Who uses the phrase “Tuckered out"?

Let me answer that – two people: Your Grandpa if you are over the age of 25. And me. And why wouldn’t I be (and Cleaver too!) after this whirlwind Holiday season!

We last left you after Paris and the warm up for Christmas with the 4 of us. 1 me, 1 Cleaver, and 2 Kliewer’s in Zurich for Christmas. A pretty relaxed few days actually. Wrapped up the year at work on the 23rd, went to church on the 24th, exchanged a few gifts, watched football and ate all day on Christmas day. Very nice. Definitely different than at home if only because we are in such a different place, but a very enjoyable Christmas.

Zaragoza

Then comes the 26th. Wake up call at 4:00 am and off to the airport we go for a week in Spain ending with NYE! So plan is to get the first flight to Barcelona, rent a car and hit the road. First stop Tarragona! It’s about an hour or so from Barcelona on the coast. We get there a bit before lunch for a quick site seeing trip and some lunch. Neat little town, had some Roman ruins and a nice old part of town. Was a sunny day a bit warmer than Zurich and a nice way to start the trip.

After a few hours in Tarragona we were back in the car and on to Zaragoza for the night. After a few adventurous laps through town we finally park the car and get to the hotel, freshen up and hit the town. Zaragoza turned out to be quite the find. We spent the evening doing what the Spaniards do and went from place to place eating tapas and enjoying a beverage. There were quite a few people out and apparently the norm is for people to roll the stroller / kid right on into the establishment and join the party. Nothing like having your 4th beer next to the Maclaren with a screaming 9 month old in it. Time for the next place I think.

Next day before moving on we did a few of the highlights in town which included the church of course. Little did we know that the church in Zaragoza would be absolutely amazing. A rare unexpected “Wow” moment. Just enormous in size and beautifully decorated. A few more things to see in town and back into the car we go.

Pamplona

Next stop is about 2 and a half hours away in Pamplona. Along the way is a little old town called Olite with a giant castle which we stopped at and did the self guided tour. Was pretty cool and had some great views, a perfect little stop.

We then arrived in Pamplona for a few days of eating, sightseeing and bull running. Pamplona turned out to be fun with several streets of nightlife, restaurants and of course tapas. We wandered around the old town, had some good food and wine and enjoyed our first night in town. Next day we set out to see the town. Started off with a tour of the Pamplona Cathedral which was interesting then decided to walk the “red” line on our free hotel map. This red line indicates the route of the running of the bulls which we had to do. Start to finish it’s probably about a half mile maybe so not too long and winds through the old town ending at the Plaza del Toro. The Plaza del Toro is the bullfighting ring which is a huge stadium that apparently holds about 19,000 people. A few more sights, a few more tapas and off to Barcelona for New Year’s!

Park Guell

We drove back to Barcelona, dropped off the car, and were on to the hotel for 3 fun filled nights. First order of business, meet up with our friends Ben and Carolyn who had been traveling through Spain for the holidays. After meeting up, we found a great little local restaurant with some traditional Catalonian food which was excellent. Then we went out on the town and had the first of 3 also traditional late Spain evenings.

Barcelona we had been to before and seen some of the main sights but it was still so much fun to walk around and explore. One good find was the Mercat La Boqueria which had all sorts of food stands and these great little packages of cut up fruit, which was delicious. Oh, and we went to McDonalds once, well twice if you count the airport. So good. One other cool find was the Park Guell which is a big outdoor park with all sorts of Antoni Gaudi designed structures and a pretty amazing view across the city and the sea.

Topping off the week was New Years Eve. We had made reservations at a restaurant rather than try to find something and fight the crowds and this turned out to be a great decision not only because it gave us a plan, but the restaurant was amazing. They planned out a fixed menu, just one dish after the next, champagne at midnight and a Spanish tradition where everyone eats 12 grapes at midnight. We had a great experience and stayed there until about 2:00 am. You might then be thinking wow, 2:00 am, must be time to call it a night, right? Nope. Off to another local bar for some more drinks, some weird blue shot thing, and a rousing serenade of Cecilia sung for the first time in 2012 to Mrs. Kliewer of course! (for those who don’t know, she is not such a big fan of this song, but we didn’t let that stop us.) Finally somewhere around 4:30 or 5:00 am we called it a night.

