked the entire city wall of Rothenburg! Tonight when it gets dark, we will take a tour of the city with the "Night Watchman" who will stop at many places throughout the town and tell us stories of their significance. Should be a different sort of experience than anything we have done thus far or ever will get to do again. These small towns try to think of clever ways to entertain the tourists and we do feel they have mostly been successful with keeping us busy and entertained.

Love to all,

Kevin and Lora

More Pics...

View from our hotel in Bacharach:



















Sir Martha, preparing for battle




















Walking the streets of Trier at night:














Teaching the parents how to travel in the 21st century:














Hoping to hear a confessional, but getting NOTHING!:

Germany Pictures

We are in Bensheim visiting Gabby and found some time to stop at an internet cafe that allows Wi-Fi. Below are some pics from Germany both the Mosel and Rhein river valleys.


The people of Germany have been extremely friendly. In Beilstein we were wlking aroudn town looking for a place to eat and were stopped by an older gentleman asking if we needed any help. Turns out he was Dutch and living in Ireland. He walked aroudn the town giving advice on where to eat and had some words of wisdon along the way. "If you don't see the dew drops on the flower, you've missed the flower". He said his Father was part of the Dutch resistance during WWII and because of that he felt the need to help us in any way he could out of respect to his Father the American soldiers that fought for their freedom.


In Oberwesel we were looking for parking and stopped in front of a house in a residential area of town. An old lady knocked on the window and offered us her personal parking pass to park there for a couple of hours. She did not speak English so Mother Tourista pulls out her English-German dictionary and points to the phrase dealing with parking. This type of kindess has been very prevalant at all our German stops thus far.

This was at a Champagne Cooperative Winery in France (H.Blin):



This is a medieval torturing device...looks like something Jeff would make for his back.

This is my favorite picture of the trip, Clock tower at evening as well as a great pic of a Chalice in front of the Oberwesel town hall:

We're back Online!

We've had to resort to an internet cafe as we've had no luck with wi-fi in the Mosel Valley. So sorry but no pictures with this post. We promise pictures soon! (Updated with Pictures!)

We've loved our stay so far in Germany exploring the different wines and towns of the Mosel and Rhine River areas. We've really found an appreciation for Riesling wines and even learned a little bit of German trying to interpret the labels. We still rely on Mom for speaking for the most part. Ja! Lora has discovered her German heritage with her enjoyment of the food and Kevin feels that German food is severely underrated.

Castles, Castles and more Castles! Burg Eltz was the first one along the way and was the most spectacular. It's tucked away in a little valley that required a nice mile long hike down to the castle...down wasn't the problem. We've seen countless more along the Mosel and Rhine rivers but only toured one other Castle, Marksburg.

Hiking back up from Burg Eltz:

We've stopped for the night in a "quaint" little German village called Bacharach and found a really nice hotel for the night. Tomorrow it's off to Bensheim to visit a family friend for a couple of nights. It will be wonderful to have an inside tour of a town...not that Rick Steve's, aka Marty aka Mother Tourista, hasn't been doing a terrific job but she's due for a break.

A week has flown by and Lora montioned she has already begun to forget Paris. in Lora speak that means we'll be heading back in the near future. By the way, please send cash, the wine fund is running low :-)

Auf Wiedersehen!

Au Revior Paris

Our last day in Paris was a very busy but still relaxing day. We started the day by going to a local street market to grab supplies for lunch. We found some great cheese and bread and purchased a couple of half bottles of wine.








After the market it was off to Napoleon's Tomb.






















Lunch was a picnic in a park with the Eiffel tower in the background as we sipped our wine, ate our cheese and enjoyed the perfect late summer weather.




















Found a wonderful dinner where Lora was surpised by the presentation of her fish. You can see by the pictures she was nervous to eat it but must have liked it in the end. She might be getting used to having her food stare her down while she eats it.

After dinner we made our way to the Eiffel tower to go to the top and see the city lights. On the way there we were crossing a bridge and ran into one of Lora's co-workers and his wife. Such a small world! They joined us on our trek to the Eiffel tower and brought us up to date on their travels to Italy.


The Eiffel tower at night is not something to be missed. It was all lit up in blue and as we started walking towards it the lights started blinking all over the tower. This went on for about 10 minutes and appears to happen every hour at night.

We are on our way to Germany tomorrow and will update when we can. We've been very fortunate with the wi-fi in our hotel and hope we will find similar access along the way.

Hope all is well.

Love,
Kevin and Lora

Major sites (Check)

Today was a very productive day as we crossed off many of the must see sites of Paris. We started the day at the Louvre and saw as much art as we'd ever like to see. We then headed out to Basilique de Saint-Denis to view the many French Kings buried in the Cathedral. From there it was a metro ride to the Arc De Triomphe. Then we walked down to the Eiffel Tower and did some people watching. We met up with my parents for dinner at a local's only restaurant and had a spectacular meal. Here are some more pics as requested. We have one more night in Paris and then head out towards Germany.

Applied Physics (Grade - F)

Today started with a litte refresher course for me on voltage conversion. As we knew before the trip- MUST purchase a dual voltage hair dryer to use in Europe. Well I had a "Jessica Simpson" moment (as Meli and I like to call it) and thought I had to set the hairdryer on the lower voltage of 125 instead of the higher voltage of 250. It became clear when I increased the resistance by moving to a higher speed that my High School Physics background failed me. OOPS!! I may have blown out my hairdryer and also the plug in the room... we are yet to know for sure. Kevin had to call the front desk and try to communicate that our power went out and we needed them to check the breaker switch. It was fixed and after the guy came to make sure it was all working okay, we heard him let out a big sigh as if saying "oh crazy Americans!" It was all too funny. Kevin failed to find as much humor in it as me though (He does now!). I told him to lighten up!

