Europe Trip, part 4: Wedding Day Hike (July 11)

On Friday morning, we all took the gondola up to the top of the mountain to First. A little restaurant and launching pad for paragliding sat at the peak.


We split into two groups to hike for the day.


Both groups aimed for the lake, but we traveled at different paces. Just as our group reached the lake, it started raining. Here's Wally, Scott, Charlie, Jeff, and Liana at the lake:


And the three siblings:


The scenery was spectacular!



We ran into some very nice Japanese tourists. They shared their soy beans, candy, and anchovies.


We stopped at a lovely restaurant in the mountains for lunch. Notice that we were outside AND shaded by the umbrellas...


We assume this is where one takes one's hound to drink, but there may be something lost in translation... Either way, it made us miss our hound.


We returned to our hotel happy, but quite tired.

Europe trip, part 3: Zurich and Grindelwald (July 10-11)

We took a very early flight out of Barcelona Thursday morning, and we arrived in Zurich mid-morning. Jeff surprised us by picking us up at the airport. We missed a birthday party for my Mom, Brad, and Simone on Wednesday night, but the streamer is still hanging.

Charlie, Wally, Scott Rattray, Brad, and us took the train from Zurich to Grindelwald. We stopped for a sandwich in town and did a little shopping.

Then we took the gondola up to Bort.


Simone greeted us from the window of the hotel. The wedding party rented all the rooms in the chalet, so it was our own private place in the mountains.


We hiked back down the hill for dinner on Thursday night. Here's Wally:


And us:


The view was amazing!


The parents took a cab down the hill, so they greeted us when we arrived at the bottom.


We started with cocktails and appetizers. Brad, Ellie, and Ed are in the foreground and Jeff and Bessie are in the background.


Jeff and Simone gave the first of several toasts.


Ed and Ute (Simone's mom) are closest to the window. Ellie and Heinrich (Simone's dad) are furthest from the window.


Brad is at the head of the table. Katja (Simone's sister) is to his left. Egbert and Inge (Simone's aunt and uncle) are sitting further down the table.


Starting closest to the camera: Scott Rattray, Wally, and Sanj are on one side of the table. Bessie, Charlie, and Jen are on the other side of the table. Bereket and Hami couldn't fly out of Philly, so they missed the dinner.


Simone, Katja, and Ute look very similar, and they each have beautiful smiles.


We purchased some warm beer for the after-party. After cabbing back up to the chalet, Scott Rattray brilliantly suggested trading the warm ones for the cool ones in the hotel restaurant's refrigerator. We felt a little unsure about it, but Peter thought it was a good idea. In addition, he suggested just leaving a note if we took anything else (the Swiss way).

Europe trip, part 2: Barcelona (July 8-10)

After a short flight to Barcelona, we checked into our next hostel. This one was more traditional. We had a shared bathroom on our floor, and there was a nice sitting area with a computer.

After a great dinner, we walked up the Rambla to the water.

On Wednesday, we walked around Barcelona. We spent the morning in the Gothic area and saw an old church. We grabbed a quick sandwich and headed over to the Gaudi architecture area. The apartment had been renovated with 1920s-era furniture and artwork. We spent a lot of time on the roof viewing the surrounding area.

You can see the Sagrada Familia church (also by Gaudi) through the arch. We walked over to it next and napped in the park there.

Europe Trip, part 1: Madrid (July 4-8)

We left Madison on Friday, July 4 in the evening, and we arrived in Madrid Saturday in the afternoon. The main street in front of our hotel was closed for a parade. People (mostly men) were dressed up in amazing costumes.

Even though we had four meals on the airplane and several sandwiches in our pack, we dined at a charming little restaurant in a square. Someone famous (maybe Hemingway?) used to shop and write at the meat shop in the back-round.



There were many street performers all over Spain. In the dark, we thought this guy was an amazing performer. Nothing seemed to distract him. Turns out, it was a statue...


On Sunday we viewed the art collection at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Hightlights included impressionist and modern art by many famous artists, including Monet, Renoir, Picasso, Mondrian, and Chagal.



We also enjoyed the botanical garden. They had dahlias, roses, and a vegetable garden. Madrid is a dry place, and they didn't seem to water their gardens too heavily.



The highlight was definitely the in-door tropical greenhouse.


On Monday we walked around Madrid. We relaxed at a coffee shop.


We also toured the Royal Palace.

This is the royal pharmacy. The front jars contain quinine, which is used to treat malaria in Spanish colonies.


This is the armor collection. Initially the armor was used for protection, but eventually it became decorative. Note that these little knights are kid-sized.


After leaving the palace, we viewed a 9th century wall built by the Moors. We found a small (well-watered) dahlia garden a few blocks from the palace.


Here's our hotel room:

Tapas wasn't exactly what I expected. Often it was a plate full of meat, cheese, or olives. We did get out of the Tourist area to find a really good restaurant. Since the menus lacked English, we tried to find familiar words. We shared two plates: chorizo, fried eggs, and hashbrowns and also hamburger patties resting in a meat-based gravey topped with pate.

On Tuesday we went to the Prado museum. Highlights included 15th-18th century masters such as Goya, Velazquez, Bosch, Rembrandt, Ruben, and Titian. They had a wonderful self-guided audio tour.

It seemed like a full vacation, but it was only the beginning of our trip! We thought it was funny that we took a bus from our terminal through the guts of the airport to our airplane to fly to Barcelona.