Hütschenhausen (Germany)

Burg Eltz.  Cochem.  Ramstein.

Kate (finally) joined FaceBook last year and re-connected with some old friends, including a girl she grew up (and hasn't seen since high school) currently living up in Germany, 3 hours away.  Small world!  Her husband is in the military and works at Ramstein Air Base.  We coordinated our schedules and this last weekend we drove up to visit her and her family.  They live in Hütschenhausen, which is amusingly referred to as "the Hooch".  Their house was big, so we had a bedroom and bathroom downstairs all to ourselves, nice!  After a small detour we were warmly greeted by Adrien, along with her husband, all 3 kids (ages 6, 4 and 2), plus the dog!  It was fun for Kate to catch up with her friend on the past 20 years and also for both of us to learn about military life generally and what the Finnans have been up to.  Our gracious hosts also gave us a welcome package of several American sundries including Fritos, frosting, cake mix, Oreos and Chips Ahoy cookies!  And if that wasn't enough, they also sent us off with a 6-pack of Sam Adams winter lager.  Woo hoo!

Pretty sunset on our drive up!

On Saturday we took the family's minivan (yes, we all fit!) to visit Burg Eltz, an 850-year old castle on the Moselle River, partway between Koblenz and Trier.  It's perched on a small hill and is only one of two castles in this area that's never been destroyed.  It was a very picturesque setting but the castle was "closed" until the end of March so we didn't go inside.  We took a bunch of photos and then loaded back into the car to hit the romantic town of Cochem.

 

Cochem was quite cute.  It had narrow alleyways dotted with half-timbered houses topped with slate roofs.  The Reichsburg castle is perched high on a rock hill overlooking Cochem.  It was kind of sleepy for a Saturday, but we wandered around and had regional fare for lunch (käsespätzle and the uber thin Pfannkuchen pizza).

 

Sunday we headed to Ramstein Air base, with Adrien's husband kitted out in his flight suit (yep, just like "Maverick" from Top Gun!), so we felt quite privileged of our insiders tour.  This area has the largest American community outside of the U.S.  After getting our Visitor's Passes we started at Base Exchange ("BX"), a huge retail complex found on U.S. military bases and apparently this particular one is the largest.  It has everything you can think of!  Wowsers.  Hearing American English, seeing all the familiar products, brands and smelling the food court was somewhat nostalgic.  And you can pay in dollars here!  It really felt like you were at a regular mall anywhere in the U.S.  No wonder they call it "Little America".  Funnily, we ate at a German restaurant in the mall.  Big portions, reasonable prices and very tasty!  We also had a few "dampfnudel", which are fluffy white bread rolls with a crisp buttery crust - a sweet and salty pre-lunch treat.

We then headed to the Control Tower where Adrien's husband provided insight on how the base functions and what he does specifically (fly C-130's).  The Tower was fully operational during our visit and there were a few guys working.

Our next stop was a fleet of C-130 Super Hercules planes, and we got to go explore inside (they look just like in the movies).  It was all very informative and pretty cool!  We had a wonderful weekend hanging out with a very fun couple and their cute kids.

Lt. Col. Sean, describing all the gadgets

The Finnan family, our wonderful hosts!

London again (Matt's birthday!)

Wet shave.  Cocktails.  Birthday.

Picking a location to celebrate Matt's cake day was easy and London was calling!  Coincidentally Molly and Shaun were visiting his parents and could come to the city for the weekend to play with us.  We arrived bright and early and were pleasantly surprised yet again that we could check in and get our room in our "go to" London hotel (Sherlock Holmes) at 8:00 in the morning!

After getting some much needed caffeine we headed to the Oxford high street to peruse all the great shops.  We then made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral but only poked our heads in as we were shocked by the £16 entrance fee!  By this time the rain and wind had also picked up, yuck.  At least it wasn't flooding, like many parts of the country.

The Birthday Boy!

 

  

  
We walked across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern and escaped the nasty weather while enjoying the free exhibits.  Afterwards, we sought out lunch near the Smithfield Market at a cool bakery come pub with modern English delights housed in an old smokehouse.

 

Molly and Shaun had arrived so the plan was to meet at J Crew in the West End (which Kate was really excited about as it just opened and is the first J Crew outside of the U.S., woo hoo!)  Ok, the prices were really inflated so we just looked around and then Kate did some damage at Anthropologie before we headed to the iconic Liberty department store.  We found a cute cafe inside and had proper afternoon tea (well, Molly and Shaun did, but we had some decadent cakes as we were still full from lunch).

We had some pre-dinner cocktails at a trendy diner type restaurant, which ended up being a great find as the wine bar we initially went to was full.  Now it was time for dinner at Moro, which was very tasty!

On Saturday the boys went to Ted's Grooming Room for the gentlemanly experience of a hot towel shave, short massage and hair cut.  Both boys were quite impressed and came back looking smooth and cleaned up!  Meanwhile, the girls went to Selfridges and Kate treated herself to a manicure while Molly opted for a massage.  The girls were taking longer so the boys headed downstairs for cocktails at Harry Gordon's (enchanting cocktails were a large part our weekend).

Now we were all quite hungry and an intriguing restaurant Kate found in Fitzrovia sounded good to everyone.  It's "Bubbledogs" which couples gourmet hot dogs with champagne, with sides of tater tots, cole slaw or sweet potato fries.  I know, doesn't that sound amazing?  Unfortunately, it's a very popular place so it was packed and we had to wait a bit.  Quite fun and trendy and worth it in my book.

