Vertigo (My favorite day)

I decided that we had better visit Switzerland, just in case I never make it back to Europe.  And as long as we were going to Switzerland, we may as well see the Alps.  And as long as we were going to see the Alps, we may as well sleep high up in them. 

So we stayed here: 

We took a cable car to the hotel late at night, so we couldn’t see much.  We were delighted to wake up to this view off our balcony:

And as long as we were staying in the Alps, we may as well take a cable car to the top of the Schilthorn, right?

(Photo courtesy of Cody Duncan, whom I don’t know from Adam)

So we did.  This is the shadow of our cable car ascending the steep face of the Schilthorn Mountain:

Tim was a very good sport, considering that he is “not a fan of heights” and we were hundreds of feet off the ground during our ride.

Our destination was the Piz Gloria – a rotating restaurant on the tippy top of the Schilthorn that offers panoramic views of the surrounding Alps – we had breathtaking views (as in, I cried a little) of Jungfrau, Eiger, and Monch peaks, among others. 

Our views (pictures REALLY don’t do the scenery justice):

We were greatly amused to know that certain types of footwear are forbidden on Shilthorn mountain.

Here we are, on top of the world.

We ate at the Piz Gloria restaurant, which offers seats that rotate slowly in a carousel-like fashion.  It was fantastic.

Tim got shnitzel.

I got cheese.  I like cheese.

Squiggles browsed the beer list, but didn’t find anything to her liking.

Tim and Squiggles enjoyed some daddy-daughter time while I gawked at the mountains.  I did manage to catch a couple shots I love.

There was a couple a the restaurant that kept taking silly pictures, including this one.  We have no idea what it was supposed to be, but they seemed to think it was hi-lar-i-ous.

We finally took the cable car back down, and Squiggles decided to call it a day.

Our cable-car operator had a pretty awesome mullet. 

At the hotel, we had more awesome food- some kind of sausage, and some kind of pork dish.  Both were delicious.

Squiggles liked playing in her play pen, but not sleeping in it.

So she joined me in my half of this weird set-up.

Santa Baby

We interrupt our European vacation to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

In Bruges (Tim’s favorite day)

Bruges is an adorably quaint city in the Flemish region of  Belgium where businesses blare Whitney Houston and The Police.  I was delighted to see horse-drawn buggies toting tourists to their destinations – there are very few cars in Bruges.

Like Venice and Amsterdam, Bruges is built around a canal system. 

But we couldn’t do a canal cruise because much of the water was frozen.

Bruges has lovely medieval architechture.

This was sculpted above a residential doorway:

And I just really liked this building:

A view from on high:

And from down low:

Market Square hosts a fantastic belfry:

And a market (as the name would imply) and ice rink in the winter.  Here, Squigglels and I are just taking in the very, very cold fresh air.

It turns out the Belgium is a good place to get Belgium chocolates.  I paid 10 euros for a very small selection, and decided that I still don’t like chocolate, even if it’s very high quality.  Chocolate-chip cookies excluded, of course.

I did enjoy my candied grapes, though they left me with a bit of a stomachache.

Tim and I are on a very vague diet (with very loose interpretations and almost no rules), but he decided that cupcakes were out.

I decided that Belgian Waffles with chocolate and bananas were definitely IN.

And so was a super-creamy, fattening seafood dish, naturally.

Tim was served fries with his beef stew.  Of course.  (There’s a big pot of said stew that you can’t see… they’re not this stingy).  There was a “frites maiden” who was actually not a maiden but a dude, who came around dumping fries on everybody’s plates the moment they looked half eaten.  Also, you’ll be happy to know that the Belgians eat fries the only True and Living way:  with mayonnaise.  Fries were definitely not excluded from our diet.  We’re thinking of starting a stricter diet after Christmas.

We went to The Church of Our Lady,

and saw Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child:

I really like that in many cathedrals, there are raised lecture podiums where priests can give their sermons.

In the middle of busy Bruges, there is a quiet and beautiful (“silence, please”) monastery that people can stroll through.

To my delight, Market Square lights up at night and is even more fun than in daytime!

Going Dutch.

This post is dedicated to Michelle and Peter
(in alphabetical order),

who are practically Dutch.

We spent two days hanging out in the weed capital of the universe. I was tempted to go into one of the ubiquitous “coffeeshops” for some hot cocoa, but Tim laughed and told me that “coffeeshops” in Amsterdam have little to nothing to do with warm beverages. We toured the Anne Frank museum and saw our favorite Dutch artists on display at the Rijksmuseum, but we mostly loved walking around the surprisingly beautiful city.

I particularly loved three things about Amsterdam: 1) Everybody bikes everywhere, even during blizzards at night (though this does make driving tricky), and the fact that the city has bike lanes down every major thoroughfare.

2) The city is built around a series of canals (dug centuries ago to reclaim land buried by the sea). We (mostly I) couldn’t resist going on a tourist-trap canal cruise to see the city from the water.

3) The architecture – we couldn’t get enough of the beautiful gables, sculptured facades, windows, and door frames.

Also, I really loved that in places in Europe, there is a “big flush” and “little flush” toilet option. It’s so practical.

We dined at an Eetcafe – Squiggles could not decide what to order.

Our trip coincided with Saint Nicholas Day – we saw Santa and Black Peter all around Holland and Belgium.