Paris - Tour de France

Wiggins. Froome. Nibali.

We watched the prestigious cycling race’s last stage on Sunday, along with about a million other people.  The portion we watched was Stage 20, from Rombouillet to Paris.  It ends along the Champs-Élysées, where the riders do a few loops before finishing. 

The spot we found for watching the race was across from Tuileries Garden on the river, at the bottom of the "loop", which worked out great since the riders had to slow down a bit on the curve to go down through the tunnel.  We’ve been watching the Tour since the early 2000’s and admire the athletes’ endurance – it was such great fun to actually see it live!  Although it was a complete cluster and we had to camp out a few hours early, it was worth it.  A few hours before the riders arrive, there's a parade of sponsors (it was somewhat random, with sponsors like Bic pens, meat, laundry detergent, bread….but they played loud music, honked a lot, yelled to the crowd French, and had young women strapped-in on the cars/floats (for safety) who were dancing away, like it was the best time of their lives!)  It was crazy and loud and funny.

Here come the riders, and we spotted the winner, Wiggins (in yellow)!

After a few laps, we started walking down toward the Champs-Élysées and right in front of us a rider got a punctured tire -- horrible for him, but exciting for us.  He was down a bit, but was able to pull himself back to the main pack.

Viva le Tour!  We had such a fabulous time.

Double Rainbow !

After a rainy day recently, the sun came out and we spotted a double rainbow!   It might be more funny to us than it is to you, but we sometimes watch a comedy show called "Tosh.0" and a few years ago it featured a YouTube video where a guy was beyond excited because he spotted a double rainbow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

Here are our pics from the aparment, perhaps not as exciting as Yosemite Bear's though:

So, our weather has been up-and-down in Basel this summer, with a bit of rain some days and hot, sunny weather on other days.  Earlier this week, it was gorgeous and hot, so I met Matt for lunch on the steps of the river below Roche - which is apparently a popular lunch spot!  Later that evening, we headed to an outdoor bar below the Munster Church that’s only open during the summer season, weather permitting.  If actually felt like a mini-vacation since it was so warm and we stayed out later than normal on a "school night".  On our way back, we took the little river ferry across. There were still people drifting down the river at 9:00 p.m. (those little dots below are people with the special "floating" bags). Fun stuff!

 

Basel Tattoo 2012

What are these signs we’re seeing about a big “tattoo” festival in Basel in July? Will it be like Haight Street in SF and will we see celebrities from LA Ink?  Oh wait, it’s not about ink, but rather music. Huh. The festival is the second largest (after Edinburgh) to feature orchestras from all over the world performing famous catchy tunes, and artistically choreographed march sequences with fireworks. Ok, so it’s basically a gigantic marching band festival!  There was a free “Bon Jovi” concert on Sunday at a nearby park with three of the bands performing at the "tattoo", so we went to check it out.  We’re still not sure why the concert was called “Bon Jovi” ?? (they didn’t play their songs and I tried translating the phrase but came up with nothing), but the Pipes & Drums of the 102 Battalion REME from Scotland were awesome, and had the best outfits, for sure!  There were also groups from Finland and Russia who performed.  Some tunes were familiar (Rocky theme song and Amazing Grace) and others were more obscure, but it was free and seemed like a culturally progessive thing for us to do while we're here.

St. Gallen & Appenzell

Populations: 70,380 & 5,710
Rococo architecture.  Cheese.

We did another day-trip (July 14) and headed to the NE region of Switzerland to visit St. Gallen and Appenzell.  It’s a rural area with lush, green rolling hills and jagged mountains.  It’s a big haven for hiking and cycling enthusiasts as well.  We were just on a quick trip, so we only hit the towns. 

St. Gallen

St. Gallen houses a famous monastery, library and university, and an old town with traditional half-timbered houses.  It was founded by Saint Gall in the 7th century.

“St. Gallen all began with a bush, a bear and an Irish monk, who should have watched where he was going.  In AD 612, the tale goes, itinerant Gallus fell into a briar and considered the stumble a calling from God.  After a fortuitous encounter with a bear, in which he persuaded it to bring him a log, take some bread in return and leave him in peace, he used the log to begin building a hermitage that would one day morph into St. Gallen’s cathedral.” (LP, 2009).

The Abbey library (Stiftsbibliothek) was magnificent, right out of an Indiana Jones movie, I swear!  We had to put on wool slippers over our shoes before entering and unfortunately, no pictures were allowed - I got the below online.  It’s one of the oldest libraries in the world with impressive rococo architecture.  It’s dimly lit and filled with gorgeous, extremely old books handwritten by monks during the Middle Ages (and earlier).  The library had various “sections” which pre-date the Dewey decimal system by centuries.  Apparently, the monks had a special filing system of their own.  There’s a mummy in the corner, frescos adorning the ceiling and dark wood everywhere.  It’s very cozy, indeed, not to mention completely pristine given its age.

St. Gallen also has a portion of the historic downtown area covered in rubberized red tennis-court coating.  It’s an art installation which is supposed to echo an “outdoor living room” and promote people to linger/chart.  It was undergoing construction while we were there so we didn’t really get the full effect.

Appenzell

We then hopped back on a cog-wheeled train (for steep terrain) and headed up to Appenzell, a colorful town famous for its strong smelling cheeses.  We wandered through the old town with its picturesque, pastel-colored buildings and passed numerous bakeries with the region’s local delicacies on display. We feasted on yet more sausage (Matt tried "Siedwurst", which is "local sausage") and I had a regular, grilled bratwurst with the traditional side of rosti.   We also stopped by a local brewery (Brauerei Locher), took a free audio tour and watched a hilarious short movie (subtitled in English and French) about a “queen” who was ill and sent her dwarves to find a cure (which ended up being the beer, of course!).   It was a 3-hour train ride to get back to Basel and we were definitely tired after our long day! 

 

Beer tour!

I'm the only girl here!

 

Anyone want a gnome?