Berzerker Zürcher

Last stop on Les Tour de Binghams: Zürich!

Enjoying our Truffles du Jour from Sprüngli.

Weather doesn't get much better than this here...

Grossmünster and Limmat River

Anyone who visits us gets a trip to Sternen Grill and either a St. Galler Bratwurst or Spezial Servelat and Gold Brüli.  Rain or shine, snow or scorching heat you will eat here...  I think Maddie thought the mustard packed a little too much heat.

Grossmünster (the church, not us)

We had so much fun with them!

It was no surprise that everyone was up for a boat trip on the lake.  These three grew up on ski boats every summer.  Going to miss it this summer!

London... What's a freakin' Beefeater anyway?

 Next stop on les Tour des Binghams: London.

 Maddie is the ultimate Royals watcher.  Every store we saw that had Wills and Kate memorabilia we had to stop.  Oh, and not just for her.

 

Roux Sham Beaux at Piccadilly Circus.

 

Our Beefeater tour guide at the Tower of London. Best part of the tower... the crown jewels of course!

 

Clay with a hurty bear skin hat.

 

 

New exhibition in West Minster Abby... Pics of the Royal Wedding. Maddie sporting her Princess Di/Kate's engagement ring.

Outside Westminster

 

 

 

 Can you spot Clay?

Parliament and Big Ben.

 

 After a ten minutes of me complaining about walking, this is where it got me!

 We loved all the names of pubs we saw in the city.  Chris and Clay found this one for us to eat at.  Re-built in 1667 after the fire, the oldest pub in London, its called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.

Here is a list of other fun pub names we saw:

The Hung Drawn and Quartered

Hoop and Grapes

Prince of Whales

The Wheelbarrow

Elephant and Castle

The Elephant's Head

Bag O' Nails no.6

Paris, Oh la la!

Every year Chris has a conference in Paris and every year I try to go. Paris is very near the top of my all time favorite places. There were a couple of extra reasons this year was so fun...

#1- Chris got me tickets to the French Open at Roland Garros. After an hour of being lost (thanks to the concierge's lame directions) I finally found my way there. Oh and I have no idea who this is... but he was cute.

#2- Chris's co-worker's wife (Cyndy) and I went to Versailles. Weather was amazing! The gardens looked like painted backdrops for movies. So beautiful it didn't even look real.

#3- Maddie & Clay!!!! Chris' niece and nephew came and spent a week with us in Paris, London and Zurich.
So what is the first thing I did with them after they were settled? Took them to see the Eiffel Tower. They had both been to Paris 12 years ago when Chris' whole family came to pick him up from his mission.

Who's bright idea was it to put them on a boat after a 13 hour flight? I think we all got a "cat nap" on the Bateaux Mouche.

Our desserts from La Duree. Nothing beats a Parisian patisserie.

Meeting friends on the metro.

Ahh, the Louvre...

Maddie and I used a person in a wheelchair to get front row access to Mona Lisa. Not proud, but it ultimately worked.

They were all getting a little peeved at all the pictures I was taking.

Inside the Conciergerie. More peace signs. Really?

Sainte Chapelle (The King's Chapel)

Nothing like some mussels from Brussels.

Come on Clay, just do a high kick!

Sacre Coure Basilica. Well, I didn't want to feel left out!

Les Invalides

Musee Rodin

Gard Nord (train station)  Good-bye Paris, Hello London!

Fastest Vacation Ever

Chris realized that he had Good Friday and Easter Monday off about a week before so we quickly put together a road trip for the weekend.

We started off in Strasbourg, France where we met up with our friends Miss Ivy and Dr. Rob who were vacationing. Ivy and I know each other from school in Santa Rosa. We had a great time catching up while Rob and Chris talked "business".

Strasbourg was a lot warmer than the last time I was there in the beginning of December.

We couldn't have asked for better weather!


We headed to Heidelberg, Germany (my birth place). Chris kept asking me if I remembered any places or if it felt familiar. Nope, sorry. Since we moved when I was two I really have no recollection, but I was so happy to go back and see it. Such a fun and beautiful city. Can't wait to go back with my parents and sister!

View from Heidelberg Castle down to the old city.

Castle Courtyard.

I think I've seen this picture before...

So after Heidelberg we wanted to go to Rothenberg. Which boasts all things German especially it's Christmas store. We plugged the city into the GPS and set off! Wrong Rothenberg... We ended up in a hill side farm village. The dog loved it!

After Easter Sunday service in Stuttgart, we headed to Munich and kept driving till we came to Salzburg, Austria. We are planning to go back there with more time and no dog! We had a fantastic relaxing couple of hours out of the car. Chris would like me to mention that we hit 140 mph and averaged 120 mph on the autobahn between Stuttgart and Munich.


We stayed Sunday night in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (home of 1936 Winter Olympics).

What a beautiful place! In the morning we took Chopper to the ski jump facility and hiked around.

View from bottom of the jump/top of the landing area. You couldn't pay me enough...

Backside of Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany.


We drove to Neuschwanstein, but decided it was best to come back without the dog and with more time. 

We did manage to find a gorgeous field to run and play in! 

We drove home through Lichtenstein which means we visited five countries (France, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland) in four days! 

How to Blowup a Snowman

So every year Zürich celebrates Sechseläuten (six o'clock ringing of the bells) to celebrate the end of work day during spring/summer. Traditionally the work day ended when it was dark so in essence the holiday is celebrating the work day ending and there still being light left after work to play. 

The celebration begins with a children's parade on Sunday afternoon. 

 Nothing is cuter than little kids in traditional Swiss attire throwing bread and candy to the crowd.

The Böögg.  He has no idea what's coming to him the next day!

On Monday there is a fantastically long parade with 500 horses and 26 different traditional guilds (Zünfte) with 3,500 members.  Each guild had their own horse drawn float and marching band.

I think these guys were the tailors.  If the clownishly large scissors didn't give it away, they also had measuring tapes hanging from their waists.  I'm not sure if I would hire the nearest guy.  Are the floods coming?  Just saying...

I think the parade lasted more than 3 hours because spectators run up to the parade participants and give them flowers and do the traditional Swiss (3 kiss) greeting. 

So what do they do at the ringing of the 6 o'clock bell?  They burn an effigy of winter in the form of a snowman, fill his head full of explosives and wait for it to explode!

Needless to say this was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time...

The quicker the head explodes the better the summer will be.  This year it exploded at 10 min 56 sec. Well below the 14 min average!