We got a few hours of sleep, went back to the airport (where as mentioned we hit McDonald’s again) and were on our flight back to Zurich.

We had a great week and a great New Year’s Eve. For me Spain is just amazing with great food, culture, weather and scenery. I think I could very easily live in Spain forever. Yo corazon Espana.

NYE Dinner

More Visitors

It’s been a whirlwind week as we’ve had more visitors here in Zurich.  My parents arrived last Tuesday and just two days later my cousin Catherine arrived.  That meant Christmas vacation for me as I finished up work on Wednesday not to return for a little over 3 weeks.  We of course had to tour around Zurich and see all of the main sights.  Then we were off to Paris for a weekend.  We kept quite busy in Paris doing a wine tasting class, the Louvre, shopping on the Champs-Élysées and Eiffel Tower at night.  I loved the Eiffel Tower at night….it was something I hadn’t done before.  And it was fun learning more about French wines.  Apparently 2005 and 2009 were great years for French wines.  All in all a quick but very fun weekend in Paris exploring. 

Then Monday we were off to Flumserberg for a day of skiing in the Swiss Alps.  It was only about an hour and a half away by train from Zurich so quite perfect for a day trip (much better than that 4 hour drive to Tahoe, that’s for sure).  It was also the same day that we had snow falling in Zurich.  Our first snow here!!!!  (A girl from California gets very excited about these things)  

We got up to the mountain and it was snowing quite a bit up there.  Lots of snow and gray skies which made for a challenging day skiing but it was our first trip out and overall a good one.  And we left the mountain with no injuries which is better than our last attempt at skiing in Europe. 

In the interest of trying to do as much as we could, Tuesday we were off to Konstanz for a taste of a true German Christmas market.  It was recommended by some co-workers of mine and was exactly what I was hoping for.  It was a little town with snow on the ground and in the air and just really cute.  The Christmas market itself was quite large and took up a good portion of the main part of town.  The items sold there seemed to be more unique and handmade compared to what we have seen in the Zurich and Paris markets.  Overall a great day….but cold!!!! 

Now Catherine has left and my parents are staying to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s with us.  We’re looking forward to our Christmas celebration here in Zurich (hopefully with some snow) and then we are off to Spain for a week!

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Well it’s one of my favorite times of year now….the holiday season.  Usually that starts with Thanksgiving, which was a little bit strange for us this year being that they don’t celebrate it here in Europe.  I think the strangest part about it was working that Thursday and Friday and then knowing that everyone at home was gathering together to eat delicious turkey meals and celebrate the holiday.  Google did serve some turkey, sweet mashed potatoes and chestnut stuffing for lunch on Thursday though.  Nate came over and we had our Thanksgiving meal that way.  It definitely wasn’t the same as home but it was nice to get a taste of some turkey.  That Sunday, Nate made a pseudo-Thanksgiving meal by roasting a chicken and making mashed potatoes and then some stuffing from scratch (Stovetop doesn’t seem to exist here).  It was quite tasty!  Although our Thanksgiving was a bit different this year it’s all part of the experience and we have so much to be thankful for that I can’t really complain.

Zurich started putting up decorations and lights the weekend before Thanksgiving.  You’d start to see the Christmas stuff come out in the stores and decorations go up throughout the city.  On Bahnohofstrasse they have lights that they put up every year and those were “officially” lit that Thursday evening after Thanksgiving and that’s when I feel like the Christmas season really started around here.  The stores are playing Christmas music, and there are decorations and lights all around the city.  I just love it!!!  This also means that the Christmas markets have started as well.  For those that may not know, a Christmas market, from what I can tell so far, is basically like an arts and crafts fair with food and of course glühwein.  Glühwein is a hot spiced wine that is sold at every Christmas market you go to.  Zurich has a few Christmas markets around the city which start at varying times during the season.  They have one at the main train station which Nate and I checked out.  It actually wasn’t all that interesting to be honest.  Perhaps being that it’s inside and at the main train station has something to do with that.

