Heidelberg

We kept it pretty local this past weekend and drove up to Heidelberg in SW Germany for the day.  There was some construction on the road so the drive up took a tad longer than we anticipated (approx. 3 hours).  It was a picturesque town.  Sitting on the Neckar River, the city hosts a large castle, university and an enchanting baroque style Old Town.

After a few mis-navigations with our Garmin, we found parking and our first stop was up to the Castle and Gardens.  The Castle sits on a hill overlooking the city so it offers nice, panoramic views!  It's a combination of several buildings that surround an inner courtyard and each building highlights a different period of German architecture (dating back to 1300, when construction began).  In 1764 it was destroyed by lightening, leaving it permanently uninhabitable.  We didn't take a tour, which is suggested, so we didn't know the details of the buildings we were looking at but they were pretty!

 

The Castle's cellar is also is home to a "big barrel" that was built in 1591.  An even bigger barrel was built in 1751 - it's more than nine yards long, eight yards high and has a capacity of 55,345 gallons of wine!  In earlier times, the wine growers had to pay their share of taxes by delivering wine to the castle, thus the need for a large container.  It has a dance floor built above it and used to be guarded by a jester (legend says he was able to consume large quantities of wine and died when he mistakenly drank a glass of water)!

There is also an old Apothecary Museum at the Castle, outlining the history of the pharmacy and of dispensaries.  The collection includes a complete pharmacist’s office, a laboratory, pharmacopoeias, manuscripts, a wide array of vessels, mortars, and technical flasks, and over 1,000 raw drugs representing medicine from the 17th to 19th centuries.

We then walked to the Carl Theodor Bridge (Old Bridge) and Old Town, seeing some pretty churches along the way.  There are several cute, narrow streets but the main one is Hauptstraße, where most of the shopping and restaurants are centered.  It's perfect for an afternoon stroll!

After lunch and gelato, it was time to head home!

 

Stockholm

Vikings. Vasa. Meatballs.

For our long (Swiss holiday) weekend we visited the capital of Scandinavia - Stockholm!  It's a beautiful city straddling the Baltic Sea and Lake Mälaren, consisting of 14 different islands.  Much like Venice, the islands and waterways make for a pretty surrounding, but they also make transportation across the city tricky, requiring a network of bridges linking the different islands.

We started our visit by taking a walk around the Riddarfjärden bay, starting in Gamla Stam (the old town), across a bridge to Södermalm, across another long bridge to Kungsholmen, and finally another bridge to Norrmalm.  On the way, we popped into Mellqvist Kaffebar, a favorite haunt of the late Stieg Larsson (from Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fame).  Very cool! 

It was a nice day, but a bit overcast - perfect walking weather.  There were a lot of families out and about, as well as a ton of joggers.  Very outdoorsy.

The walk worked up our appetite so we headed to the Östermalms Saluhall food hall.  The hall contains old wooden stalls with vendors selling fresh vegetables and meats as well as a handful of small restaurants (which were packed).  We settled on a stall with two open seats at the bar and enjoyed our traditional Swedish meatballs, tart lingonberries  and parmesan pork.  Yum.

In the afternoon we took a free walking tour of the old town.  Kate even rubbed the city's smallest statue for good luck (I'm still waiting for a winning lottery ticket, dangit).

For dinner Matt made us ressies at a fun little gastropub serving small plates of delicious-ness.  The ceiling was decorated with suitcases and vintage luggage labels.  Eclectic but cool!  I think we have finally found a place more expensive than Switzerland.  Stockholm ain't cheap, especially the highly taxed liquor.

Sunday was our "museum" day.  We started our morning by visiting the Vasa museum (on another island), which contains the well preserved remains of the Vasa warship from 1628.  The cold water of the Stockholm harbor preserved the ship until it was exhumed in the 1960's.  Very impressive, indeed.

 
After the Vasa we walked to Skansen, the first outdoor open air museum containing historical buildings from all over Sweden (spanning multiple decades).

Following a quick lunch we took a late afternoon boat cruise traveling through two locks and under 15 bridges.  It was a great way to see the city from a different perspective (it looks like there are trails all along the water, filled with runners and walkers).

For dinner we had traditional Swedish food.  Kate went with the salted bacon in onion sauce with a side of potatoes (healthy right?), and Matt finally had Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes.  It was good but heavy & filling (I guess you need hearty food to survive the cold, dark winters)!

