5: The day that was not filled with the adventures we expected

Wednesday, December 22, 2010: Day 7
Kandern, DE
Rheinfelden, CH
Lörrach, DE

Today I woke all of a sudden because Jon was having a bad dream. At least it was already light outside and we both had a decent night sleep. We eventually moseyed downstairs for breakfast. Jon ate a pretzel he bought yesterday in Basel that was filled with a very potent garlic butter that lingered for a good while.

Our plan for the day was to go take a tour at a nearby brewery called Feldschlößen. It is a well known brewery in the region, comparable to Budweiser or Coors in the U.S. We arrived at the time that the website said there would be a tour only to find out that the tour only happens if you can schedule 15 people...or pay 250 CHF..and you had to let them know in advance of your plans. So much for that.

Since it was lunchtime we walked over to a restaurant that was directly adjacent to the brewery thinking since we can't tour the facility we will still taste the product. The restaurant was filled with toys and Christmas decorations everywhere. The table linens, chair covers, drapes and majority of permanent decor was all WHITE! It gave the room a very bright feel and we sat at a round table toward the back of one of the rooms. The food was good. Jon and I both ordered something that was like a sausage loaf with mashed potatoes and carrots, very tasty. To accompany our food we had beer of course. Jon ordered a pilsner and I chose a Feldschlößen Christmas variety. The waitress brought two of the Christmas beers by mistake, but that was okay because it was a good choice.

We were all full before we knew it and had the leftovers wrapped up to take home as we ordered one more beer before we left. Jon ordered a pilsner once again, but again the waitress brought two Christmas beers! Oh well...

After lunch it was already almost 3 PM!!!! Which means that it would be dark soon and we had to decide what we were doing quick! We drove to Lörrach, about 15 minutes back towards Kandern, to take a tour of the ruins of Burg Rötteln. It should have been a good day to do this because the castle is only open to visitors on days when there is no snow or ice. Today we actually saw the sun and there has been no snow for a few days now! But we were trumped once again because there was no one there when we arrived. We took a walk around the outside of the castle and took in the views of the city below right as the sun was setting. A spectacular site. Hopefully we will be able to come back and see it on another day.

Even though everything didn't go as we had expected, we still had a very enjoyable day overall.



The very white restaurant next to the brewery.

Feldschlößen!
The brewery is built to look like a castle on the outside, unfortunately this is about as close as we were able to get.
The horse had a big butt...so Becky wanted to slap it!

Jayma was able to capture a moment between us.

The Brug Rötteln at sunset.

What is wrong with this picture?

Snuggling on a park bench, looking out on the city below the castle.

Pleeeasse! Can we come in?!? It isn't snowy OR icy...and we have 3€.

You can tell this mortar was hand mixed...look!

Yes, dear prince, you may kiss my hand ;)

4: Basel Christmas markets, cathedral

Tuesday, December 21, 2010: Day 6
Kandern, DE
Basel, CH

Today we slept in rather late, opting to relax and feel like we were vacationing rather than rush into the cold to explore.

Around 11AM we rubbed the crust from our rested eyes and lumbered down the compact spiral stairway in Jayma's German home for freshly baked plum bread and sweet coffee.  We sat at the breakfast table in the kitchen and stared at the melting snow outside, pondering the forthcoming rain and slush we would deal with later in the day.  We rejoiced that the weather would cease to be so thoroughly bone-chilling.

Around 12:30PM we drove 20 minutes south to Basel, Switzerland to visit a couple of Christmas markets.   Market One was set up very nicely, with lovely Christmas decorations, a giant ferris wheel, and classic American Christmas music playing over the speakers.  Jayma and Jon sampled some truly disgusting cheese.. the experience was akin to chewing Stride flavor-changing gum, only instead of tasting berry change to mint, we tasted dishwater change to outhouse.  I've tasted some disgusting cheese in my life but this one really kicked the bucket; no wonder the cheese guy was giving it away.

Food, clothes, and other goodies at market number one were priced too high for us to enjoy in good conscience, so we quickly moved on to other things.  We walked down the main street, passing many interesting shops, sharply dressed Euro-citizens, and handsome bicycles.  We stopped at a second Christmas market where things were cheaper but still too expensive.  After deciding we could afford to settle for glüwein at 5 Francs a cup (kinderpunch for Jayma), we walked into the bank on the corner and exchanged our colorful Euro bills for some colorful Swiss Franc bills.  The glüwein was very good, as always.

In the rain, we crossed the Rheine river and walked up the hill to Basel Münster, a grand cathedral that overlooks the city.  We sat briefly inside the sanctuary, taking in the majesty of the architecture.  Becky's cracked right boot, which had been taking on water the whole afternoon, began to audibly squish.

