Beaune Journey

Bon Journee (Bohn Zhour-nay) is the French way of saying "have a nice day."

We had a couple of nice days visiting the very heart of the Burgundy wine region, Beaune, France. A couple of hours drive from Lausanne, we checked out the hotels in town (there are lots of expensive rooms....most of them fully booked) and decided to say at a tourist friendly (read tour busses stop here) Best Western. In the course of doing her research, Therese learned that the local chateaus don't really like or allow "drop-in" tourists on wine tasting tours. The chateaus here, if they do open, do so only on appointment and typically expect you to spend a fair bit on a fair bit of their offerings.

So we weren't quite sure what to expect and headed out through the valley south of the Jura mountain range and into another beautiful medieval town in the midst of a beautiful valley.


When leaving Beaune on the way south, upon reaching the city limits and into the Cote d'Or, I was struck by the fact that it looks exactly like leaving Tualatin, Oregon and heading into the wine country of the Willamette Valley of Oregon. See what you think.





While in Beaune, one of the must see sites is the Hospices de Beaune. This is a mercy hospital that has been beautifully maintained over the centuries. It was constructed by a wealthy lord who wanted to secure his salvation (and that of other benefactors who wanted the same) by providing medical care and a dignified death to those less fortunate. This magnificent structure is in pristine conditions where the treatement rooms are nearly as perfect as they once were. Among its unique characteristics is the colorful tile roof.....which have since come to be associated with this region of France.

Every year, the finest of Burgundy's wines are auctioned off at the most famous wine auction in the world.....the Hospices de Beaune wine auction. This auction literally raises millions of dollars annually and is so influential that the organization has it's own exclusive collection of chateaus which provide their wines. Very exclusive club indeed.

OK, the big thing we wanted to figure out was the wine scene. As mentioned, we already learned that wine tasting American Style wasn't going to happen. So one thing I did was call up a winery in Oregon where we have been wine club members, Domaine Drouhin-which is run by one of the most prominent Burgundy families. Grandfather Joseph was one of the largest landowners in Burgundy and possesses one of the most exclusive names among Burgundy wines. His daughter Veronique is the winemaker at Domaine Drouhin and she makes fabulous Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines. So, I called the wine club to see if they could set up a tasting for us, which they unfortunately could not. Which turns out to be a good thing. Joseph Drouhin Cortonne Bressandes Grand Cru retails for 200 Euro or about $300 a bottle.

We were also a bit taken aback by the people, quite frankly. Perhaps because we now observe Europeans more closely (every day vs. once in awhile on vacation or business trips) we are noticing lots of differences. Until now, we had very few bad experiences in France. But the people here seemed.......well.....a bit snobby. Just little things like the way they talk or deal with you (in perfect English) but making it clear they didn't really like the whole idea. So that was disappointing to say the least. We did enjoy the local cuisine (escargots and Beef Bourguignon), however.

OK back to the wines. We did go to Le Marche de Vins, which is about the only place for the tourist to go to taste the local vintages. Here they give you what you might call a traditional tasting vessel (a small, thin tin cup used by experts in tasting-which should tell you something about how they feel about novice wine drinkers in Burgundy) and a chance to sample one vintage from each sub-region in Burgundy.

Without getting into it, suffice to say that understanding wines in France is a complex undertaking. Burgundy epitomizes that. Let me try to explain the complexities in a simple way.
-Wines in France are named for their location, not their vintage
-Bordeaux wines are Cabernet-Merlot (oversimplified explanation I know thanks wine snobs)
-Burgundy wines are Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
-Rhone wines are Gamay and Syrah
-Champagne is a region-where the bubbly stuff comes from

And then there are the sub-regions
-Bordeaux: Medoc, haut Medoc, St. Emillion, Margaux, etc.
-Burgundy: Cote de Beaune, Cote de Nuits, etc.

