A day trip to the Schwarzwald with Phil and Kristina

 Greetings from abroad!  Wow, what a fun weekend it has been!  We started it off Friday evening with a top-floor Happy Hour and BBQ at the institute, featuring fresh beer on tap from the local brewery, Unser Bier.  Here is their website for more info: Unser Bier brewery.

Then on Saturday morning (ahem...morning being just before noon) we rode our bikes across the French border to Saint Loius to enjoy their Saturday outdoor market.  Lots of fresh produce, meats, cheeses and yes, of course, baguettes and other delicious breads are available.  Unfortunately for us, we got there right before closing so there were no more rotisserie chickens or baguettes left.  Fiddlesticks!!  Oh well, it is only a 15 minute bike ride so we will just have to go again.  We also hit up our new favorite cheese store and brought back some delicious soft cheese and some fabulous  Sauvignon Blanc.

Later in the day we popped on into ArtBasel, the world's largest contemporary art festival.  Neato mosquito!  If you like art, or crazy crap glued together, or crazy crap glued together and called art, this is your place to be!  We bought the discounted tickets which allowed us to explore for the last two hours of the day.  This was nowhere near enough time, but it was enough to get a taste of what there is to see.  Next year, we will bring the camera and share the weird art with you!

Then we finished off the day with some drinks on the Rhein (we saw a double rainbow!) and then we finished the night with friends at Hirsheneck, which is a fantastic restaurant collective and punk rock club.  Coincidentally they are very dog friendly, so Austin got to enjoy the night out with us.

We don't have any picture from this weekend, but we know that's what you come here for, so below are some pictures from Phil and Kristina's visit in mid-May.


We bought a day pass on the train to the Black Forest region in Germany, which only costs about 30 Euros for up to five people!  On the way to Staufen we missed our connection, so we just wandered around to kill an hour until the next train.  We ran across this collection of lazy sheep that were comically baa-ing away.  It seriously sounded like a drunk, fat guy pretending to be a sheep.

 

 Here is the castle on top of the hill near Staufen, we were too lazy to climb up there.  You can see below the castle many grape vines.  The region in and around Staufen is known for their local wines.  Holy monkey!  We tried several at the bottling cooperative and were blown away by the taste and value!

 After exploring Staufen for a half day, we headed into Freiburg for some sights, food and beer.  Freiburg is a cool university town and the centerpiece of the city is the hugemongous church.  One of the gargoyles is a guy with his pants down and the drain pipe is well-placed, to say the least.

Way back in the day, local government officials would carve the official dimensions of goods into the walls of the church so that customers wouldn't get ripped off.  This was the official dimensions of some kind of bucket (it was probably for beer).

Apparently goiters were a problem back in the day as well.

 

We finished our tour of Freiburg with some beer and local grub at a college pub.  It was a really nice day and we look forward to heading back to the Schwarzwald sometime soon.

Hope you enjoyed our little update, keep the peace and come see us real soon, ya hear?  We have also posted some recent photos on our Flickr account, if you want to peruse our happenings:

EuroFadok photos

P.S. We are training Austin to be a shelf.  It's going pretty well so far.

We're back!

Wow, four months has gone by without an update?  Seems unbelievable, but perhaps the old saying is true; time flies when you are having fun!  We have so much to catch up on since we last posted.  Our friend Dustin came to visit us in February and he was our first visitor from back home.  While he was here, we traveled to Luzern, the Alps, and Sorrento, Italy, all of which were amazing adventures.  After D left town, we moved into our very own place!  We found a great place only a two-minute walk from the Rhein and a 10 minute walk to the institute.  We are really liking our new pad and we hope to never have to move again while we are here!  Just after moving in to the new apartment, we made our first trip back to the States.  It was a whirlwind adventure filled with friends and family, a wedding for V's sister Elaine, and a graduation party for Jon's sister Ashley.  We brought two empty suitcases with us and filled them with inexpensive American merchandise.  On the flight back to Basel, we realized how much we had missed it.  Eight months in and this place is really starting to feel like home. 

