Best Father's Day EVER!

Meryl and Ashleigh got me this present for fathers Day.  Fantastic experience.

Weekend adventures: (another!) ROOOADTRIP!

Weekend Adventures: Roadtrip to Austria, Liechtenstein and Basel, Switzerland

(April 21 - 25, 2011)

Dave Gold came to Geneva for a visit from NYC and we decided to make an adventure out of the trip and hit two more countries on my list, Austria and Liechtenstein. Dave came bearing NY bagels (thanks Dave!), a great travel attitude (despite Preston and I sharing a lot of funny "Preston and his roadtrip antics" stories) and a celebratory spirit (the night of his arrival was his birthday). 

16 years ago to the day, Dave stayed with Preston at Colgate
to see if he'd go there for college-- Preston was obviously a great host!

A recreation of the flaming shot -- no hands
were burned in this alcohol consumption!

Sometime ask Preston about the flight attendant that thought
he was in the military thanks to this haircut!

We headed off the Thursday afternoon of Easter weekend to Liechtenstein, about a four and a half hour drive from Geneva. 

The Principality of Liechtenstein is the only country to lie entirely in the Alps and is a doubly landlocked country. What's that, you ask? Well, it's landlocked by both Switzerland to the west and Austria to the east, also landlocked countries. Another fun fact? It's the only German-speaking country to not share a border with Germany. Preston especially loved that fact since it was yet another destination wherein he could practice his German. 

Dave and Preston in Vaduz city center

We stayed in Vaduz, Liechtenstein's capitol. The entire country only has about 35,000 residents (and I complain Geneva is small!) and the capital is small ... really small!  

We drove to a vista above the Vaduz castle and decided to take a walk to take in the views. Our first stop was the castle. We were extremely disappointed to find out it's a private residence! Turns out the reigning prince of Liechtenstein and the Liechtenstein princely family live there. We saw a little boy riding his bike in the driveway, a prince perhaps? 

The views from within the castle must be amazing as it was breathtaking just walking around it. Here is a photo of Preston and I (very pregnant!) taking it all in. 

Your bloggers in Vaduz, Liechtenstein

The valley below Vaduz

We stayed the night in the center of town (which could very easily be walked in its entirety in 10 minutes) and I marveled at the size and scope of their souvenir shop despite being such a tiny country. My mug, shot glass, placemat and magnet searches were almost too easy here!

Don't mind if we do. We brought a good bottle back
from the trip -- waiting for Baby Walls' arrival to open it up.

After a yummy breakfast (with great service, I might add) in the center of town, we waited for Dave to buy chocolate for souvenirs (we knew Switzerland would be shut down on Easter Sunday -- don't tell his recipients it was Swiss chocolate from Liechtenstein!) and got back on the road and headed to Austria.

Despite Preston taking me (literally) all over the entire island of Cyprus 10 days earlier by accident (and having a good story to tell for it), sure enough, Dave and I shouldn't have been surprised when we drove "the scenic route" which came to a dead-end about 45 minutes out of our way. That's right, 45 minutes out and 45 minutes back with a (still!) very pregnant wife riding shotgun! Needless to say TomTom wasn't pleased with Preston's act of defiance either!

(head scratch), "Oooops!"

As we circled back we spotted a covered bridge that Preston wanted to drive through. It was actually very charming.

We finally made it to our hotel in the charming Austrian village of Stubai, just outside Innsbruck, the site of the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. Here is a picture of us from our balcony. "The hills are alive ... !"

We took a walk before dinner to admire our little spot in Austria. 

We had a nice dinner at the hotel and Preston and Dave stayed out to have some more cocktails while Baby Walls and I caught up on sleep. The next morning we drove to a nearby ski village and the boys headed out for some spring skiing.

Doesn't look to snow-covered to me, but they did find trails!

After the boys came off the mountain we had lunch together in town. 