It turns out that in Bourdeaux, there are lots of smaller chateaus (boutique wineries to you and me) that welcome tourists and others as they attempt to make a market for their wines in a region famous for the most famous of all wines. In Burgundy, they don't suffer this situation. There are NO boutique wineries here, and there is no need to make a market (Hospices de Beaune acution, etc), and therefore there are NO good wine buys to be found in Burgundy. Much like a good Pinot in the US is minimally $30, a good burgundy is going to cost you some money (average, and I mean average quality Burgundy is $70). And Pinot is either really great (which in this case means expensive) or horribly average (not that good to drink). whereas you can get an average priced Bordeax which makes a very good table wine.

So the fun of wine tasting eluded us, but we found other stuff to do.

The highlight of our time in Beaune itself was a trip to a local patisserie.

Here we found a wonderful warm baguette (you never knew bread could taste this good or be so much better than other bread you have had before), an apple pastry that Therese absolutely loved. She's still talking about it.












And as much as I hate to admit it, but we do consult Rick Steves' alot before we go someplace. His information is straight-forward, concise and always spot-on. He recommended a trip to Brancion to visit a medieval village wonderfully preserved on a beautiful hilltop in the Beaune valley which contains a marvelous example of Romanesque architecture. This did not disappoint. Weather was delightful, the trip through the castle was very informative and the town, the people (they had to make a market so they were friendly-this place is out of the way) and church were magnificent. There are few examples where an entire fortified town still remains and this sits atop a beautiful hill with what were very strategic views in all directions.

Helsinki

HELSINKI

Once Marc was on his way back to Switzerland, Kelly and I had some time to kill in Stockholm before our cruise ship left for Helsinki (more about that later) We decided to find our way to the Vasa Museum to view a ship that had sunk in the Stockholm harbour on her maiden voyage in August 1628. The mighty war ship had 65 guns and approximately 150 peope on board, mostly seamen, but also some family members. The wreck was salvaged in 1961 after 333 years under the sea! The reconstructed vessel, 95 percent original, is splendidly adorned with hundreds of carved sculptures. It is hard to explain how impressive this massive ship was at first sight and to see it displayed in this huge darkened room. I felt like we in the Pirates of Carribean at Disnyland.

Kelly and I boarded our ship for the 14 hour ride over to Helsinki. There are two different cruise lines to choose from over to Helsinki and apparently we chose the wrong one! I guess I can blame that one on Kelly. We soon discovered that we were on the cheaper party boat for all of the young 20 year olds, or people who were definitely on a very tight budget. It was the motel 6 of travel, barf in the bathroom and all. To make matters worse, our room was under both car decks down in the bowel of the ship. Not the best experience for my first cruise ship ride, but Kelly and I made the most of it and had a good laugh. I stayed up on deck in a tacky bar playing cards with Kelly as long as I could before I finally had to make it down to the lower decks and crawl into my tiny bed. Our room was under water and I finally fell asleep listening to the engine and the rocking of the boat over every wave.

While in Helsinki, we took a bus tour of the beautiful city. The architecture was beautiful. I guess it is compared to that of St. Petersburg in Russia. We ended up having two very nice dinners while there at Michelin restaurants. Everyone speaks English in this part of the world, so it makes it very easy to get around (unlike Lausanne). The people are all very kind and helpful also.

ESTONIA

From Helsinki we boarded another cruise liner over to Estonia. This ride was only 3 hours and we got a very nice table at the front of the ship by the huge windows. It was still light out, so we could see the beautiful coast line as we left and watched the sun go down. We stayed in the capital city of Tallin. Our small hotel built in the 14th century was in the center of the

beautiful Medieval Old Town.


The old town has twisting cobblestone lanes, iron street lamps, gothic spires and medieval churches. The town hall was first mentioned as early as 1322. Large portions of the old wall with three medieval towers still exist.

