Loire Valley

Hey there blog fans! Happy Memorial Day to all. What a month May has been...where do we begin?? As you know from the last blog, we had Brent and Erika visiting at the very end of April. Then we travelled to the Loire Valley area of France at the beginning of May with our friends, Darren and Nicole. Mid-month, I was in London a few days for work while Aggie held down the fort back in Zurich. Big Fred and Andrea met us on Saturday, May 17th in Rome, Italy. We traveled around the boot and worked our way back to Zurich. Fun times have been had and that trip will be our "part II" of the ongoing "Family, Family and more Family" blog series (which has three parts, incidentally - Brent and Erika's visit was "part I").

Now, please pardon the interruption as we turn your attention to our travels at the beginning of May...May 1-5th to be exact...when we stomped around the Loire Valley. Aggie has been wanting to visit this area of France for some time now. Her friend, Annette Cooper, who lived in Amsterdam the same time we were in Luxembourg, spoke very highly of it and it grabbed her interest.

If anything, we should dedicate this blog to the Tardavans. We were near Nevers, France where Dominique grew up. As we were driving through the countryside and the vineyards, we recalled how much we really love France and what a great time we had while visiting with him and his family two years ago (still some of the best meals I have had to date, which is saying a hell of a lot!).

So, off we went on Thursday, May 1st for our all-out roadtrip! We left in the afternoon and our first destination was Dijon, France. We have stayed in this area before when we took our first weekend trip after Aggie moved to Lux. The drive was about 3.5 hours long but it went by quickly enough. Dijon is the capital of the Burgundy region, and if you didn't know, we have a special fondness for the wine that is produced here. So we were pumped...

Our hotel was in the city center area and it was the typical style European hotel....nothing too fancy, lost 80's furniture, etc. It was clean and had a nice quaint feeling to it, which was good. After we parked (always an adventure) and checked in, we walked around the town and found a place for dinner. Of all the cuisine choices we had, we opted for Moroccan food! It was really tasty and we left feeling very satisified.

The next morning we got up and headed to Orleans, France which was about a 2-2.5 hour drive away from Dijon. We were heading to the Orleans train station to pick up our friends, Darren and Nicole Ludwig, who were coming in from London. All worked out well and we were on the road again heading toward the Loire Valley by 1pm....it probably would have been by 12 or 12:30 but Aggie and I got turned around on our directions and basically went in circles around the city of Orleans! Darren and Nicole were good sports about it and laughed with us...however, that is part of the adventure right?! (It should be noted that Nicole was about 8 months pregnant at the time and would have been very justified in being pissed off at us, but she was not so that scores her some points!)

We drove straight to the cheateau were were staying at that evening in Bournand. Once we arrived, we were greated by the owners, John and Vicki Majors. Now you don't get a more American name than that! John is a very recently retired partner from E&Y and worked for the firm for 37 years. To put that in perspective - I have been there for 7!! And it turns out that he knows a lot of the people I have worked for and currently work for. Kind of crazy...

Anyway, they showed us to our guest house, and we got settled in. The chateau was pretty awesome as it had the "castle" part, the guest house (which we stayed in), a breakfast nook, a old-fashion style kitchen, normal gardens, formal gardens, a pool, and really beautiful grounds. We walked around the grounds area and then talked a bit to the owners. They had made us dinner reservations at a local French restaurant a few towns away around 8pm, and we asked them for directions to the place. The map was total chicken scratches but oddly enough (and to our suprise), we were able to follow it and find our way.

We went into the towns of Chinon to Montsoreau. In this area, we went to the top of a hill to see where the La Loire and La Vienne rivers met. We then drove to Chinon. There we found a tourist office and grabbed "normal" maps. We also stopped to have an appetizer and some wine. We walked around a bit then jumped back into the car headed to the restaurant where we had dinner plans.

We had a little bit of time and went to a wine shop near the restaurant (of course we tasted and bought some). Dinner was really good and we enjoyed ourselves. I especially liked my "duck burrito" appetizer (if you know French food, you know what I'm talking about). Getting home that evening was quite interesting...turns out that the directions were mysteriously aimed at getting us to the restaurant but not at getting us home. We got lost and drove back and forth on one little road for about 30 minutes, all the while looking for the off-shoot that would take us back to Bournand. Long story short, we finally got home, but not before we drove down some random road (randomly selected, as is the way with auditors) that had a huge sign reading: Caution: Live munitions! Do not leave the road! All spelled out for us in bright bold English. Seems we were in a military training zone. To top it off, the Majors' (chateau owners) called us to see if we were okay! We finally rolled in close to midnight....


The next day (Saturday) we had our "petit dejuner" (breakfast) in "the nook" and then headed out to explore the Loire Valley area. There is a wine road that leads you to all the castles in the area and we opted to take that route to enjoy the scenary. We underestimated how long it was going to take us to get from one castle to the next, and how long we would spend in each. No worries though....we did just fine and picked up some wine on the way!!

On Saturday we visited the castles Azay le Rideau, Chenonceau, and Clos-Luce in Amboise. We also stopped in the little village of the Troglodytic Goupillieres. The peasants lived in these villages by digging their homes and farms into the hillside. It was quite the fun day. On our way home, we called the Majors' to see if there was a place we could pick up pizzas. They gave us a suggestion, we swooped in and grabbed our grub then ate back at the cheatau. John (the owner) joined us for a few glasses of wine and lots of chatting, and we went to bed that night, full and merry.

The next day we woke up and we basically conqured the Loire Valley area. We said our goodbyes to the Majors then drove on to see the following castles: Rigney-Usse, Langeais, Villandry, and Chambord. I might be missing one??? We saw so many...some of which we went into, and some of which we snapped pictures of from a distance (Ag had a guide that told us which were worth going into and which were not). Anyway, the castles were awesome! Each was maginificant, and had it's own character. I would go into details on them all, but that would cause me to have to blog a whole lot more, and I'm kind of tired. My suggestion, Google: Loire Valley, France.

