Tuesday, 3 November 2009

Basel, Schweiz

Some more pictures from Interlaken :)














Basel was awesome. I like Switzerland a lot and think it is a very peaceful lovely place. Everyone seems to be enjoying his or her day in Switzerland when you walk around and it makes you enjoy your day that much more. I was really happy that Eric got to come out here and do this it was really nice to spend some time with him. We were lucky and just happened to be in Switzerland for this 2 week festival that happens annually in die Schweiz. There were carnival rides and games in many different spots all over the city. It was cool to just be able to go out and all day there was people playing games and riding ferris wheels and just enjoying themselves. There was also really interesting food stands and eateries some of which were really good. Eric had to work a lot so I walked around and visited different carnivals and checked out the local book stores and shops and went to a museum called the Kunstmuseum. This museum was amazing. It has such a large collection of Picassos. I also got to see famous artists like Henri Matisse, Van Gogh, Henri Rousseau, Yves Tanguy, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. This was a really good museum experience. I also bought a bunch of chocolates and enjoyed staying in a nice hotel. The highlight for me was definitely HANGGLIDING. We took a day trip to Interlaken by train and met up with a really nice guy that took both Eric and I hang gliding. It was pretty intense to be running full speed off of a cliff to get going but once you were in the air it was amazing. We got a bunch of photos and a couple videos overall it was a thrilling experience. I would love to do this again.







Miss everyone lots. 1 more month. Crunch time. Gotta see it all. Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Holland here I come. See you all soon.

Cognac, France

Cognac was absolutely amazing. I am really lucky to have visited such a small French town. Everyone I met was really nice and helpful and tried to work with the language barrier. I really enjoyed this visit. I tried many of the local spirits, went to a museum, and enjoyed the quiet beautiful countryside. I visited the Hennessey, Otard, and Martell Cognac distilleries and took a tour at each. These tours were very interesting and taught me a lot about the distillation and aging of this region’s biggest export: Cognac. I really did not know too much about what goes into this aperitif, so I am happy to have learned something. Most of these pictures are pretty self-explanatory but there is a lot of effort that goes into production similar to that of a fine wine. I guess they only use the white grape from only a small region of 5 different types of grapes. Also, the aging process in handmade oak barrels is what really gives the cognac its colour. I found all this very cool and I was fascinated to see such a small city become world famous selling a fine quality product that is unique and profiting from it handsomely. I hope you enjoy these pictures and I would love to chat about this visit to Cognac with anyone interested.





Castle at the now Otard Co. distillery



old way
new way


P.S. a ham and cheese croissant in France is amazing