Lunch view

We continued our road trip weekend by spending Saturday night (post swim at our next hotel!) in Basel, Switzerland visiting two of Dave's friends, a fabulously fun couple, Kristen and Joss. Kristen and Joss are a few weeks away from getting married AND Kristen is from New Jersey; we had A LOT to talk about! We had a delicious dinner of traditional German food (yes, in Switzerland) including yummy pretzels.

The next morning we headed out early to get Dave to the airport to fly home to New York. Thanks for visiting, Dave Gold, it was a great roadtrip weekend.

*******

Weekend Roadtrip to Austria, Liechtenstein and Basel, Switzerland

Dates: 

Thursday – Monday, April 21 - 25, 2011

Where we stayed:

Liechtenstein  Residence Hotel

Austria Hotel Stubai (they don't have a web site!)

Basel, Switzerland Radisson Blu Hotel, Basel

The Walls' Review:

Hotel review: All three hotels were great. Residence Hotel in Liechtenstein was right in the center of town and very comfortable. The Hotel Stubai was a charming ski lodge-type hotel run by an Austrian family. Dave was a little scared with the hotel keeper's two-year old granddaughter riding her bike around the hotel practically aiming for the guests but it was pretty cute! And the Radisson Blu in Basel was wonderful -- also in a great location, it has an amazing pool and the room was very modern.

Cyprus Fishing

Fishing, Cyprus Style: It was meant to be a happy birthday trip for Ashleigh, and a fun get away before she gets too pregnant to comfortably walk around town, fly or both, but when we passed by the various tour operators in Paphos, Cyprus’s southern harbor, I realized I couldn’t handle another day by the pool. He was the skipper, deckhand, hook-baiter and sales agent all wrapped into one. After quickly negotiating himself down from 25 euros to 20 euros per person, we (more appropriately, me) were sold. We finished our stroll around the small harbor wondering what kind of boat 20 euros buys you for a 3 hour tour.

Our captain, a fast-talking Cypriote, who spoke perfect English, except when it didn’t suit him, was an interesting mix of fisherman, businessman and personality. “what kind of fish do we catch?” “fish,” was his reply. Why are you bothering me with such trifling questions! The fishing grounds were directly offshore from harbor, 150 feet of water. You would think that large fish live in 150 feet of water. How wrong…. The first fish to come up was a perch not more than 3 inches long. It went in the bucket. Turns out they make great fish soup—I’ll take his word for it.

The ‘deckhand’, Mike, a Brit who had been coming to Cyprus for 20 year, over time and enough paid fishing trips, had become friends with the captain. They had some arrangement worked out that I never really figured out the terms of. He had a house in the mountains, a boat in the harbor and a business back in the UK that he mostly managed over email. We bonded. Partly because the captain’s omnipresent cigarette dangling from his mouth drove Ashleigh out of the covered aft deck to sun herself on the bow. That and she had already put twice as many fish in the bucket as me so she, mercifully, gave me a chance to catch up. “I’ll tell my diver to put more fish on your line.” He said in my direction, but for Ashleigh’s benefit. “My fish-catching policy is strictly enforced, but since everybody caught fish, now no one has to swim home.”

“I need a break from cigarette smoke and bad fishing jokes.” Fair enough, you may have earned yourself a day by the pool.

Le Tour du Lac

I will freely admit I suffer from delusions of past fitness, and supreme confidence in previous endurance levels. So when, 3 gin and tonics deep into the cocktail party, my new acquaintance invited me to cycle around lake Geneva, how could I say no. So, how far is that? The loop is about 180k, but by the time you get to the start, add a lunch stop in, you’re looking at 190-200. Same distance as an ironman bike course, no problem. At the time of our conversation, I hadn’t been on my bike in nearly six years. But I had my road bike in Geneva and that’s most of the battle! Never mind it had two flat tires and a broken computer.

I was able to add ‘bike tune up’ to my ever expanding French vocabulary before heading to my local bike shop—which incidentally is closed, Sunday, Monday and between noon and 2 pm on all other days. I picked up a cycling map of the canton and set off. In the three weeks between getting the bike tuned up and leaving to take care of some work in Seattle, I logged exactly 278k on the odometer. It was fantastic. Winding through the rolling hills of Swiss wine country, darting in and out of France, meandering along the Rhone River—the late summer riding was fantastic.