After getting back to Basel, we finished settling in to the new flat and prepared ourselves for our second set of visitors, Phil and Kristina!  We had a great long weekend with them, including a day trip to the southern edge of the Schwarzwald (Black Forest).  That pretty much summarizes the last four months of our life in a nutshell.  There will be many more posts to come about some of these events, and there will be a lot more pictures, as we know that is what is juiciest about this blog.  For now, we shall placate you with last weekend's bicycle ride through the Alsace region, just across the French border from here.

Here is a link to some info on the Alsace region, in case you are interested.  It was historically a Germanic region, but it has remained a part of France for the last few centuries.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsace

We set out with our Austrian friend Elizabeth, who is a cycling enthusiast to the max!

The intent of our bike ride was to reach an annual market in the Alsace, where we would buy much local cheese and wine.  It turns out however, that the word for market in French is the same as for march (i.e. parade), you just need to know about the accent.  Whoops!  It was pretty hilarious though, and we ended up just riding to St. Loius, where we had a nice lunch at a cafe, and then went to a fromagerie, where we proceeded to buy five different types of stinky cheese and some really good wine too.

The beautiful Alsace region.

On the road again! It felt so good to be back touring on bikes again!  Our good friends Phillip and Katrin lent Jon a bicycle to use (Dustin was kind enough to bring V's over on the plane!) and we are hoping to have many more cycling adventures.

And this is how we spend a lot of our time now:

We love living by the river!  V bought Jon a BBQ for our 5th anniversary, so now we can even cook down by the river too!

Well, sorry it took so long to get back to this blogging thing, but we are going to try and be better about it again.  We hope this post finds all of you well and happy, you can rest assured that we are!

Mit Liebe,

Die EuroFadoks

Planets, goats, sheep and an airplane crash

Ahhh...here we sit sipping on wine after a wonderful tomato pesto and fettuccine dinner with green beans on the side.  All of this luxury is well-deserved as we completed over 13km of hiking today.  We took the train out to Laufen and followed the Planetenweg all the way out to Liesberg.  This was probably the most challenging hike we have done so far as the majority of it seemed to be uphill.

This is what one is commonly faced with when getting off the train to start hiking.  Switzerland has the most amazing system of hiking trails we have ever seen.  We haven't tested it yet, but we think it is possible to hike all the way from Basel to the Alps and then through the Alps on their trail system which is complete with cabins and yurts.  The signs tell you which direction to go and how long it will take to get there.  These times are based on Swiss averages, so be prepared to work hard if you want to meet those times!  As a side note, check out the jazzy going-down-the-stairs guy on the blue sign.

Here is the start of the Planetenweg (Planet Trail).  The trail is an approximately to-scale model of our solar system at a 1:1,000,000,000 scale.  As you can see, it was a gorgeous day in the region, with temps above 10 Celsius.

You follow the trail and each of the planets is placed in its location at the appropriate distance from the sun.  It was a great lesson in perspective as we encountered the first four planets in only a short time, but it took over 3 hours of hiking to get to Neptune!  Here is V with the planet Venus, which is populated by tough-skinned monsters, aka women.  One of V's many nicknames from Jon is Venus, coincidentally.

Giant Jon get hungry.  Earth is SNACK!!

Here, Jon is pretending to be sad because he has just stepped into a giant pile of cow shit (note where he is pointing).  V knows that he is really sad because the 'man' planet is not as cool as Venus.  Austin is so happy here because in about 5 minutes, he is going to roll in a bunch of poop.

After applying a fresh layer of poopy to his coat, Austin was really into walking on these felled trees.  We call this photo 'Log on logs'.

All that rolling in manure and running on logs makes Austin thirsty for fresh spring water straight from the tap.

Somebody stole Saturn's rings!  Must have been Uranus!

We caught these goats spying on us.  Every time we looked their way, however, they looked ahead as if nothing was going on.  Then if we looked away, we could see them staring at us in our peripheral vision.  Silly goats!  Where are your boats?

