Little Town...
It's a Quiet Village...
Every Day, Like the One Before...

On Friday (the 9th) we went for one more little excursion.

Joseph, Emily, Megan, and I drove to the town of Annecy, which sits on Lake Annecy at the foot of the Rhône Alps.

It was a nice sunny day, but there was a little bit of haze over the lake...



Lake Annecy is long but not terribly wide across...




Annecy itself is a picture-perfect French town. Colorful buildings, canals, crêperies, and restaurants make up the quaint old town, towered over by a medieval château...










The most famous building of Annecy is the Palais de l'Isle. This structure, built in the 12th century, has been an administration building, a courthouse, a mint, a jail, and a museum...




We walked the streets, explored side-alleys, and enjoyed the zero crowd of January...
















For lunch we stopped in a little restaurant where I ordered a local Savoy specialty: Tartiflette. This is a dish of potatoes and bits of bacon topped by a local cheese. There were several different varieties of tartiflettes to choose from, each with something different added inside. I couldn't pass up the tartiflette d'escargot. So that's what I ate.

I also got to try some ratatouille for the first time. It was excellent. Here's the tartiflette with pieces of escargot, and the ratatouille on the right...




After lunch we did some more exploring...




Megan found a fascinating fountain...




We found a nice little crêperie and stopped in for some crêpes...




We then headed back to the car. The haze was starting to clear up and we decided to drive a bit around the lake...










We found a cool château in the village of Duingt (try pronouncing that in French!) built on a small peninsula on the lake...



It had a magnificent backdrop...




C'est la vie...




We drove home and enjoyed relaxing on Friday evening and all of Saturday. We celebrated Joseph's birthday again and before I knew it, we were packing up the car getting ready to depart on Sunday morning.

We left early and drove the length of Switzerland back towards Munich. I slept through most of Switzerland, but as we crossed into Austria and then Germany we found the landscape covered in a frozen white layer shining in the sun.




The drive from Geneva to Munich was about six hours and so we got back around noon. It was nice to be back in my apartment and sleeping in my own bed again, but I was grateful to have had such a fun and interesting three-week holiday.

With the winter weather, and the need to be conservative with my means, it might be a while before I take my next trip... but one never knows, does one?

Meanwhile... Munich's still alive and kicking...

...

From The Jura

FOUX DU FA FA

We went to Turin on Monday (the 5th), and for days that followed we enjoyed hanging around Joseph's parents' house playing games, watching movies, and eating good food.

One day we went Le bowling. I lost twice.



The parents of both Joseph and Emily live near the town of Ferney-Voltaire, named after the famous 18th century philosopher who lived in the town for many years towards the end of his life. Here is his statue...

And we even drove by his house, though it is still lived in today by his descendants and unavailable for public visits.




He even had his own chapel...




We were are also right next to the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN. This is one of the most important and famous science laboratories in all the world.




CERN is best known for the Large Hadron Collider that sits in a radius 100 meters below the ground. Scientist use this particle accelerator to recreate forces that the Universe hasn't seen since the time of the Big Bang. This helps them shed light on some of the biggest mysteries of the UNIVERSE Universe universe universe...

We were actually staying directly within the circumference of the particle accelerator. Thus if the scientists had inadvertently created a black hole or something, we would be the first to know about it.

Also in the area is the house where Joseph and his family lived for a few years growing up...



What's special about this house is that their landlord at the time, the owner of the house, was Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee was working at CERN in 1990 when he implemented the first successful communication between an HTTP client and a server via the internet. He was also renting this house to Joseph's family. Joseph's dad said he was a nice guy.

One night Emily's mom prepared a regional French specialty for us: raclette.

Necessary to this dish was a special electric skillet that is placed on center of the table. One then cooks thinly sliced beef or pork on the skillet while putting the raclette cheese in a special spatula that is then placed in a little space inside the skillet where the cheese melts...




Once the cheese melts and the meat is cooked one spreads it all over a small baked potato...



It was super.


It had been quite cloudy and foggy all week in the are around the house. One evening, however, Joseph and I took a drive into the Jura mountains not far from the house. We came up above the fog to a beautiful and clear scene.

We parked near a small ski resort and a wintry chalêt...





It was really cold...











From atop the Jura we could see Mont Blanc in the distance...




As the sun started to set, the fog came quickly up to cover the mountains once again...

All the days kind of ran together. One night Emily's dad took the boys out to see the new Bond film in Geneva. At some point Joseph had a birthday but it seems like we celebrated it two or three times. No complaints here!

l-r: Emily's mom, Jordan, Megan, Emily, Joseph, Joseph's mom

It was a lot of fun relaxing with friends in France. We had one more day-trip before heading back home to Munich. But that story will have to wait until next time...

...

From Torino

TURIN:
IF ITALY'S A BOOT, WE'RE AT THE TOP OF THE SHIN!
--or--
THE SEARCH FOR THE GUY WITH YELLOW PANTS

It was about 6AM when we awoke. Joseph, Emily, Jordan, and I (see last blog post if you don't know who they are), got in the car and headed south towards the Alps.

It was a foggy morning in France, but as we drove towards the mountains, we came out of the fog and saw the sun starting to rise over the highest Alpine peak of all: MONT BLANC...

We parked for a moment to get some pictures. All around us were the snow-covered cliffs and peaks of the French Alps...

We headed further towards Mont Blanc, the frosty trees and villages underneath the jagged teeth of rock...

We arrived at the Mont Blanc tunnel and proceeded inside. The tunnel is 11 km long (7.25 miles) and 1/3 of Italy's freight from Northern Europe travels this pass beneath the mountain...