Kelly, myself and one other person took a 3 hour walking tour with our private guide. She was a local and has spent her whole life here. They claimed their independance from Russia in the 1980's. Besides their native tongue, they start learning English and Russian in the second grade. Once they reach 10th grade, they can choose a language of their choice. That means that most people speak four languages!
After two lovely relaxing days in Tallin, we headed for home. We had to time our departure, since Baltic airlines only comes to Tallin every three days. I hate to fly and taking off in a snow storm is not one of those things I look forward to. I just say to myself, I am here and must face my fears! Our flight home turned out to be pleasant, especially with Marc waiting for us at the end of our journey.

Therese

Scandinavia (Stockholm-Helsinki-Tallinn)

Our son Kelly began another trip this September, starting in Norway. After spending some time very far north in Tromso (look it up) well above the Arctic Circle, he came down to Stockholm where we decided to meet him for a weekend, and the he and Therese would go over to Helsinki and on to Tallinn, Estonia. I have been to both Stockholm and Helsinki and thus I knew you could take an overnight cruise between Stockholm and Helsinki, and also knew you could take a short cruise over to the lovely medieval town of Tallinn, Estonia.


We left Geneva early on Saturday morning October 10th , Kelly meeting us at the Stockholm airport mid-morning. We learned that the poor guy couldn't find a room anywhere in Stockholm the night before (Hostels, that is) and thus he pretty much partied all night with the locals in Gamla Stan (the old town island) and then had to crash in the airport.


So we collected him up, went to the Radisson SkyCity hotel at the airport, let him take a shower and catch a nap while Therese and I took the train into central Stockholm.











We have few pictures of our first day in Stockholm because in the middle of a tour of the Royal Palace Apartments, Therese announced that she needed to go the hospital. So we ran to a pharmacy, found out what bus to take to the airport, what the name of the hospital was (Swedish isn't the most intuitive language) and spent the rest of the afternoon in a Swedish hospital emergency room. They're pretty much the same everywhere and no, it was not free. But we got some antibiotics and Therese improved quickly.


































Next

Sisters

First of all, I have a list of a few sights that I MUST see before I leave Europe and head for home. The list goes like this: The Last Supper in Milano, Assissi, home of St. Francis in Tuscany, one of the concentration camps in Poland or Germany and Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. I have successfully seen one of those sights with my sister Peggy.

Read on.... My sister Peggy arrived for her 10 day visit on Sunday, Sept. 20th. Sundays here in Lausanne are very quiet since most businesses are closed, something we do not experience in the United States any longer. We took this opportunity to walk our quiet city, meandering along the cobble stone streets, walking thru the beautiful gothic Cathedral and drinking in the beautiful view of the city just out side of the Cathedral doors.

The next morn, we hit the ground running. Marc joined us on our 1 hour train ride to the capital city of Bern. We took the 2 hour walking city tour. After lunch we joined in on a tour of the inside workings of the clock tower. Built in the 12th century, served as a women's prison in 1405 and the astronomical clock was added in the 16th century. The clock shows not only the time, but also the day of the week, position of the planets and signs of the zodiac. Also unique about the city are the series of eleven 16th century fountains with colorful figures, landmarks of medieval Bern.

Tues. morn. off to Stresa, Italy. I even drove the car by myself! We were a little worried getting lost in a foreign country, but thank heavens for GPS, we call her "bitching betty". She guided us right to our hotel which sat on the banks of beautiful Lake Maggoire. Our room over looked the water and we enjoyed two peaceful days shopping, eating and drinking our way thru the quaint town. Peggy was laughing because the owners of several of the shops recognized me from my prior visits. We spent the first afternoon in my favorite little wine shop. It is family run and the owners made us comfortable with a plate of cheese, meats, bread, olives, oil and of course wine. We left fully loaded down with olive oil, wine and the fabulous pear liqueur. Before we left the owner gave me her card with her number and was told to come over in the winter and she will open up the shop and share a bottle of wine with us. It is nice feeling like a "regular" somewhere on this foreign journey I am on.

