Shopping in Florence

It was probably two months ago when I was at brunch with a few girls from work when one of them started talking about a recent trip she made to Florence and the Prada outlet located just outside of Florence.  It was then and there that us girls decided we also needed to do a shopping weekend in Florence, and that weekend turned out to be this last one.  There were five of us girls and we had only one goal for the weekend....shopping!  While of course also enjoying some yummy Italian food and wine.  We arrived Friday evening and stayed in a cute little apartment in the middle of the city.  Saturday morning we were up bright and early to make sure we got to the Prada outlet right when it opened at 9:30.  The Prada outlet is about an hour by train from Florence and then just a short cab ride from the train station.  

There are no signs for Prada along the way....it is merely called Space and is basically a giant warehouse.  But when you step inside, it's not like a warehouse at all. It’s like stepping into a regular Prada store, just larger.  There’s a men’s section, and then sections for handbags, sunglasses, women’s shoes and of course women’s clothes.  We beelined it for the handbag section and then slowly covered everything else.  Everyone was quite successful, perhaps too successful.  I treated myself to a pair of shoes and sunglasses while the other girls were much more successful with the handbags.  All in all, a good start to the day and it was only 11:30.

We headed back to Florence, had a lovely lunch and then shopped the rest of the day in Florence.  There are tons of shops all around town so there is plenty to choose from.  We tried to hit up as much as we could with the different stores and then headed to a local outdoor market to check out some of the leather goods.  Again, we managed to all be quite successful during the afternoon as well.  Oh and to top it all off, the weather was absolutely amazing.  It was in the mid-80’s and sunny.....it felt like a summer day.  

By 6pm we were all pooped and headed back to the apartment to rest for a bit before dinner.  We had another delicious Italian meal before calling it a night.  The next day our flight wasn’t until 7:20pm so we had more time to, you guessed it, shop!  We weren’t quite as aggressive as the previous day but still managed to walk around and shop for a few hours while also enjoying one last dish of pasta.  

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend.  You never know what to expect when you travel with girls you’ve never traveled with before and who all want to shop.  But we all got along fabulously and ended up being great shopping partners for each other.  I got home, showed Nate my purchases and told him about our weekend and he was all too happy to have been at home watching the Giants and enjoying the beautiful weather sitting by the lake.  I guess it was a win-win for both of us.  

Viva Mexico!

So as promised, after Istanbul we went home to Zurich for a total of about 48 hours before getting on a plane and heading to Cancun, Mexico for the wedding of our two close friends Louis and Keelin.  Almost as exciting as the wedding was the fact that most of our close friends from home would also be in attendance and a perfect opportunity to get caught up with everyone while relaxing at the pool or beach with the added convenience of an all inclusive (read: all-you-can-drink-and-eat) resort.

The trip did not start out as planned however.

Now I have logged somewhere shy of "a lot" of miles over the past 10 years and traveling that much means you run into a few situations where the trip takes a bit of a detour.  Like the time I got stuck in NYC with no place to stay and could only find a room for $600 at the hotel next to the other airport on the other side of town.  That was fun.  This time we figured hey, we have a 5 hour layover in Philadelphia, we'll be able to get some good "taste of home" food there, and be in Cancun by 10 pm that night.  

Unfortunately a Swiss pigeon had other plans.  As our plane arrived in Zurich, apparently a pigeon thought it a good idea to see what all the noise was about, got a little too close to the jet intake and we'll never see that pigeon again.  This also caused a dent in the jet which would need repair - and time - before taking off again.  And I give you the reason a 5 hour layover was not enough.  We finally get to Philly 6 hours late and as expected miss our connection to Cancun.  While definitely a bummer, the next flight in the morning left at 7:30 am, they put us up at the airport hotel across the street and we ultimately arrived at the hotel in Cancun by about 11:00 am the next morning.  Not ideal, but certainly could have been worse.

This will lead to degenerate behavior!

