Bernkastel Kues

Bernkastel Kues is a small German town located on the Mosel River in Rhineland. It is surrounded by steep vineyards, where the wine that is produced is some of the best and most expensive rieslings in the world. We spent 6 days in the small town, walking the narrow cobblestone streets, taking seats at local cafe's for espresso and German apfel strudels, and of course the occasional glass of riesling.

We checked into our room which was located right on the river. I had a gorgeous room and view!



Out my window:



Once we settled in, we went out to explore the little town and it's fairytale-like setting. We saw little German Winestube's all over, sausage shops, wine shops and cafe's serving the worlds most amazing brat, plain with some fresh bread and a little mustard.





German Sausage Shop


One of the most amazing things I've ever tasted - homemade with real whipped cream:



Colorful hard boiled eggs for sale:




Restaurants right on the edge of the vineyards



The next morning we began our hike to to the top of the Landshut Castle. It was built in the 13th century (1277), but was partially burnt down in 1692.





The views from the top of Bernkastel Kues and the Mosel river were spectacular!



After all the wein, desserts and sausage, we headed out for some much needed exercise. We biked about 30km along the Mosel, riding in and out of gorgeous old villages with clock towers, picturesque bridges, tiny town squares continuous views of the abundant vineyards!





One of the most relaxing ways to spend an afternoon in Europe - at an outdoor cafe with a tasty cup of espresso:

2 Months, 2 Hemispheres, 2 Seasons

The holiday season began with a very special 5 day trip to Dublin town. Lots of memories were made crossing the Ha'Penny bridge during my college days. Here is a view of the Liffey as we walked across the bridge on an unusually sunny December day:



We spent afternoons walking around town, deciding together which pub we might want to settle in to for lunch. There are so many to choose from and they all looked so inviting.



We went to the Stag's head for a pub lunch where we tried the special of the day: Irish Coddle. It didn't sound too appetizing, but it was quite tasty:



We stayed at the famous Gresham Hotel. It was very festive and cozy during the Christmas season. At night we would come back to the lobby bar and enjoy a glass of port wine or an Irish whiskey in a comfy chair, in front of the large windows that overlooked O'Connell Street.



My good friend, Johnny Kelly, invited us to an Irish "session" at the Teacher's Club. It was the highlight of our travels over the last few months. We were invited to the private club to listen to these talented musicians play old Irish tunes. It reminded me of the heart and soul of the Irish people and the importance of music in their culture. Many Irish pubs around the world will try to emulate this experience - but you can only truly feel it here on the Emerald Isle.



JK and I enjoying a proper pint:




Before we knew it, we found ourselves in Muenster, Germany. We were both looking forward to checking out one of the famous Christmas Markets and tasting the Gluhwein. Our driver picked us up at the airport and brought us to our hotel. It didn't take too long to get there considering he went 200kph on the Autobahn!!!!

Church in Muenster during sunset:



Beautiful homemade candy at the Muenster Christmas Market:



Delicious German treats:



Everyone waited in line for this delicious hot spiced wine. It was FREEZING out and I was warmed up with only one glass:



Fill up das boot, bitte!






After the Christmas market we sat down for a nice dinner. I had goulash and a pretzel while Eric was more adventurous and went with the pork knuckle. The meat inside was was so tender and it melted in your mouth. It went perfectly with the hefeweizen:




January 2010 brought us to Santiago, Chile where the Chileans are enjoying the height of their summer. We arrived into Santiago around Noon and changed our warm layers for flip flops and sunglasses.

Our first interesting experience in Santiago was at the European-style coffee house, Cafe Haiti. The espresso was excellent...but you'll have to make a trip to Chile to find out why many patrons frequent the place!



For lunch, we found ourselves agreeing on trying out a little restaurant/bar with a frosted glass door. It was on a side street and was very inconspicuous. We decided to open the door, not knowing what we'd find inside.



The bar was old-school. I don't think there was a man under the age of 70 who wasn't smoking a cigarette and playing cards. I was the only woman in the small establishment, but I wasn't bothered. We were seated at an old table that didn't seem like it had been cleaned in a while, but it all added to the character of the place. A old waiter came to our table dressed in a white tuxedo jacket and offered us a bottle of Chilean wine and a sandwich.




We walked to patio Bellavista where we found lots of Chileans sitting at outdoor restaurants enjoying the warm afternoon. We decided on this beautiful pizza con rucula y proscuitto:




Hasta Luego, Santiago!

Arabian Nights

Somehow I've managed to avoid the Middle East in the last few years of my travels, but over the last three months, I've ended up there on three separate trips. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I immediately realized I wasn't in "Kansas" anymore.

In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, I wasn't allowed off of the plane until I covered myself up in an abaya. You are not allowed to show your ankles, arms, neck or most of your face if you are a woman. It is required that women and men sit in separate sections in restaurants and in waiting areas such as the airport, women are required to sit behind a screened-in area. We stayed in Jeddah for five days. I was not allowed to use the gym or pool, or even eat with the pilots, so I enjoyed lots of in-room service. At least the food, and especially the hummos was good!




