Random castles and Hilter's haunts

This past weekend Mr X and I laid low and stayed local. On Saturday we headed in to Nuremberg to explore around a bit. Mr X says he heard somewhere that it was Hitler's favorite city. I don't know if that is true but it is a beautiful place. Unfortunately for my readers, I think we only took something like 3 pictures the whole day.

On Sunday we went on a castle hunt. There are castles all over the place here so it's not that challenging to go hunting for them. I used a map that had the castles marked and I planned out a route in a big circle from castle to castle. We didn't drive more than 15 minutes at a time from start to finish. I had originally planned to see 8 or 9 but the day disappeared quickly and we only made it to 5 or 6. Some were ruins, some quite modern and some are still inhabited to this day.

This one has been converted into a fancy schmancy hotel which, from the looks of the Ferraris in the parking lot, is quite pricey.

This one is a well preserved ruin which holds festivals all summer long.

This one serves as both a residence and a museum.

In this one a family still resides. I loved how precariously perched on the rock ledge it is.

This one was my favorite of the castles we saw. It is very much in ruins and not much is done for it's upkeep. It is mere miles from the Czech border. The deer appear to use it for a loo as their droppings were everywhere...you could hardly take a non-squishy step. That is Mr X and I at the very top waving.

This was a view from the top, looking down at the rest of the castle remains.

This was the back/side view of what is left and Mr X is down at the base.

Mmmmm...cheese...

While Mr X and I were in Switzerland we naturally involved in some serious cheese consumption. First, our visit coincided with the the Big Cheese Fest of Lucerne. We went around the booths about 3 times, tasting and tasting.They even had fondue tasting! Then we treated ourselves to more cheese by going to the a restaurant in Lucernce called the Fondue House. I'm sure my arteries are screaming at me.

Me at the cheese fest - after one or two rounds through the tables already. We could smell the stench of the cheese fest from blocks away.

Isn't it pretty?

A giant fondue pot with huge skewers. (So yummy!)

This isn't traditional fondue, we went for the Raclette instead because Mr X had never tried it.

Mr X, waiting patiently for the cheese to start sizzling and sliding down.

About 30 delicious minutes later.

Calling all Chocoholics

Something I find interesting about Europe vs. USA: Bakeries, chocolate shops, cheese shops, butcher shops and pastry shops abound in Europe and are severely lacking in the US. There is at least one of the shops mentioned above on nearly every block in the cities and small towns alike. They are not nearly as abundant in the US, and no Starbucks absolutely does not count as a pastry shop. Neither does Dunkin Donuts. I suppose that since those shops mesmerize and entice me so much, it is a good thing that they are not so easily accessible. Here are some pictures of the latest chocolate temptations I have encountered in the last week. (And for those that are curious, the chocolate pumpkin is still alive and well.)

Solid chocolate 'chestnut' that appear to be roasting over the fire.

Chocolate porcupine treats on the bottom shelf and on the top shelf solid chocolate cows.

On the bottom shelf are special Lucerne Bridge chocolate cakes.

Liechtenstein

After we left Lucerne on Sunday, Mr X and I were whining about how our navigational system (affectionately named The Duchess of York) seemed to be taking us a bit out of the way and thus possibly making our 6 hour drive longer. But then we saw this sign:

The D in the white circle is for Germany (Deutschland), the A is for Austria. We were already in Switzerland (which is a while circle with CH in it) and we weren't sure what FL was. We suspected that it might be Liechtenstein. At that prospect we were pleased that The Dutchess had taken us on the path she did so that we could have a look around.

Turns out it was Liechtenstein so we stopped in one of the towns and drove through a few others. The country is about 100 square miles in size so it's quite small. Lucky for us the town we picked just happened to be the town that the prince's castle overlooks and we just happened to drive right to it. It is called Schloss Vaduz and the prince of Liechtenstein actually lives there currently.

After that we stopped at a church we found and toured around it for a bit. It was surrounded by a fairly large cemetery but I didn't take any pictures of that.

If you would like to find out more about the beautiful tax haven that is Liechtenstein, you can read more about it here.

Lucerne

On Saturday last weekend, Mr X and I left Zurich and made our way to Lucerne. It is southwest of Zurich and it takes about 45 minutes or less to drive there. I adore Lucerne, Switzerland.

Here is why:

Lucerne is a lovely, postcard quality town in Central Switzerland, right on the edge of Lake Lucerne. As of June 2007, Lucerne is the 7th largest city in Switzerland with a population of about 70,000 people.

We were, coincidentally, in town for the Big Cheese Festival of Lucerne. I was like a kid on Christmas morning. More on that later...

There are remnants of the old town walls on the hill above Lucerne. The walls include eight tall watch towers (you can see the tops of two of them in this picture). Last time I was here with my SIL we couldn't get up to the top to walk on the wall but this time Mr X and I were able to do so and it offered breathtaking views of the surrounding area.

This is one of the many beautiful views of the city and lake from the top of the wall. There is a ferris wheel in the picture that normally wouldn't be there. Some sort of carnival was going on that weekend.

These hairy cows (or bulls, or whatever they are) made me smile. They lounge behind the city walls.

Picturesque covered bridges stretch across the Reuss River. This is a view of the Kapellbrück bridge, built in 1333 but after a fire in 1993 much of it had to be rebuilt. The famous water tower that is part of this bridge is not visible in this shot.