On our final day in Italy we took the hour and half train ride into Milano. The morning was spent at the famous museum, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. It houses the world's most astounding collection of Leonardo's writings and the only remaining "cartoon" of Raphael's famous fresco, The School of Athens, which he painted in the Pope's apartment in the 1400's. By far the most incredible moment was standing in front of the famous "Last Supper". Leonardo's masterpiece painted on a refectory wall in a Donminica convent next to the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. It brought tears of emotion to my eyes. Who would have ever thought I would have the opportunity to see this masterpiece! Can't wait to see it reenacted again at the Pageant of the Master's in Laguna Beach. The day in Milano ended with our tour bus leaving us behind! It was 6:05pm, we had no idea where we were and we had a little over an hour to catch our train back to Stresa. After trying in vain to catch a cab, we decided to start walking and try to figure out where we were with this little crappy map we had in the back of my tour book. Thankfully, we happened upon a taxi stop area and took a 40 min. ride back to the train station. We ended the wonderful day eating dinner on a little side street in stresa at 9:30 at night.

The rest of the trip was spent enjoying dinner on our patio looking at the Alps and sun setting on Lake Geneva, eating chicken dinner at a restaurant among the vineyards in a small village and enjoying beautiful Luzern with our private 3 hour walking tour. I sent Peggy home with sore feet, sore knees and blisters on her feet. But hey, they don't call Lausanne the San Francisco of Europe for nothing!

Absence

For those of you that care, apologies for the long absence. Blogging takes a degree of dedication and not a small investment of time and I have been too busy to look after this. I had a business trip to Arizona which Therese of course decided to join me to look after the house and get a taste of home. She stayed longer (kept the camera) and I came back to things being hectic at Honeywell and the result is that we are behind. Gonna do our best to catch up.

.......Till the Cows Come Home...... (literally)!

Okay people. You thought the cows in India have it good. Well, I can tell you India is like cow ghetto compared to Switzerland. Switzerland is Beverly Hills. I will explain as we go but a picture is worth a thousand words so for starters check this out.

This is literally a picture of the cows coming home. Or more correctly, the cows are being brought down from their summer pastures by the farmers and their families and paraded through town on their way to winter pastures.

This is a major big deal here. We went to Charmey-a beautiful little town in the Fribourg canton (one of the mountain cantons) in the vicinity of Gruyeres (famous for the cheese). The town has a big festival with the usual food tents, craft booths, etc. all over the place. And the parade lasts all day long. Really. There are breaks between the herds and bands and other participants and a long lunch break, but literally this thing begins at 9:30 with the first herd of cows and then ends with a running of the sheep (sort of a tame version of the running of the bulls at Pamplona) through town and ends around 4:30 pm. And everyone claps for every herd that comes by. Only in Schweiz (the real name of Switzerland).





What we have here are some of the older cows. They are old hands at this stuff. They are the ones who lead the herd through town. And you know these cows by a couple of things you can observe. 1. They are at the front. 2. They walk single file (generally). 3. As they do they literally (I am not kidding either) look left and right right at the crowd and you would swear they know exactly what's going on and the fact that they are the celebrities for the day. It's hilarious. And lastly, 4. They have the biggest cowbells.



Note the beautiful Carmen Miranda get ups. Many of the beautiful bovines are adorned with various flower arrangements.

Every cow has a bell. They are graduated in size and ornateness such that the larger, older cows have these massive, beautifully decorated leather collars with these enourmous bells which weigh upward of 30-50 pounds.

The farmer below is part of a group of 12-20 or so farmers, each of whom parades the bell as part of a sort of marching band, ringing their bells in time with one another. Note the cool earring, too. I joked with the folks I was with that this was sort of a funeral procession for the cows that had died the previous year. They would have bought it but I fessed up that I was just joking.

Get your mind out of the gutter. It's a portable milking stool. Allows the farmer to move from cow to cow without having to drag the stool around....it's ingenious actually.....strapped to his ass and goes wherever he does!






