Oktoberfest Eatings

I didn't go to Oktoberfest, but Martin went with his friend Jason (who was the best man at our wedding for those of you who remember that). I asked Martin to write a blog but he's too lazy and can't be bothered. So I'll just put some pics up myself with little or no explanation.

Here's a necklace that Martin bought for me. It's made out of gingerbread and translates to "I love you". They sell these at Oktoberfest and this is the smallest size (as you can see it's almost the size of the hot-pan burn on our kitchen table):



And here is what a pretzel at Oktoberfest looks like. It's like a Swiss pretzel on steroids. I stole this picture from Jason so I hope he doesn't mind. You can see some crowds behind him.



And here, of course, is a picture of Jason and Martin with their beers:



Here's an idea of the crowds at Oktoberfest. Martin said the crowds there were out of control. There is also apparently a huge amusement park set up in Munich for Oktoberfest. So it's not all about beer it's about carnival rides too.



And here are some traditionally dressed people. I'm going to buy Martin some liederhosen (what the men are wearing) for next year.

Spinach

I discovered today that the Swiss have done something wonderful with frozen spinach. They freeze it in balls that are just the right size to fit into your hand! So you can take them out of the freezer, thaw them out a bit, and then squeeze the water out of them easily before throwing them into a dish. Brilliant. No more dealing with those stupid cardboard boxes of frozen spinach.





You pay for it though ... a 28-oz bag costs $4.25. I think a 10-oz box in the U.S. used to cost me less than a dollar.

Home Sweet Home

I returned to the states last week to do some work for WSI and I brought Onyx back to Zürich with me. And he has already made himself right at home, asleep on one of the quilts on our bed:



He's adjusted amazingly fast and we think he probably remembers us and feels comfortable with us. I thought he'd hide under the bed for at least a week!

Venice

We did not do much on our first day in Venice. We arrived around 1pm, then had to wait in a line to buy boat tickets, then took the boat a few stops, then found our hotel and checked in, then ate lunch, and by then it was already 3pm. So we decided to simply let ourselves get lost on the streets of Venice and spend the rest of the day wandering around and shopping. And there is a lot of shopping to do in Venice! Around every corner there is a shop selling glasswares or masks. Glass is handblown on an island near Venice so it's sold everywhere.

Venice is definitely different from anyplace I've ever been. Having canals instead of streets was interesting, and with all the old colorful buildings everywhere it was just nice to walk around and take it all in. And Venice was so clean and the water did not smell at all, as I had expected it to. It was clean to Switzerland standards, which was probably why I liked it so much.





That evening in the square near our hotel there was a high school band and chorus playing. They were pretty good. It's nice to be able to go to your child's concert and sit and eat dinner and have a glass of wine! In my high school we just had concerts in our auditorium and the parents got to sit in uncomfortable metal chairs with no refreshments.



Our second day in Venice we went to the church in Campo San Marco (Saint Mark's Square). Pictures were not allowed in the church but its interior was gorgeous. It was all mosaics and mostly of gold. Mosaics covered the entire ceiling of the church. Here's an example of the mosaics that were on the exterior of the church:





After the church we toured the Duke's Palace which was kind of like Versailles but scaled down a lot. Again, pictures were not allowed so you will all have to go see it for yourselves. The Duke's Palace is attached to the prison via the famous Bridge of Sighs, which prisoners would walk over on their way to the prison, look out the (tiny) window at Venice for the last time, and sigh. Here's the tiny window, complete with lots of scaffolding and construction outside of it, and the view out that window beyond the construction:





After the tour of the Duke's Palace we had ourselves a little snack:



and then we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around and shopping some more. Tons and tons of shopping in Venice ... it's overwhelming.

That afternoon we ran into Martin Ryback, our old neighbor from senior year at BC. He was on his honeymoon. Small world. If you saw a street map of Venice you'd realize how difficult it would be to fine *anybody* in Venice, even if you were looking for each other and had an agreed-upon meeting place.

Italy was definitely the perfect place for a honeymoon though! Florence and Venice were very romantic. In my opinion (and Es'). And judging by the number of weddings we saw in Florence, a lot of other people agreed with us.



The Rialto bridge at sunset:



That evening we sat at a cafe in Campo San Marco and had some drinks while we listened to live music. People were dancing to the music as well and they were really good. It made Es and I wish that we could dance properly to classical music.



We got to look upon the church and all of the old buildings that evening, lit up with candle-like lights. Very nice.

Florence day 2

We started out day 2 with a trip to the Accademia to see Michaelangelo's David. I thought the statue was very impressive ... it's huge. The rest of the Accademia is filled with religious pictures, mostly Madonna and Child paintings. Es and I got kind of tired of seeing the same thing painted over and over and over again. Lots of gold in the paintings which was something I hadn't seen before so that was neat.