While I was tapering (not motivated enough to track down a bike) in Seattle the week prior to the ride, a cyclist buddy had quipped “with enough gel you can get through just about anything.” That and eating right the night before— If I have remembered how to do one thing well from endurance events, it’s the nutritional preparation. I figured if I could eat enough pasta the night before, I might just be able to trick my body into believing that this carbo-gorging would elicit the requisite energy the following day.



And so, there I was. Less than a day after returning from Seattle, with pockets bulging full of gels, energy bars and shot blocks, not to mention enough Swiss Francs and Euros to hire taxi anywhere along the route in either country to bring me home, I was ready.

Time and distance are painfully relative on a bike. The first destination town I noticed was the medieval French town of Yvoire, where Ashleigh and I had spent half a day going to and from on a paddle wheel cruise boat, and we weren’t even to our first rest break. We stopped for coffee and pan au chocolate in Evian, France. We ordered café, café aux lait, café crème, tea’ and a renverse. The waiter brought five cappuccinos and a tea—welcome to France!

Our mini peloton set out from Evian at a quick pace embolden with rest and the more rural roads. In an caffeine-induced exuberance the pace quickened to over 40 km/hr—fine for a conditioned athlete, but not so good for a weekend warrior just getting back on his bike. Alarm bells going off in my head, heart rate at an unsustainable level and major leg muscles getting heavy, I watched the riders peel off the front one by one, waiting my next turn to pull the group.





I not sure if I thought that since my body was already at the red line inside the relative ease of the peloton, it would be better on the front, but I enjoyed the views. My breathing increased to match my heart rate and everything slowly collapsed from there.
When the inevitable happened, I found myself sitting in a patch of grass, water bottle in one hand, gel in the other, unable to eat the water or drink the gel…all of this at the Eastern tip of lake Geneva, the furthest point from home.




With no real damage other than a bruised ego and inability to match the tempo, we set out again at a leisurely pace. All of this was fine until we started the 400 meter climb up to our lunch spot, La Terrasse, a swanky restaurant set in the, you guessed it, terraced vineyards, between Montreux and Lausanne. I arrived several minutes later to the white table cloth restaurant better known to the Polo-clad wine-tasting set than spandex wrapped cyclists. The truffles looked amazing, but my calories unfortunately needed to be in a more cycling-friendly puréed or liquid form.


After lunch, the long downhill from the vineyards pushed me to within sight of Geneva, never so happy to be back to town. Before setting out I had wanted to take a quick lap around town to make sure the odometer hit 200 for the day. No chance. Straight home to where the bike has been parked in the cave ever since. I’ll reevaluate in the Spring; it’s ski season now!

Geneva experience: Our first movie night

After a busy week so far with other Expedia friends/new Geneva residents, Preston emailed me at work around 4pm last night and said, "Interested in a date night outing? If so, meet me downstairs at your office at 6:15pm." Okay!

Turns out Preston's plan was to take a nice fall walk through the English Garden in Geneva and head toward the Train Station to see an American "VO" movie -- "version originale"; the subtitles were to be in German and French and the movie in English. Awesome.

So if you know Preston and I, chances are you know our story -- we worked together at Merrill Lynch in the late 1990s, lost touch when Preston left NYC and moved home to Seattle and reconnected in October of 2007 while living 3,000 miles apart. Reconnected via facebook. Now it seems most everyone is on facebook (how many times a day does my Mom log in, I wonder!?) but even just three years ago it was significantly smaller than it is now and I felt a bit old to be on facebook then ... things change though and we're certainly better off thanks to facebook.

So what better movie to have as our first in our new country than "The Social Network?" Funny thing is, in the three years we've been together, we've actually only been to the movie theatre together twice. I like to say it's because we're being social!

