Adventure 22.0: Back in the USA

July 22 thru July 31, 2011,

It was time to head for home to visit the family.

First stop was VA Beach to visit my best friend. Of course we went to the beach, caught up on all the good gossip, and played a crazy game of apple to apples.

The second stop was major shopping! I haven't bought any clothes since being here, so I took an empty suitcase back with me.

The third stop was a WTG party. You remember those from last year. Well this was my picks for wine from the Bordeaux region. It was so great to catch up with everyone.

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The final stop was home sweet home. My Ma cooked my favorite meal. We went hiking to the Little Grand Canyon with my nephews. Dinner with my grandparents. We watched my nephews play T-Ball. This was hysterical! And finally it was off to my cousins wedding to catch up with the entire family all in one stop.

This is the short and sweet version. I don't have much time to write and I'm sure you don't have much time to read.

Purchased on the Lyon France trip.
This bottle uncorked itself in the heat of NC

From the Entre deux Mers region of Bordeaux
Purchased at Total Wine for $15-20

I visited this Chateu while in Bordeax.
Purchased at Total Wine for $10-15

From the Medoc region in Bordeaux.
Purchased at the Wine Merchant for $30-40

I honestly can't rember drinking this wine.

The Riddler
Sibbling of my favorite The Prisoner.
This is excellent wine, from CA and only $20.

Adventure 21.0: The Redlight District in the Rain

July 17, 2011

Today I went to Zurich to check out some museums. I have been avoiding Zurich because I've heard "it's just another city", "it's expensive", "it is not traditional Swiss culture". I had 3 museums picked out: Ethnographic Museum, Anthropology Museum, Archaeology Museum. I found 1 of the 3 museums, the Ethnographic. It was small and had a nice exhibit about the making of cermanics in China. The exhibit was made up of mostly videos so I didn't have to read much. The other exhibit was about the people of Java. The other place I went was the Archaeology building at the University of Zurich. This was also quite nice.

The finally stop of the day was a super quick 1 hour tour of the Swiss National Museum. They had so much stuff in there! My favorite things were the old Apoteke from the 1800's and the history of the Swiss traditional clothing.

After the first 2 places and before the Swiss Museum, I found a giant spider and then I tried to find the Archaeology Museum. I wrote down the street and name had typed it into my Crackberry. I was following the directs and I thought I was on the right street. Soon I was seeing many bars....then strip clubs...the more strip clubs....and more and more. Finally I saw what I know was a hooker. She was standing in a door way looking like she was ready to pounce some prey. Short, like see cheeks short, skirt, corsette type shirt, lace bra sticking out the top, and some tall black boots. I walked around the corner and found a Kabap shop with what looked like a few more hookers hanging out. I was quick to try and find my way out of that place. A few hours later after talking to a friend I was told I had been in the largest Redlight district in Switzerland. Now that is an adventure!

  

Adventure 20.0: Appenzell to Seealpsee

July 9, 2011

Today I decided to head to Appenzell. I was unsure of what the weather would be, so I didn't want to commit to hiking. However, I'm going home soon for a wedding and I needed a gift. Appenzell was the perfect place to buy a Swiss gift as they have many touristy shops. I took the long way to Appenzell so I could drop by St. Gallen and get a Starbucks. I wandered around Appenzell for about 1 1/2 hours. I ate a Brotchen and some Fleisch mit Blumen for lunch. It was sehr gut. There was a real gypsy caravan in town. This is something I had never seen before. And I was a little disappointed that the brewery was not open. I would have loved to have down a tour and tasting. Then it was back to the train station.

I bought my ticket and the board said 3B for the track number. I point out the track number because apparently I still can't read after all of these years. (Remember the confuse going to France when I ended up in a completely wrong town due to a 'B' and a 'P') So I get on the train that is waiting there. At 12:30 I'm wondering why my train hasn't left. I watch another train leave and wait 5 more minutes and my train still hasn't left yet. Then I walk off of the train and realize that I got on the train on track 3A not 3B. Oops, so now I wait for the next train. While I'm waiting I check out some pamphlets and find so excellent maps for all of the hiking trails.

I took the train to Wasserauen and then started my hike to Seealpsee. The hike was a bit steep but well worth the effort. Along the way I passed many cows grazing, lots of people, and lots of dogs. One of the things I love about the Swiss culture is that they don't let anything stop them from hiking. These people take baby hiking, dogs, little kids, big kids, their parents, their grandparents. In the US, I rarely see families out hiking unless it is a 1/2 mile walk that is all flat.

The view at the crest of the hill was breathtaking. It reminded me so much of my trips to Banff in Canada. Is there anything more beautiful than a lake up in the mountains? I think not. And with hiking always comes a talk with God. For as you know, I rarely find God in church over here. I walked around the lake, up the mountain a little further, back down to the lake. I played in the water which was so refreshing after sweating my butt off going up the hill. I almost got drenched in manure by a farmer spreading cow poo. The final stop before heading down was the little restaurant on the lake. Here I ate a giant ice cream sunday. Then it was back down the hill to catch the train home.

 

 

On the train back, I met some old guys from Munich, Germany. We had a 1/2 hour conversation in mostly German and I understood at least 75% of it. I felt pretty good about this. But after all, High German is so much easy to understand that Swiss German. Then it was back home for a quick shower and I headed out to Stadtfest in the next town over for some wine and spaghetti with good friends. Cheers!

Adventure 19.0: St. Gallen Open Air

Samstag, Juli 2, 2011

This weekend was St. Gallen Open Air. 3 days of outdoor concerts. I only went for 1 day. The big headliners were Linken Park and Hurts. I really like Hurts and Linken Park was ok. I saw many people I knew and had these 1/2 Deutsch 1/2 English conversations aka Genglish.

Early in the day. No bands playing.
Take note of the yellow balloon in the top right corner

These are the "Pink Ladies" of Switzerland.

The 2 things circled are the yellow balloons.
They showed up in so many of my pictures.

This is the famous yellow balloon and
one of the sponsors of the festival ~ Schutzengarten
aka - Shitsengarden

Adventure 18.0: Velo Fahren nach Rapperswil

Samstag, Juni 25, 2011

Heute bin ich Velo fahren in Rapperswil. Das Tag war sonnig und warm. Ich mache viele photos.