Over the River and Through The Woods...

Over the river and through the woods....well, not so much. It was really like over the river (the Rhine) and through a bunch of little towns along the freeway and through a lot of tunnels and one that was incredibly lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng and then it was through a little bit of Austria. Wished they would have told us before the border going into Germany that we needed to have a sticker to use their freeways (guess they're really tollways). I mean there was not a warning, no signs that we saw, and then there it was---A fine of 120 Euros! Almost makes me not want to visit there again, but Salzburg and Vienna are still calling my name.




DJ took a couple of days off, and we're in Garmisch, Germany tonight. We're hoping to see the Passion Play on Saturday after we stand in line to get two of the few tickets that are left ala BYU days. Plans for tomorrow include Neuschwanstein(you know the ----THE CASTLE of CASTLES). Downside is that we are sitting in these incredibly beautiful mountains, and it's stormy; therefore, low hanging clouds, bad visibility, crumby picture taking if you can see anything. We just may have to come back again!




Anyway, we saw beautiful sights along the way, but my camera was dead and the visibility wasn't good. It was so gloomy so I just resigned myself to the fact that I couldn't document this part of the trip until we could find some place that sold batteries (that's harder than you think). Lucky for me, DJ had to stop for a potty break, and it was time for lunch, and we happened across this Quaint (with a capital Q) little guest house (restaurant). I pulled out our "little" camera and took a few shots.

Look right above the first floor windows and door and notice the hand painted mural running under the shingles!

Here's a close-up, and look below at the cute lace trim in the windows and the painted shutters. Isn't it every thing Germany is supposed to be?????

Then we walked inside and saw woodwork and painting like this corner cabinet:

Look at the detail on this door handle:

Another hand-painted treausre:

There were posts like this throughout the room:

And the ceiling was wood paneled and had a little something painted in each section:

This makes up for the McDonald's pictures, right???

The doors, the doors were total works of art:

This mural was my favorite because right behind the light (which I didn't realize was in the way) is a painted church, and you already know my thing about churches in the villages.

Another door:

And the food was just as authentic as the place---and I loved it, saurkraut and ham stuffed inside some kind of fried noodle and oniony potatoes and beets and carrots and cabbage and another noodle thing stuffed with cheese. Who knew? I have some new favorites. Thought they were going to have to roll me out of the place. So I decided the "little" camera would do just fine, and it didn't matter that we were driving down the road at high speeds nor that the clouds don't look as good as gorgeous blue sky, I took some shots anyway. Look at this green----c'mon it's October tomorrow. Isn't it beautiful?

Okay, ignore the guardrail and just suck in the beauty of this stuff:

Just took this one, because the peak of the mountain is so jagged.

In the town of Fussen, Germany:

Fussen, as well:

Back in Austria, headed towards Innsbruck. If you look at the top of this mountain, you will see the ruins of a castle:

You know me, it's a picture of a church in an Austrian village:

I love this shot because of the snow, the mountains, and the clouds hanging so low. DJ didn't like the looks of any of it---we weren't sure which way we were headed.

Another group of mountains:

Same shot, just a little closer:

One last shot of a beautiful, little village tucked underneath another gorgeous peak, hiding in the clouds:

Funny thing is, we wouldn't have seen a lot of this had we followed the mapquest maps DJ had printed, but we decided to use the GPS instead. Thing is, you have to program it in German. We think DJ accidentally pressed the "scenic route" button instead of the "quickest route" button because we were on more narrow, winding roads than we planned. We even crossed a stream on a covered wooden bridge at one point. The trip took hours longer than it was supposed to... It was a remarkable day, and I go to bed tonight more grateful than ever for such a beautiful earth on which to live----Heavenly Father really must love us!