After that little fiasco we had a nice breakfast; the staple around here- coffee and french bread/croissants. We then headed out to tackle the Metro and make our way to the Musee d'Orsay to check out LOTS of art! About 1.5 hours is all we could take before having brain overload so we found a little cafe and had some lunch. Without much else planned we decided to just walk and try to find Fauchon a high end gourmet shop with lots of wine, pate, chocolate, meats etc. Fun to look around, but way to pricey to actually buy something there. I was thinking of getting some gifts to bring home but then decided I couldn't spend close to 100 bucks on some little chocolate truffles. Sorry!! I'll still find some good chocolates to bring home! I promise! ;-)

We stopped to relax in a park and also walked around the gardens surrounding the Louvre. Lots of people watching, which is always excellent. Kev has had a blast taking many pics trying to teach himself how to be a pro photographer. Marty has expressed her worry that if he is not careful he may miss out on seeing it all in person by hiding behind the lens. haha!

Tonight we are going to check out the Eiffel Tower after dinner. We've been wanting to see it all lit up and hopefully get to the top to see all the city lights. I think we'll have to for sure check it out during the day too!

Until tomorrow! Au Revoir!

Bonjour!

A word of advice for anyone who wishes to visit Paris. DO NOT RENT A CAR! Luckily, we did not rent a car but took an airport shuttle to our hotel. Despite this it appeared we still almost died at several points along the way. We were amazed at the chaos of driving through the narrow city streets of Paris with no dicernable lines indicating lanes.

I do not look forward to picking up and driving our rental car out of Paris in a few days....it will be an adventure! Jan and Mel, am I still in in Good Hands with Allstate?

We have adjusted well to Parisian life. Hotel is very cute. Lunch was great, Ham and Cheese on a French Baquette never tasted better. We toured the Notre Dame Cathedral and enjoyed a pleasant carefree stroll through the streets of Paris.

We are recharging and preparing for a wonderful dinner before calling it an early night. Overall jet lag has not been too bad...ask us tomorrow.

The Night Before

We are both very excited to begin the trip and wish we could go without packing. It's the night before and we are busy finalizing all the last minute details. As you can see by the picture, there are some space limitations after the first packing revision that need to be overcome before we are able to begin the journey.

Since we will be traveling with 4 adults in one mid-size car there is no room for extra luggage and therefore some tough decisions must be made. Of course Lora is eyeing the free space in my suitcase right now so those decisions may be already made and I am yet to be informed. (As Lora just mentioned, "I didn't know those loading straps in the bag even worked")

Our flight leaves at 6:30am from San Jose and we connect through Minneapolis, MN. We arrive at 7:20am Paris time on the 18th. Hopefully we'll get some sleep on the plane as we'll need to have a productive day without napping to help adjust and eliminate the jet lag.

Given that it is 10:00pm and we are not done packing and will need to be at the airport by 5:30am....sleeping on the plane doesn't sound too hard right now :-)

Au Revoir!

ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed...Oh My!

Our new Camera arrived in the mail yesterday and we've entered the world of Digital SLR's in preparation for our trip. I researched and sought out advice from friends on what to buy and decided on a good entry level SLR from Nikon, the Nikon D40. The Nikon D40 is an older SLR and only has 6 MegaPixels but came highly recommended by people who are really into photography.

Evidently 6 MP's is fine for printing out 12 x 18 prints but nothing larger. It may also limit the ability to crop pictures which just means I'll have to become an expert on Photo Composition between now and our trip.

I ended up getting a great deal on eBay for the camera without the lens and purchased an upgraded lens, Nikon 18-55mm with Vibration Reduction (VR) technology. VR helps stabilize the image and allows you to shoot with slower shutter speeds in lower light situations without the use of a tripod. I'll probably end up getting a 55-200mm telephoto lens also to help get those close up shots.

As you all can imagine, Lora is excited about learning how to use the camera too because there is no way she's going to be the only one in all the photos from our trip.

Now if I can only become an expert photographer in two weeks we are set!

Sabbatical Approaching!!!!

The countdown to the start of my first sabbatical at Intel has begun. My last day of work will be Sept 16th and then Lora and I headoff to Europe with my parents for a sure to be adventurous trek through Europe :-) We are excited to go and spend the time with my parents who have taken the lead on the planning of the trip. Without them, our European travels never would have gotten off the ground.

I've posted a map of the places we will be going and an approxomite timeline. (About 1200 miles of driving in ~3 weeks)

A-B. Paris, France (Sept. 18-22)
C. Trier, Germany (Sept. 22)
D. Beilstein, Germany (Sept. 23)
E. Cochem, Germany (Sept. 24)
F. Oberwesel, Germany (Sept. 25)
G. Bensheim, Germany (Sept. 26-27)
H. Rothenburg, Germany (Sept. 28-29)
I. Zurich, Switzerland (Sept. 30 - Oct 1)
J. Colmar, France (Oct. 2-3)
K. Beaune, France (Oct. 4-5)
L. Vezelay, France (Oct. 6)
M. Somewhere close to Paris????? (Oct. 7)
Paris, France (Oct. 8) Heading Home @ 12:45pm