These black sheep were also mesmerized by us.  Then even started following us for a little bit.

Ha-ha!  I caught V touching Uranus.

These chaps were out in the fields flying their model airplane.

Up, up, and away!!!!

And SPLAT!!  After about one minute of flying, the plane's engine died and it took a nose dive straight into the ground and shattered into pieces with a loud "THUD".  About 10 seconds before that, Jon had declared "Oh, it looks like they are doing tricks."  Turns out they had just lost control of the plane.

Where did Pluto go?  Perhaps after those jerk scientists stripped him of his planet title, he climbed aboard the model airplane and performed a kamikaze mission?  Or is he hiding behind Uranus?

Off to the left of this photo is Liesberg, the town in which we finished the hike.

What a beautiful day to enjoy an exhausting hike!  The three of us were filthy and smelly at the end of it.  It seemed as if half of the people on the train back had also been outdoors, so we weren't too out of place.  In fact we are starting to feel less and less "out of place" and more like we found a nice little place to call "home" for awhile. The rest of the pictures are in the Flikr set here:
Planet Hike

 Now, we have to finish this here wine.


Ciao!
Die EuroFadoks

An Afternoon in Zurich

So, the EuroFadoks have been fairly lazy the last couple of weeks and haven't gone on any out-of-town adventures.  We did go to the Basler Museumsnacht last weekend, which was a super fun cultural experience, but other than that we have simply been chillaxing.  That's right, chillaxing. That word is now in the Oxford English dictionary along with bromance and frenemy.

In the absence of any new wanderings, this is a post from the vault.  During our first weeks here in Switzerland, we were not allowed to leave the country while our visas were being processed.  We took this opportunity to take a day trip to Zurich to visit some friends who live there with their young son.  The train ride takes less than an hour from Basel on the typically clean and efficient Swiss rail system.

As always, Austin came along, and doesn't he just look tickled pink to be on the train?

This bulbous blue babe is a modern guardian angel overlooking the interior of the Zurich Bahnhof.

Zurich is a bustling metropolis compared to Basel.  Despite being Switzerland's largest city, it is still very walkable and also has amazing public transportation.  Starting from here, we sauntered through the heart of the city, following one of Rick Steeve's walking tours.

Dogs are allowed at parks in Zurich!  All over Basel, there are 'no dog' signs posted at the entrances to every park and playground.  Every canton has its own laws and regulations and, in Zurich, they remain very dog-friendly.

The Limmat river runs through the center of Zurich.  This is a view of one side, taken from the bank on the other side...in case you thought we took it from the middle of the river, that would be incorrect.  It was taken from the bank, not the middle of the river.  Sheesh.

We climbed up to some nice viewpoints overlooking the city.

This park is located on the site of an old medieval castle.  When Switzerland unified about 500 years ago, they destroyed many of the large castles to prevent any resurgence in  feudal power or monarchy.  No one person would ever hold ultimate power here!  So they tore down the castles and put parks in their place.

This is a restaurant famous for feeding and watering some of the great European writers, such as Goethe.

This extremely narrow stairway leads down to the remnants of a Roman bathhouse.  As you can tell, Austin could not wait to have a hot soak.

Here is what is left of the Roman baths.  Fascinating, we know!!  We could just stare at those chunks of rock all day!

Silly.

After our walking tour of the city, we met up with our friends David and Johanna and their son, Jascha.  We took to the train up the local mountain and did some hiking in the misty forests.  At the top of the mountain was this fun rolley contraption.  You put the equivalent of a lunch tray down on it, have a seat, and off you go!

Veronica is a pro at this game!

Wheeeee!

Austin is enjoying his first taste of European stick.  He looks a little critical, but he is such a stick snob.

We had a great time in Zurich on that trip.  It was fun to hang out and do a little exploring in an entirely different city and still be able to make it back home for bed in less than an hour.  We hope this post finds you well!