Mr X standing a bit in front of the Dying Lion of Lucerne Monument (Löwendenkmal). This carving commemorates the hundreds of Swiss Guards massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when the Tuileries Palace in Paris was stormed by the mob.

The ferris wheel reflected itself spectacularly on the placid lake water. We were going to try and ride it, among other rides but we couldn't figure out how to get tokens because we couldn't understand the signs or the people. So we wandered and watched the carnival goings-on for a while and then, deciding we were too chilled, we headed back to our warm hotel.

The next morning we went up Mount Pilatus, which is just outside of Lucerne, to check that out before we left town. There are two places to go up, one with a cog wheel train (supposedly the steepest one in the world) and one on the other side where gondolas take you up. They have an alpine slide/toboggan up there and we were going to try that out but it was closed due to inclement weather. It is usually open through October and we were looking forward to it because it is rumored to be the world's longest toboggan ride at .88 miles. Maybe next time. The peak got it's name because of a local legend that Pontius Pilate was buried somewhere on the mountain. It is 7000 feet tall at the summit (which is the elevation of Santa Fe, NM interestingly enough).

This was a view from Pilatus. It was cloudy and overcast though so it was hard to see clearly very far.

It started snowing just as we arrived at the bottom of the lift and by the time we got up (about 20 minutes or something) it was definitely starting to stick. I was pretty excited about that (obviously). But even with my big puffy warm coat and wool hat/gloves/scarf I was still freezing out there.

So Mr X and I snapped a 'my hero' shot and headed back down to our car, cranked up the heated seats and headed home.

Zurich

This past weekend Mr X and I made our way down to Switzerland. He wanted me to see Zurich because I hadn't previously and I wanted him to see Lucerne because he hadn't yet. So Friday we got to Zurich around 3:30. It takes between 5 and 6 hours to get there depending on how fast you drive on the autobahn.

Our standing rule is that any hotel we stay in has to be less than $100 per night. It gets a bit harder to do that as the dollar continues it's sad but steady drop against the euro. *sigh* So in order to remain within budget we pretty much stayed in the crack whore district of Zurich. The hotel had a bar on the ground floor but the rooms, though very sparse, were clean and practical. There were probably about 5 or so exotic clubs within a one block radius of our hotel...In fact, just down the street they were having a special showing of "One Night in Paris". I saw more prostitutes in one evening walking back to our hotel than I can count. I heard quite a few as well - arguing, screeching about something or other, etc. It was very interesting. Luckily I was so tired that I slept through the majority of it.

But that all probably makes Zurich sound awful. It isn't. It's actually a very beautiful city and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mr X and I walked around for hours and hours. I found the most decadent and incredible chocolate shop to which I have ever been in my life and ate the most delicious piece of chocolate I have ever been lucky enough to taste. It is called Florentine Chocolate. It has a thick but not too sweet creamy milk chocolate bottom layer with slivered almonds in a kind of almond brittle layer on the top. Even Mr X, who is a dark chocolate fanatic, agreed that it was the best chocolate he has ever had.

The fact that Zurich is a banking mecca definitely shows. There are banks after banks scattered all over the place - mixed in which the chocolate shops and the tourist shops and the high end clothing stores.

Here are some pictures from Zurich:

This is the Limmat River which runs through Zurich.

A view of the older area of the city.

Mr X walking through the narrow winding streets.

This old style Citroen was so beautiful we had to take a picture. We saw a few of these here.

These little fountain things are all over the place. Mr X says they are like water fountains and you can drink from them. I'm not sure about that as I never saw a soul drinking from them but I did it anyway. Maybe it's just too cold and everybody is drinking espressos right now or something.

There are swans everywhere here. I probably have 20 or so pictures of them now. I kept trying to take a picture of this guy but every time I tried he kept flashing his rear at me. He's obviously proud of his backside so I decided to do him a favor and help him show it off to the world.

Amberg

Sometimes when Mr X has to work he drops me off somewhere for me to go exploring. So on Tuesday I explored Amberg, Germany. It's a small town but, as most places I have seen here, very picturesque.

I wandered around for hours. I explored the city library and some other bookstores. I was reading some of the German cook books. I thought it would be fun to actually make some of the items but I discovered that since I couldn't understand half the ingredients it was best not to get the book. I need to find a German cooking book in English and that probably won't happen over here. (Notice that I didn't simply say, I need to learn German - I guess I have ugly American tendencies. But in my defense it just seems such an impossible task...)

I browsed some of the clothing stores and drooled over every shoe I passed.

I stopped for lunch at a bakery/bistro where I ordered a veggie-laden wrap rather than the tempting treats behind the glass. I ran into a bit of trouble when I was done because I forgot to pay attention to what other customers where doing with their trays when they finished. After about 30 minutes of waiting, hoping someone would leave so I could watch what to do, I just gave up. I walked up to the counter with my tray and said rather stupidly, "Wo?" (means "where") while pointing at the tray. She directed me to a little area that was kind of hidden from view where I was to put the used tray. I quickly left.

Anyway here are some of the Amberg pictures for your viewing pleasure:

These pictures where from the center square in town.

I seem to have some sort of obsession with the houses that are just overgrown with ivy or whatever that stuff is. I think it is beautiful...especially in the fall when it is all turning colors.

I walked along the river and the gardens surrounding the river for a while. So many of the towns have such lovely little rivers wandering through them here.

I like how they have these sort of walled entrances in most of the little towns too.

Okay we are off to Switzerland this weekend. Zurich first...