Weeks 21 and 22 - Da Vinci (Part 1) and Biking to Yverdon

After our whirlwind Austria (and Liechtenstein) trip, we took it easy the next two weekends. (Ok... to be honest, M wrote this sentence before this past Saturday's activities... more on that in a bit.)

Last weekend, we went to the Neuchâtel Museum of Natural History (Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Neuchâtel) to see the temporary Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit that closes August 1. The exhibit included posters of his drawings/sketches, as well as wooden replicas of some of his machines, many of which visitors were allowed to operate. Exhibited machines (remember fabricated from wood) included, but were not limited to, a bicycle, a piston, a water pump, a helicopter, a car, and a tank.

The overall impression from the exhibit was that Da Vinci was an amazingly intelligent, creative, and crazy guy. We'll hopefully get a chance to see more about Da Vinci during our Italy trip in the Fall.

In addition to the Da Vinci exhibit, there were also the taxidermical displays one would expect to find in a natural history museum. Being that Neuchâtel is on a lake, there was a very large bird exhibit, complete with push-button bird calls. Another highlight of the museum's permanent collection was the bug exhibit where you could examine specimens under a microscope.

During the week, we got an invitation from some co-workers to go biking along the lake. So, this Saturday morning, we met them in town by the lake with our bikes and started on a "leisurely" tour along the lake to the southwest. A month or so ago, we biked along the lake for a few kilometers, had lunch, and biked back. This weekend's outing, however, turned into a 40 km bike-ride to the city of Yverdon-Les-Bains at the other end of the lake as Neuchâtel. Portions of the ride are were pleasantly flat or downhill, but a good percentage of the ride involved biking up grimace-inducing, thigh-quivering hills. By the time we arrived in Yverdon, there was no way that K or M would bike the 40 km back; there was, in fact, only person in our group of six that was considering biking back by the time we arrived at our destination. After a picnic lunch by the lake in Yverdon, we caught the train back to Neuchâtel, with our bikes and all. Needless to say, we were filling a bit broken after the ride. Besides the obvious sore legs, M had a bruised butt despite her cushy bike seat with shocks, and K had a sore neck due to handle bar position on his road bike. On our tour, we were rewarded with beautiful views of the lake (although anyone attempting this ride should be forewarned that the ride does not hug the lake, but goes up the hillside for pretty vistas), and we may consider the ride again, but not until we've healed. Also, it may be a good idea to go on some more modest rides in between. Perhaps biking 4 times further than you've ever biked previously is a bit ambitious. Perhaps before we quit Switzerland, we will try to ride all the way around the lake.

Saturday night, we walked (or rather, limped) around Neuchâtel to wander through some of the festivities tied to Swiss National Day. Since Swiss National Day is actually on Sunday, some local towns were having fireworks shows Saturday night. We drove up to the Vue des Alpes and got to view two of the shows from above. Since we missed 4th of July fireworks this year, this felt like a real treat. Tonight (Sunday night) we have to decide if we will watch the fireworks over the lake from our apartment balcony or down at the lake edge.

Lessons learned:

1) Swiss National Day is August 1st to celebrate the initial alliance between the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden in 1291, which signified the birth of Switzerland. The alliance was formed to fight against the Habsburgs, the leaders of the great Austrian empire.

2) K's maths (yeah...with an "s") skills have become a little distorted by his new-found language skills. Example, K says that he was in a work meeting where he spoke mostly in French. Now, normally, mostly means greater than 50% of the time. However, in this case mostly meant more than 25%. (But after K set off the alarm at work early Saturday morning, he spoke entirely [100%] in French to the nice security guard who came to investigate the alarm.)

Weeks 19 and 20 - Trip to Liechtenstein/Austria

Last Saturday, we started driving east for our trip to Swiss bordering countries 3 and 4: Liechtenstein and Austria.

The Principality of Liechtenstein (or Fürstentum Liechtenstein in the local German) is the 218th largest country in the world (according to the CIA World Factbook), with 62 square miles (160 sq km), about 0.9 times the size of Washington D.C. The tiny constitutional monarchy, sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria, has 35,000 residents and has the world's highest per capita GDP. First, we visited the capital "city" Vaduz. The highlights of Vaduz include the Postmuseum (Liechtenstein is renowned for its intricate postage stamps, which are miniature works of art. Many of the dies used to imprint the stamps are hand carved using a magnifying glass.) and the Schloß Vaduz, the residence of the country's royal family. You can't visit the castle, but you can hike up to it and enjoy a hawk's view of Vaduz.