Going to the movies in Geneva was actually only slightly different than in the U.S. Not too shocking was the price, 18 swiss francs per ticket (that's just over $18 -- while always shocking, relatively normal, right?). I was in the mood for popcorn and ordered one for us to share. It was a new experience for me when they asked if we wanted it sweet or salty (en francais, of course). I was a bit taken aback ... um, I want it plain. Nope. Sweet or salty? Okay, salty.

Bad choice.

The previews were very strange. There were a lot of short, seemingly odd public service announcement clips and a bizarre preview for a documentary about a tire. No joke, a black tire.

The thing that shocked me most was the timing of it all. In Switzerland they are notorious for being on time. I expected the movie to START at the time on the ticket but that wasn't the case. I guess those 18 swiss franc tickets don't pay for everything,;everyone needs some advertising!

We both really liked the movie and thought it was really well cast. I especially enjoyed being aware at what the English as a second language people laughed. For the most part, they were all really on top of it and I was impressed. I doubt I could ever get to the point where I could sit in a French theatre and get all of the nuances/jokes in the language.

So friends, it's not all fun and travel here, we even have movie date night! Missing you all.

PS - Mark Zuckerberg, we have a really cute story in case you are interested in a sequel!

Week-long adventures: NYC

Week-long Adventures: Work trip to NYC

(October 11-20, 2010)

So we've been on the go a lot lately. After Amsterdam, Preston and I had one night together before I had to change my reservations and get to Lisbon early to prep for our Expedia EMEA offsite and he was off to Seattle for ten days. Preston arrived back in Geneva Friday afternoon, October 8th (happy birthday, Dad!), we had happy hour with our friend Jo and had a quick Italian dinner. Saturday Preston rode his bike with some equally crazy guys AROUND Lake Geneva (that's right, all 180 km around of one of Europe's largest lakes) so we really only had Sunday together before I was off to work in New York for a week. We made the best of it and I was excited to be home (first time in over a year) and to see so many friends.

So yes, this entry is just "Ashleigh's" adventure, but it was a great time so it should be documented!

I arrived at noon on Monday and my new boss and I took a car service into the city from Newark together. Little did I remember when trying to cross town from his hotel to mine (I was staying on for the rest of the week and wanted to be on the east side) I was right smack in the middle of the Columbus Day Parade. The only day more stressful from my New York days was the Puerto Rican Day Parade day ... and I think that usually at least falls on a Sunday. Crossing from west to east was nearly impossible and by the time we got to my hotel there wasn't even time to check-in, the cab driver had to take me back to the west side to start the North American Market Management Director meetings. Ugh.

So I walked in a few minutes late to the gorgeous Empire Hotel room in which I'd pretty much be living in the remainder of Monday and all day Tuesday (in my defense they started early!) and blew lots of kisses around the room to all of my Director pals from North America. Ahhh, I heart you America. The lobby of the hotel was pretty great too, I had to take a photo ...

Empire lobby -- Love the leopard accents!

Anyway, that night we had a team dinner at Rosa Mexicano right around the corner as soon as the meeting ended. By 9:30pm the jet lag had set in and I am embarassed to admit I was the first one to call it a night. I headed back to the east side to check in and get some rest before starting the day ... literally as I was the first one to present on Tuesday morning!

After all day regional updates (and not being allowed to play with our blackberries), I ran to Saks Fifth Avenue for a quick minute (and maybe a dreamy pair of Louboutins!) ...

The Saks eighth floor shoe salon / heaven.
It's branded "it's so big it has its own zip code."
It's 10022, btw!

... before meeting Natalie and Susanne at a great new restaurant in midtown, Rouge Tomate. I waited at the bar for the girls to arrive and were wowed by their cocktail list -- great choice, Nat!

Photo taken by our Rouge Tomate waiter that clearly
doesn't know too much about flattering camera angles!

Wednesday morning I met Melissa for breakfast before heading to work. She said, "What do you want to do?" I said, "See you, catch up, have some laughs, eat a NY bagel and ... can you help me with something?" Melissa, like the love she is, agreed without even knowing what I was getting her into!

