The Beautiful Game

One of Fritz' primary goals on this trip was to experience some European football. Unfortunately, the trip was timed dead wrong to catch the season. Instead, we had to content ourselves with stadium tours in England, Italy & germany. Until yesterday. 

Two of the top Dutch teams play an opening game for the "Johan Cruyff Shield," so fritz & I heads out to Amsterdam Arena yesterday evening to see some football. 

We didn't have tickets, but figured we should be able to get into the game somehow. We didn't account for the Dutch ban on scalping; luckily, after an hour of wandering around the stadium, we managed to find someone who had been stood up by his friends & was willing to sell us tickets below face value!  

We scampered into the stadium with enough time to buy a beer (and a fanta) and catch a few songs before the game started:

There were thunderstorms predicted, so the roof stayed closed & it was hot, but it was an exciting game, with Ajax winning 3-2 in extra time.  

Amsterdam

There is such a difference in living in a great city, verses just visiting a great city.  We are living in Amsterdam and loving it.  Our home is in the Jordaan neighborhood, around the corner from the Ann Franke House, a typical skinny, tall, slightly leaning forward building with fabulous large windows.

 5 levels, lots of tiny, circular stairs in the most perfect neighborhood.  

Meanwhile, our hosts are in our house, enjoying the Northwest.  

We are sleeping late, going to the markets, not rushing to sights, biking all over this crazy for bikes city.  We are living in it.  Amsterdam is a mixture of Paris, Venice, Rome and London.  It's international, intellectual, tolerant, fun, beautiful and generally has a wonderful vibrant energy. It helps that it has been sunny and warm and everyone is outside enjoying the 'terrace season.'

  The canals are filled with boats and people having cocktail parties on their little skiffs while putting through the water.  

It's just lovely.....

Our first days we got the feel of the place by biking around.  There are SOOO many bikes and bikers here.  Beautiful women in heels and shorts skirts, young mothers with their infants in the front pack, senior citizens - everyone is on a bike and not a helmet in sight. The boys ride around like old pros.  I have no confidence in any of the other riders, who dart in and out like it's nothing.  Consequently, I'm cautious, slow and I wear my bike helmet!  I'm telling you, between the bikes, the scooters (who can ride in the bike lane), the cars AND the thousands of tourists you really have to be careful.  But amazingly it works and flows on a daily basis. I'm just dying to talk to an ER doc, though, and see what the rate of accidents is.  We have seen so many close calls.   

We've been to the Van Gogh museum - amazing collection, done a city tour - good for getting oriented and history, been to The Hague (Den Hague) to visit my friend Allison and her hubby from SF and high school - lovely to see them and get the expat perspective, and boys went to NEMO - which is like OMSI.  

Yesterday, we drove to the Hoge National Park to see the Kroller-Muller Museum.  World class museum set in a giant park, 2nd largest collection of

VanGoghs and a sculpture garden that is OUT of this world.  

No tourists - just natives - so it doesn't feel crowded or cheesy. The juxtiposition of art and nature in the garden is breathtaking AND they give you bikes to ride around the park in.  

Something for everyone.  It has to be one of my top 5 museum experiences anywhere - ever.  Great day!

Bill and I have enjoyed the night life  ..... boys are happy to be left at home and we go out to dinner, to a terrace, to walk around and to just hang.  

Bill enjoys an ipa. 

Museums Galore

"Museum a day keeps the historian away" -Karl Kabeiseman

Today we plan to avoid the museums and get tickets to Brujges for the bike to Amsterdam from Brujdes. We are also going to nine alleys which is like a shopping district. 

See ya!

Amsterdam

Right now we are in Amsterdam, as you might know. Today, we visited the Krüller-Müller museum, which had quite an impressive collection. Also you could use some bikes they had. There was a massive amount of bikes there, and all for free use within the grounds of the museum, and don't worry, they'd be pretty tough to steal. Anyway, there there was a quite large Van Gogh collection, which was presented in a very different way from the Van Gogh museum we visited yesterday. There they also had many other styles, and artists. Also, there was a large sculpture garden, and it was REALLY big. It had about as many sculptures as there were paintings in the actual museum. It was one of the more impressive collections of art over this trip, and also was a impressive estate. 