After our hike up to the castle and back down, we ate at one of the restaurants in town. We had a delicious Traminer wine from the Prince's winery. Ken had enormous pork medallions, while Margaret ordered what she thought was a salad with two normal-sized cheese sticks. She was wrong. In addition to her salad, she received the largest piece of fried cheese she (or Ken) had ever seen. In a fit of poor judgement, she ate the entire thing.

After lunch, we drove to the town of Malbun to catch the daily falconry show at one of the town's inns/restaurants. We were in a bit of a rush on the drive up to Malbun (not wanting to be late for the show), but a narrow tunnel just before Malbun caught our attention; it was just barely wide enough for two cars to pass, and with a semi-circular cross-section, a truck would have to drive down the middle leaving no room for opposing traffic. After the falconry show, as we left Malbun, we noticed a traffic light outside the tunnel.

In K's haste, he apparently missed the light on the drive up, thereby explaining how such a narrow tunnel manages two-way traffic; it doesn't (at least not simultaneously). After the tunnel, we continued our journey into Austria, to stay in the Tirolian city of Innsbruck.

The night we arrived in Innsbruck, despite the enormous block of cheese M was still attempting to digest, we went to the vegetarian restaurant Chez Nico where M had made reservations. We had one of the most fun and inventive 7-course vegetarian meals (which started and ended with a course of strawberries and tomatoes-salty at the beginning, sweet at the end), and tried a delicious Austrian wine.

On Sunday, we were awoken at 5:30 am by the sun beaming in our hotel room window. After an awesome breakfast at the hotel, we drove from Goëtzens, where we were staying, into downtown Innsbruck. Our first stop for the day was the Alpenzoo, an amazingly large collection of alpine animals.The zoo took several hours to explore, and exhibits included snakes and lizards, fish, birds, ferrets, elk, deer, bear, and goats.

As we were looking for lunch, we saw the famed Goldenes Dachl (Gold Roof) in the old city square, and the beautiful Dom zu St. Jakob. The afternoon was primarily dedicated to the Volkskunstmuseum (Folk Art Museum) and the Hofkirche. It seems that every region we visit has a folk art museum, so it is becoming a bit of a family joke to see what "art" each of these places holds. ("Oh neat...more tiled stoves...oh look, another copper bundt...I don't think I've ever seen such an impressive shoe horn!") The Hofkirche is a fabulous tomb for one of the Austrian emperors, Maximilian I; very impressive and a bit morbid.

On Monday, we continued to drive east to get to the sprawling city of Vienna. This city is certainly fitted out properly as the capital city of an empire: amazing architecture, fabulous artwork, numerous theaters, etc. Monday night was capped off with a slice of the Original Sacher Torte from the Cafe Sacher.

Tuesday, we got up bright and early to visit the Hapsburgs' Schönbrunn Palace and its grounds (including one of Europe's finest zoos). From the Gloriette (a summerhouse with Roman ruins) on top of a hill, you have an excellent view of the lemon yellow palace and the seemingly endless city.

Wednesday, we visited the Kunsthistoriches museum (the Met in NY is probably the closest US equivalent). The museum building itself is amazing, and the decor and architecture were awesome (not the style, but the splendor reminded M of the Louvre in Paris). The museum houses a wonderful antiquities collection, as well as painting by the likes of Titian, Bruegel,

Raphael, Rembrandt, and Rubens. (Yeah, we didn't know who some of those guys were either.) We just managed to get to the Schatzkammer, the Viennese Imperial Treasury, before it closed. We also took in a Mozart/Strauss concert. Vienna is incredible. We could have easily spent much more time here, but we have an itinerary to keep.

On Thursday, we started driving back west toward our final stop: the city of Salzburg. We visited Schloß Mirabell, and its grounds, the Mirabellgarten. Salzburg is really known for two things by the rest of the world: it is the site of much of the filming of The Sound of Music, and it is Mozart's birthplace. Mirabellgarten is beautiful with intricate plantings and picturesque fountains; whilst there we treated by an English school choir to a medley of songs from...you guessed it...the Sound of Music.

On Friday, we toured Fortress Hohensalzburg, the largest medieval fortress in Central Europe, in the morning. After lunch, we visited the beautiful Salzburg Dom and spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing drinking Vienna-style iced coffee or cold Austrian beer.

Saturday, we drove home.