Melissa used to work in the jewelry district of NYC on 47th street. She still works in jewelry (and is super talented!) so I asked her to help me get a plain platinum band to travel with so I didn't have to wear so much jewelry. The following story is completely true and warmed Preston's heart! ...

After breakfast Melissa took me into a store that had a plain platinum band with a pricetag of $2523. She said to the man behind the counter, "What can you do?" He looked us up and down and said, "$1700." Again Melissa said, "What can you do?" To which he replied, "$1100." I was wowed at this point ... but the story gets better. Melissa then proceeded to whip out her iPhone and started tapping away ... she said, only somewhat paying attention and looking up quickly now and then for effect, "Platinum is trading today at ... this ring weighs ... YOU (and looks up for effect ... basically implying, "you can eat dinner tonight") ... $725." And he said, "She's good. Deal." 

!!

Incredible, right? I love Melissa. And I love New York.

Melissa and I on 5th Avenue

After breakfast with Melissa I went to work for a bit then met my first boss, my mentor and my great friend, Grace, for lunch in midtown. We had a wonderful time catching up and happened to be sitting next to BlackRock's head of HR ... I told him Grace was the best boss I've ever had and I owe my career to her. Even though I might have embarrassed her a bit, he said he knew and I think he does, especially given how Grace is now BlackRock's Global Chief Marketing Officer. 

Grace and I after lunch

I went to work that afternoon and then helped with our New York partner event at the Roosevelt Hotel (where I was staying). It was great and almost 200 hotel partners came. Afterwards I went to dinner with Alexis. It was so amazing to see her. Her mother-in-law agreed to babysit Emma so it was just the two of us. A much overdue night of catching up for us. We laughed, we cried, we ate Italian! Poor thing, I had her out until almost midnight. Considering she's halfway through pregnancy number two and stayed out that late, I felt a lot of love!

Thursday morning I went to the Expedia office first thing for meetings. I had breakfast with my friend, Nick, the Director of NY and taught him about NY bagels with scallion cream cheese and chopped tomatoes (he just moved from the Dallas office).

Thursday afternoon I spent at our New York agency, Stan Adler and Associates, eating more sushi than I could have ever imagined and planning out the rest of our year. I was so excited to see my friends there, they keep me sane at work every day. Here's Jill and I with a paper mache mockup of Stan himself (although real-life Stan doesn't wear an eye patch)!

Jill and I (and Stan)

After work I went to Iris and Adam's apartment to meet little miss Miriam, the latest addition to the BU girls' group. She was absolutely adorable and I loved seeing Iris as a mom. 

Miriam and I really are pals -- I think she was just
pushing me away because she wanted to be in the photo
all by herself to show off her cuteness!

While Iris got her mother-in-law settled (who was also babysitting so the girls could play that night!) I met Karen and Alexis in midtown at a happy hour fundraiser for Karen's cousin who's running the NYC marathon next month. Leave it to me to go to a happy hour with two pregnant friends!

Afterwards we met up with Iris and Monica for dinner at the East Side Social Club. It was a great night and amazing to catch up with the girls.

Alexis, Iris, Ashleigh, Karen and Monica
(PLUS Baby Zinberg and Baby Kay who's arrival we're all excited for)

On Friday I had more work in store and but found time to meet Susanne and Natalie for bubbly at Vero, a wine bar right around the corner from my old apartment on the upper eastside, shopping at Pookie and Sebastien (I've missed you!) and manicures. We happened to be in a new manicure place, run by the same owner as the one on 85th street that I loved and frequented for five+ years. The owner happened to walk into the new shop as my nails were drying and smiled when she saw me and said, "You'll follow me anywhere, huh?" Considering I've been gone for two years, that too, made my day.

I ran back to the hotel and got ready for dinner in Tribecca at Odeon with the Jones and Dave Rothenberg ... a little love from the people that have known me the longest (save for Patty too but I was seeing her Saturday!). We had a great dinner, reminsced, laughed and attempted to plan when they're all going to visit Switzerland.

Dave, Tori, Ashleigh, Greg and Graham

Saturday morning I went uptown and had a great breakfast with Alexis, Andrew and my favorite two year old and weekly skype buddy, Emma. More bagels and lots more laughs!