Welcome then to a bit of paradise.  Got ourselves checked in and after a little mishap with the bell hop who felt no urgency to get our bags to the room, got changed into the swim trunks and off to the pool where we find our first group of friends, drinks already in hand.  Really not much more detail beyond that is necessary.  We ate at the pool, drank at the pool, and waited for the sun to go down.  That first night consisted of a lovely dinner with everyone in town for the wedding in attendance and then some karaoke at one of the bars on site.  To recap the day we ate, drank, and were merry.  "Married" would come the following day.

Mr. and Mrs. LPM!

Friday morning, day of the wedding, and we pretty much did a rinse and repeat of the previous day's events.  Ate, drank, water, sun, lobsterizing, blah, blah, blah, I could live like this forever.  Then came time to go get ready for the main event.  Very simple and very beautiful setting on the beach for the ceremony.  Flip flops and linen pants were the required dress and I think as personal a ceremony as I have been to in a while.  It was such a nice wedding, very sweet, and congratulations again Louis and Keelin!

Following a nice cocktail reception, dinner, then the typical wedding debauchery would begin.  This time including a photo booth, some modified battle of rappers (don't ask) and bad dancing done by people who enjoy it all too much.  I would tell you more but the memories escape me a bit.  Probably a good thing.

On the boat enjoying the ride

Last day in Mexico and the parents of the groom had arranged for a 5 hour cruise for everyone on a catamaran out on the ocean.  Aside from the wedding this turned out to be the other highlight of the trip.  We all load up, roughly 60 people maybe on this big sail boat and head out.  Along the way we stopped for some snorkeling, cruised by the Isla Mujeres, and just sailed around enjoying the water, the sun and total relaxation.  This was a great last day event, enabled everyone to relax and chat, they kept filling our beers, there was a neon sling shot "Borat" style swim suit brought out which Mexican law prohibits posting pictures of, and we all had an incredible time out on the water all afternoon.  By the evening, I think we were all pretty wiped out and as much as we tried to rally, by about 11:00 pm it was bed time for most.

Sad to see it end after only 3 short days, but wouldn't have missed it for the world and so nice to see everyone and thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing few days.  Off to the airport, all went according to plan on the way home and even got a huge Philly cheese steak at the airport before getting on our flight back to Zurich. We made it back to Zurich Monday morning right on schedule, how very Swiss of us to be on time!

Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople!

Sitting now at 34000 feet somewhere over the North Atlantic heading home after what has been a very busy, many miles traveled, activity filled 10 days.  

Starting with Easter weekend where in most European countries you get both Good Friday and the Monday after Easter off as holidays.  It feels a lot like Thanksgiving does at home where many take the whole week off and if not the whole week, then by Wednesday half the office is gone and things are quiet work wise.  Taking advantage of this 4 day weekend we decided it would be the perfect opportunity to visit Istanbul, Turkey which has been on our list for some time.  It’s about a 3 hour flight from Zurich so a bit long for just a weekend trip, not to mention it is a massive sized city with lots to see so 4 days was going to be a good start.  Istanbul did not disappoint!  

Traveling with our now defacto “travel buddies” Alex and Stacey we arrived late on Thursday night, late enough that by the time we got to the hotel it was bed time and let's get ready for an early start Friday morning.

Entrance to the Palace

First up Friday morning was the Topkapi Palace which sits up on a hill in the old part of town.  Really a giant complex of buildings and has served as a fortress and residence of the Ottoman empire.  Apparently the Sultans who lived there also felt they could gouge you for an extra $10 to see the Harem part of the complex which was one of the more interesting parts of the tour.  One tip for you as you plan your own little adventure someday to the Topkapi Palace, do not pay for the audio tour because you will basically be paying for a broken walkman from the early 90’s that requires you to push buttons in order to tell it where you are and it will then respond with 36 seconds of useless information.

That took up most of the morning before we left to find something to eat and 

Looking down a random street

then spent the afternoon more or less wandering around the streets, 
looking at the markets and exploring.  Always enjoy just walking the streets and seeing whatever you stumble upon which included narrow streets, shops and lots of places serving Doners, which we'll get to later.  

Eventually we wandered our way back near the hotel to the next main attraction called the “Blue Mosque”  also built during the Ottoman Empire which is quite picturesque from the outside and fairly impressive on the inside too.  One of those things where you walk in, take a few pictures, say you were there and head out.  This is when we went on to find one of the really cool things they have tons of in Istanbul – the rooftop terrace bar.  