A margarine truck caught on fire a few years ago inside the tunnel and killed a bunch of people, so now they are quite strict about your speed and distance to the next car...

After finding Balin's tomb, losing Gandalf to the Balrog, and being chased by orcs across the bridge of Khazad-Dûm, we came out on the other side into Italy to find the morning sun shining down on a stunning view of a jagged, snow-covered ridge...

As we drove on we got a better view of Monte Bianco...

We passed small Alpine villages with frozen castles waiting to thaw in the sun...

And the view behind us got majesticer and majesticer...

As we drove on, we found that Jordan and Emily could do a spot-on crash dummy impression in their sleep...

Before long, we arrived in Turin! This is the fourth largest city in Italy, and one of the powerhouses of its economy. It is the main headquarters for the Fiat, Lancia, and Alfa Romeo car companies and it hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics.

The most famous building of Turin, which can be seen from nearly everywhere, is the Mole Antonelliana...

This was originally built as a synagogue in the 1800's but construction was halted due to cost. A few decades later the Turinos were tired of a half-finished building in their city and so the government agreed to finish the building. It has had several functions since completion, but today it houses the National Museum of Cinema (making it the tallest museum in the world.)

We wandered the streets a bit and made our way to one of the main Piazzas.

When we got there we saw a man wearing yellow pants. (You can see him at the bottom of the photo above). We were so stunned by this striking choice of trousers that we just had to capture it in essence as well as in picture... thus here I am holding the man with yellow pants in my hand for all you bloggerites to see...

As we wandered the streets I noticed that a lot of people had little Santas on ladders dangling out their window...

"Will somebody please go help Santa!"

During our wandering of the narrow alleyways and broad shopping streets we came to a small square. There we saw him again: the guy with yellow pants! I fumbled with my camera, shoving it into Joseph's hands and then putting my palms out ready to capture this spectacular fashion oddity when he walked out of the square and was gone.

We started getting hungry and so we wandered a bit off the tourist track to find something less touristy. We decided to ask inside a random hotel where a good place to eat was. The woman at the reception gave us the suggestion for a pizzeria up the street; on our way out I noticed this plaque hanging on the wall...

Apparently Mozart spent a few days in January at this hotel. Cool!


We found the pizzeria and it was definitely not touristy. No one spoke English or French so we did our best with Emily's limited Italian and what I remember from all those Italian music terms (by the way, "Castratti" is NOT a type of pasta!)

We each ordered a pizza and soon we were enjoying the real deal...

After lunch we went to the Institute of Italians Who Say Funny Things On The Internet...


(Obscure internet joke, raise your hand if you don't get it)


Nearby were some of the best preserved Roman ruins in all of Northern Italy...

Though the towers were later additions, the main gate is original Roman...

There was also an amphitheater that was built around the time of Christ...

"I CAN HAS TU BRUTE?"
(another obscure internet joke, raise your hand...)


Also nearby was a typical-looking Italian square...

But this isn't just any old church. This is where the famous Shroud of Turin lies, which is one of the most famous Christian relics in all of Europe. It is believed to be the actual shroud that wrapped the face of Christ after his death. Unfortunately the Shroud is not on display to the public.

Next to the church, this floor of the earlier ancient Christian church was uncovered depicting the "Wheel of Fortune" (think Carmina Burana). If you look closely you can see the figure of Pat Sajak...

One of the cool things about Turin is the drinking fountains everywhere. They are the first I've seen so far in Europe and they spout wonderfully cold and clear Alpine water.

Suddenly, we saw the man with the yellow pants again!!! Joseph and I sprang into action!

Later I found out that while I was taking photos and reading plaques, the others were making like I was the guy in yellow pants, even though my hosiery was quite unremarkable...

Un Palazzo!

Perfect Italian Piazzas with the typical shutters on the windows and arched arcades lined with shops...

The Winter sun through the steeple...

You've gotta hand it to Santa for stickin' it out on the streets of Turin right after the Christmas rush...

Soon we made our way to the mighty Po River...

"Po River" is the same thing I said back in the nineties when that young actor OD-ed and died.
(yet another obscure joke, but feel free to leave a better "Po River" joke as a contest in the comments section)

What subdued splendor met our gaze / as setting sun broke through clouded haze...

Joseph and I marched to the top of a small hill overlooking the city, while Emily and Jordan went and got hot chocolate (or hot pudding as the consistency would have you believe here in Italy).

Atop the hill we found a grand view of Torino...

and not a single yellow pant to be seen...

As we headed back through the city, the afternoon sunlight shone colorfully on the buildings...

We got one more close look at the Mole Antonelliana...

And those wonderful Italian windows...

...and then we got back in the car and headed back towards the Alps.

Right before leaving Italy through the tunnel, however, we stopped in a little resort town called Courmeyeur where Emily had recommended a fine little pasta place for our dinner. We went inside and found a small but fun little restaurant with a chamois mounted above the entrance, antique hiking gear strung about the walls, ice picks lining the stairway to the upper-eating-area, and robust smells coming from the kitchen. The waiter asked us if we had a reservation (though it wasn't very full), we said "no" and then he told us that if we eat really fast we can stay here and eat. So we went to the upper-eating-area where the ceiling was only five feet from the floor and we ate a most excellent pasta dinner...

It was so good that it was simply no problem gobbling it down and finishing well before the reservation folks arrived.

We drove back to France fully satisfied with excellent Italian food and a fun day on the shin of Italy.

I leave you now with a photo essay of "Nate at the Roman Ruins"...
(actually there was just a random chair sitting in front of the old wall and I gave Joseph my camera and we just goofed around...)



Hmmm!

huh!

hmph!

Hwah??

hshhh.

...