A Swiss Day

jigsawed some play props...played a tiring hour of handball during 8th grade PE...biked into Zurich...sat on a bench looking over Zurichsee and the snowcovered Alps...used the extra flap in my new Freitag bag to fit all the groceries from Coop. Tired and happy.

Skiing in Champery

In an effort to keep track of specific places visited, foods eaten and drinks drunk, (and because sometimes I have no idea what to write about, but I know I could document cool experiences) I've decided to ad a bit of format to my vacation-related posts. I figure "Hotel, Restaurant/Food/Drink, Cool Stuff Seen/Heard/Enjoyed" should do it. So here goes:

Spent last weekend in Champery, a town in southwestern Switzerland near the ski resort of Port du Soleil.

Hotel: Le Chalet de Champery, cozy little chalet, made infinitely better by the open bar sans barkeepers all weekend
Food/Drink: Enjoyed good food all weekend, but the aforementioned open bar made drinks the highlight: enjoyed some decent ports, and took my first shot of Appenzell, a Swiss digestiv. Tasted a bit like anisette (sp?), with a medicin-y aftertaste. Then at lunch Sunday, after a few wines, got a free shot of 43% abv pear schnapps. Apparently "no thanks, I'm driving" means "give me a shot of 86 proof liquor" in French.
Oh, also had an awesome meringue dessert at lunch Sunday...see the deliciousness in the pic above
Cool Stuff Seen/Heard/Enjoyed: again, the aforementioned open bar; skied some nice bump runs

Vote for Beaver Stadium

Click here to vote for Beaver Stadium against Texas A&M's Kyle Field. Don't know too much about the site or the competition, but anytime PSU's competing, it's worth a click.

Benelux Minus the "ne"

Just back from a weekend in Belgium & Luxembourg. Decided to drive the 8+ hours each way, as plane tickets were steep (CHF600 for an hour flight) and Kristina was already scheduled to fly up for the week with her job. Long drive for just a weekend, but in the end, worth it. A few thoughts:
-loved the drive through Switzerland, France, Luxembourg & Belgium; lots of beautiful countryside with some interesting sights along the way--plenty of castles & wind farms captured my attention
-laughed as I passed a little French town called Bitche...and I just laughed again as I typed it
-Antwerp is a pretty lively little city; we arrived around 11pm Friday night and immediately felt a fun/hip/alive vibe
-enjoyed two strong beers (~9% abv) after breakfast on Saturday...when in Belgium...
-drank some AWESOME Belgian beers...Westmalle Trappist Tripel, Kapittel, Grimbergen, Brugge Tripel, a fruity Kriek, and a few others; definitely heading back to Belgium at some point just to enjoy the beers again...
-first time ever in Luxembourg, and probably the last; not too exciting; interesting-looking old "walled" city though
-the yellow street lights in Lux & Belgium made the highways look like airport runways on Mars
-Brugge is a fun little town near the northern coast; sometimes referred to as "the Venice of the north" is what I hear...