Group Outing 2012

Some of you may recall Group Outing 2010, which was a hike with Martin's lab group from the ETH. This year there was another hike and Martin was invited along even though he's not in the group anymore. I was invited too but didn't go as the hike was a Thursday and Friday so I'd have had to take 2.5 days off from work to go on it.

Since I wasn't there I don't have much commentary I am just going to post the pictures from it and wish I had gone because I sure do miss those Alps. The hike went from Bristen to Sedrun and they stayed overnight at the Etzli Hütte. The first day covered 1300m of vertical distance (uphill) but only 7km horizontal distance so it was pretty much straight up but they had all day to do it so they got to take long breaks. The second day was just 200m uphill then all downhill into Sedrun.

Our New Car!

Here are some pics of our new car. It's a 2011 Audi A3 Sportback. Automatic. Diesel. Only 6,000 miles on it.

Dinner at the Wachtenburg Castle

Saturday evening we wandered up to the castle for dinner. Turns out the castle is a great place for a drink and a view but the food there is a little too German for me. Pork in all its forms (sausage, ham, pork chops), sauerkraut, cheese, bread. I wanted a salad but they didn't offer any salad without sausage or some sort of pork product in it!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the views from the restaurant:

It's all forest behind the castle (to the west) and vineyards and towns in front of it (to the east):

Here's what was left of my and Martin's dinners after we were mostly done with them. Martin had a big piece of pork with sauerkraut and I got a mixed salad - which was a huge pile of something like bologna cut up into strips (with pickles!) next to a little pile of lettuce. I could only eat a few bites of the bologna it just wasn't as great as I thought it would be. This dish is really big here you see it all the time and I had always wanted to try it so now at least I can cross it off my list. And what we're drinking is a rose wine schörle. Very refreshing. :

Saturday evening happened to be a big sing-along at the castle stage! Apparently they were playing old German folk songs and all the old folks were there singing along. I think there are often events at the castle we just happened to hit the old folks' night there. :) The stage is not at the restaurant though it's in a different area so I snapped this picture on our way out:

Our cat friend who guards the alley we walk through to get to/from the castle. He's kind of old but definitely a fierce guard cat as you can see. :)