Check out Emma's big girl kicks ... pink Sauconys ...
she is amazingly adorable (with awesome accessories!)

I then left and met Patty at Bloomingdales. What do I love more? My best pal from kindergarten meeting me at Bloomingdales for an afternoon of fun or her husband for driving her into the city with their gorgeous baby, Riley, so I could meet her! Patty and James weren't able to come to wedding number three last year in Seattle because Patty was eight months pregnant so meeting Riley was a first for me and a total treat. I tried to teach her her first word, "Bloomies" but I have some work to do.

Patty and Riley

Trying to teach Riley "Bloomies" as her first word

After James took Riley back to NJ and Patty and I shopped and caught up, I went to Michael Cohen's for the remainder of the afternoon. We caught up for awhile then took a walk through Central Park which is one of my favorite things to do (and something I used to make Michael do with my when we lived on opposite sides of the park). 

Central Park view from the Castle

Michael and I walking around the reservoir

The Jaclyn Kennedy Onassis Reservoir (or just the Central Park reservoir!)

We got back to Michael's place and met Melissa for a pre-dinner cocktail before meeting Natalie, Susanne and Matt for dinner at Nice Matin.

Instead of flying back to Geneva on Saturday night, as I originally planned, I moved my flight and flew to Florida for a super quick visit with Dad, Mom, Gomie and Molly. They had been having a bit of a tough week with lots going on throughout the family and I hoped to be a reason for some smiles and laughs. I think it worked and it did for me too. We had a delicious lobster dinner Sunday night, played on Monday and ate outside Monday night taking in the gorgeous views from their house and enjoying the perfect Florida October weather. I also enjoyed walking with Dad and Gomie to get the NY Post, their daily ritual!, on Tuesday morning.

Mom and Dad and our Sunday lobster dinner

Sunset while enjoying dinner outside Monday night

Dad's girls - Mom and I with Molly (need to have a picture
with Dad and Gomie in here too!)

I'm really glad I was able to make that part of the trip happen as it was so great to see them all. We just missed Preston. The good news is that we'll all be together in Seattle for the holidays.

Tuesday I flew back to Geneva by way of Newark and got upgraded on both flights. Good travel karma, right? As I was on the flight waiting for the door to close in Tampa Preston and I were on the phone and he heard me ordering a juice prior to takeoff. He said, "Did you get upgraded?" I said, "Yes and I'm only a few hundred miles away from being upgraded from silver to gold elite status." To which he replied, "Did I mention I'm platinum?!"

On that note, dear readers, I say come visit ... we'd love to have you and we'd love to hear that you're giving Preston a run for his elite status miles!

Weekend adventures: ROOOADTRIP!

Weekend Adventures: Roadtrip to Germany, Luxembourg and France

(October 22-25, 2010)

We set out Friday night with a lot of territory to cover; specifically, a lot of countries to visit! Preston met me in our fancy rental Volvo (we're fans of the Diesel engine ... amazing gas milage despite the all wheel drive) and we began our journey.

Germany was our first stop and where we'd be staying Friday night. We pulled off the highway en route to Hotel Lyssach for dinner. We ate our way through most all of a fondue pot (delicious but the fact that we did that by ourselves is sortof gross!) and were overcharged by about 35%. Ugh.

We continued on and drove through the Black Forest and some really cute villages over the boarder. I commented that the roads in the Black Forest were amazing, "It looks like a really long driveway!" Preston, of course, commented that he wished we were in the Boxster (and that it was daylight!).

We pulled up to the Hotel Romerbad, a five-star property in Bodenweiler, Germany, a spa village. The receptionist was very nice and showed us to our room "Sorry about the double doors, this place is 400 years old!" Preston booked us in a really big standard room and even though all of the tv stations were in German, our vacation was off to a great start and we were happy.

Hotel Romerbad

Saturday morning we had a great brunch at the hotel after Preston went for a run and came back to report, "All of the wine shops are already open!" We spent brunch commenting on all the other guests and enjoyed a game of "how old do you think that guy with the young girl is?"!