And below.....original cheeseheads! Yes, these guys are carrying rounds of cheese. Let me explain. Up in the summer pastures, after milking, they would make the cheese right up on these mountains rather than bringing the milk down. This cheese has a different quality to it than the cheeses made from lower altitudes. And by name it would be known as the cheese name followed by d'Alpage (ie, made in the Alps). These guys would carry the cheese down on these handy wooden carriers so they would be able to hike the strenuous and occasionally tricky trails down the Alps into their towns

STRESA, ITALY

On July 20th my friend Sandy, her niece and myself took the 2 hour train ride over to Italy. We arrived at the little village of Stresa at about 11:00 am ready to shop! Stresa is situated on the banks of Lake Maggiore and surrounded by the Alps in North Western Italy.

First order of business, lunch on the main plaza. Once we were satisfied by our Italian pasta we spent the rest of the day shopping and walking the little lanes that lead off the plaza in every direction.








The hand painted pottery is unbelievable! I purchased the Madonna and child painted on a piece of ceramic and attached to a piece of wood from a very old demolished building.


Then we discovered the wine shop owned and run by a local family. We spent a long time sampling wines, limoncello, oil olives and different liquers. My suitcase was loaded down with 3 bottles of wine, limoncello, oil olives and pear liquer.





















There are three islands off the coast of Stresa, once owned by the wealthy Borrommeo family. Napoleon visited the estate in 1797.We took a water taxi out to Isola Bella, once there we took a tour of the house and walked around the beautiful baroque gardens.






















The boat ride itself is only about 10 minutes. As we approached the dock
to catch the large boat run by the city, we were approached by numerous
Italian men enticing us with their own boat. We ended up boarding a small craft with a very nice man. It ended up that we were his only passengers, so we got a private ride over. He assured us he would be waiting for us in a few hours time, at 2:00 there he was!






















One thing I discovered this weekend is that once you get out of the big overwhelming Italian cities the people are very warm and charming.

Verbier (Le Tour)

Okay sports fans, this is it

I've been waiting for this for a long time. Bear with me....I digress. 2002. July.

Phoenix. Summer. Blistering. No sports on TV. Nothing to do. Channel checking. Stumble on Outdoor Life Network. Some kind of bike race. Know a little about this thing called a peloton. Not sure how it all works or what the attraction is. Check it out.

OK. Guys in the main field work 30% less than those in front setting pace. Speeds unbelievable. Riders in the saddle 6 hours a day. Ride close together. Up unbelievably steep mountain roads. Down unbelievably steep mountain roads at 70km/hour. Ride close together...wheels almost touching. This is interesting. Keep watching.

Oh, it's the Tour de France. Heard of that. Oh, they have to work together. Lots of talking. Everyone knows each other. Alliances form so they can accomplish their goals. Holy crap they do this for 3 weeks. And they stay in the same hotels alot of the time. They eat meals together. There's this camaraderie.

And this guy named Lance Armstrong. Won 3 of these in a row. Dude is a stud. French hate him. Rides for US Postal Service. They cover this race every day? This is like a chess match and a marathon and a battle of attrition all in one. I gotta check this out.

Hooked.

Ever since then, I've wanted to see a stage of this grand spectacle. Let me explain a few other "rules of the peloton" and some great traditions that make this event the greatest sporting event on earth. Emphasis on sport. Not entertainment. Can you tell I LOVE THIS RACE?

It's a team sport. Noone can win the race without his teammates helping him. This is so true that the yellow jersey winner historically gives ALL OF HIS WINNINGS TO HIS TEAMMATES. In recognition of the hard work they did to get him there. And because once you've won the Tour de France you're gonna get major endorsement and other money anyway.