About every 3^rd building has a rooftop bar where you can sit, have a drink, look out over the water, and given the very pleasant weather we had this really made for an enjoyable experience.  Grabbed dinner at this great restaurant then went out to one of the lively parts of town for nightlife called Nevizade street.  LOTS of people out, live music everywhere, really great fun atmosphere which we took in for a few hours before finally calling it a day.

Inside the Hagia Sophia

Up the next morning, powered up with a Doner for lunch, then off for some more sightseeing including the Hagia Sophia which according to Wikipedia is really old and originally a Christian Byzantine empire church before becoming a mosque during the Islamic Ottoman empire.  It was also really crowded which initially looked like a problem save for the random tour guide who asked us if we wanted to join his tour.  Extra cost = $10.  Never mind that with the added cost we got an actual tour AND we got to bypass the whole line and walk right in.  Great investment.  From the outside, not quite as impressive to look at as the Blue Mosque but from the inside it was really something to see.  A huge building with tile artwork from the building's history as both a Christian and Muslim church, a must do sight for sure.

The beginning of Doner Quest

Did some more wandering around after that and also began “Doner” quest 2012 to see how many Durum Doners we could eat since there are as mentioned stands everywhere selling them and had our second of the day.  (So good, would love to have one on this flight right now as I think about it.  Much better than that random chicken thing they just rolled down the aisle)  More walking, wandering, went to the Grand Bazaar which is basically a huge mall, and killed our day that way.  

Dinner that night was up the Bosphorus which is the waterway that runs from the Mediterranean sea up to the Black sea.  It is also about an hour taxi ride from where we were staying despite the distance of about 20 KM because traffic in this city is insane.  Bright side was that at least we got to see some other parts of the town during the trip and even got a short boat ride out to the actual restaurant.  We ate and by this point were pretty much wiped out and called it a night after a short and largely unsuccesful search for a night cap.

Our last day in town consisted of finding more Doners, and having a man exfoliate me with a wire scrub brush mit before dumping massive amounts of soap on me while I lay on a marble slab.  This was the famous “Hammam” or Turkish bath.  A strange experience, nothing like a relaxing spa especially when you consider other strangers are watching you undergo your “bath” like you're an animal at the circus.  It’s weird.  But it's also a worthwhile experience though not one I need to do again.  Then got another Doner.  The other unexpected experience I had was the Turkish barber which Alex had heard about and which we both checked out.  No special place, just found the barber shop down the street from the hotel and walked in for a haircut and shave.  A very thorough process which included a shoulder massage, having all the little hairs you get all over the place washed off, and also a lighter.  This is definitely something I would do again.  And oh by the way - half the price of a haircut in Zurich.

Last real sightseeing thing we did was a boat tour of the Bosphorus which took about an hour and a half round trip and just cruised along the water while we looked at various sights on the shore and enjoyed the sunshine.  Excellent dinner that night, found a local place near the hotel for a few drinks and traditional Hookah, and wrapped up 3 full days in Istanbul.  

Looking up the Bosphorus

All in all a wonderful, different, interesting, and lively city.  It’s truly a huge city with so much we didn’t get to see so I’d have to say a return trip is something I would love to do in the future.  We’ll see, so many places to see, so little time!  

Now stayed blogged in for what the other 6 days I mentioned were all about.....

Tasting champagne IN Champagne

One of the things I wanted to do when I found out we were moving to Europe was go to Champagne France and taste champagne. And that’s just what I did last weekend. My friend Lee from my old team in SF was in London and Paris for meetings so I met up with her in Champagne for a girls weekend. We stayed in Reims, which is the main city in this region. Lee had arranged for us to have a private tour guide, Rachel, to take us around Saturday and Sunday. Saturday started off with a first stop at a champagne house in Epernay recommended by a friend of Lee’s. This champagne house also doubled as a champagne museum so we decided to take the offered tour. This tour was in French (Rachel translated for us) and it took almost 2 hours. It was kind of interesting in the beginning but then it just got weird and went on for way too long. There were many different rooms all underneath the champagne house filled with multiples of things. For example, there was one room that had all shears displayed on the wall. Then another room had a bunch of axes and then one with cork, one with presses and on and on. Anyways, we finally got to tasting the champagne….3 types and they were yummy! We were then off to lunch and after took a walk down Avenue de Champagne where many champagne houses are located. For example Moet and Chandon is there. We did more tasting at a little champagne bar in Epernay and then our day with Rachel was over.