Back down the hill, we bought some pastries from a pastry shop, a garlic-buttered pretzel from Brezelkönig (Pretzel King), and a flowery accessory from a discount clothing store.

A short but pleasing stop in a very pleasant city.

Back at home in Kandern, we ate Jon's chicken rissotto and soggy zucchini and then went to bed at a reasonable hour.

Becky double-fisting glüwein, urging Jon to hurry with the photo.

Jayma and her kinderpunch crossing in front of Starbucks in Basel.

Jayma's feet crossing the train tracks

Jon's face, Becky's umbrella, and the city.

OMG cute right?

Becky and the tram

What a smart-looking Basel bike.

Basel Münster is quite grand on the interior.

A quiet moment

Jon studying a heavily-weathered stone carving outside the cathedral

Looking out over the city and smiling at the possibilities...

The Rheine river.  It's big!

Yeah, it's THIS big!

An odd sign on the exterior of the cathedral.  All I gather from it is that someone interested in these types of hats might find them on the right.

3: Spa Day!

Monday, December 20, 2010: Day 5
Kandern, DE

The weather has warmed up a few degrees. Today we went to the warm springs spa at Bad Belingen. There were a series of warm pools of varying temperature that you could swim through. The underwater jets were super relaxing and it was very refreshing to get some physical activity.  We had lunch poolside (with more delicious hefeweizen) and then headed to the sauna. Oh and men (Jon included) were required to wear speedos...

Inside the sauna area, we got naked in front of a bunch of strangers.......who were also naked. The sauna portion of the spa had a no clothes requirement, hence its title "Zone Nudiste".  A lady came and told us in German that we had to take off our suits. So we did. Its kind of liberating to have people not care. We felt very European. The saunas were extremely hot, one at 90˚C and had a sign that we believe said you should only stay in for 5-6 minutes. It made us sweat profusely. After switching back and forth between hot rooms and warm baths and cooling off we rinsed off in a cold shower and decided to head back to the large pools (with swimming suits on once again) to swim for a bit before we headed home.

We left at about 4 PM and took a walk through the park, under the autobahn and over to the Rhein River. By this time it was starting to get dark and we decided to head back to the car.  A very easy-going day, altogether.  More exciting adventures are yet to come!

This orange peel looks like a sea horse, don't you think?

In the dressing room: the great unveiling.

Becky and the Autobahn.  That blue truck was traveling like 200KPH!  Just kidding.

Cuties posing in front of the river.  It was raining gently.

Wow Jon looks good in that new hat.  That's the Rheine river in the background.

2: Lazy Sunday

Sunday, December 19, 2010: Day 4
Kandern, DE

Hooray! We finally slept through the night last night! This morning started somewhat early again. We got up around eight to get ready to go to church with Jayma. First thing we noticed when we went outside was that it was not as cold as the previous two days. After church Jayma paraded us around introducing us to people that I am sure she has told we were coming for weeks now. The church meets on the high school campus where Jayma works so she showed us her classroom--which looks remarkably like a big kitchen. Jayma teaches a class called Independent Living, much like home-ec.

After church, we went to the center of town for lunch at restaurant called Gausthuas Sonne. Had a little trouble only because we do not speak German, but after some motioning and nodding we sat down. The food and the beer was great and we could barely even eat half our plates. The one negative was that smoking was allowed in the restaurant and we all left smelling like ashtrays.

We contemplated a few different activities for the afternoon, but the wind had picked up and we were all chilly so we didn't particularly want to spend the rest of the day outside. When we got back home we got lazy fast and took a three hour nap upstairs. Woke up just in time to see the last minutes of daylight.




Ellie petting herself on Jon's toes.

Just a glimpse of Ellie's kinetic nature.


Delicious hefeweizen at the restaurant in Kandern. DEE-LI-CI-OUS.

Jayma and the beer (she tried it!)

Cheers to the beers!

Becky's chicken cordon bleu and potatoes (it was yummy)

Jon couldn't wait to dig in to his thick and creamy schnitzel (he had the leftovers for dinner)

1: Arrival, jet lag, first impressions

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:

Becky waiting in the SFO airport.

Jon educating himself in case of emergency.

Through the falling snow at the festival in Kandern

Jon and Becky on a walk along the hillside

Good thing we brought our snow boots!

Posing on Mom's front porch

On the nearly empty bus up the mountain to see the medieval castle.

Becky wishing she could actually warm her hands by this fake fire in the medieval kitchen.

A portion of the stained glass in the castle, never can quite capture its full beauty.

Pondering the cold

Battle faces everyone

I said BATTLE FACES!

Wintery wondery-castle-land

Becky and Jayma's fuzzy hat...oh and Jayma too