Therefore last Saturday we were off for a day trip to Strasbourg, France for a true Christmas market experience.  I had read and heard that Strasbourg has one of the oldest Christmas markets in France and is quite nice.  We met up with our friends Stacey and Alex for the day.  I must say, it was quite nice!!!  Very Christmas-y indeed.  And definitely a much better market than the one at the main train station.  It was outside which was a step in the right direction.  The glühwein was tasty as well.  It was quite crowded though, which I guess is to be expected when you go to such a well known Christmas market.  But that didn’t impact our experience.  We walked around the market, had a good lunch and even strolled around the town looking at the shops.  All of the streets we walked down were decorated for Christmas and so fun!  And it was cold too which just added to the experience.  I mean, it wouldn’t feel right if we couldn’t be bundled up in scarves, hats and gloves, right?  Once we had had enough, we hopped on the train and headed home.  A great way to spend the day!

I must say, so far Christmas in Europe has not been disappointing!

Amsterdam

On the short list of places to visit that we had not been was Amsterdam, so the natural thing was to look for a time when there was work to be done in town, Google came calling and off we go for a weekend.

I mean a lot of bikes!

You hear about the canals, the red light district, the “coffeeshops”, museums, and general party like atmosphere of the place.  Sure sounds like fun and if nothing else interesting and different.  Amsterdam lived up to all of the above. What I didn’t realize was the bikes.  Wow, a lot of bikes.  And a very aggressive nature of those riding the bikes, cars and walkers are second class citizens in this town.

 Arriving on Friday afternoon, finishing up the week's work and looking for something to start the weekend of sightseeing.  The Anne Frank haus is in town, sounded both interesting and busy on a Saturday so we took the opportunity to check this out on Friday night before dinner and were glad we did.  Small-ish exhibit but quite interesting, you see the small hidden rooms two families lived in for several years trying to hide before they were ultimately found as well as a big display of many of Anne’s writings while living there.  Highly recommend making the trip if you have never been.

From there, time for a drink and some dinner.  We walked around a nice little neighborhood, found a neat little hole in the wall place serving Belgian beer and Nachos (yeah, nachos.  And have to say the Salsa was good.  Probably from a jar), then stumbled upon a little Ductch place for dinner which we enjoyed thoroughly.  From there we wandered slowly back to the hotel and called it a night.  It was a work week after all!

Saturday morning – let’s get some breakfast, and walk around some more.  Did some shopping, saw the flower market, and eventually found a littler corner café where we got a drink and sat outside.  (was cold, but not crazy cold!)  And this is where we witness the wrath of the bikes.

People about to get DINGED!

In Amsterdam they have roads, sidewalks, and specific Bike only lanes.  Problem is that for out of towners, these bike lanes look, well, just like a sidewalk.  So people across the street from our café kept walking in the bike lane and getting “dinged”.  “Dinged’ in the urban dictionary refers to walking in the bike lane while being given a warning “ding” by the person on the bike who is about to hit you.  One of those little bike bell “dings” that you would have had on your bike if you were a 5 year old girl.  Now the adults have them along with a right-of-way and they are pissed.  DING! “this lane is for bikes!”.  DING! DING! MOVE.  “DING” then give a stern head shake as you pass the walker who jumped out of the way just in time.

We watched this for about 20 minutes, it was very entertaining.

That never got boring but we did have to move on.   We decided to Visit the Dutch Resistance Museum which covers World War II from the Dutch perspective and what life was like while the Germans occupied the country.  Was again quite interesting and had lots of interesting artifacts and stories.  Not too big either but very well done.

Then off to dinner where we found a little Thai place, which was nice to have some variety.  And from there spent the rest of the evening  walking around including parts of the Red Light District which was far more circus novelty feeling than anything else.  It’s like it’s set up so that people can come “see” it but no way anyone would actually walk up and make a um.. purchase?    Not the most charming part of the city, that's for sure but something you have to go check out.

Overall a great visit and I know we'll be back.

Zörcher Wein-Ausstellung

That’s wine tasting to you and me – and that’s what we did, Europe style.

So we’re finding that in Zurich there is usually some sort of event going on that lasts for a few weeks or so.  There was the Oktoberfest, now there is some carnival thing set up in that same spot, sort of weird, and for a few weeks in November they roll up (or float up in this case) about 10 big boats to Bürkliplatz which is right where the lake meets the main part of town and use them for a wine tasting exposition.

