Christmas in Switzerland

So, turns out I'm total crap about keeping this up-to-date. Since I've last posted, I've hit up Ireland with my girlfriends, Croatia and Slovenia with my hubby, Amsterdam with my parents and made repeat visits to Paris, London and Italy. Yeah.... I totally should have told you about all those trips. Bah. BUT I'm thinking I might make my 2012 New Years Resolution to be better about blogging on a regular basis. We'll see. :p

Anyway, we just got back from spending Christmas break in Switzerland. How cool is that?! We stayed at a studio rental in Bonegin just at the base of the Jungfrau mountain region. The views were awesome. I sent the hubs up the mountain for some snowboarding one day. He seemed to enjoy it enough that he's already planning future snowboarding trips back!

We did a day up at Jungfraujoch - the Top of Europe and highest train station in the world. It's spendy for sure but since I don't snowboard or ski I figure it's my best "top of fabulous mountain" experience. The ice cave is pretty cool - carved out in a slow moving glacier. When was the last time you walked through a slow moving glacier?! That's what I thought. *nod, nod* The look out point was certainly spectacular but for 160 Euros and over 12,000 feet high it should be.

Now let's get to the important part - fondue! We arrived in Switzerland Monday evening and left Friday morning. That means I ate cheese fondue Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday! Yes indeed - I was a champion. Now I will admit to being physically ill after finishing my 4th meal in as many days of just cheese fondue. But it was awesome - especially for someone like me who loves fondue outside of Switzerland just as much as I love it in Switzerland!

Did you know that no two fondues are a like? I certainly didn't. But I had four fondues in and around Interlaken and not a single one tasted like any of the others. For the most part, the significant difference was the alcohol content. The fondue up at Jungfraujoch tasted the most like white wine (though the taste of alcohol did burn off some towards the end) and was surprisingly the hub's favorite. The last night we went to a great little local specialties restaurant and they included loads of sliced garlic in their fondue. Now, I love me some garlic so I loved slices of garlic covered in fondue! But the winner for me was Bebbi's. It seems like a total tourist trap (right down to being the only place we found that serves chocolate fondue) but it was really really solid. Cheesy with just the right amount of white wine flavor. Yum and yum. Nuts - now I want fondue again!

the happiest place on earth

I had to move to Belgium to finally make it to Disneyland. (Full disclosure - I did go to Disney World when I worked as a nanny back in college.)

The hubs got sent on yet another business trip back to the States. I'd officially hit the point of being homesick - wanting to be able to order anything I wanted in a restaurant, buy clothes off the rack and watch TV in English any time of day. So, I sorta invited myself to crash in his hotel room while he was in LA/Anaheim for the BUILD event.

How are things so so cheap in the US?! I mean seriously, we are so incredibly spoiled. We have no idea how affordable nearly everything is. This is my way of saying not only did I make it to Disneyland but I also went shopping - and then shopped some more!

At Disneyland I picked up two t-shirts - a faded baseball style Mickey shirt and an awesome Star Wars shirt. The hubs totally didn't understand the Star Wars shirt but whatevs. I love it! But then I loved the Indiana Jones ride and he really didn't get that either. Guess we've still got some stuff to learn about each other, huh?

And then there was the food. Who am I kidding - when the trip involves me and Herb, there's always lots of good food. We had proper American breakfast. Awwwwesome! American style bacon, Dutch apple pancake, corned beef hash and bottomless coffee aw yeah. Then I had Mexican at least three times while I was there. Let's not forget that I convinced H to find Dairy Queen not once but twice for chocolate chip cookie dough blizzards. And obviously what trip to the land of Disney wouldn't be complete without Mickey Mouse pancakes for breakfast?!

I was really looking forward to hitting the beach while we were there but we brought the temperamental Belgium weather with us to LA. We went out to Huntington Beach but only made it about an hour (fully clothed) before we called it too cold for good beaching.

It was definitely a good trip. I enjoyed a lot of things that I've missed being in Europe. But it also reminded me that the US doesn't have it all figured out. I mean, no matter how many times I told the guy at the front desk that I wasn't planning to drive every one of his recommendations required driving. He even recommended that I drive the two blocks to the post office and was really thrown when I asked if it was possible to walk "well, uhm... I guess probably."

It's always interesting when a new place starts to feel like home. You know, when you've been away and you think "boy, I can't wait to get home, sleep in my own bed." Yeah, this trip almost did that for Belgium.

An empty camp

We wrapped up our short week in Berlin by heading out to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp before heading home.

Sachsenhausen was a model camp. SS officers trained here and then often went on to oversee other concentration camps. This model camp started out significantly less sinister than it finished. Initially it was more focused on proper criminals and prisoners of war.

It was a warm, sunny day. We stopped by the front desk. The museum is free but we bought a map for a nominal fee. And off on our self guided tour we went. First past the (now closed) SS section - quarters, mess hall, administrative headquarters. Then we walked through the main gate into the concentration camp. In the open roll call area, the expansiveness of the camp becomes more apparent.

Once through the gate, looking at the space that was hell on earth for 200,000 Nazi prisoners the air feels heavy. Somehow the open space is incredibly oppressive. The lack of breeze adds to the oppressive air, making it challenging to breath. Is it possible the weight of misery still hangs in the air of this space?

