Will Travel for Food

21 October, 27-28 October, 3-6 November 2011
I've been slacking on the blogging so it's time to play catch up!

Back in October while our husbands were out of town my travel buddy, Amanda, and I drove to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany.  The name means red fortress above the Tauber (river).  The reason I wanted to take this road trip was to cash in on the great Christmas stores there and get some good food for a reasonable price (something hard to come by where we live). 

The medieval town was so quintessentially German and is surrounded by wall that is accessible by pedestrians.  We walked along part of it and got to see the red roofs of the old houses.

Amanda in front of the Christkindlmarkt where we spent most of our time.

In front of the Käthe Wohlfahrt store where we visited the German Christmas museum.  No pictures allowed...

We had great weather, great food, great shopping and I only got one speeding ticket!

At the end of October Chris and I went to Brescia, Italy again.  Chris had some meetings and I love to tag along since Brescia is such a lovely city.  We had some fantastic dinners and a tour by Andrea Venturelli who is one of the co-founders of Invatec which is the company that was acquired by Medtronic and the reason we moved to Switzerland.  Andrea is Brescian and it was fascinating learning the history and seeing this old city through the eyes of a native. 

After work was done, we drove to Milano!

 Okay, so Chris' work is never done so here he is with his cell in front of the Duomo. 

We spent the evening shopping and site seeing.  Milan is such a beautiful city.

 Inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II warding off some evil!  You are supposed to spin on the bull's "junk" with your right foot.  This has become such a Milanese tradition that there is a good size dent/hole in the floor. 

 It was a beautiful night. 

 This sign was in the metro.  Chris loved that is had so many "don'ts".  It's Italy...does anyone even look at it?

Day two took us back to the Duomo di Milan.  One of the most beautiful Cathedrals I have seen. 

 St. Bartholomew statue by Marco D'Agrate. 

After some gelati and shopping we headed back to the hotel to pack up and head back to Zürich. 

I am in love with the Fiat Cinquecento except I realize that I am about the size of this one.  Honestly, how cute is that car?

Beginning of November I experienced the greatest of all girl only weekends.  Okay, so I haven't been on very many girl trips (none), but how can London be beat? 

We flew in on Thursday and headed to our lovely Hyde Park mansion apartment.  Totally swanky digs.  We had a late dinner then hit the sack. 

Nearly every event that we had planned revolved around food.  Breakfast was at the Riding House Cafe.  We shopped on Oxford Street then headed back to the apartment to "freshen up" as my mom would say.

We went to the Haymarket Hotel for a wonderful and traditional English tea.  It was HEAVEN!  Every bite was fabulous from the tarts and scones with cream and jam to the finger sandwiches and chocolate eclairs and the tea of course!

Amanda, myself, Meike, Julie, Terrian, Megan
Tanya, Jessi

 After tea, we headed to the Westend to see Legally Blonde at the Savoy. 


The next morning we hauled ourselves out of bed and headed to Herrod's to see Christmas decorations and shop some more.  We ate at a fabulous Thai restaurant then headed to the Tate Modern for Accomplice.  It is hard to explain what exactly Accomplice but the closest I can get without spoiling the fun is a treasure hunt throughout the city.  Here are a couple of photos from the night... 

 We were really slow and needed help some of the time, but fun was had by all!

 Nearing the end I had to unlock the door to find our treasure.  My face is not an exaggeration, I was pretty nervous!


After Accomplice things get a little hazy.  I remember a great tapas meal at Kopapas and some scary fireworks since it was Guy Fawkes/bonfire night.  We made our way to Covent Garden for ice cream whose store resembled a club more than an ice cream shop. 

Love this picture! 

After ice cream we headed back to the apartment to put on our clubbing outfits.  We went to an 80's club and danced the night away. 

At Sunday brunch we were all a little worse for wear, but battled back with a great breakfast (and some diet cokes) at Modern pantry. 

We had a couple of hours to kill before our plane so some of us headed over to the British Museum.

I finally got to see the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles! 

In front of the apartment building before flying back.  Such a fun time!