A few other tidbits:

The team:
-Domestiques - haul your drinks, your food, etc. if you are a key member of your team. They also fall back to wait for you if you have a flat or a fall or whatever...then they lead you back into the peloton (remember you work 30% less if you follow).
-On mountain stages, the team will always lead the peloton, setting a tough pace trying to get other riders to fall off the back of the peloton and lose time.
-If the yellow jersey is on your teammate, you are expected to defend the jersey with honor
-Defending honorably means you accept the responsibility of setting the pace in the peloton
-Everyone knows their role and fulfills it

Rules of the peloton:
-Never attack the yellow jersey when he's down, stops for a bio, or needs an equipment fix
-Never attack in the feed zones
-Never attack a teammate
-If your teammate is in yellow and gets attacked, the team's first responsibility is to counter
-Do everything you can to ensure the yellow is never isolated (or on his own to defend)....although this almost always eventually happens in the mountain stages

Jerseys:
-Yellow (Maillot Jaune) for the overall time classification leader. This is always won by the strongest man in the combination of the climbing stages and the time trials. The best rider overall always wins. The race is a battle of attrition and always reveals the strongest man.
-Green for the best sprinter overall
-Polka dot to the best climber overall
-White to the best young rider

What's Involved in Viewing a Mountain Stage:
Get there early. Hike 1km from your parking place at the bottom of the hill to the gondola which takes you to the top. Hike down to the vantage point you want. We pick a high wall which overlooks the street on one curve, then slightly up the hill to get a roadside venue out of the second curve. Next to last hairpin on the climb. The climb is 8.5 kilometers of killer switchbacks. There will be some attrition today.

Morning starts a bit grey and almost snowing, but clears around 10 and reveals a panorama of indescribable views....up to the ski runs on one side.....down over the valley below on another....church steeple against the granite backdrops.....a postcard for sure.

Spend the day hiking around, hanging out, checking out the crowds and festivities and wait for the riders to arrive. We go our places at about 8 am and waited till almost 5pm before they showed up.

Had a great time just hanging out, getting sun and then the excitement builds. The tour sends a bunch of sponsors trucks, busses, cars, etc. to get the crowd whipped up into a frenzy.
























Tom Kilbane (a friend from Portland) starts sending me text messages of the action as the riders get to the bottom of the hill. And the excitement builds. Then the lead rider arrives, just flying by and burning his competitors for minutes and seconds. The excitement is in the air. Electric. People have been waiting for hours, enjoying cold beverages and waiting for something to holler about. Here it comes.




































































This in case you hadn't noticed is what it looks like when you're 37 and starting (barely) to show your age. Andreas Kloden drags Lance up to Verbier. Lance looked very tired going by.











Then the rest of the riders. The peloton is fractured but remnants hang together. And before you know it, it's all over.

Rheinfall

The nice thing about the American Women's International club is that they take a trip every month to various sights in Italy, Switzerland, France and Germany. Last Monday (July 6th) I took the 6 hour train ride back to Lausanne by myself from Germany, where Marc and I spent the weekend, so I could join the group for a day trip to Rhine Falls. The train ride was about an hour and a half each way, but our philosophy is, the fun is in the journey! We all met at the Lausanne train station and 2 bottles of champagne and a bag of blueberry muffins later we arrived! We took about a 20 minute walk down to the falls from where the train dropped us off. Rhine Falls is Europes largest waterfall. Of course the first order of business on any of our trips is lunch and wine. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch, European style on the banks of the water. We just spent the rest of the afternoon taking a walk around the falls and enjoying its sheer beauty.
Therese

Verbier (Part I) Le Tour Preview

I am a huge Tour de France fan. As fate would have it, the Tour is coming to Switzerland for 3 days and there was no way I was not going to see this. Stage 15 of the race ends at a ski resort reasonably close to Lausanne in the town of Verbier. So yesterday, Therese and I took a ride up to check things out.....see what parking options we might have.....good vantage points, etc.