Sunday was a bit more like what I imagined Champagne to be. We went out to this small champagne house (Wafflart-Briet) in a village of 360 people called Sacy. It was super cute and in such a beautiful setting with grape vines and cute little village roads and houses. Here we tasted more champagne, learned about the champagne making process and had a lovely little lunch that Rachel prepared for us. The plan was to go to Pommery after for a tour but we were just thoroughly enjoying ourselves at Wafflart-Briet and we would have been rushed to make our train if we went to Pommery so we decided to stay. We had a nice tour of their small operation, more champagne and then before we knew it, we were off to catch our train.

It was a weekend filled with lots of good champagne and I even managed to bring three bottles home with me (it’s amazing how heavy three bottles of champagne can make your suitcase!).

Overall it was a lovely weekend and I would definitely go back. OH and I almost forgot to mention the BEST chocolate croissant I have ever had in my entire life. Lee and I went for a run on Sunday morning (because when traveling with Lee, exercise is always a must) and at the end of our run we found a cute little Patisserie in Reims. Here is where I got the most delicious, fresh, warm from the oven chocolate croissant of my life. I will be returning to this exact Patisserie at some point…it's a must!

It finally happened.....

Since arriving in Zurich in July I've been slowly building a list of things ranging from odd to downright dumb about Europe. With so much to love about Europe and the romance involved in coming here on vacation, I thought it only fair to expose the seedy underbelly of life when you actually live here. Sorry to offend but truths are truths.

Why now formally put down on electronic paper these thoughts and observations, some of which I have already shared with some of you? Well, it finally happened. I locked Cleaver into the house.

Read that again.

Key and lock, required on both sides!

Yes, “into” the house, meaning that she was unable to exit our apartment through the very door meant to keep people from coming into the abode without consent. I’m at work early Friday morning, I receive a phone call from Cleaver asking me if in fact I have both sets of house keys with me, and I do. I accidentally took both sets and upon locking the door behind me when I left, trapped Cleaver on the inside. And here we have the first of several design flaws in Europe. Locks.
Unlike say a hotel door that automatically locks behind you when you leave the room, doors here require that you lock and unlock the door with the key from both sides. The next person that can explain to me why this is a good idea will be the first. One Euro told me "oh, you just leave the key in the lock when you are inside the house". Great. So then if I am coming home and the other person is already inside and has their key in the lock, my key won't fit in the lock. 'Cause there is another key in there. Brilliant.

Moving on - Let's talk windows. As we learned in Summer it can get warm, humid, and stuffy, so you of course want to open the windows at night to get some fresh air since they do not have air conditioning here. At home in the U.S. you open a window and go on about your life. Here, you open a window and then have no less than 10,000 flies and other bugs in your house within minutes. Why? Screens. Don't have them here, anywhere. Again I have to ask, why is this system better?

Swiss plug on left, Euro adapter on the right

Moving on - Power plugs. You all know the novelty of travelling to Europe and having to think about a power converter / plug adapter so that your computer, charger, etc... will work. Well that part is fine but Europe can't seem to all get on the same page here with the plugs. The UK is on these giant 3 prong funky looking plug thing that is a hot mess. Most of continental Europe is on these two "pins" type deal, and Switzerland for some unknown reason has 3 "pins". So when I take my computer on the road and I plug my cord into the wall, it's actually a no can do. I have to have this adapter so that my Swiss plug will fit into the European wall when not in Switzerland. And don't get me started on the fact that some are flat against the wall and some receptacles are recessed which adds another element of incompatibility. It's a mess, trust me.

