The Adventures of Jon and Becky: 12/18/10

Thurs-Sat, December 16-18, 2010: Days 1,2,3
Traveling USA-->EU
Kandern, DE
Haut Koenigsburg, FR

Wow, what a day of traveling we had. The hour flight from SFO to LAX wasn't bad (it was only an hour). Nor was the 3 hour layover in LAX (thanks to card games and Sam Adams beer). It was the 12+hour flight across the continental U.S. and the Atlantic ocean that wore us down.

Don't get me wrong, swiss air fed us well. It was just the nature of transcontinental flights that threw me off--that and crying babies. I probably slept for a sum of 2 hours during the flight, much of that sleep was more like a foggy zombie haze than actual sleep. I watched my cellphone clock as we sprung forward in time, hour by hour.

Jayma picked us up at the airport and drove us from Zurich International in Switzerland to her home in Kandern, Germany. After dropping our bags inside the door we headed off to the final night of the town's Advent festival. What a joy to grab some deliciously meaty "worst" of some sort and a glowing cup of gluwein ("glue-vine": glowing wine). There was a choir singing and people were talking and being jolly, standing around large burning logs for warmth.... because it was so numbingly cold. I was wearing 2 pairs of socks, two long sleeve shirts, a sweater, a big winter jacket, a scarf, and a soviet winter cap, and I could still feel my life essence bleeding steadily from my body in the wintery German air. Other delicious treats: some sort of meaty, cheesy, toast with a creamy sauce, and glogg (a lot like the gluwein but with nuts and berries hanging out at the bottom of the glass).

Back at home, Becky gave Jayma her big album of DVDs and we started to watch Slumdog Millionaire. About 30 minutes in, at 10pm (1pm PST), Becky and I fell asleep (could it have been we were already on German time?---NO!). Thinking we were really ready for bed, we headed upstairs for rest. But we did not rest. We tossed and turned for a few hours and then woke up at what we thought was 5AM, German time. "Oh, it's 5AM. Not bad. Let's watch a movie on our iPods and wait for Jayma to wake up." After watching all of The Social Network, to our dismay, we realized we had read the time incorrectly earlier that night. It had actually been 2AM, not 5AM, German time. After the movie, it was almost 5AM. At that point, neither of us had really slept much so we decided to enlist the help of a hormonal sleeping aid, melatonin. Not so wise, as it turned out (why didn't we just take it after slumdog?), because we slept until 3PM. So much for going to the spa for massages on our first full day. Oh well.

With what little sunlight we had left, we headed over the border for some cheap swiss gas, and then stopped at a German mall on the Rhein river. Becky ended up buying some cute new shoes and Jon got ingredients for rissotto. Once we got back, Becky and Jon went out walking in the German countryside, passing sheep in a snowy pasture. Jon did a little more walking on his own, hiking up into the dark forest a little ways to listen to music--it was majestic! Becky and Jayma watched Eat, Pray, Love and then we all headed to bed. Another night from hell!

Becky slept the majority of the second night but Jon did not.

Day 3 started bright and early at 8AM! Becky showered as Jon slept in (pretty standard morning for us). With the help of a little caffeine and some tasty banana muffins we headed out for our first solid day of touring. Stop number one was a castle in Haut Koenigsburg, France.

We had parked the car in the French city of Selestat and had planned on taking a bus up the icy roads to the castle. While waiting, the sleepy and cranky Jon stopped at a cafe for a "petít" coffee and a diet "light" coke--after caffeinating himself a second time he stopped being so cranky. The busride was nice in that we didn't have to worry about driving ourselves off the snowy cliffs, we could trust the bus driver instead. The view of the snowy trees on the mountainside was very beautiful. Atop the mountain we discovered just how cold medieval peasants felt as they shoveled horse poo from the roadway. We also discovered that castles were never--and still aren't--heated very well. Though the castle featured a number of fireplaces and stoves, we were not afforded a single ounce of incendiary comfort until we stopped at the restaurant at the end of our self-guided tour. At the restaurant we enjoyed more gluwein(yay!) and vegetable soup, both of which warmed our chilled bones enough to allow us to continue living (Melodramatic? Yes, but we're only Californians, after all.)

After the busride back down the mountain, we drove to a popular Christmas market in the city of Colmar, France. Parking our tiny VW took about 30 minutes because all the other tiny euro cars were zipping around and stealing all the good parking spaces ahead of us. We ended up parking somewhat legally. The highlight of the stop for me was the nutella crepe. mmmmmm nutella.

Drove back home and ate homemade gyros.

And now for some pictures: