Vienna

Another weekend, another pilgrimage to a famous European city.  A few weekends ago, the destination was Vienna.  MITers flew in from all over Europe and Clarke prepared himself for “a very nerdy weekend”.  

Vienna crew in front of one of the many royal palaces

Ahem Clarke we only made a few Schrödinger jokes and just thought briefly of visiting his grave several hours outside Vienna.  For my non-science loving readers, Schrödinger is a famous Austrian quantum physicist and we encounter t-shirts like this on a daily basis at MIT.  Clarke and I got in before everybody else and had a chance to explore the old town Friday evening.  What a beautiful city!  As is the family traveling tradition, we wandered around aimlessly, following both the melodious strands of street musicians and the distant glow of a palace displayed in its finest evening splendor.   

Vienna has a plethora of picturesque statues and fountains

Karla, our resident LGO tour guide, had a slew of sites for us to hit on Saturday.  We walked through Hofburg Palace, Rauthaus, St Peterskirche cathedral, Stephansdom cathedral, and the astonishing painted ceilings of Karlskirche which may have been my favorite site of the day.  The church set up scaffolding so visitors could walk up to the top of the dome to see the collages from a few feet instead of several hundred.  Since middle school art was a challenge for me, I looked at the painted ceilings with pure wonder. 

Karlskirche ceiling

My classmate Kacey brought her husband and their two year old son Nolan which certainly added a foreign element to the trip for a bunch of twenty & thirty -something unmarried people.  Nolan's a gregarious, sweet kid and Clarke and I both had fun chasing him around to tire him out and give his parents a well-deserved break.  I think Clarke made a friend for life.

Clarke and Nolan

Sunday we journeyed out to Vienna’s number one tourist attraction Schönbrunn Palace which is the former imperial summer residence of the Habsburg.  Wow beyond the impressive physical palace, the estate has a gloriette, roman runins, hedge maze, large zoo, a litany of sculptures, and the most impressive gardens I’ve visited in memory.  You could easily spend all day on the palace grounds and not see half of it.

Siblings in front of th palace

Not that we didn’t try!  I marveled at the imperial quarters, got a kick out of running around the maze trying to beat my friends (if only Donovan wasn’t 200+cm tall), trekked up the hill to the gloriette to see the palace aerially, and sipped a Viennese coffee at one of the cafes on grounds.  A fitting ending to another fun trip.

LGO ladies w/ city backdrop

I Can See France From My House (& Germany Too!)

Clarke was bemused by the fact that I can see France and Germany from my balcony.  He wanted to experience all three countries so one beautiful day in Basel, I took off work, rented Clarke a bike almost as awesome as my $100 children's mountain bike, and we pointed ourselves in the general direction of Germany.

Just like that, Germany – Clarke decided it was rather anticlimactic  

Around Basel, the Rhine River demarks the border between France and Germany and one of my co-workers mapped us a route along the river.  The river front area in Germany is industrial so we quickly decided to cross into France. 

We wound up on a long island in the middle and biked along for awhile wondering what country we were in.  The answer came in a gleeful chorus of “bonjours” from a passing group of school children.   

Check off country #3

Biking through the French countryside was a joy.  Church steeples dotted the faraway hills.  Fields of sunflowers intermixed with cornfields and both seemingly appeared around every corner.  We saw painted villages with picture perfect town squares and flower box bridges over bubbling streams.  In the spirit of France, we stopped off at a cafe for cappuccinos and croissants.         

Watch out Lance - here's your newest competition

3 countries, 70 kms, a few Lance Armstrong impersonations, and many a picture break later, we returned home sore but triumphantly as tri-country cyclists.    

The Matterhorn

The Great Wall, Machu Pichu, the Taj Mahal, the Matterhorn - Long before MIT was even a faraway dream, I’d wanted to see The Matterhorn. – Lonely Planet describes it as “defying trigonometry, photography, & many a karabiner” and “an unfathomable monolith you can’t quite stop looking at”.  Many people simply know it as the peak featured on Toblerone packaging.    

Being the good sister that I am, I forced myself to wait for Clarke’s visit to make the pilgrimage to Zermatt to view what’s often billed as the world’s most beautiful mountain.  A family friend linked us up with an expat who has made his home in Zermatt with its Valasian chalets and quaint Alps charm.  We met Bill our first morning in Zermatt in the town plaza and went to his favorite spot for morning hot chocolate.  Bill pointed us towards a hike that would snake along the valley through the ten family village of Zmutt and up towards the Matterhorn.