Die EuroFadoks

Bern, baby, Bern

A few weeks after we arrived in Basel, we took a trip to the capital of Switzerland, Bern.  We were busy exploring Basel and nearby cities because our visas had not yet been fully processed so we had to stay in the country.  Bern is a little more than an hour from Basel by train.

This fancy building is a part of the university.

Here is the federal parliament building.  The Swiss federal government does not have much authority, but what little power they have is concentrated here.  Local cantonal government determines most of the law and taxes throughout the country.  Where we live, Basel Stadt, is one of the most expensive place to live tax wise.  In this building, you can get lots of information about Swiss government.  It is a very interesting system, indeed.

Underneath this building is a substantial quantity of gold.  The rest of it is in Zurich.  Don't get any ideas though, they do have a very smart alarm system!

Each canton has its own seal, and they are all displayed along this section of the parliament building.

In Bern, as in almost every Swiss city we have visited thus far, there is giant chess available in the local parks.

This game is also available, but we have no idea what it is or how it is played.  If you know, seriously drop us a line and let us know.  Austin already knows how to play but he refuses to show us.

A river runs through Bern separating the old town from the newer portions.

Most Swiss cities provide fresh drinking water from fountains located throughout town.  Bern is famous for it's fountain decorations.  There are 12 famous fountains throughout the city.  This one is super great because it shows a monster eating babies.  For the others, see the Flikr set.

This is a more modern, ugly fountain that the locals apparently hate.

You might already know that Switzerland is known for it's watches and clocks.  Being punctual is a virtue here.  Bern is especially famous for it's many old clock towers.

This 500-year old device tells the time, date, sign of the zodiac, and phase of the moon.  The mechanism on the right dances around and makes silly noises every hour.  MTV was in its infancy in the 1500's so this was how people amused themselves in Bern.  In England during this time, people were amused by public executions.  Just a fact.

The main street leading from the train station through Bern is lined with many shops.  There are also these old doors that lead down into what used to be the cellar.  These cellars were at one time filled with food and wine, but Napoleon changed all of that when he captured Bern.  He and his soldiers ate all the cheese and drank all the wine.  But they loved dogs, so its all good.  Now, these doors lead down to a plethora of different shops and one even has a little indie movie theater.

Some more medieval entertainment, this time on one of the local cathedrals.  People can come and have a look at what it is like during Armageddon and an eternity in hell.  A nice Sunday activity for the whole family!

The larger Swiss cities also have public toilets available for a small fee (50 rappen).  This one, however, was free.  You can relieve yourself at ease knowing that these commodes are self-cleaning and do so regularly.  Everything is built with Swiss design and efficiency.  It really makes pooping in public fun and easy.

Littering is not taken lightly here!  And apparently, English is the best way to convey that.

We tried for several hours to convince this guy that he had too much to live for...but then we got bored and left.  Hope he didn't jump. 

This fountain illustrates much about Swiss governmental philosophy.  Blind Lady Justice stands atop idols signifying kings and emperors, while her scales wait to judge.  The Swiss did away with their monarchy hundreds of years before the rest of Europe and, in fact, destroyed many of the castles and put parks in their place.

Bern's mascot is the bear, and they even have some bears that live there!  These bears have a new, modern enclosure along the river that even allows them to fish at will.  These bear cubs were very playful while we were watching them.  Austin found their scent very interesting indeed, but we convinced him not to go down and cause troubs.

A misty view of Bern from the park near the Parliament.

Look how good Austin is while Jon has a snack! No begging whatsoever!  Good boy!

'Hey guys!  Wait up!  I promise I won't beg anymore!'

All of the buildings in Bern's old town are made of this green sandstone.  Most of them also have clocks on them.  No excuses for being late!

Heh heh. (This word means 'fat' or 'thick' in German)

Oh course we didn't leave him behind!  Who else is going to eat all that expensive dog food?

Our visit to Bern was very educational and fun.  Switzerland is a fascinating place and it's capital is no different!
 
Check out some more photos here:
Bern Baby Bern Photos


Bis zum nächsten Mal,
The EuroFadoks