Observations of the Fit or Confessions of a Stalker

I've always been a people watcher! For as far back as I can remember a whole lot of anything, I have kept my "baby blues" okay maybe my "baby blue-greens" on those around me. Perhaps my earliest recollection of watching people was studying my babysitters----you know, how they dressed, how they did their make-up and hair, how they popped their chewing gum, and how they wrote when they did homework. But without a doubt, I know my people watching skills advanced to a higher level when I was in third grade and started going to the high school basketball games with my dad and my little sister, Livi. You see, Dad volunteered his time to man the microphone for each home game at Uintah High School. The high school in turn gave him two season tickets, pretty much center court. Once in awhile Mom would go with him, but as the mother of lots of little kids, often times she stayed home and let "the girls" go with Dad. I knew which player had which number, who had which moves, who had the coolest haircut, who was the best looking...and I watched the cheerleaders, too.

My people-watching skills never waned. I watched people everywhere---at the library (oh, was I supposed to be studying), at restaurants, at the Wilk at BYU, at church, at the symphony. Didn't matter where I went, I watched. I still do.

In my defense, I've learned a lot from watching. I think I learned how you should treat people (and what behaviors to avoid). I gained some fashion sense (that flew out the window when I got so fat). I watched some really awesome mothers doing some incredible things with their kids, and I tried to emulate. I've gained lots of insights about lots of things from watching people.

What does all this have to do with now. We live on the 4th floor (actually the fifth level---the entry floor isn't numbered) in a new apartment building (see above) in the section of Basel known as St. Johann. We are located right where the building starts to curl at the near end as it comes to the corner of the block. So when I sit and eat at our kitchen table which has elevated bar-height chairs, I see a lot of this:

That's right. We live right on the corner of a round-about with not 4, not 5, but 6 roads coming into the center of it. We're also about two blocks from the Rhine, not too far from the airport, just minutes from France (see the F on the street sign):

and on a rather busy tram route with trams going both directions all day and all night:

Anyway, it's a busy little corner of the world with lots of people coming and going, and I have come to the conclusion AS I WATCH, that people here in Switzerland are generally a lot thinner than their American counterparts, a lot more physically fit. BUT...I have a theory as to why that's so. Mind you, this isn't a theory based on scientific data, but rather it's based on my fine-tuned observation skills. So here it is.

Everything is more expensive here in CH. Housing's more expensive, a lot of clothing is more expensive, food is definitely more expensive, as is the price of fuel and cars and parking. So.... people walk to save money or because they have no car or because there's no place to park or they want to conserve on fuel:

And people ride bikes...a lot:

So...REASON NUMBER ONE that they are more trim, THEY EXERCISE EVERY DAY JUST TO GET WHERE THEY'RE GOING.

And it's not just a few of them (this pic's actually from Germany, but a common sight here as well):

Housing is expensive. Switzerland's a small country, space is at a premium. There's one place to build in the city and that's up. Besides, I have yet to find suburbia here in Basel. A lot of people live in apartments, whether it's new like this one across the street:

with its crazy angles on one end and sweeping curves on the other:

or the older variety like these which are across the street as well:

What does this have to do with my theory? REASON NUMBER TWO people are more fit is because THEY CLIMB STAIRS EVERY DAY AND A LOT OF THEM FOR AUTOMATIC CARDIO! Some of these buildings are too old to have elevators or if they're like our's, the elevator is so teeny and/or slow, it's not worth it. 71 stairs to our apartment from the ground level or 87 from the parking garage.

REASON NUMBER THREE is THE GROCERY BAG:

They provide automatic resistance. It's just like adding weights when you exericise. The Swiss don't need to add weights because they already have to carry the purse, the diaper bag, the computer bag, and the GROCERY BAG on their bike or on their person and then up the stairs---no throwing them into the back of the mini-van and in through the back door! The grocery bag contributes in another way as well. Because even if you can afford to buy more food, you have to be really careful what you buy at the store because it all has to fit in your grocery bag, maybe two if you can handle them or if they will fit in your bicycle basket. However, you have to be extra careful because you have to make sure your food will fit in this:

And ours is large! Most apartments have a refrigerator that's between 1/2 to 2/3 the size of this one. So REASON NUMBER FOUR is THE SWISS CAN'T KEEP TOO MUCH FOOD AROUND AT ANY ONE TIME. This one is backed up by the size of food containers as well. Like:

No five- or ten-pound bags of sugar here. The whole bag is in my cannister.