When it opened in 1936, they trucked their dead prisoners into Berlin to be cremated. After an auto accident involved one of their trucks and dead bodies on the road, they decided to build their own small crematory. For several years, family members could request the ashes of their deceased relatives - so long as the deceased inmate had been a Germany citizen. (The chances of it actually being said relative was slim, but I'm sure it helped many a family.)
In 1943 Sachsenhausen really embraced the role of mass extermination. It wasn't until seven years after opening its gates that camp officials built the gas chamber showers and larger ovens that Hitler and the SS are so famous for. The remains are still there. A sculpture of remembrance stands near the entrance, surrounded by candles and flowers of all shapes and sizes. Is it possible that the air here is even more thick, more difficult to breath? Perhaps it is the weight of loss, the wrong still hanging in the air.

What a horrible way for the world to learn such a devastating lesson. And yet, somehow so many of us have already forgotten much of it.

So this is Berlin....

I'm in Berlin for the rest of the week. The hubby is here for IFA and I got to tag along. Let's just say the drive here (hello way too fast on the autobahn) was his dream come true and my car sickness hell. Indeed.

My Berlin adventures started with lunch at Fischers Fritz. It is the only restaurant in Berlin proper with 2 Michelin stars. Yup, yup. Lunch is surprisingly affordable, assuming you go with the business lunch menu. I started with the Aspic of Chanterelle, Fava Beans and Radish Cream; Mr. Herb started with a soft boiled egg over some sort of sour greens with lobster jus (clearly their title was fancier than my description). The main courses were confit codfish (mine) and calf liver (his). Those also were much more involved and spiffy than I've just lead you to believe. Mr. Herb finished off his lunch with bread and butter pudding, which was pretty good - gold flakes and all. The food was just as good as should be expected - you know - that Michelin star creativity and inventiveness that should be expected. And the small portions - that is pretty consistent too when it comes to Michelin stars. This brings me to 6 Michelin stars for 2011. Wonder if I'll get any more in this year. Sure hope so. *wiggling eyebrows*

After lunch Herb headed off to work and I headed out to see what there is to see. I'll admit that I've been fairly excited to come to Berlin (really the only city in Germany I'm excited to see). I've been looking forward to seeing the wall, heading out to the nearby concentration camp museum, etc. I always feel bad when I say I'm looking forward to seeing these things. I'm afraid people don't really understand what I mean. For some reason, I'm quite fascinated with WWII and Communist Berlin. I feel a bit bad; I know Berlin wants you to see the new Berlin. And if I lived here, I'd feel like I shouldn't have to keep going over the good and (very) bad of my ancestors. But I'm fair more interested in the old Berlin than the new. And so, with my handy dandy map in my back pocket I'm off!

I headed out towards Check Point Charlie. Seemed as good a place as any to start to my self-guided tour. But first I stumbled across Anhalter Bahnhof - or rather the remains of Anhalter Bahnhof. I should have guessed the elderly were some of the first to receive "transports", but I hadn't. The fact that this piece of history isn't in my guide book or on my tourist map makes me confused and just a little bit queasy.


A few wrong turns later and I'm walking up the street to Check Point Charlie. The sign saying you are leaving the American Sector is still there. The museum seems a bit overkill and dated. The place is crawling with tourists. And still I found myself standing on the curb crying. I knew I had so wanted to see this part of Europe, but I honestly didn't realize that the feelings would be so deep and so strong.

I did my best to blink back the tears, snap my photo and head into a souvenir shop for postcards. (I try to always send them home to my parents and my grandma. This time, for the first time, I also picked one of for the in-laws - craziness.) In the shop, they were selling pieces of the wall. I'm not sure why, but I need one of these pieces of the wall. Standing there looking at the pieces of concrete affixed to acrylic bases, I'm thinking about watching the TV with my mom when I was 9 years old. The wall is coming down; my mom is crying.


Righty-o, so I head on over to the Topografie des Terrors where a large section of the wall has been preserved. The wall is old and faded. It is surrounded by modern exhibits full of history. And still I only walk along the wall, again crying. I'm thankful I've got sunglasses so no one can see the crazy young (ok - fine - young-ish) American girl walking along crying. I don't personally know anyone who died here. I don't know anyone who lived the divided Germany. But still I cry. The enormity of it, the gravity of it i's just too much to not cry. I'm still not sure exactly what emotions caused all those tears. But I'm glad I've been here. And I'm glad I have more to see. I'm also glad the hubs wasn't with me because I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have understood. And you don't hear me say it often, but I am proud to be a citizen of WWII's sleeping giant.

And of course it isn't all Debby Downer times around here. Mr. Herbert had a work dinner which left me to fend for myself. I headed down to the restaurant here in the Scandic Berlin hotel and ordered up some tapas. Though this wasn't just any tapas - no sir. I had curryworst of moose and reindeer involtini, as well as some slightly more normal goat cheese in pistachio/sesame seed coating with wasabi apple confit. While interesting, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that I won't be having reindeer involtini again any time soon. The moose curryworst pretty much rocked my socks though.

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Wayward again

Landed in Narita. Let the newest adventure begin. :)

Unfortunately, I've been quite sick. Started feeling not so well on the plane and by the time we got on the bus to head to the hotel I seriously thought I was going to loose it on the bus. Thankfully no throwing up in public, despite yesterday's 3 hour train ride (which required lots of deep breathing and praying).

I was finally able to eat something more than plain white rice last night. Before that I was living off of hot green tea. (At least this is a great place for that!) Anyway, I'm starting to feel more human today. Am going to take a nap and then see if I have the energy to get up and head out to explore the local castle here. It is the oldest castle in Japan and one of four specially recognized in Japan.

Toodles!