At the end of the trip, we dropped Darren and Nicole (who, FYI, just had her baby - Ms. Alexandra Catherine - last week!) back off at the train station in Orleans and went on to drive the entire 8 hours back to Zurich. As the French would say, "Thanks God pour RedBull."

So, as we said earlier my parents met us in Rome - and accompanied us then to Florence, Venice, Bellagio and Zurich - and just left on Tuesday. We have Aggie's mom, dad and sister, Theresa, coming tomorrow. Busy, busy...we will be blogging again soon about Fred and Andrea's visit. Don't be too "nosy" about what happened...you will find out soon enough. All I have to say is that it was tons of fun, and quite literally, Big Fred left his "mark" in Rome! Stay tuned to find out what happened! (It's worth it).

Family, Family, and more Family

Hey everyone! A few things....first thing's first, we have to say HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to not only our own moms, but to all moms and moms to be. Enjoy your special day! We saw this Mother's Day video on YouTube and thought we would share it with you (WARNING: Only watch this if you have your good sense of humor turned on and you've seen "American Pie")...



Next, our car hasn't broken down and I have yet to use the safety vest. Hooray! However, on the drive back from the Loire Valley last weekend, we did see some people who had to utilize them. I poured a little liquor out for them as I drove by...

So, the next few blogs (aside from Loire Valley) will be all about family, family, and then more family. To kick off our first family blog, we honor my cousin, Brent, and his wife, Erika. They arrived on Saturday, April 26th and left on Tuesday, April 29th. On Tuesday, they headed to Paris where they finished out the remainder of their short foray into Europe and returned to the states on Saturday, May 3rd.

Aggie and I were very excited for their arrival on Saturday morning. We have had a lot going on lately so the thought of having family around and just relaxing was totally on our agenda. Brent and Erika were right there with us as they have been busy too, so entertaining was extremely easy.

After picking them up at the airport, we came back to our place and they got settled. I drank my 5th cup of coffee for the day and then we were ready to go! Our plan was to go into the city, walk around a bit and explore. We stopped for a few drinks and lunch then later crashed in the Enge Park. The weather had been kind rainy and chilly lately, but this particular weekend was beautiful! The sun was shinning and people were out everywhere, so we took advantage.

After our cat naps, we headed back to our apartment to freshen up for dinner. That evening, we went down the street to our friends, Dave and Ali's, for a BBQ. The grilling was supurb and the meal was very filling. We later "rolled" home completely full and tired.

The next day, we headed to our friends, John and Helen's, for brunch. We all slept in and it actually ended up being lunch by the time we got there. As John said when I called to say were were running late, "It's Sunday. No worries." I have to say, the casserole and sausage dishes they whipped up were de-lish! (I'd just like to remind you that the majority of this blog, including the phrase "de-lish", is Ag's doing...I would never use a word like "de-lish". Just know that.) After brunch we went down to the lake and joined all of Zurich (so it seemed) along the lake front. Seriously, everyone was out enjoying the nice weather!

That evening we went to Uetliberg for dinner. Uetliberg is where there is a restaurant and hotel that sits high on a hill just outside the city. The only way to get there is via train and then treking up a slight hill....yes, you have to "work" for your dinner! It's called the "Top of Zurich" and the views of the mountains from the restaurant are awesome. Not only is the view great, the food is very tasty as well. Again, we left full and satisfied and slept well that evening.

Monday we went to a small town at the end of Lake Zurich called Rapperswil. It's a cute little town with lots of restaurants and shops. They have a petting zoo there as well filled with local Swiss animals. The rose gardens are supposed to be beautiful there this time of the year, but we were a few weeks early as the flowers had not bloomed just yet. We plan to head back there with Ferd and Andre when they visit in a couple weeks.

For dinner that evening we decided to have a "Swiss" meal and made raclette at our place. Therefore, on our way back from Rapperswil, we stopped at Sihl City (the big and only mall in Zurich) for a few dinner items and to shop around. Afterwards we came back to the apartment and relaxed, ate dinner and were very merry! We then watched the movie, American Gangster, and crashed.

Tuesday was back to work for Aggie and I. Onward Brent and Erika went to Paris. I have to say, it was a really nice relaxing weekend and we were very touched they came to visit us. We have been in contact with them since they have arrived back in the states, and it sounds like Paris was an amazing time for them.

May has been going by in a blur....We went to the Loire Valley in France last weekend (May 1st-5th) with our good friends Darren and Nicole. We don't have too many things planned for this weekend; maybe a hike. John might have me convinced to go whitewater rafting on Sunday which would be super cool! Regardless of what we do, we are going to be outside...the weather is awesome!

Big Ferd and Andrea get here pretty soon. Aggie and I are meeting them in Rome and our plan is to train it back to Zurich through Italy. The agenda is Rome, Florence, Tuscany, Venice, Lake Como and finally Zurich. They then spend a few days in Zurich and head back to Hamilton. On Friday, May 30th Aggie's parents and sister, Theresa, arrive. Her dad will be here for a week and the ladies are staying for almost three weeks. I see a few really tasty homemade meals (and maybe the construction of some cornhole boards, which I've been dying to have) in my near future....

Happy birthday shouts go out to Mrs. Bill and Angela Bolton!! Also, happy 30th birthday wishes to Brent and our other friend, Sarah Puglia! I'll be joining youz two in the "30 and up club" in about two months....

Have a great weekend everyone and chat soon!

PS. Thanks for the nice comments on the last blog, Dad and Renners!