We're enjoying ourselves a lot, see you all soon!

PVC beasts

Yesterday we went to this really cool place. This place is were this guy has his work shop were he creates this beast made out of PVC pipes its really cool to see. He uses a heat gun to bend all of the pipes so that the will fit together. He had about 5 or6 beasts there that you could look at but only one of them you could actually pull. Most of his inventions that he makes now can go on wind but his first ones he had to pull. The upicture that is up there is my favorite thing that he maid that I know of. 

Give a guess who wrote this one. 

You guessed right me FRITZ.  

EU Trends

Trends in Europe -

There are some common things that we are seeing in all the European countries we've visited. 

Fashion wise it has to be the Birkenstock version of a flip flop.  You know the one - they have the rounded toe holder. These come in all colors, patterns and patent leather - and everyone, everywhere is wearing them. I know they are from Germany and have been around forever, but there does seem to be a popularity resurgence. Who knew that the hippie shoe would be so hip - again. 

The other commonality in the EU is IKEA.    IKEA 'stuff' is more prevalent than an iphone.  In EVERY establishment we have slept in there has been IKEA items. From London to Rome, and up to Amsterdam, in every kitchen, bathroom and bedside table the cheaply made, modern goods can be found.  

And finally - smoking!  Everyone still seems to be smoking. 

Cars and fuel

Cars in Europe are generally small and fuel efficient. We've been driving an Alpha Romeo Guiltta. It's a diesel. Gets 60mpg. Yes that's mpg. We filled it up ages ago, drove a full day and still have half tank.  Diesel is cheaper here too!  (It's still crazy expensive, but cheaper than regular gas).  

We're on the auto bahn right now - no speed limit. I'm freaking out, people are passing us in their Benzes, beemers, audis, alphas. AND fords!   I'm happy in the 'slow' lane going 140kph.  Oh now we're going 150. Eeek. 

With Uncle Chuck we are a bit squished. Lots of love in back seat. 

Road signs - 

Our favorite is ausfart (two boys 11 and 13 -  you figure it out). Ausfart means exit.  Duh.....

Our Favorite Sign in Switzerland & Germany

Here it is:

Luge in Switzerland.

This is a picture of Suzie going slower then ever on a luge like thing in Switzerland if you have ever been to luge on Mount Hood in ski bowl then you will know what it is like. The only difference is that this one was a lot more twisty. It was so fun and I wish we had our own at my local park. It would be so cool. Everyone went really fast except for Suzie who went crazy slow but on her second ride she went a little faster. 

Luge

The drive from Switzerland to Fussen was long & tiring. We then had to run to make it to our reserved tour at some Bavarian castles, meaning not so much free time on Wednesday  To make amends for the long car ride, we planned a little fun for Thursday morning - summer luge at Tegelberg:

Here are Karl & Fritz riding up the slope:

Then we came down a little faster:

Some not so fast:

All in all, a fun time was had by all before the quick drive to Munich. 

The Fatherland

Blogging has been a little light as we've moved from Switzerland to Germany.  It's been a combination of a long day in the car & being very busy, but we'll try to catch up in the next day or two. In the meantime, here's a photo from our first day in Munich:

Castles and Munich

LWe have now left Gimmelwald, and are now in Munich! Yesterday we had a long drive from the Gimmelwald, but before we got in the car Chuck decided to come down from the cliffs a different way than with the cable cars. Yep, Chuck went paragliding! 

After that we got in the car and drove up to Liechtenstein, which is a VERY small country, buried in central Europe. After that, we continued on our way to Fussen.

In Fussen we saw two castles: Hohenshwangau and Nueshwanstein. 

Both were very impressive, and quite pretty. After the castles we went to our hotel and spent the night.

The next morning, we moved on to Munich, or Münchin as it is in German. That is where we are now.