Every room in the hotel had a sign pointing to Mecca for prayer - Mecca is only about 45 minutes drive from Jeddah and people make the pilgrimage from all over the world.



Security was pretty good judging by the machine guns surrounding the hotel:




Cairo, Egypt was another stop and where my love of camels began. Eric was with me on this trip and we were so excited to finally be able to see the ancient pyramids! We were in Egypt during the holy month of Ramadan, so unfortunately we were not able to go inside the pyramids. We did take a long camel ride around the desert near the pyramids near sundown, which was absolutely incredible!

A line of camels in the desert:


Eric and I sharing a ride:



It was surreal seeing a structure that was built over 3,800 years ago!



We also stopped at a papyrus shop where the proprietor showed us how the ancient paper was made and served us some tasty Egyptian tea.

A few weeks later, we went to Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi is a growing city with lots of construction, but is much more clean and modern than most cities in the Middle East.

Eric, Andrew and I on the Corniche:




There was lots of shopping in the malls. Eric bought some beautiful spices at the market, which would have been extremely expensive to get back home. Some of them wouldn't have been available at all, like the bright orange Kashmiri Chili Powder.



One evening in Abu Dhabi, we decided to take a desert safari. A gentleman picked us up from our hotel in a utility vehicle and took us out to the Arabian Desert on the sand dunes. The ride was death defying - but really really fun. We took our vehicles into the wide open desert and our driver sped over the huge sand dunes and very high speeds. I thought the jeep was going to flip over for sure a few times:




We saw a baby camel in the desert - she was so cute and a bit lost:



Camels are so photogenic!



After the ride on the dunes, we were taken to an area in the desert where tables were set up under the stars. We were served Arabian tea and coffee as our bbq dinner of kebabs and other local fare was being prepared.



Our dinner:



After dinner, a beautiful belly dancer came out on stage:




At the end of the evening, all of the lights were turned off as we sat on big pillows in the sand. All was quiet as we watched a zillion stars twinkle in the Arabian night sky as we drank tea and enjoyed hubbly bubbly.

After Abu Dhabi, or next stops included Kuwait, Oman, & Qatar. Here is a video of the prayer from our hotel balcony in Doha. The first prayer started at 4am and was broadcast so loud that it shook the windows in our room and woke us out of bed. This was the second prayer of the day and you can hear the hymn being sung throughout the city:



Our tour through the Middle East was quite an experience. We met a lot of wonderful and hospitable people while we were there. We learned a bit about culture and experienced some places first hand that we had only heard about on TV and in the news. While we had to be vigilant in many places, it was cool how we were thrown into a culture so completely different than our lives at home. Trips like these definitely open our eyes to a very different way of life and helped us to understand different cultures beyond what we just read about and see on TV. That being said, we were happy to trade our hot weather clothes in for our warm jackets and boots as we headed back to Switzerland...

Where the Buffalo Roam

I started off the rotation with a five day trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I had heard of Jackson Hole as a world class destination for skiing and snowboarding, but didn't realize its close proximity to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons.

My passengers got off of the plane, which was parked on the ramp . As I walked down the stairs of the plane and looked up, I couldn't believe my eyes - the Grand Tetons were right there in front of me! Enormous, craggy mountains shooting out of the earth. It was a pretty spectacular sight. The ladies at the airport told me that we were only about 4 miles from Teton National Park and about 100 miles from Yellowstone and that this was the only airport actually inside of the National Park. The captain and I drove into the little town of Jackson where we checked into our motel and waited for Eric to arrive from Paris. A little photo opp on the Bear Chair:



That evening we checked out the little town of Jackson. Went to a local restaurant that served the best burgers we've ever had and a few beers from the Snake River Brewery. We decided to get some rest so that we could wake up early and take a tour around the Teton National Park and hopefully view some wildlife.

We saw a huge herd of Buffalo wandering around on Antelope Flats Road, here is one little fella having some dinner:



And holding up traffic:



They made funny noises:



We saw wolves hunting antelope:



And gorgeous mountain views:



Here is a photo of a barn that is over 100 years old with the Grand Tetons behind it. We saw this photo on a lot of postcards in town. We woke up at 5am in order to make sure we were there by sunrise. We made it to the field, along with a few other photographers that had much more professional equipment than we did - but I think our shots turned out alright:





The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in downtown Jackson:



They had saddles for bar stools, naturally.

We left Wyoming for Miami, Florida. The weather was hot and humid and the location of our hotel afforded us the ability to take advantage of the beach while we were on "hot call." The water was clear and as warm as bath water, which is much different than the Pacific ocean that I'm used to!



Eric taking a dip:




In the evenings, we'd walk around to find a place to eat at the various restaurants in South Beach. One night we decided to stop into Puerto Sagua - a little Cuban diner that has been around for years. We tried the Ropa Vieja, beef stew and fried sweet plaintains.

The highlight of our trip was seeing the space shuttle launch! Even though we were about 300 miles south of Cape Caniveral, we were still able to see the bright orange light of the shuttle launching into space around midnight on Friday. It was spectacular! After 5 days in Miami, work called to tell us we had a trip schedule from St Maarten to Geneva, Switzerland. I was excited to leave Miami - and the heat!