Moving on - Money. Europe loves coins and making large denominations of money in coin form. Which is awesome because you end up with like $22 worth of coins in your pocket weighing down your pants and making lots of noise when you walk. Hey, can we move on to more paper please? We all know the day is coming when cash will be a thing of the past anyway so why keep so many coins around? This is a hassle and Switzerland has decided that the "half-franc" coin should be the smallest one of the bunch so you keep missing them when you try to pay for something in change. Should be noted this coin problem is not limited to Switzerland and that the Euro, Nordic, and UK countries have the same issue.

Moving on - Lines. Lines at the grocery store, airport boarding, getting on / off the train, people generally can't figure out how to wait in line. For such an organized efficient society they have created in Switzerland, when there is no defined process - like when the door to the train opens - people lose their minds and try to jam through the door all at once. Never mind if someone was there first, is carrying a bunch of luggage, or that people are trying to get off the train.  All just jam up in one mass of people all going nowhere just like they used to do in cartoons when you were a kid or any number of bad early 90's sitcoms. (Saved by the Bell, I'm looking in your direction!) Figure it out people.

Moving on to one last item - Sunday. I know Europe is steeped in traditions, has countries that are thousands of years old and they hang on fiercely to their language and culture which is all fine and good. But, can we have a store open on Sunday? You are killing my Saturday people. Let's say you want to do grocery shopping on a Sunday, forget it. Buy a new pair of pants, not gonna happen. You want to go do something fun on Saturday and leave your errands to Sunday because during the week is hard since you work, not so fast! With the exception of the train station which does have an open grocery store (which is a complete mad house since it's the only one open, go figure?) you have to do all these errands on Saturday. It's a real pain. And during the week, maybe you say I'll hit that up after work, better hurry since everything closes by 7:00 pm.

Ok, thanks for listening as this has been cathartic for me. Now I can move on myself and go back to enjoying all the other things there are to enjoy about Europe!

Dublin

Dublin has been on our list of places to visit and when we got an email from Stacey asking if we wanted to go to Dublin for the weekend to celebrate Alex's birthday, we jumped on it.  Nate and I both had meetings in other cities a few days before (me in London, him in Helsinki) so we met up in Dublin on Thursday night.  It was perfect because we were both able to work from there on Friday.  We finished up work in time for happy hour and our first pub of the weekend.  The cab driver I had from the airport to the hotel on Thursday night told me that the Irish love their pubs.  When it's cold and rainy outside they say "Hey, it's too cold and wet to be outside, let's go to the pub."  Then when it's sunny outside they say "Hey, it's too warm out here, let's go to the pub."  The theme being, let’s go to the pub (and you will see this as a theme throughout our weekend there as well).

So anyways, we did happy hour, Nate had his first Guinness of the trip, me a Heineken (or Hoinegen as the Irish would say).  Nate said he probably drank more Guinness in those three days than he had in the last 3 years.  After our first pub we headed towards the Temple Bar neighborhood (which is apparently the place to go for tourists and locals alike).  On our way we stopped at another pub for some dinner.  We finally made it to Temple Bar and it reminded us a bit of Bourbon St. in New Orleans.  It was loud and busy, lots of people in the street and just had a feel of craziness.  That weekend it just so happened to be that Ireland was playing Scotland in a big rugby match at the stadium in Dublin.  So there were lots of Scots in town and they were all dressed in their kilts.  Everyone was so friendly and happy and all around in good spirits.  It was a good time!

After some time we headed back towards our hotel and another pub where we were meeting Stacey and Alex (they came in on a later flight).  We met up with them and finished the night out at the Hairy Lemon.

The next day we were up and about and ready to explore Dublin.  We had a few things on our list and the Guinness Storehouse tour was one of them.  We headed there first and found it to be more like a museum.  It was actually done really well and about 6 stories tall.  It was a self-guided tour that walked you through the Guinness making process, the history and even gave you a lesson on doing the perfect pour.  Because if you didn't know, there is a very special way to pour a Guinness....it's a two pour beer.  As you walk through the different levels, you end up at the very top in the tasting room.  Here you get your free pint of Guinness and are able to enjoy your beer while getting 360 degree views of Dublin.  It was quite nice!

