Italy, You Never Disappoint

The pace of life has picked up considerably in the last two weeks. The project demands have reached full pitch and I am not willing to abandon my hobbies and personal life, so the only thing left to squeeze is my good night's sleep.

After work trips to Geneva and the Netherlands last week, I headed off to Italy to catch up with some friends from the US who are over on a two week holiday. I flew to Rome on Thursday and spent two days there with one of my best friends plus 3 couples and their combined 5 children aged 7 months to 3 years. On Saturday afternoon we road tripped up to Tuscany where they had rented a gorgeous villa near the town of Poppi for the week. I could only spend one night there as I had to fly back late on Sunday to Geneva from Florence.



It is really hard not to enjoy Italy. I know Rome somewhat from a previous visit so I made sure my friend saw enough of the impressive sites, we had a hilarious club hopping night out and indulged in what must be some of the most perfect wine and cuisine in the world.



I was nervous a bit as I had to drive us from Rome (car pick up at the train station) to Tuscany and then along on Sunday from Tuscany to Florence to get my flight. All I can say is that Italians are up there with the world's worst drivers. Once I got used to the two cardinal rules of Italian driving (1. Lanes and roads are just a friendly suggestion & 2. Whoever's car is slightly in front has the right of way) I was just fine.

It was sad leaving on Sunday from the paradise of the Tuscan villa, where we were hosted by the adorable Francesca. She brought us eco friendly wine from her vineyards (5 gallon jug and it was lovely), fresh baked bread, veggies from her garden and help whereever we needed it. The view and the pool were equally enticing and I even managed to go for an early morning job up and down the Tuscan hills on Sunday morning. I loved how everyone waved and yelled Buon Giorno as I trotted by.



I can never get enough of the world's most perfect espresso and cappuccinos either. Seriously, how do they do it?

Ahh, Italy!



Posted from Munich

Hot!

There are bodies floating down the Rhein. That can only mean one thing. Summer is here again.

The office is sweltering hot and the latest I can manage to work is about 2:30 in the afternoon. I stay a few more hours aimlessly clicking between hotmail, work email and news sites, hoping that a respectable hour to leave comes before I am permanently sweat-glued to my chair and desk.

Today I made it to 5:54. High five.

My situation was not helped by the fact that after yesterday's hike of near death (7 hours, blasting hot sun, tropical rain, a little 'light' rock climbing, lots and lots of cow poo) and today's aftermath (locked leg muscles that only allowed me to kick them from side to side so I was walking more like a crab, a roasting sunburn). I had to get up at 5 AM because some past overly eager past version of myself thought I should take the early flight to Basel this week.

After a bit of calculation, I realized that I have exactly 3 weeks left in Basel. Only three! At least according to the foreseeable future.

The foreseeable future:
Week 23.06 Basel
Week 30.06 Hospital
Week 07.07 Basel
Week 14.07 Basel
Week 21.07 Singapore
Week 28.07 Singapore
Week 04.08 Singapore
Week 11.08 Singapore
Week 18.08 Singapore (M. joining)
Week 25.08 Backpack SE Asia w/M.
Week 01.09 Backpack SE Asia w/M.
Week 08.09 Backpack SE Asia w/M.
Then we are clear into Oktoberfest season...

Where does the time go? Almost 3 years are down to 3 weeks.

If anyone has any travel suggestions for our tour de Asia, please drop a comment. We have Lonely Planets for Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines and Indonesia and are trying to make up our minds. Weather at that time of year varies from pleasant to monsoon to typhoon so that is one factor. We have moved from a lot of hopping around different countries towards focusing on one country or maybe two bordering. Spend more time on foot or in fins as the case may be. Hippie style!

Posted from Basel

Notre Dame

It is required to visit at least one church on every stop in a major European city. In Paris we went to Notre Dame. Like most cathedrals in Europe, you can't help but feeling a bit in awe at the sheer size and effort that went into these massive buildings. Still none have come close to my favorite, Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona. Santa Maria managed to be both enormous but cozy. Were I ever to have a church wedding (which now that I have been ex-communicated is no longer an option) I would pick that cathedral.

One other really cool feature of Notre Dame were some wicked little gargoyles. I love that these were considered a necessary part of these old cathedrals.





Posted from Singapore

The Camargue

Guest shot from M.'s mother

On one of our day trips we visited the Camargue, a coastal region of Southern France where the mistral winds blow. It is wild and lovely. The Camargue horses and pink flamingos are a natural part of the landscape. We went riding through the marshes then headed down to the shoreline for some lunch and tried one of the local delicacies - telline clams. The great white dunes in the photo below are one of the two major products of the region, salt! The other is rice.







Posted from Basel

Visitors

We had some visitors from the States this weekend. A colleague from my last project in Washinton DC was in Munich for the weekend with her husband and two friends. Another couple joined yesterday as they are in town to pick up their new BMW to bring back to the States after vacationing in Mallorca for a week.


We made the required visits to the Hofbraeuhaus on Friday night, joined for some sightseeing yesterday, and had a nice Italian dinner last night. Good times for all! M. even treated all the Americans to his favorite tradition - stinky pickles from the Viktualienmarkt. People were laughing at the site of the 6 of us walking in a line all eating huge messy pickles.


Fortunately the weather is very nice this weekend. It has really been a cold summer and lately rainy. I've been dressing like it is October instead of July.

Our garden underwent a bit of an overhaul last weekend. M. pulled all the plants that weren't making it and we weeded the whole thing. The clown flowers are gone and replaced with lavendar. It looks nice but overall I think the garden is a little haphazard. There was no master plan and we've added and removed in a trial and error approach to what works for our garden. Most importantly, we enjoy having the garden and working on it. I think it will still be some time before we have it really figured out though.











Now off to the mountains for a short hike!

Posted from Munich