Burgundy & Bobovski's

My parents visited us Easter weekend (after their Spain/Portugal trip).  In Switzerland, Thursday thru Monday was a holiday so Matt didn't have to work, yippee!  We walked around Basel and at the big Munster church we ended up attending a small "mittags gebet" which Matt thought was a concert since he had seen some brochures but it was really midday prayer!  We couldn't just get up and walk away, so we stayed (it was 20 minutes in Swiss-German).  Afterward, it was pretty cold and rainy so it didn't take us long to find a nice traditional braurei downtown for some good eats and beer!

The following day we took a little road trip to Dijon through the Burgundy wine region.  We stopped in Beaune, a cute wine town with cobblestone streets, and a lot of delectable looking shops, most of which were unfortunately closed for the holiday.  In the middle of the old town is a splendid medieval charity hospital, Hotel-Dieu (circa 1443).  Why is a hospital called a hotel in French - confusing?  Oh, did I mention it was snowing?  After filling up at a busy bistro we headed to the old candelit cellars of the former Eglise des Cordeliers, now the Marche aux Vins.  It's a self-guided tour with barrels set out with different varieties of wine to try.  Our tasting vessel was the little "tastevin" sommeliers in restaurants use, how fun!  The wine itself wasn't terribly great but it was an exceptional and unique tasting indeed!  I think the Bobo-parentals quite enjoyed it!

Now it was onward to Dijon.  We took the Route des Grands Crus, although the vineyards were in full winter mode with only twigs and it was snowing (slushily)!  Pretty countryside and little wine towns though.  By the time we arrived in Dijon the weather improved so we went on a nice walk around the old town, following the handy "owl trail".  It's quite a picturesque city.

We stayed the night in Dijon and did a bit more walking before heading home on Saturday.  On the way back, we took small roads through more wine towns/French countryside and stopped in Nuits St. Georges for another cavern tasting.  This time the wine was quite nice so we did not leave empty handed!

On Easter we had planned to take the gondola up to to Mt. Pilatus (near Luzern) for a lunch of cheese fondue, but it was so foggy we decided against it.  Instead, we went on a nice long walk around the city, and checked out the monument in the "3-countries corner" where Switerzland, Germany and France meet.  All in all, it was a wonderful weekend with the parentals!  Thanks to Mom & Dad Bobovski for treating us to some tasty meals in Basel, Beaune and Dijon!