Christmas Eve Eve road trip

Nothing says Christmas like a road trip.

Our first stop was Colmar which is a small city in the Alsace region of France about 2 and a half hours away from us.  It was spared from destruction during the French Revolution and the World Wars and so has a great cohesive architectural style.  It also has a Christmas market and excellent restaurants.

 

Here is Maisie's arm trying to get the attention of a three week old pygmy goat.

And here is a delicious looking giant pretzel stand.

My personal favorite was the Chocolate Nativity

After a delicious meal and a glass of glühwein we were on our way to Strasbourg

This is a fantastic place with Rhineland black and white timber-framed architecture and this amazing sandstone Gothic Cathedral.  The Christmas market here was huge, delicious and crowded.

This is a local specialty of chicken wrapped in pastry.

Maisie found a couple of Santas.  One was slightly less creepy than the other...

 

Maisie also found some local wild life

The streets were decorated in fabulous style.  My favorite was strung with chandeliers.

We stayed the night at the Soffitel and then hit the market again the next morning (Christmas Eve day).  Here are Michael and Maisie enjoying a delicious cup of Italian style hot chocolate which is more like hot chocolate pudding (yum).  The weather was not as we hoped so after a couple of soggy hours we were back on the road.  This time we were headed for Ronchamp for an architectural pilgrimage.

To be continued....

As Promised

Gary all dressed up

More Christmas photos soon....

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Copenhagen

I have wanted to go to Denmark ever since I saw it in a Richard Scarry book I used to read at my Grandma's house.  Maisie and I finally got to go last week but about 12 hours after landing, an unscheduled flu took hold of me and kept me in bed for the first 48 hours of our visit.  Fortunately, we were staying with the family of the friends we were traveling with so Maisie had someone to look after her and an amazing house full of kind people and animals to keep her occupied while I tried to recover.

This is my friend Helle and her sister Eva.  Eva runs a B&B from her giant, beautiful home north of Copenhagen where we stayed.  Just before my 48 hour hibernation began, we took her dogs for a walk through the woods beyond their property.

So beautiful.  Love the green, mossy trees.

The house has an honest to goodness thatched roof that was so cool.

This is Nina (Maisie's friend from school) and Maisie with our host's Mastiff, Hermes.

Here are a few more of our hosts...

On day three I was well enough to get out of bed so Helle took us all to Tivoli Gardens which is the oldest amusement park in Europe right in the center of Copenhagen.

It was 30 degrees and snowing so the girls did their best to enjoy themselves.  It was a really fun place and surprisingly busy considering the weather.

The lines weren't too long so the girls were able to have their choice of the rides.  Their favorite was "The Tower" which is one of those rides that takes you to the top of a structure then "drops" you.  As a parent, it's difficult to watch!

Below is the lake in the center of the park.  I loved the lights on the willow trees.

After we'd had all the amusement park we could take, we headed to the main square downtown to do some shopping.  There were lots of police but no protesters so we could shop in peace.  There was lots going on, several eco-friendly info kiosks and green info.  It was a cool atmosphere.

Hopefully we'll make a return trip soon.  I'd love to see more of this city!

O Christmas Tree

Well, it's been three consecutive years where I didn't have to ruin Christmas by cursing at the Christmas tree because I couldn't get it to stand up straight.  The most difficult bit this year was getting a consensus among the three of us on which tree was best.  Maisie won because she named the tree she liked and then once she named it, we really couldn't walk away because now he's family.

Introducing...... Gary (no relation to Uncle Gary)

Michael did an excellent job of helping him stand up straight

Maisie did an excellent job helping too

The two M's and Gary

The two girls leaning away.

We're not used to having a tree stand up so straight!  We've decorated him since but haven't taken any photos.  We'll post those soon.  In the meantime, Maisie and I will be taking a quick trip to Copenhagen this weekend.  I'll try to take some good photos to share.

Enjoy the Holiday Season everyone!

Autumn walk

I thought I'd better get this post up since it's the last day of November and the weather here is quickly changing to full on winter!  It's raining today where we are at 400 meters but at just 600 meters it's all snow.  Hooray!!

Anyway,  last week I took a walk along a narrow path up to this beautiful, tiny chapel that is built into the rocky mountainside above our town.  I am always amazed at these locations and try to imagine the manpower it took to get the materials up to these building sites.  It looks like this place just required lots of good carving skills.

This is the start of the path.  It's a warning about falling rocks...

Below is the widest part of the path.  Lots of leaves to make it nice and slippery...

More climbing...

and more climbing...

finally made it to the top...

There is a very dark and narrow passage way between the church and the mountain.  In this creepy tunnel I found this...

I guess if you are brave enough to make the climb, enter the dark tunnel, and walk through that 

door then you're brave enough to accept any punishment your sins may warrant.

When you get to the other side of the passageway you can see how the church hugs the cliff.

and then you get the view of the east side of town into the Rhone valley

Hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did.

Saint Martin's Fair

Yesterday I went with friends to the La foire de Saint Martin's in Vevey.  This fair has been held every November 11th since 1496 .

It is really a giant market filled with delicious food and fun shopping.  The weather wasn't so great but at least we didn't get rained on like last year.  We shopped and then had a lunch of pumpkin & carrot soup with some quiche.  Below is a before and after photo of what some of the other market-goers were eating....

Before:  An entire cow on a spit (9:30 am)

After:  Nothin' but bones (1:30 pm)

In a strange juxtaposition, there was also an exhibit of farm animals.  Typically in Switzerland, the dairy cows wear these beautiful bells.  You can sometimes find them for sale at markets but these were just on display.  Aren't they so pretty?  These are so large I think they might be prize bells.

This was my favorite cow.  I didn't tell her anything about what happened to the one in the previous photos.

Lunch

I felt like posting something today but since we haven't been on an exotic vacation in like, three whole weeks (I'm sure you're all wondering how I cope) I don't have any new photos so I'm going to post Maisie's lunch menu for the week.

This is all prepared fresh in the school kitchen by a chef who moonlights as a clown.  What could be better than that?  And yes, I've considered sending a tupperware to school with Maisie so she can bring home her leftovers!

Bon appétit everyone.