Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Germany Part III -- Lake Geneva (Switzerland) and Chamonix (France)
N: Here we are at Lake Geneva/Lac Leman at the border between Switzerland and France. Anna is behind Mama, and I am behind the camera!
N&A: Picturesque villages surrounded by vineyards; deep, clear lake with majestic mountain views -- almost heaven on earth, except that everything is very expensive, and nothing is open late or on Sundays. We loved it here, but wished we spoke a little (ok, a lot) more French...
N: Chateau de Chillon was just about the coolest thing I have ever seen. It's on an island just off shore, so the whole thing is surrounded by water (saving the Dukes of Savoy from paying for moat diggers).
N: Yes, this is what you think it is.
N: Enjoying the view from the keep. Mama learned the origin of two expressions on this visit. A "loophole" is a tiny little opening in the castle wall through which an archer can fire an arrow. "Pech" is hot tar, which is what you might have poured on you while laying siege to a castle. When things don't work out right, Germans say, "Pech gehabt".
N: Since the castle now has real indoor plumbing, we hopped into the lake for a swim. Check out the old bathrooms hanging out over the lake on the right side.
N&A: Here we are in out dorky hats in Chamonix, France. We rode one of many gondolas ("Seilbahn" in German) to this point, and then Mama and Anna went for a little hike while Papa and I took a chairlift up even higher and walked around.
N: Tada! Papa and I hiked to this lake from the top of the chairlift.
N&A: We were very happy to see each other when we met up again.
N: Here we are inside a glacier! Somebody thought it would be cool to build an ice cave, and, well, it was cool in there. But not as cool as it used to be. Back in the 80's when they built the gondola, it was only necessary to walk a short distance down to the glacier. Today there are 400 (steep!) stairs. If you want to see this glacier, get here soon...
N: In case you don't make it, here's what it looks like from above.
N: After all that gondola riding in Chamonix (and lusting after a plastic gondola in a toystore window), I suggested that we build one ourselves back in Ortenberg, and Opa was just the man for the job. The zucchini is a tree.
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Germany Part II -- Vienna (yes, that's really in Austria)
N&A: We were fortunate to be able to visit our friends the Fultons at their home in Vienna! They live on the 8th floor, and they have a really cool elevator and a parking garage where things move around when you press buttons.
A: Linus (green) and Timon (gray) took very good care of me.
N&A: Vienna is a big city, and we were a little overwhelmed by the downtown area with busy streets and tall buildings, but we loved the parks, and taking the Strassenbahn (streetcar) U-Bahn (subway) was pretty cool too.
N&A: This 400-yr-old farmhouse on the grounds of the Schoenbrunnen Palace was one of the places we really enjoyed (especially the free cheese). Here we are in Herr Gott's Winkel in the Gute Stuebe with our fabulous tour guides.
A: Da da da da da....da da...da da. This is me swimming in the Danube. Ok, it's the old Danube, so it's more of a lake nowadays (the Viennese moved the river to a more convenient location a while back). And this is actually a kiddie pool right next to the old Danube.
A: It was my first time swimming and I loved it!
A: Sacked out afterwards....