Want a gallon of milk? Think again, not even a half-gallon. Of course, they use the metric system anyway, but milk comes in a 1-liter carton like this.

Want some cereal? This is about the size of a small bag of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish.

And, this one doesn't need an explanation. Except to say that besides the fact that it's hard to get too much food in your house, and it's hard to store too much food in your house, and it's hard to buy anything with a lot of food in it, food is just darn pricey---almost a dollar an egg!

So that's my theory, they exercise to get where they're going, they do stairs, they carry a lot of weight around, and they can't store too much food in their house, nor can they afford to store too much food in their house (therefore, no binge eating for them).

So I say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. We walk a lot (DJ just put diesel in our car for the first time in almost four months of having it), we take the stairs a lot, we walk home with our groceries, and don't have much to munch on around here. Just hopin' that after 3-5 years, it makes a difference!

Did Somebody Say McDonald's??????

On our way to Freiburg last Saturday, we took the back roads out of Basel, through the little, Swiss town of Riehen (above) and then headed up the highway, passed through the German border, and came to Lorrach, Germany. As we came into town, we saw this:

Since we were planning on getting lunch on the road and since we were craving something like twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepickleoniononasesameseedbun, we thought we'd hit Mickey D's. McDonald's holds a special place in our hearts---we've spent tons of money there feeding our brood, two of our kids worked at the one in Ottawa, Illinois, and I, during the first summer of our marriage, was none other than a McDonald's french fry inspector at a potato plant (that is worthy of a whole post on its own). Anyway, it was just fun to see something that kind of reminded us of home. We had no problem finding it, and....there was no mistaking where the drive-thru was located!

We were made to feel welcome right off the bat. I mean....it was in three languages! I guess lots of people felt welcome because the parking lot was packed.

The surrounding scenery was prettier than a lot of McDonald's I've seen:

We entered the building---it was very clean, very modern, much in the same configuration as most (looking back behind the registers into the kitchen); but, oh my, that's where the similarities stopped. Is it just because I have lived in drive-thru lines for the last two years, or is it that our McDonald's in Houston are sub-par? Am I just not "up to snuff" on the latest McDonald's has to offer? What was all this???

A second area in which to place an order with an entire second menu board, and this:

That's right, here's a close-up just in case you haven't seen one before either:

That's right---bagels, and brownies and cheesecakes, and muffins, and cookies, and...

cupcakes, and more delicious looking treats (and this is coming from a girl who has laid off this stuff for over 2 1/2 years). It was incredible! Then I turned and saw this:

What happened to the booths with the hard laminate benches? And there were cute little enticements at the tables, reminding people of the goodies available:

And then these:

I'm talking gorgeous fresh flower arrangements at the tables! Where was I????? I've seen less at nice restaurants in Houston. Oh, just in case the kids get a little bored, some high-tech fun for them:

And adorning the walls, not posters of Ronald and the golden arches, but some really high-class modern art in very tasteful frames.

And just in case you're wondering....yes, I did go back out to the car to get my camera, and yes, DJ wanted to crawl under the table while I was taking pictures inside a McDonald's, but hey, I had to document this experience. So....I'm thinking these McCafes are probably in the states, but I swear all it means at the one on Spring-Cypress is that the now serve lattes and expresso.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering---no burgers for us, we went with chicken wraps!

And just to verify that this is not a fluke. Peak through the window at the McDonald's at Martin Gate in Freiburg. You'll see upholstered furniture and fresh flowers there as well.

Guess they really meant it when, they said, "You deserve a break today," or "We love to see you smile." It was kind of nice for a change!