We walked all through the Bodenweiler village, bought German wine for our Luxembourg hosts (Preston said Gutwurtzmeiner is what Germany is famous for so we picked some of that up in addition to the bubbly and chardonnay) and visited shop keepers that all spoke to Preston in German; I was impressed. 

Kunst Palais in Bodenweiler

Little flute player in the center of
town that made me think of my Mom (ex-flute player)

Loved these flags because this German village really was at the
crossroads of Switzerland, France and Germany

Preston taught me that "Rathaus" is
Cityhall in German -- hilarious, I thought

Outside a little boutique in town

We toured the town's famous Roman spa ruins as well. Unfortunately, the two euro admission was the closest thing I got to a hot stone massage.

Sleek German design over the Roman spa ruins

Preston checking out the ruins

As we toured the town I was particularly shocked at the lack of English-speaking tourists around and the lack of English signs (for example, the signs throughout the ruins were only in German). I commented "this is REAL DEAL Germany!"

He jumped in the car for our fall foliage drive through the countryside and back through the Black Forest.

In Germany with the Black Forest behind us

We stopped for gas right before we entered France -- with this week's strikes, reports say one out of three petrol stations are still without gas.

Preston told our new European Tom Tom to take us backroads all the way to Luxembourg so we could enjoy the autumn scenery. 

Over the boarder back in France

I think we navigated through a zillion "roundabouts" and took a detour through the French town of Baccarat. 

The Baccarat store in the French town of Baccarat
(again with Swiss and German flags included too!)

We also stopped for a few self portraits in the French village of Hablainville with the gorgeous French countryside in the background.

French countryside

We drove through Reclonville (a ridiculously small town) and followed the detour (or "deviation" signs) which made Tom Tom VERY upset.

I heard a lot of "this is a fun road" from Preston throughout the day and I may have even heard a "yeeeeeeee haaaaa" at one point on a back counrty road. Stylin' in the Volvo wagon!

Looks pretty fun to drive, right?

It was a beautiful day for an autumn drive and
 I loved the sky at that moment

When we ventured off the country roads Preston
got so excited, "YES, we get to see real life French
protesters!" We don't think they actually were but
he was really excited for a minute!

We arrived at our destination, Chez Otepka in Luxembourg, at 6pm. I had met Sara, our lovely hostess and the Otepka's reason for being in Luxembourg (she's an Amazon superstar and also on an expat adventure), a few times through Seattle pals and while we think we met Matt, her amazing husband, at Dan and Abby Zink's wedding, we weren't sure. Any awkwardness just plain didn't exist and the amazing hospitality of the Otepkas was demonstrated as Matty yelled from their third floor window, "Park over there!" as we drove up. I asked Preston if we two blonde Americans really stuck out THAT much but, the truth is, the Otepkas really are just that friendly.

We settled in to their gorgeous three-story house and caught up about living abroad, both our adventures and some of the best places in the U.S. to fish (Matt and Preston share a love of fly fishing). Rudy, Matt and Sara's two-year old, was a little charmer too -- they all made us feel at home immediately in this new country.

Matt cooked us a Saturday evening feast and we enjoyed probably a few too many bottles of wine (we had A LOT to catch up on!).

Sunday morning Preston and Sara went for a run (I think I intimidated Preston a bit before he left when I said, "You know Sara WON the Seattle marathon, right?!) and then we all enjoyed breakfast and multiple rounds of coffee. When we were ready to venture out we explored Luxembourg city, with the town's highlights literally right outside the Otepka's door.

The Otepkas ... right outside their door!

Luxembourg is also a land-locked country (like Switzerland), is only 999 square miles and is the world's last remaining Grand Duchy, a region whose head of state is either a Grand Duke or Duchess. I enjoyed walking by the Duke's stately home, right up the street from our host's home.

The home of Luxembourg's Grand Duke and Dutchess

We stopped for lunch and continued our walk through some of the city.