The cost was 20 CHF to get in and you could purple mouth your way around the boats for as much tasting as you would like.  There must have been 200 or more booths set up doing tastings from all over Europe.  Language barrier was an issue at some, not at others.  We tasted at a booth where the guy pouring looked like Tony Bennett and only spoke Italian and kept trying to tell us…..something.   No idea but he was nice and entertaining so we stayed there a while.

You could not buy anything there but could place orders so we procured two different wines.  One was an Optima 2009 La Croix de Saint jean which according to the piece of paper that came with it is dieser jahrgangsweing besticht durch ein facettenreiches bouquet,  reife und kandierte früchte schwarzen beeren und etwas vanille - in kombination mit würzigen aromen von pfeffer und gewürznelken - eine dezente rauchnote sowie der duft von veilchen entströmen dem glas. 

So now you know.

Really enjoyed killing an afternoon here, tasted lots, ate a few crackers and then headed out for dinner.  You can check out more at www.expovina.ch

Home Again

Work took me back home to the Bay Area for the week of Halloween (I know this post is a bit late as Thanksgiving is now almost here.  Time sure does fly!).  I had two and a half days in Mountain View for a Partnerships conference and decided to stay the full week.  I must have packed in every single second I had there as I don’t think I had any down time at all.  But I got to see friends, family, visit favorite restaurants and go shopping.  It was nice to be back in our own home and to have that as an option.  Talk about being so much more comfortable than sleeping on someone’s couch.  In a strange way it felt like I was just coming home after a long vacation.  Although, Nate wasn’t there with me so that was a bit strange….it didn’t feel quite right.  But minus that, in some ways it felt like we had never left.

I packed in a full day of shopping since as we’ve mentioned before, things are super expensive here.  I wanted to take advantage of being back in the US where prices are much more reasonable.  And then I ate Mexican food about every chance I could get.  I think I managed to squeeze in at least 3 Mexican meals during the 7 nights I was at home.  I was almost getting tired of it before I left….which was perfect.  Hopefully I won’t be craving that for a while. 

And of course I worked.  I got to see my old team and friends from the SF office.  Then was down in Mountain View for the rest of the week where I did the networking thing, met new people and learned more about the Partnerships organization.  Overall it was such a good visit.  I love being in Zurich but there was just something nice about being home as well. 

And now I’m back “home” again.  It’s funny how the word home is so suitable for both SF and Zurich.  I’m a pretty lucky girl to have two places I can call my home.  

Nicole Comes to Visit

View from tower at Grossmunster Church

A few weeks ago, my cousin Nicole came to visit and what a great time we had.  It was fun showing her

around and was the first time we could be tour guides in our own city.  I must admit, I really enjoyed taking the time to be a tourist in Zurich again.  It gave me the opportunity to do some things I haven’t had the chance to do yet like go up the tower of Grossmunster church for an amazing view of the city.  Along with checking out Zurich, we made a little trip to check out the Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen.  From what we’re told, these are the largest waterfalls in Europe.  As they aren’t very tall, I’m guessing it’s due to the volume of water flowing through them.  You’re actually able to take a boat out to a rock that sits in the middle of the falls and climb to the top of that to get a pretty cool view of them from within.  And we also got to give Nicole a little taste of Oktoberfest, Zurich style.  Zurich puts on their own Oktoberfest for the whole month of October which feels very similar to the real thing but of course on a much smaller scale.  It was actually quite fun but my recommendation is if you’re going to do Oktoberfest, don’t take a 7am train the following morning.    

As we couldn’t spend her entire week just in Switzerland, we were off to Paris for the weekend.  I hadn’t been here for a while so it was fun to come back and explore it again.  We had to see all the major sights as Nicole had never been before (a trip up the Eiffel Tower was of course a must do).  It was quite cold the entire time we were there (think mid-40s) but we still enjoyed ourselves.  I mean, how can you not.  It’s Paris!  And I just love Paris. 

Overall we had a great week with Nicole and it was fun showing someone else the life we’re living over here.