Germany Day 5

Today was a great day to relax and explore Weninden the Hettinger's town. 

Marc got a special new "du" for the occasion. I love the electric look!

We took a lovely walk through the grounds of the hospital where Michael and Susanne work.

The shopping was great at the farmer's market that springs up in the center of town on Saturdays. 

We stopped for Döner Kabobs as a lunchtime snack. Yummy!

That evening after our afternoon naps we had dinner at a special Bavarian restaurant open only for 4-5 weeks during the grape harvest. It was awesome "hearty & rustic" food.

Germany Day 4

Today, we went to Haar, to visit Peter's aunt, "Tante Heidrun". We were greeted with champagne and a wonderful meal, and then headed into Munich to experience Oktoberfest. Crazy!

We all got steins and had many toasts!

Pete with his cousin Felix outside the infamous Hofbräu Tent.

The highlight of the Oktoberfest for me was the many yummy traditional foods that were available. We tried our best to sample all of them - and take pictures for evidence!

The air their smelled of caramelized sugar - from the candied nuts stands. We had several servings :)

Many people hung this shrink-wrapped decorated cookie with various Oktoberfest messages around there neck.

I had to take a picture of this for mom, who loves carmel apples.

We know the German's are into Bratwurst, but 1/2 meter seems extreme! 

We managed to miss the big rush - the metro station was swamped with people arriving for the festival just as we were leaving. 

Germany Day 3

Peter went to the vineyards, to help a friend of the Hettingers pick grapes.

Here is Jo Steib at lunch - you can see the vineyard and heavy equipment in the background. This isn't Jo's day job he normally works for Diamler-Chrysler, but manages his vineyards as a hobby.

It was a blast ... we picked some really beautiful grapes! The 2 year old vines didn't have a lot of grapes, but the 3 year old ones were CHOCK FULL of luscious clusters.  

Pete looking handsome hard at work :)

After a few hours of fun work, we had a "fesber", which is Swabian for "snack", which really means a massive meal-party in the back of a van :-) We had tasty wines, meats, cheeses, freshly baked breads, etc.etc. ... lots of fun.

What a great cultural experience.

Julie hung out with Susanne, had a restful morning and lots of good conversation. 

Afterwards, we hit the local kid's store (nope we're not pregnant) to get some German kid's books for Julie. We ended up getting about 20!

For dinner, Michael's sister Gabi dropped by, and the kitchen crew made some of the pasta we brought from Italy - yum!! I didn't know pasta could be so tasty by itself! Spoon some chicken tomato sauce over it and accompany it with fresh stir-fry veggies, and you've got a hit! We opened the second bottle of wine gifted to us from the Italian B&B hosts, and it was awesome. Yum!

Germany Day 2

The Hettingers had Jo and Heike Steib and their 3 kids for breakfast and we all had a relaxing morning. The men spent a half hour unloading and stacking a trailer of wood. 

Here is our very cute new nephew.

Here's a close up :)

That evening we hung out with Yana (the girlfriend of Henrick, the man living in the flat below the Hettingers), while the Hettingers and Henrick attended a special meeting for the members of their church planting team. We had a great time visiting beer garden, walking through Waiblingen's medieval town center, and to Café Kafer. 

Doesn't it look surreal? 

Switzerland Day 3, Germany Day 1

Time to wave goodbye to the Alps, and aim for Germany! On the way, we stopped in Bern to see the Zytglogge clock, and the Aar river that runs through Bern. The Aar has a warm place in my (Peter's) heart, since when Christine and I visited Bern 15 years ago, we jumped off of a bridge into the river, got out at a nice meadow and tanned there for a while, visited a museum, and then took the trolly home.

We had to stop for a snack in the town Pforzheim. We found a yummy traditional restaurant and chowed down.

Yummy!

We also stopped at the local Apple store and chatted with the manager and a Christian Ex-Patriot employee. We then hopped back onto the highway, and drove to the Hettingers. Had a tasty dinner, and hit the hay.

Switzerland Day 2

Today, it's off to conquer the Schildhorn! After a tasty breakfast (bread & rolls, cheeses, meats, Muesli, yogurt, fresh fruit, etc.etc.), we drove off in search of the cable car, which would take us to the famous peak featured in a few Bond movies. You actually take a succession of 4 cable cars, which all leave precisely on-time, and quickly whisk you higher and higher, achieving more and more breathtaking views with each passing minute. We were astounded with the beauty.


Here is a reflection of the view off Pete's glasses.

We ate at the rotating restaurant on top of the Schildhorn, and Peter had a "James Bond drink" - vodka martini, shaken, not stirred :-)

We really enjoyed the view from the top of the Schildhorn. We set our camera tri-pod on the edge of the table at the rotating restaurant at the very top of the peak and snapped as we made our way around. We stitched the pictures together and I dusted off my flash skills to put together a fast version of our view over lunch.

It was fun to scramble around in the snow at the top.

We decided to walk part of the way down, instead of taking the Gondola all the way. We saw lots of things along the way.


Here is the cow we saw along the way. I love having flash in the new Adobe suite!!!

Pete had fun running down the mountainside.

Julie had fun enacting the Von Trap Family Dancers, er, Singers, er you get the picture...

We found a funny site along the narrow, one lane road that connects the many little villages on the way to the top. This family had converted a old telephone booth into a roadside shower hut.

Pete desperately wanted to try it out. 

We ate dinner at the "Restaurant des Alpes" (Höheweg 115, 3800 Interlaken) - again a recommendation by Ursula, and again a fantastic find! We had the fondue, yum! Afterwards, she brought a "kirsch" aperitif, which really calmed our full stomaches. We contemplated ordering the chocolate fondue after a brisk walk around the city, but cooler heads prevailed, and we agreed to save it for another visit.

Switzerland Day 1

Time to pack up from our beloved B&B :( Said good-bye to our gracious hosts, and turned our trusty steed towards the mountains. We decided to make a quick detour to Lago di Como:


Onward we trekked. Shortly after crossing the Swiss border, we were greeted by beautiful waterfalls, jagged cliffs, the local welcoming crew:

... and a friendly Swiss police officer who informed us that we needed a 24 Euro "highway pass". A few exits later, we dutifully purchased our sticker, along with a few gigantic triangles of Toblerone to ease the sorrow. As the jaw-dropping scenery became more and more wonderful, we realized what a bargain the 24 € price of admission is!


Please believe us - we are not using backdrops, we promise!

We finally arrived in Interlaken, having survived the gaggle of hairpin turns precisely placed across the beautiful mountains and valleys, and easily found the Rugenstrasse Hotel (ranked #1 of 55 hotels here, on TripAdvisor.com). Ursula, the front-desk worker, was extremely friendly - she explained all the big draws, gave us an excellent restaurant recommendation, showed us 3 rooms to pick from (we chose the one with the view and balcony, which was also closest to the wifi base station :-) ), and she even helped carry our bags in!

We then decided to work up an appetite by walking a few blocks to the restaurant she had recommended, "Restaurant Bären" at 3800 Unterseen - man, what a find! We ordered their cheese fondue and a sauerbraten, and washed it down with their local beer (with the braten) and local white wine (with the fondue). Fantastic!! 20E/pp out the door, what a steal. Then, we decided to do somma bloga updatinga, and here we are!