New Favorite European City

I've got a new favorite European city - Bern Switzerland.  It's in a beautiful natural setting & is the Capital of the country. It's got a great university, wonderful old medieval town, great outdoor spaces & you can swim in the river. What's not to like?

We didnt know too much about the town going in; we just knew that, on hot days, the residents jump in the cold, fast river Aare & float through old town, past the parliament building. That sounded like such a great idea, we had to try it. Who knew they also had radical anarchists who took over a government building a few decades ago & have turned it into an art & performance space?  Perhaps the hotel helped too - creaky old building with stairs & hallways off-kilter, but open the room door & the floors are even, the showers hot & the beds the most comfortable we've slept in. 

Unfortunately, I've not got many pictures because we were too busy enjoying the town, but we can heartily recommend a stopover to anyone looking for a great experience. 

Gimmelwald first day!

IWe are now back from our trip up to the top of the Schilthorn mountain via Tram. There, we found an amazing view and a rotating restaurant.

But one of our favorites (Fritz's) was the James Bond exhibit at the top of the mountain.

It was there because the James Bond film "On Her Majesties Secret Service" was filmed there. We spent a lot of time looking at the view also. While coming back down, we had a picnic

and then went on to Mürren and explored the area.  Mürren is the home of Alipine skiing - and you can see why. We also were looking for the spot where the para gliders jumped from.  We didn't find the spot, so we took the long way back to the Gimmelwald, by hiking.

As we walked into town we saw a local Swiss family raking in the hay from the mountain side. Hard work!!  Gimmewald is a real working farming town. 

Played a mean game of UNO. Chuck pulled the wild dance card, and still won. 

Good day!

Gimmelwald

Not a bad view to wake up to out the hotel window:

It's time for a cable car ride up the schilthorn & a long hike back. 

Gimmelwald and Switzerland

As you might know, we are now in Switzerland! Yesterday we were in Bern, the capital of Switzerland, and now, a few hours after leaving Bern, we are in Gimmelwald. The Gimmelwald is quite spectacular.

The only ways to get there are by tram or by hike, so there are no cars. There is still small farming equipment pieces that were brought from the next town over, but they are few. We are currently staying in the Pension Gimmelwald, which is quite nice, even with all five of us in here.

Before we got to Stechelberg to ride the tram up we went to Lauterbrunnen to shop for food for up in the mountain.

We also stocked up on passes to save as much money as possible. After we had first settled in up at the Gimmelwald, we went on a small hike for an hour (Maybe more!) before coming back to rest.  

Beautiful!!!

Swimming in the aare river

The 4 boys swimming in the Aare  river in Bern Switzerland. The river was really really cold but once you were in than it got to a really nice and refreshing temperature everybody went into to the river. Karl Bill and I went into the river a second time and floated down. The hotel that we are staying at is right next to the river so we didn't really have to much trouble getting to the river. It was so fun. Everybody. Loved flowing down the river.  

Switzerland and Uncle Chuck

We have arrived in a new town and country. After picking up Bill's brother Chuck at the Milan airport we headed north!  Chuck wanted a little bragging rites to say that he, sort of, went to Italy -so we made a quick stop at Lake Como. No George sightings, but plenty of wealthy Italians looking very tan and preppy in top siders and salmon colored shorts (men) and espadrilles (ladies). Gorgeous place and don't begrudge George his choice. 

Had to get Chuck an Italian coffee and gelato - hey we were still in Italy. . 

Ten minutes later we were in Switzerland. 

Stopped at a breath taking rest stop. 

Then squished back in the car for a few more hours to Bern !  Great vibe, beautiful day, gorgeous city, cool little place to stay AND the river Arne. What do the locals do?  They jump in and float down river. So that's what we did too!!  Heart racing fun!!

Karl Fritz and Bill did a second run down the river. 

Checked out the city old city 

Played a little chess. 

And went and ate ..... You guessed it!  Pizza!!  What did you think we were going to have fondu in July?

And walked home.