a little while back, we took a trip through germany and switzerland, home of beer and cake rolls, respectively. these are their stories (law and order.. anyone?):
on the drive through france, we had to make a few stops for andy's work. this monument is very odd. huge and quite out of place on a hilltop in the middle of nowhere. when we pulled up, there was a big group of motorcyclists, hanging out, middle-aged, trying to look like badasses.. like motorcyclists do.
this monument is pretty interesting because it was a WWI monument, then during WWII, there was a huge battle on the hilltop and the monument got all blown to hell, so they turned it into a WWII monument.
lately, andy and i have been "bill and tedding" our way around europe.
at another war-related stop, we saw this fountain that pumped Mountain Blast Powerade. look at the closeup:
nothing says freedom like all the Powerade you can drink.
next, we stopped in at Metz, a french town that is great in the classical european way: an old town with pedestrian-only roads, lots of water, huge cathedrals, lots of tight pants. plus, we were getting close enough to germany, that it was also great in the classical german way: loads of cheap, delicious beer.
"Susie told her mama and her mama told her dad.
They looked in the book and the book said 'bad'".
in strasbourg, we stopped by at a brewery/pizzeria and stumbled upon the american's dream (that you NEVER find in europe).. all you can eat food!! in france, it's called "a volonte", but whatever the hell it's called, tarte flambees are so damn good and andy and i ate 4 of them. much needed dose of americana.
after a little stop in Ramstein, we parted ways with andy and headed down to Freiburg, a great college town right next to the black forest. it got it's name, which means "Free Town", because like 800 years ago, they got so rich that they bought their freedom and pretty much anytime some other douche tried to take control, they brutally murdered them. one time, a count tried to tax them and they got pissed and catapulted his castle to the ground. when he cried like a whiny bitch to his brother, who marched an army into town, the town butcher snuck into the brothers camp and stabbed him to death. heroes.
we stayed at an awesome little campground right outside of town. from the back of the campground, we could walk straight into the beginning of the black forest, up a big hill, on a half hour hike, and it dropped down at this gate in the old town. really beautiful and pretty much perfect for coming to town for a drink.
also note that this gate (the oldest city wall gate in town) has a american embassy (McDonalds) in it.
after some amazing curry wurst, we planted ourselves at a bar in the college area, where they understood what makes germany great: 2 euro huge, local beers.
we left Freiburg the next morning and caught a train to Lucerne. switzerland is pretty unbelievable if you don't see it yourself. there are huge, snowy mountains everywhere you look, with one of three things between each set of mountains: an old cobble-stone town, a Sound of Music style valley, or a ginormous clear lake.
carmen found what should be her favorite restaurant of all time, the unicorn, only like all swiss restaurants, it is over the top fancy and touristy.
she did get a chance to catch up with some family though.
victory!
after a couple days in Lucerne hanging out with my family (they were on a european trip, which was our whole reason for stopping by in switzerland), we headed to the "pocket-sized principality" of Lichtenstein. i'm not lying when i say there is essentially nothing to do there except stop and say you've been there. at the tourist office, we got a map and asked about the castle at the top of the hill.. the woman said, "That is the prince's castle. You can't go there."
so we went to the prince's vinyard/winery instead. after tasting a bunch of the (quite delicious) wine, the hero bartender took us for what we are and poured us shots of some real nasty grappa, which is redundant.
next stop: zurich. it ended up being a pretty cool place and like all of switzerland, very scenic, but a word of warning: if you are jobless or at all concerned about money, zurich/switzerland is not the place for you. some price comparisons:
- bed in a dorm-style hostel - $80
- medium mcdonalds fries - $5
- pint of beer at any bar we could find - $8-10
- legally allowed to drink on the street - priceless
so we decided to make the best of it, picked up some beers at a corner store, and gave ourselves a full walking tour of the town.
in switzerland, they call urinals pissoir (literally "pisser").
our last stop in switzerland was in Basel, on the Rhine river, near the borders of france and germany (from what i could tell, to grow up in switzerland you are basically required to speak english, french, german, italian if you want to communicate). our friend Tameran lives in Basel, so we stopped by and she is the best host of all time, even giving us her bed. the picture above is on a really awesome ferry in town. the guy just has a cable run across the river and uses a rudder on the boat to go across. as you can tell, andy has just returned from some undercover work in Havana.
later that night, we decided to see what kind of night-life Basel has and of course we chose the most beaten-down sounding bar we could find, the Excali-bar. we got there at about 1:30, left a couple hours later, and the place wasn't even beginning to wind down, spewing forth a constant stream of grungy-ass metal and the most amazing clouds of smoke i've ever seen pouring out of a bar door. the swiss really appreciate their right to smoke wherever they like and bless them for that.
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