I loved the colored homes throughout Luxembourg

Beautiful Luxembourg

The Otepkas

The Walls

Hilarious ... "What's the dog doing Rudy?!"

We bid our hosts goodbye around 4 to make our way to Bourgogne, the French wine region famous for red wines (pinot noir grapes) and chardonnays. This time, we took the highway!

Along the French highway

Even saw a rainbow along the way

We arrived at the lovely little hotel, Chateau de Challenges in the town of Beaune. Preston surprised me with a suite because "this hotel was only a three-star." Nice husband (and believer in the Expedia hotel discount!).

The receptionist recommended a Michelin-rated restaurant, Le cheval noir. Preston picked out a bottle of local wine and we loved how the restaurant became packed at exactly 8pm (a trend we've been noticing throughout France and Switzerland). Our server brought a delicious cauliflower mouse and smoken salmon appetizer  and we placed our orders.

Who knew that so many years of French lessons could go SO wrong for me?

The fish I thought I was ordering turned out to be frogs' legs. NOT a pretty picture for me. Dear readers, if you see "les grenouilles" on the menu ... well, now you know. Preston thought this was hilarious and even said, "I'm going to pay the roaming charges to upload THIS as my status on facebook ... best dinner ever!"

Needless to say, more wine was ordered and a cheese plate was required (my favorite was the goat cheese with a local dijon mustard crust ... yum). We struck up conversation with the people dining next to us (we think the restaurant put all of the English speakers in its far corner!) who happened to be the Solomon ski rep and the ski buyer for REI outside Seattle. Small world. Preston was thrilled to hear they had been skiing the few days earlier and I (after a lot of wine) promised the next skis I buy will be Solomons from REI. At least you can get Continental airlines mile credit by using REI's online store!

Monday morning we explored the adorable town of Beaune, it really had it all. 

The carousel in the center of Beaune

Boutiques and cute shops and many wonderful restaurants. We paid admission to the Wine Museum (not worth it ... I commented that it looked like a French version of a 6th grade show-and-tell).

Even this little pup was adorable in the center of town

Wine museum

History of wine glasses

HOW, dear readers, did they do this?! :)

The next stop was Hospices de Beune/Hotel Dieu.

Hospices de Beune/Hotel Dieu

Hospices de Beune was founded in 1443 and was still a working hospital until the 20th century. It is said to be one the 15th century's most magnificent examples of French architecture with its glazed tile roof as the main focal point.

Where the poor people stayed

Where the more well-off people stayed

Back in the courtyard

For our last spot in town we visited a wine shop. When I asked if the shopkeeper if there was a selection of wines in the 15 euro or below range he said, "Not really." Stupidly we purchased two bottles (one for 15 euros and one for 12 euros) from this uppetty man but we look forward to trying them out.

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving back to Switzerland so Preston could be home in time for his daily work call and I could catch up on work email. 

Loving the fall foliage

We had a really lovely roadtrip, we highly recommend driving through the European countryside to admire its fall foliage and we love those Otepkas!

*******

Weekend Roadtrip to Germany, Luxembourg and France


Dates: 
Friday – Monday, October 22-25, 2010



Where we stayed:



Germany  Grand Hotel Romerbad
Luxembourg Chez Otepka!
France Chateau de Challenges



The Walls' Review:
Hotel review: We stayed in room 74 at the Grand Hotel Romerbad, on the top floor. The hotel's ballroom was beautiful (you walked through it on the way to the breakfast buffet), the grounds were extremely well-kept and the hotel was in the heart of the German spa town of Bodenweiler. Preston commented that while it was a beautiful property, it didn't seem to be up to the five star standards he was expecting. Then again, we're picky Americans!

We were in Suite 104 at Chateau de Challenges and while the room was lovely and the bathroom gorgeous (really much nicer than the five-star property from Friday night), the room was located at the front of the building on the first floor (that's floor two coming from the Americas!) and it was really loud. And we were there on a Sunday night. I'd recommend staying in a room along the back of the building.


Other comments: We didn't make it to Champagne this trip ... Preston says we needed to keep an excuse to go back!