Afterwards we made the requisite trip to Harrods and hit a few more stores in Knightsbridge before making our way back to the hotel to gussy up for our big Saturday night out on the town. We were looking forward to Milk and Honey, a "members only" drinking establishment that will take non-members via reservations.  We had a bit of trouble getting in as we thought you had to ring the bell, but nothing happened when we pressed the buzzer.  Matt could see someone inside through the glass slit in the door and finally decided to try pushing the door.  Voila, the key is to just open the door people, as it wasn't locked or anything!  Ah well, it was quite a funny start to the evening.  The cocktails list was extensive and they did not disappoint, although our table was in the basement and the lighting everywhere (even in the bathroom) was via candles only, thus it was very very dark!  Unfortunately no pics as the place was upscale and we didn't want to offend anyone with our flash.

Our dinner reservation was at The Social Eating House, which was conveniently located right next door.  Our table wasn't ready so we waited in the lively upstairs bar.  This place is really cool and it was just buzzing with energy and people.  We were seated late but the maître d apologized and they gave us a few free "jars" to share as starters (salted cod, confit duck, spiced aubergine, and mackeral).  The jars are served on a little board with small crackers or bread, which was a fun concept.  Everything was really delicious so we were looking forward to the main courses.  Matt went for the bavette steak, Kate had hake and Molly and Shaun both got venison.  It was hilarious when Matt's entree came out as it was just an empty white plate!  We were confused for a second and then caught on as his meat, salad and triple fried (in duck fat) chips (aka french fries) all arrived on separate dishes. All the food was exceedingly delightful and definitely one of our better meals.

Sunday we awoke to glorious sunshine, finally!  We walked through Kensington and Hyde Parks over to the Mayfair area and stopped in the Dover Street Market, a gutted multi-level Georgian townhouse displaying seriously high-end designers in an artsy space.  We then tried to get afternoon tea at the swanky Connaught Hotel (full) and then again at luxurious Claridge's (also full).  Today was the BAFTA Awards (Britain's equivalent of the Oscars) so there were some looky-lou's and paparazzi waiting outside of Claridge's.  I wonder who was staying here?!  Brangelina perhaps?

  

We enjoyed the shops in Mayfair and stumbled across a Dale Chihuly showroom in one of the art galleries, which was gorgeous.  One of the pieces really caught our eye and were going to go halvesies (for a mere 6 figure price) but decided against it as we thought it would be too much trouble to get on the airplane.  Ha ha ha ha.  A late lunch rounded out our Sunday and then it was time to hop on the tube and go our separate ways (Molly and Shaun to Dublin and Kate and Matt back to Basel).  It was a very enjoyable weekend, even with the bad weather Friday/Saturday.  Cheers to Matt's birthday!

Engelberg Snowshoeing

Wind. More Wind. Did I Mention Wind?

After a relaxing Saturday in Basel we drove to Engelberg, one of the bigger ski areas in central Switzerland.  We found two snowshoeing loops that we combined for a nice outing in the mountains.  Unfortunately the wind picked up while we were out, and at times if felt like we were on the side of Everest.  At least the clouds parted and there was sun (and the trees provided some relief from the wind).  It was nice to get some fresh air and exercise.

Windy!!!

Madrid

Tapas.  Rioja.  Óle.

We had a short weekend trip down to Madrid this past weekend (we left early Saturday and returned Sunday late afternoon).  We woke up at 3:45 a.m. so we could catch the 4:43 tram to make it to the airport in time for our 6:10 a.m. flight (eek).  It was all worth it though, as Madrid was fun.  We were surprised at how clean the city was and the architecture was great.  Surprisingly our fabulous hotel let us check-in at 9:00 a.m., so we dropped off our bags and went out to find breakfast.  We found a cute local cafe by the Opera building and the Palace, the largest in Europe (and apparently part of it is getting turned into a hotel in the near future!?).  Right next door is the Catedral de la Almudena, which looks old but was completed in 1993.

 

Afterwards we hit Plaza Mayor and joined a walking tour to see the Austrian part of the city and learn a little about the history (Spain was ruled by the Habsburg family in the 16-17th centuries, hence the Austrian section of town).

Right next door to Plaza Mayor is the old San Miguel market, a fancy foodie market with stalls selling snacks, full meals and wine.  It was really nice and a bit more upscale than we expected.

After the tour we hit the pedestrian shopping zone looking for lunch, but unfortunately we weren't the only ones as all the restaurants were full.  We finally found a burrito place near the swanky shopping area, which was good but not what we were looking for.  Afterwards we continued to the Salamanca neighborhood to see where the rich and famous hang out.  Here Matt continued his shopping spree and scored a cool pair of monk boots, on sale of course! 

 

At 6:00 p.m. the Prado opens its doors to the public for free, so we thought we would do a quick walk-through.  But upon getting there we found a line a mile long so we decided to forgo the museum and visit a neighboring church before heading back to the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner.

On Sunday we thought we would go to the modern Reina Sofía Museum (Matt thought it was free in the morning), but we actually found out it was free in the evening so we skipped it.   Instead, we headed to Retiro park.  The weather was gorgeous today (sun and no wind, yay) and there were lots of runners and walkers in the park.

From the park we walked across town via Gran Via to the Temple of Debod, an actual Egyptian temple that was donated to Spain in the 1960's.  It is located on a hill with great views of the city.   Huh, don't remember this from our last trip!

From here we visited San Francisco el Grande (a basilica) and then walked through the tapas district La Latina.  Then it was back to the hotel and off to the airport.  Short but fun.