Lessons learned:

1. Einbahn means one-way in German.

2. Traffic in Vienna is horrendous.

3. Austria is the home of several good beers.

4. M likes ice cold radlers: beer and lemonade...mmm. Perfect for a hot day.

5. Summer time is tourist time. It was a little shock to our systems to hear so much American English.

6. K can only handle one foreign language. Though he learned German in school, the French he's been learning over the past 3+ months is displacing it. He kept trying to say things in German, but French words came out. Apparently the speech-controlling part of his brain has just two settings, English and Not-English, and lacks the ability for more "subtle" distinctions, like between French and German.

7. The Italian-Indian-Austrian combo restaurant is very popular in Salzburg (we passed by at least 4 of these restaurants). Also of note, you can get some quite good Indian food in Salzburg.

Weeks 17 and 18 - Cycling from Erlach to Île St. Pierre / Hike in the Gorges de l'Areuse

Two Fridays ago we had our company picnic (une pique-nique en français). K played soccer/football with a small team of Americans/British. His team came in third overall, but best of all he was complimented on his mad soccer skills despite being an American.

That weekend, after sulking over the USA's defeat in the World Cup, we took a relaxing

bike ride from Erlach (a city in the canton on Bern which sits on the western corner of Lake Biel/Bienne) to Île St. Pierre/Sankt-Peterinsel (which is really not an island at all but a peninsula in the lake). We parked the car near a couple of cows just outside Erlach and biked into town and on to the thin, grass-covered peninsula. The peninsula is a nature preservewith a wooden boardwalk off the main path that winds a little ways through the marshy grasses. There are signs that describe the flora and fauna (which include many kinds of water fowl, insects, and snakes) in the area.

For being in the middle of the lake it's somewhat surprising how little you can actually see of the lake; the grass and brush are over head height for most of the path. For most of the walk, the view is the path ahead of you and the hills on either side of the lake. On the "island", there is a hotel and

restaurant, as well as a small cafeteria-style bistro. We ate a delicious lunch at the restaurant; Margaret had fancy spinach and mushroom crêpes, and Ken had a platter of local meats,cheeses, and bread.

No car traffic is allowed on the path to Île St. Pierre. So you can either go there by foot or bicycle, or you can take a boat. After lunch, we found the port where the boat docks on the "island". There is a small café right next to the dock on a sandy beach. It's probably difficult to see in the picture, but there were a lot of boats and people in the water. It was quite an inviting area, not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

During this past week, we've had a bit of a Swiss heat wave (which makes for a lot of melty cheese and chocolate). In the middle of the week, M made it to her first NIC (Neuchâtel International Club) event: Ladies Night Out at a bar at the train station. She had a nice time meeting several of the women in the group and chatted until almost 9:30 before she had to walk home and go to bed.

This weekend we went to the farmers' market to buy some more herbs. M's tomato plant is doing so well (it actually has mini, unripe tomatoes on it), she wanted to get some thyme and rosemary to put in another planter. We also bought ingredients for salsa or at least our best Swiss approximation of salsa. We could not find jalapeños, so we made it with tomatoes, onion, cilantro (coriandre), and a dried chipotle we had brought with us from the States. It was pretty tasty and our best attempt at celebrating the Fourth of July.

On Sunday, we decided to visit the Gorges de l'Areuse. We parked in Champ du Moulin, near the Hôtel de la Truite (Trout Hotel) and starting walking towards the town of Noiraigue along the Areuse river. After walking past the pinkest, best-landscaped power station that we've ever seen, you reach a sign warning you of danger ahead. This, of course, means you're getting to the good part. And sure enough, a gorge and a powerful waterfall are ahead with a stone bridge and steep rocky steps out of some action/

adventure movie.

The walk was primarily in the shade, and with the wind blowing lightly over the river, it was pleasantly cool. In addition to numerous waterfalls (both nature- and man-made), there were lots of gorgeous little flowers, many which neither of us had seen before.

In other news, K's Swiss homebrew has had its first tasting. This batch was a kit recipe, with some minor tweaking. The first batch is a little sweet, but has a nice malt/hop flavor balance, good mouthfeel and nose; definitely better than the Swiss beers we've had so far.

Lessons learned:

1. How to make French accent marks on a Mac. See link.

2. Take heed with cats and windows that pivot out. Minor almost hung himself this weekend. Happily, he was saved by Ken's quick action.

3. The following phrases are nice to know in the Swiss German area: "gruezi" (hello) and "merci vielmal" (thank you). The Swiss German thank you is actually a combination of French and German.

4. Cooking on a gas stove is way better than cooking on an electrical cooktop. Sabayon made over a double boiler takes forever on our electric stove.

5. The French for your semi-annual teeth cleaning is le détartrage (de-scaling).