We then went to the Uffizi Gallery, which holds the largest collection of Italian paintings in the world. Thanks to our concierge at the Westin we got advance tickets to go there even though my guidebook says you have to book tickets a month in advance usually. The museum was interesting but it would have been better if it hadn't been our second museum of the day because we got really tired about halfway through and left to find some lunch and sit down for awhile.

After lunch we wandered over to Santa Croce Church, which is where many famous people are buried along with lots of other unnamed people. The floor of the church is pretty much covered with tombs:



Fermi, Machiavelli, Michaelangelo, Dante, and Galileo are buried here. This is Michaelangelo's tomb:



Sorry I am unable to take pictures that are not crooked. I'll try to be better in the future.

Here's an example of all the gold in paintings in Florence (almost all of the golden paintings were used as altarpieces or otherwise in churches):



After seeing Santa Croce, we went back to our hotel to give our feet a little break, then we headed back out so I could climb the Duomo (seen in Florence day 1) and Es could get herself another gelato. The views from the top of the Duomo in Florence were great - Florence is beautiful and surrounded by green hills.







The path up the inside of the dome actually takes you around where the paintings in the ceiling are so you get a very up-close look at those paintings (see Florence day 1 for a picture of the ceiling paintings from the bottom of the church):



Later that night we went out to a nice dinner at a restaurant near our hotel called Parione. The food there was delicious and the waiter we had was extremely friendly and charming and they gave us free food and drinks throughout the evening so if you're ever in Florence, go there for dinner! Their pasta is homemade too.

Florence day 1

Our hotel room in Florence was a palace. Esther's sister, Louise, booked it for us using some points she had racked up with Westin hotels. And she ordered a bottle of champagne to be chilled for us upon our arrival at the hotel to celebrate our 30th birthdays. Not too shabby.



And we had a great view from the hotel room (seen in the picture above as well) over the Arno with the Ponte Vecchio in the distance (it's the third bridge down):



So, fortified with Champagne, we set off to explore the Duomo in Florence (too large to fit into any one picture):





It is quite large on the inside with painted ceilings (okay only the dome ceilings are painted):





Then we went on to get enormous ice cream cones. We didn't see the small sized cones, so I got the biggest one I saw and got two enormous scoops put onto it and then saw how huge it was. The woman behind the counter thought it was pretty funny, fooling the Americans into buying big cones of ice cream. She kept telling me I needed whipped cream and a biscuit on top of it. Silly Italians.



Then we wandered around the market, where there were probably a hundred stalls but each stall either sold T-shirts, wallets, masks, or knick knacks. So there wasn't much variety. It was fun to wander through it though. I bought a new wallet because mine had broken the week before.



We visited the Medici Chapels next, but pictures were not allowed inside so I have no pictures of it. I did not find it worth the 9 Euros we paid for it because it was under a lot of construction. Sights should really charge reduced prices when half of the church/palace/facade is covered with scaffolding.

We wandered around Florence for a bit, working up appetites for the usual pasta-and-pizza-and-wine dinner. Florence is gorgeous, especially in the late afternoon sunlight:





We wandered into Piazza della Signoria where there are tons of statues, including the fake of the David:



And Palazzo Vecchio, which we did not go into but enjoyed staring at it while we had some cocktails ...



and watched the sun set ...



Actually I enjoyed the sun set while Es read her romance novel ...



And then we had the usual dinner - wine, pizza with ham and ricotta, spinach sauteed in something yummy, and gnocchi:





It doesn't get much better than that. And we have been eating heavy foods, but we probably walked about 10 miles a day on this trip so we deserved to eat well. And, you can't be on a diet in Italy. I don't think it's possible. So why even try.

Oh but it's easy to not eat bread in Italy. It is *awful*. Hard as a rock. They make up for the bad bread by making awesome pasta, so you can still overload on carbs.

Milan

Esther and I started our travels in Italy in Milan. The impressive thing in Milan is the Duomo (church):



Don't let these pictures fool you, the square here was swarming with pigeons.



And on the inside, there were many massive paintings hanging from the ceiling:



And the floors were neat too:



And it had a good amount of stained glass, though not as impressive as the stained glass in Saint Chappelle:



We wandered around a lot in Milan and I had the best ice cream of my entire life at this shop (it had no name so I had to take pictures of it and of the street sign outside of it so I can find my way back to it if I'm ever back in Milan):





Milan is great for an afternoon or maybe even one full day, perhaps more if you're into high-end shopping or fashion, but I didn't take many great pictures there other than those of the Duomo. da Vinci's "The Last Supper" is in Milan, but you have to make a reservation ahead of time in order to see it ... which we obviously had not done so we didn't get to see it. There was also a little castle and a nice park to wander around in, both of which we spent some time in.

Later in the evening, we sat at a cafe that looked at the Duomo and had some wine:



We finished up with some gnocchi smothered in gorgonzola for dinner, which was excellent.