Overlooking the village of Zmutt

Clarke and I set off with water, rain gear, a smorgasbord of leftovers from our hotel’s breakfast buffet, & a dream.  Though the weather was overcast, we hoped to hike hight enough to break through the clouds.  Eight hours and a vertical mile or so later, we were back in Zermatt without much more than compartmental glimpses of the elusive Matternhorn.  Regardless we enjoyed the Alps hike and the mid-mountain restaurant where we feasted on rosti (national dish of Switzerland) and befriended two very impressive 65+ German women.  After a relaxing sauna, scrumptious fondue dinner, and a good night’s sleep, we were ready to try again.

The next day was Clarke’s “best day of the summer”.  Clarke was overjoyed to throw back the curtains and see rays of sunshine peaking through the cloud covering.  We excitedly began the ride up the system of cable cars to Klein (little) Matterhorn in anticipation of its heralded rooftop view of the Alps and deep into Italy.  As we approached the second station, the cable car broke through the cloud covering and there she was – the Matterhorn looming imposingly right in front of us.   

The Matterhorn

We stood transfixed for quite a while contemplating the Matternhorn in all her perfection.  The sound of a child broke our trances and we continued up Klein Matterhorn.  Clarke and I were surprised to see such intensive summer skiing – Clarke was practically drooling at the thought of returning in December to ski.  Why we even shared a cable car on the way down with members of the Slovenian and Japanese national ski teams.

Can I move here?

We returned to Zermatt to join our friend Bill for lunch at an outdoor café with a view of the Alps.  Between bites of local meat and cheeses, we good-naturedly debated a litany of topics from health care policy to the future of energy.  Fueled-up, we rented climbing gear and set off to find the elusive Zermatt via feratta.  Clarke had trouble believing the Swiss policy of letting you rent your own gear and set off on rock climbing courses hundreds of feet in the air at your own risk.  Good thing I kind-of remembered how to put on harnesses!  The Zermatt via feratta with miniscule footholds, rickety ladders, wooden planks, and lots of scrambling, was very challenging, crazy, and a blast.  We caught one of the last trains out of town and sunk in to our seats contented and exhausted.        

Miss you already Clarke!

Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein – a country about the size of Manhattan, a population around 35,000 people, accessible solely by bus, & only a few hours from Basel.  When we learned that on Liechtenstein’s National Day, August 15^th, the Prince opens up his mountain-top palace for celebratory festivities, we had to attend.  Our group of three MIT alums, my friend Jessica, Clarke, & I stayed at the only hostel in the country. 

Mountaintop royal castle

On the bus into the capital city of Vaduz, we made our first Liechtensteiner friends.  They told us stories of banking haven scandals and the challenge of foreigners immigrating to Liechtenstein and we wound up in the town’s bar sampling the local wine.  The royal family has their own vineyards and their famed rose was mighty tasty.

Jessica, Stephanie, & I with the Royal Guards

The National Day festivities kicked off at 9AM the next morning with a mass, speech from the Prince, & traditional dancing in a field.  Since nobody in the group spoke much German, we all waited with baited breath for the processional up the hill to the castle that would signal the opening of the royal gates.

Siblings preparing to enter the royal castle

Royal band playing ceremonial music in front of the castle

The Prince sponsored a celebratory party with a band, smorgasbord of local breads, sandwiches, & fruits, and all the local beer you desired.  We enjoyed our brush with royalty, members of Parliament, and local Liechtensteiners alike.

Clarke, Zach, Jerome & I enjoying our feast on the Prince

Zurich Street Parade

My brother Clarke has been visiting for the past two weeks so I’ve been lax in blog postings and email returns between our myriad of adventures.  Sadly Clarke begins the trek back to NC tomorrow morning and is furiously packing so I can begin the updates on all that has transpired.

Dan, Clarke’s college roommate, encouraged us to meet him in Zurich for the 19^th annual Street Parade.  Zurich’s Street Parade is an amalgamation of techno and house music, about ten stages, underground rising star DJs, 700,000 revelers often in costume,  innumerable “love mobile” floats, and one giant parade all co-existing along the picturesque shore of Lake Zurich.   The street parade is meant to promote love, peace and tolerance and after the physical parade the partying continues at house and techno parties taking place in various pubs, clubs and warehouses around the city. 

Aerial view of parade from organizing website

We weren’t sure what to expect but I began getting a general sense of what awaited us on our way to the train station in Basel when I began seeing group after group of creatively dressed people all heading the same direction as us.  I’d describe the costume levels on par with Halloween in Salem.  Luckily for us Dan brought over a slew of hilarious Uncle Sam costumes from the US.   

Team America

Our rag-tag group of Uncle Sams was unexpectedly popular; we made friends from all walks of life and I got asked to pose in many a picture.

Embracing the stereotype!

As the sun set and the crowds grew wilder, Clarke and I bid farewell to both Dan and Zurich to head to our next adventure - Lichtenstein Independence Day.