After scoping out the town for a bit, we found the information center. #1 Travel Tip: EVERYWHERE in Europe, every city, every town you name it, there is an Information Center - marked by a blue sign with an "i" in it. This is the first thing to look for when you arrive. They have all the info you will ever need.....restaurants, hotels, tours, you name it. And they always speak English. So we learned exactly where the finishing line was going to be and where the end-of-day ceremonies were to be held, etc. In the Tour, there are special jerseys worn by the leaders of each of the various categories of competition in the Tour de France.....there are actually many different competitive categories. Green jersey goes to the best sprinter, polka dot to the best climber, white jersey to the best rookie, and of course the maillot jaune - yellow jersey - to the overall leader. The preparations for this race are immense. The tour traverses many small towns in several countries in Europe each year, and for each this is a very big deal. It brings in lots of money with all the tourists and of course the excitement is high. Every year the tour visits a couple of countries outside of France....Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Monaco, last year they started in London.....even though the majority of the race obviously takes place in France. So the towns go all out to be good hosts for this epic event. This year's tour is shaping up to be a real showdown.....mainly within one team.....Astana.....which has two great riders, Lance (of course) and Alberto Contador. My money is on Contador. He won two years ago, would have won last year but Astana was not invited to participate. He is the most explosive climber by far and he deserves to be the team leader. Lance kind of hosed that up by coming out of retirement. We'll see.
As you can see from the pictures, the views from the top of the mountain here are spectacular.


The race will finish with what's know as a Category I climb.....the last 8.5 kilometers are severely uphill with several switchbacks (this is one of them) and this will make for an exciting finish as the climb stages usually bring separation to the peloton (group of riders together) and allows the good climbers to gain precious seconds or minutes versus their competitors. The tour is typically won by the rider who is the best combination of time trialist and climber. A straight uphill finish means that the climbers have the opportunity to gain this important advantage uphill without having to deal with any flat or downhill portions where the peloton can regroup and their competitors actually recover lost time from the mountains.









What we learned from the young lady in the information center was that there was NO WAY we could drive up here next weekend. On top of the tour, there is a music festival in Verbier at the same time. The town is completely booked (there are thousands of rooms in lodges here) and the highway up the hill will close at 5 am. She recommended that we go to another town down the hill called Le Chable where we can take a tram up to Verbier. So we scoped out the tram and there's a huge parking lot and we won't have to deal with road closures, etc. So that's the plan. First tram at 6 am. Race finish estimated at 5 pm. Pack a lunch, some wine, something to sit on and get ready for craziness....the town will be packed and people will be partying. Stay tuned.

Munchin' in Munchen

What to do for Fourth of July on a continent where it's just another day on the calendar? Therese and I decided to leave on Friday the 3rd and head to Munich to visit our friends Doris and Hans and enjoy some weiss beer and good Bavarian food. After driving several hours in Switzerland where the maximum speed is 120 kilometers per hour (approximately 70 mph) Therese insisted on driving in Germany. Not because she's a speed demon, but more of a defensive maneuver since she had listened to me talk about how fun it was to do 180 km/hr on the autobahn (approx 110mph) and how smooth the X3 Beamer handles at these speeds. Turns out Therese kinda likes life in the fast lane, too and did really good driving at 160 km/hr. What's amazing is watching the Audi TTs and Porsche 911s fly by at 200-240 km/hr. On these roads you stay in the fast lane until passing and then back over. These speed demons close with a frightening quickness so it's one eye on the rearview mirror.

The only disappointment was the amount of traffic and frequent road work, so it took us almost 7 hours to get there. When we did we were not disappointed as Hans made reservations for us at a very quaint Bavarian restaurant where we enjoyed some of their local weiss beer and some Austrian wines.....which by the way are a good buy here. There was a scandal some years ago which decimated their red wine exports and now they are very cheap and very drinkable.

Hans is the archetypal Bavarian. Gregarious, warm, friendly, he makes friends everywhere we go and is so laid back and easy going he's the best travelling companion. It's "all smooth" when you're with Hans. Doris is a gem. She's dragged me home from many an Oktoberfest and biergarten visit and the poor thing is always the duty driver for Hans and me. But she takes it all in good humor. And I have learned another thing - she's always right. She goes along with anything and always has something to add to the trip, keeps track of our progress with the maps and keeps us out of trouble (except for the beer).

On Saturday, we decided to give Hans and Doris a break and Therese and I took a walking tour of Munich. Our tour guide was from the UK and his father, who also worked in the aerospace industry, had been assigned as an expat in Munich for some years. Alex was fluent in German and returns every summer to earn some Euro as a tour guide.