We finally left there, grabbed some fish and chips and then headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral.  Afterall, we figured we should do something non-drinking related during our visit.  St. Patrick's Cathedral is apparently the largest cathedral in Ireland and quite beautiful.  We finished up here and headed off to, you guessed it, another pub.  This time it was to watch the Ireland vs. Scotland rugby game.  The boys watched the whole game while Stacey and I headed over to Grafton St. (the main shopping street) for some shopping.  

After the game and a bite to eat we were off to a stand up comedy show which was recommended by a co-worker of mine that used to live in Dublin.  It was in another pub (of course) in the upstairs portion of it.  The room itself was quite small, with a small stage.  It was all really fun though and it was interesting going to a comedy show in a different country because obviously you aren’t all that familiar with all of the references they make.  But we still found it to be quite funny and it gave us a little more insight into Ireland and its culture.  

We left here and went to yet another pub (are you picking up on the theme here?).  We found a really busy street not far from where we were and went to this pub that was packed and had a guy playing his guitar.  We were having a great time and then it happened.  We witnessed a true Irish pub fight.  The only reason this was kind of cool is because we had luckily moved away from the area where it all went down just minutes before it started.  Otherwise it could have been quite scary.  So between that and a few more pubs, we were calling it a night.

Our flight on Sunday wasn't until 5pm so we had some time for more sightseeing.  We headed to Trinity College to check it out.  It was such a beautiful campus and reminded me of what an East Coast college campus looks like.  After walking around here for just a bit, we were off to the Jameson Whiskey distillery for our tour.  This was a guided tour where you learned all you ever wanted to know about whiskey making.  For instance, did you know that Jameson distills their whiskey three different times (the Scottish only distill theirs twice)?  Throughout the tour you definitely got the idea that they don't think much of the Scottish whiskey at all. At the end of this tour you also got to sample the product.  You had a choice to take your whiskey neat or have it with a mixer.  I am actually not a fan of whiskey at all but decided to try mine with cranberry juice and it actually wasn't too bad. 

Anyways, we had one more pub lunch and then were off to the airport.  Overall I'd say we had a great Dublin experience.  Everyone was friendly and there was this energy in the air everywhere you went.  If we end up going back though I'd definitely like to explore outside of Dublin to experience more of Ireland and its true beauty.  

Switzerland, Skiing, Salat, & Hammers

It’s often been said – Why does anybody do anything? And the answer is inevitably “Because they can”. So when you come across a picture of four 30 something professionals standing around an apartment at 2:00 am with Ski helmets and Goggles on and you ask yourself “Why are they doing that?”, well – Because we can!

And I give you night number 1 of ski week with our two close friends Matt and Louis who came all the way from U. S. and A. (thanks for bringing that Borat movie Lou!) to join us in Switzerland for a week of vacation, skiing, a little debauchery, and all around good times.

From the picture above you can pretty much figure out the first night’s events. Dinner, blah blah blah, few drinks, blah blah blah, some duty free cocktails courtesy of our international guests and BAM! wearing a helmet in the living room. The next morning after sleeping in and a few cups of coffee it was off to the train station, skis over shoulders to head off to Interlaken which is about a 2 hour ride from Zurich. If we haven’t mentioned before, the train system here is absolutely amazing.

Late afternoon arrival in Interlaken, some light snow falling and we’re off to see what this town is all about. It was a Sunday, which means pretty much everything is closed. We did manage to find a place called Riki’s which is a small random Portuguese bar with the only cheap beers and jukebox I think in the whole country. Needless to say we stayed here for a bit before finding a place for dinner. The restaurant recommended to us was closed. Shocking except that you remember it's Sunday. The place next door was open, looked like a good Swiss menu so we gave it a shot. Really glad we did if for no other reason than the gemischter salat (mixed salad) was probably the best salad any of us had ever had. When was the last time you found yourself talking about the salad for three days post-meal? If the answer is anything other than “never” either you are a vegetarian or you regret the menu choice you made that night. Really, this salad was amazing and you are probably bored right now from hearing about it.


Waking up the next morning to a fresh few centimeters (hey, that’s how they measure things here) of snow and on our way to ski at a place called Grindelwald. Interlaken sits at the base of 3 huge ski areas and the plan was to hit one each day. Hop on the train, make our way to the mountain and finally up the lifts which took longer than we expected. This “longer than expected” would unfortunately be a common theme for the next few days. Once up there though it was well worth the trip. Epic day of skiing, weather good for the most part on fresh snow, still fairly cold and some amazing views throughout the day.

