Hola España! Bar-ce-lo-naaaaa!!

WOW! What a kick off to Spain! Barcelona is such an amazing, bustling city that never slows down. Couchs were impossible to find so I foudn myself at an amazing hostel. I joined the hostel the first night for tapas where I made a few friends, including Brent, my eating partner for the week! I explored Montjuic (mountain of the Jews) where there are great views of the city and sea. I met 2 other american women and we explored the Olympic area, castle an enjoyed sunset.

I had a rainy day so I slept in...I am on vacation right?...and enjoyed the Picasso museum. It was really great. I didn´t realize how much different art he made prior to his cubist period...I especially liked his ceramic work. Super cool platers with cubist faces 3d.

I enjoyed a great day with my eating buddy...we went to Montserat for a day. It was warm, sunny and spectacular. It is an important spiritual area in Spain, with a monestary and the oldest music school in Europe. We arrived just in time to listen to the boys choir...it was really moving, even though they were speaking Catalan. We hiked around the area...crazy rock formations and old setelment ruins.

After a beautiful day at Montserat I had another day of chilly overcast weather so I again slept in, chilled in my hammock in the plaza by the hostel, encountered Spanish police (no hammocking allowed in plazas!) and went to the Miro museum. Another really cool modern artist.

Brent and I became pretty good buddies. Another american from Arizona, we enjoyed the cuisine of Barcelona together everynight. Using luck and lost-ness to find great hole-in-the-wall local tapas bars, we ate very well! Lots of sangria, rioja y cerveza, it was great. When Renee arrived Friday to have one last European adventure with me, Brent was still a fixture of Barcelona tapas!

Friday Renee arrived and we had so much fun. I did a bit of shopping and we saw most of the Gaudi buildings. Had lovely tapas for lunch and dinner and lots of great laughs! We visited the renound 2euro shot bar Chupitos and made some spanish friends. Continued on to a total local dive bar and returned home early...4am!

We spent out second day cruising the city on bikes, exploring the Gaudi park, enjoying a little more shopping and lots more tapas! Another crazy night of tapas with Brent, drinks with people we pick up at the hostel and loitering in the plaza at our hostel until the sun came up...that how we roll in Barcelona!

Sunday...needless to say was a late morning, and a great day to rest off a hangover on the beach! We ate amazing paellea and sangria, Renee had a beach massage and we had yet another fab night of tapas, wine and each others company.

A sad day monday...Renee and I parted ways for good. She back to Switzerland and me off to Valencia!

More adventures to come!

Tschüss, Adieu, Auf Wiedersehen...parting is such sweet sorrow

What a last few weeks in Switzerland. After my parents left I was sure a busy girl. I didn't realize how much I still wanted to do until I realized how little time I had left!

The weekend after mom and dad left Malin, from Sweden, came and spent the weekend with us. She will be the girls new AuPair in January. What a nice girl. We had a nice weekend around Basel and took a trip to Lenk where there was my first snow of the season and a really crazy parade!

The next weekend was another spectacular weekend with Renee. It was World Peace day and Global Warming Awareness Day. Renee and John, a friend from Pacific living in Germany, and I did a Global Warming Demonstration. The 350 organization allows people to post group demonstrations all over the world for people to join and then gets to exhibit all of the 350 demonstration photos at the UN Global Warming meeting in December as a way to show how many people are aware of the global warming that is happening. For our 350 demonstration we hiked with a bunch of other Swiss people to the Aletch glacier, the largest glacier in Switzerland, and took a few photos of our group and our 350 there. It was really fun meeting the other people in our group and being part of something...even though I was such a small part, I am still making a statement. Bus aside from the 350 demonstration, it was such an amazing day. Beautiful weather, fun people and amazing mountains!

After our great hike Renee, John and I headed to Sierre where we couch surfed with 2 really cool German students in the village of Bluche. Bluche, accessible by funicular, is a town of 750 residents and 1400 students attending the international school or tourism management. What a cool place! We met so many different people. When we woke up it was also BEAUTIFUL! Right in the heart of the Alps we were so close to great hiking! Renee, John and I spent the day hiking around the area. We went to the Crans-Montana ski mountain to start our hike and went along old irrigation water ways on the sides of the mountain. It was another amazing day...the only clouds were the ones to make amazing photos!

Adieu to John but Renee and I were together again the next weekend for Halloween. I spent the week turning the Bleich's basement into a spooky house for the Halloween party that we had for the kids. I made a bunch of Halloween theme food and Norbert got dry ice for a cool table! I told a spooky story and even went trick-or-treating at the neighbor's house! It was fun to celebrate Halloween. The grown-up Halloween party was the next night at Renee's house in Biel. We made food and I made the best 80's party mix and we hosted an awesome 80's party! There were people there from so many places, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, and probably more but I "can't remember." I had a sweet Jane Fonda aerobics costume! I can't believe that I wore that much colorful spandex all night! It was the best costume of the evening though!


Halloween was a blast but I was ready to relax. Spend my last few days with the girls and family and enjoy Switzerland! My last night was beautiful...family dinner. Wolfram and Lydia, Christian and Petra and the kids, Christina and her family and Renee all came over for delicious Norbert risotto and Renee brought Key Lime Pie!

Off to Spain for more adventures!

Mom and Dad do Europe....last stop Basel, Freiburg and Colmar

We did wine, we did Alps, then we did Luzern, Basel, Colmar and Freiburg before bidding farwell! Luzern was another gorgeous day. We cruised around the town and had a beautiful boat ride and picnic on the lake...literally, we ate on the boat! Chapel bridge was breath taking with its huge planter boxes; Mom and I had a great time taking silly photos on it! We enjoyed walking through the old city walls and towers and seeing the Lion monument.

Back in Basel we had our first day of rain. Mom and dad and I took Käte to the Tinguley museum where we enjoyed the crazy sculptures of local artist Jean Tinguley. The sculptures, made from recycled "junk," are motorized and fun for adults and kids. We enjoyed more of Norbert's great cooking and headed to Colmar to enjoy some Alsatian cuisine.

Colmar is such a beautiful French town. With water canals and old buildings, it is both a time warp and being in a post card! The buildings were so old that some were beginning to collapse and others were so crooked it is amazing that they were standing at all. We had a delicious Alsatian lunch and mom and dad and I visited a museum and art gallery. That night we headed to Freiburg Germany to stay with Lydia and Wolfram, Norbert's parents.

Freiburg, a great little city, was another day of rain, but we didn't let that stop us. We cruised around town seeing the old buildings and beautifully painted government houses. We had a delicious lunch at Barbara and Norbert's favorite brewery and we went to the top of the Münster (large cathedral). Hundreds of stairs up with the kids, mom was able to join us to! It was amazing to see photos from the Freiburg boming; the Münster was the only thing that wasn't hit...everything else was complete rubble! Dad was in heaven as Lydia had huge meat plates at dinner every night and it was very interesting to hear Wolfram's stories of being in Germany as a child while under attack.

On our way home from Freiburg we had a great last day together in the little German town of Staufen. It had a quiet little town center, lovely castle surrounded by vineyards and a famous bakery...and was it AMAZING! The bakery had at least 50 different cakes to choose from. Mom and dad both got Black Forest Cake, the region's specialty, but with so many to choose from, I looked for the prettiest one (which was not easy as they were all gorgeous!) and ended up with an amazing champagne cake!

In 2 and a half weeks, we were able to have great times eating, drinking and hiking. My American family got to meet my Swiss family, and everyone had lots of fun. It was great to have mom and dad visit and I was sad to see them go, but it won't be too long before I have to go back to the States!