The tour started in the center of the old town at the Marianplatz - St. Mary's Plaza. Munich, like most cities in Germany was devastated by bombing in WWII.....98% of the buildings in the city were destroyed. Think about that for a moment. Churches were generally untouched or minimally damaged......but not for the reasons you are thinking. As an aviator having flown bombers, I can totally relate to the desire to have visual reference points for ingress and egress into target areas......and church steeples are ideal.

Architecture in Munich is very unique.....we need to do some more research in order to understand its origins, so sorry we can't give you some interesting facts about it.









































One of the craziest things we saw was river surfing. Yes, river surfing. There is a line-up....you can come in from left or right......you do your thing on the wave for a couple of turns......and you either fall off or get off.......down the river a bit.....and back to your place in line. There were some very good surfers in this line up......and an old guy there to hold up the reputation of those of us for whom "the older I get, the better I was."

















Of course we had to drop by the world-famous Hofbrau Haus where we took a picture of the "oom-pah" band. This is easily the most famous brau haus in the world.....but the darn things are everywhere......and they all have a biergarten....beer garden. Which brings me to this: why do the old beer steins have metal lids on them? Same reason you put a lemon in your hefeweizen. Becuause bees are everywhere in this lovely country and you need to keep them out of the slightly sweet weiss beer.....bees have good taste too. A bit of lemon does the trick quite nicely.










Schneider Weisse is the second oldest brewery in Germany and a very popular local favorite.





















Here is the way you handle a "proper pour" of weiss beer.......you need to loosen up the yeast which tends to collect at the bottom of your glass. Here's the procedure:

• Make sure there's a little water in the glass (really)
• Have the proper glass
• Tip the glass sharply
• Pour the weiss slowly....to about 3/4
• Take the bottle in between your palms
• Roll the bottle back and forth between the palms
• Pour the rest into the glass
• A perfect pour result is about 3 inches of foam

Sunday morning, Hans informed us that there was a procession in the town of Miesbach, where he and Doris reside and in which Therese and I were staying. This was classic Europe.....classic Bavarian.....local townspeople dressed in Bavarian finery.....Leiderhausen (leather pants for the men) and Dirndl dresses for the ladies. Apparently they were celebrating 100 years of horse drawn transportation in Miesbach......procession was complete with band, local dignitaries, etc parading through town on the way to church. Gotta love Europe.







Later, we decided to go to the "Eagle's Nest." This was a special building at the top of a peak in Hitler's Bavarian retreat.....not the retreat itself, which was the Berghoff.....but at the very top of the mountain. His closest cabinet members, advisers etc. all had their own cabins here.....the Berghoff was Hitler's. He visited it regulary during his reign over Germany. Goebells and others decided to build this beautiful hut at the peak of this mountain as a gift for the Fuehrer's 50th birthday. Mussolini gave him the Italian marble for the fireplace. It has a stunning 270 degree view of the Alps and valleys of southern Bavaria. Today it's basically a restaurant.....good spot for a Schnitzel and......yes, weiss beer. The compound itself is mostly destroyed.....it was heavily bombed near the end of the war and the Germans in their shame had the remainders of the buildings destroyed. I was a little disappointed in learning this. I really wanted to see the Berghoff and the rest of the compound. It had an extensive underground tunnel system between the various lodges (which were spread all over the large compound). the site of the former Berghoff is a glass encased museum.





Above is the remains of the old Berghoff....Hitler's Bavarian retreat. To the right is the Italian marble fireplace given to Hitler by Mussoline for his 50th birthday present. Sorry but somehow we didn't get any pictures of the structure. The trip was a bit disappointing......was very interested in the compound and what went on here, but there is very little of it left and no real focus on it in the museum....which was more about the war (with which I am familiar) and not specifically about this place. The retreat itself was in control of US forces until 15 years ago....it was actually a US military installation.









We finished off the weekend with a wonderful dinner of pork knuckle and local brew at a monestary on the shores of Tergernsee (see is lake).