After a full day, made our way back down the hill to town where we went on walkabout for 45 minutes trying to find a place for dinner. This was not a Sunday which led us to believe Interlaken was either super sleepy or we can’t read a map. We’ll go with the former. Finally ate, few beers and off to bed – it was a glorious but long day.

Pretty much rinse and repeat the next two days, more good skiing, long trips up the mountain, (talking like an hour+, so really not that bad) and back to town at night. Broke off for one day where Matt and I went skiing while Cleaver and Louis stayed in town to sightsee. We even ate chicken wings at an American chain restaurant one evening that will remain nameless however orange dolphin shorts were involved. We went back to Riki’s for a second time, this time emptying out their supply of Portuguese beer. Apparently in this town 4 people can result in more business in three hours than they get in a typical week.

After our few days in Interlaken we headed back to Zurich for two nights in the middle of the week to rest for a day and perhaps see some of the sights in Zurich. Completely by chance our friend’s brother-in-law Johnny who lives in Nashville and is a musician was playing a gig in Zurich of all places. He plays with a country / rock band name Scarletta and they were doing two nights in Zurich fairly close to our house at some country music festival that we had no idea existed. This ended up being a lot of fun.

Reasons why this was fun:

• The band was great, clearly professional grade and not a bunch of losers playing three chords in the garage. In fact one guy in the band was called the following week to play in the band on American Idol. Not a contestant but as a musician on the stage prominently featured.  Legit.
• No idea Zurich liked country music. Literally people with cowboy hats, boots, and a bunch of Harley Davidson’s lined up at the venue. They had a massive American flag on the ceiling.  They had two massive Confederate flags on either side of the American Flag. So massive that one guy in the band who is from Alabama claimed he had never seen the “Stars and Bars” in such a size. Only thing missing was the General Lee and Rosco P. Coltrane.

Next day had a few beers with the whole band, saw a few sights with Johnny, and generally had a low key day which was nice. Nice because the next day we were off to Davos for some more mountain fun. Davos is a little more than 2 hours away and we arrived late afternoon. After a little searching we discovered more life here than Interlaken. Starting at the bottom of one of the ski slopes we had some après ski even though we did not ski this day. Why not right? The weather had warmed up a bit which is good for outdoor drinking, but not ideal for skiing. Had a few drinks and once the sun went down we wandered to a local establishment and much to our surprise / amusement / detriment to safety we discovered this bar had what we’ll call the “wood - hammer” game.

This little gem which for a litany of liability reasons would never be allowed in U.S. and A. consists of a giant stump of wood, nails, and a hammer. We found this to be everywhere in Austria a few years ago but had yet to see it in Switzerland but oh the joy when we saw it. The game is complicated and I’m sure there is a full Wikipedia explanation detailing all the rules but to the best of my ability here goes an explanation:

1. Tap three nails into the wood just so they no longer wiggle and are in there firm.
2. Try to hammer these nails into the wood one hammer swing at a time with the back “claw” side of the hammer.

And there you go. Complicated, dangerous, and the more libations on board the worse (surprisingly?) you get at accomplishing this task. So fun! Played that for a while, found dinner, and called it a night because we had snow to ski the next day.

Our last day of skiing which was a bit warm and slushy especially as you got lower down the mountain but still lots of fun. This is also where we decided to give Cleaver a nickname. At least when skiing she will now be known as “cheese grater”. Because all she does on the mountain is shred. A fourth great day of skiing in one week, great being pretty much defined at my age by leaving the hill with my body intact.

Back to Zurich that night for our final night in town which we spent at home with Durum Doners and more duty free drinks. No helmets though. Perfect way to end a great week with our friends in town. We had some great skiing, explored more of Switzerland, had a few beers along the way, and thoroughly enjoyed the time.

Next up – Dublin! If we see the blarney stone, a leprechaun, or a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow we’ll be sure to update you accordingly.

Auf Wiedersehen!