On Monday the sun finally came out, allowing us to revisit some of our favorite sights to see them with the gorgeous blue sky backdrop.  Not only was it sunny but it was also pretty warm - it was warmer in Stockholm than in Basel.  Overall a great weekend.   

Cinque Terre and Tuscany

Cinque Terre.  Florence.  Siena.

For the Ascension Holiday we took a road trip to Tuscany!  We got a headstart and decided to drive just outside of Milan Tuesday night, so we could have a full day in Cinque Terre on Wednesday.  This jaunt took about 4 hours (with traffic), and we arrived just before bedtime!  It worked out well because we were able to leisurely enjoy Cinque Terre all day on Wednesday.  We started in Monterosso, the northernmost town.  From here we hiked to Vernazza, and it was much hotter than we expected, so poor Matt kept pulling up his skinny jeans (he was rocking a very Euro look)!  The hike was fabulous and the views of the rugged coastline were gorgeous!

We arrived in Vernazza just in time for lunch, so we filled up at a restaurant that was in a castle/fortress-like structure overlooking the Mediterranean - doesn't get much better!  All the towns were picturesque, but this was the quintessential "Cinque Terre" town for me, with a proper harbor, terraced olive groves and colorful houses.  The seafood pasta and prawns were to die for, so fresh and delicious.  Afterward, we enjoyed gelato and walked around the town before catching the train to Corniglia.  Here, we literally walked up the stairs to the town, snapped some photos and caught the train to Manarola.  It was a quick stop!

In Manarola we walked around a bit more and enjoyed some refreshing beer while we waited for the train.

We wanted to do the short hike from Manarola to Riomaggiore, but most of the trails between the towns were closed from the 2011 flood - bummer (at least we were able to do Monterosso-Vernazza).  We had more fresh seafood for dinner in Riomaggiore before heading to our hotel in (unglamorous) La Spezia.

The following day we headed to Florence, with a stop in Pisa to see the tower and Camposanto.  Of course, Matt couldn't resist a cheesy photo "holding up the tower"!  The place was packed, it was crazy.

We arrived in Florence in the early afternoon.  We visited the famous Duomo (wow!), walked around the narrow streets on a free walking tour (only 6 of us on the tour), and made our way across the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge over to Piazza Michelangelo, which had gorgeous, panoramic views of the city.  We continued to enjoy the views over some beer at the Piazza's terrace restaurant.  So majestic!  Our restaurant choice was full for dinner, so we made reservations for the following night.  Don't worry, we still found a place to fill up on scrumptious pasta and wine!

  

Friday was our culture day.  We started by visiting the Accademia Gallery, home to David.  In the afternoon we visited the Uffizi gallery, filled with Renaissance art from the Medici family.  In between we sampled another cultural treat - gelato!  We finished the day in a great restaurant we tried to get into the night before but were turned away (so we made reservations for the following night).  Florence was spectacular, we really enjoyed it.

Now it was time to explore the Tuscan countryside.  On Saturday we started by driving through the side roads of the Chianti region on our way to San Gimignano, a walled medieval hill town famous for its 14 well preserved towers.  It's a popular cycling area too, we passed a bunch of groups and had to be careful as the roads can be really narrow and hilly!

Next we visited Siena, a slightly larger town famous for its huge square and green and marble cathedral.  The town was a little more rough around the edges than San Gimignano, which gave it a bit more character (it felt more "lived in").  Pretty!

 

Our next stop was Monticiano, another hill town famous for its wine.  As we approached town it started to downpour from a passing cloud, causing us to wait around 20 minutes in the car for the short storm to pass (and blue skies to return).  It was the smallest town we visited, but was still full of stone buildings, more windy, little streets and spectacular views.

On the drive to our hotel we took more side roads and drove past a large castle-like building on a cliff.  We were intrigued and decided to stop by.  It turned out to be the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, a working abbey open to the public.  After viewing the open rooms we finished our tour in the cellars (Matt even tasted some monk wine)!

We finished the day in our hotel, a converted "castelli" overlooking the countryside (it started as a castle in the 12th century and then turned into a fort).  After some Tuscan wine and good food we had a wonderful last night's sleep in dreamy Tuscany.

Our drive home started Sunday morning and we were feeling pretty good.  It went well until we reached the Gotthard tunnel through the Swiss Alps (the 3rd longest road tunnel in the world).  Unbeknownst to us it is a traffic jam on the weekends, especially holiday weekends.  It took us 3 hours of waiting in traffic to make it through the 15km tunnel.  Ouch!  Slight disaster.