Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Day 1: France

The first day of our vacation was amazing!! After landing at around 7:30 AM in Zurich we waited through customs, collected our baggage and went outside to grab our rental car... Car... It was more like a bus!
In a land of small, fast, zippie cars we are driving a bohemath, the small streets and interesting parking situations have made it rather fun to try and get around without scraping walls, breaking mirrors or frustrating the locals (we've definitely done two of the three). From the airport the first thing to notice was the color. There were green rolling hills!
Coming from the drought and fires of the dry US west, this was a big deal! It was amazing to see and feel the rain again, it had been so long! So in our crazy big van and dipped into French wine country (miles and miles of beautiful green rows of grape vines.)

We pulled into a small French town, Eguisheim, looking for a festival. The rain kept them from throwing the party but we enjoyed looking around the town, admiring the architecture, looking for storks and eating some quiche.
Leaving that town we plunged through more wine country for a larger town, Riquewihr, to explore and after some interesting driving manuvers down the tiny streets in our big van, including one the left a bit of a scrape, we bought a large piece of some 'stinky' cheese. This lady had some huge wheels of cheese, it was one of the craziest things I've ever scene. We were lucky to have Aarika pulling together some french to coordinate the purchases. When, for lack of her actual name, 'the cheese lady' went to cut us a slice she used a blade that was equally as huge as the wheel. She knocked off a piece that was about an inch thick and we started to tear through it. 20 euros seemed like a ton for a chunk of cheese, but we munched on that thing for days!
There were 8 of us (including infant Ben) and it took us three days to finally kill that thing, not a bad purchase!! Riquewihr turned out to be a fun little place to walk around and the French weren't as stereotypically mean as we often hear. The only slightly strange moment I had with the French was when i took a picture of a gelato stand and the owner came over and asked that i not take pictures of his food! Well, at least he said please...

We had a good time eating crêpes & macaroons, analyzing the architecture and exploring cultural differences.
Leaving Riquewihr we headed for our first castle visit at Hautkoenigsbourg. The rain had calmed to near nothing by this point but it was still a soggy drive and walk up to the castle grounds. It really reminded me of typical portrayals of Mideval times in Europe. When we finally got to the foot of the castle a light mist hovered around generating a damp, chilly sensation, it felt as though a French guard out to lean out from the wall, shout "you mother was a hampster and you father smelt of elderberries" and proceed to launch cows at us.



It was great to walk around and see how these people lived and operated back in the day. As we avoided crushing some precious escargo, on the way back to the car/van, we reflected on how funny it was that because of our oddly shaped vehicle we have been getting some unique privileges. When looking for parking at the castle we parked on the road dedicated for tour buses and ours must qualify as a bus because a guard came by and directed some other cars to leave and just walked by us with a pleasant 'bonjour.' As we moved on to Baden Baden for our first nights rest we could look back and see the castle atop its great green hill that overlooks all the small wine towns below. 
We got in town with time to do one of the most anticipated activities of the trip, relax and rejoice in the 'baths' of Baden Baden. From what was explained to me, Baden Baden is a retirement-esk city where some of Germany's wealthiest individuals chose to live. Apparently it's also a hot spot for spas... Literally... It's water it heated geothermally!! Our hotel was just around the corner from on such bath so we went on in. I felt like i was in some classy James Bond ritzy hang out. They had lockers for each guest activated by wristbands and nice showers for rinsing before you walk into the indoor pool (bath) area where there are no children splashing, running and laughing but rather adults relaxing and soaking in a many different levels and temperatures of pools. After some soaking and exploring we found sauna rooms, aroma sauna rooms, heat lamp baths, hot tubs, cold tubs, bubble seats, massaging jets and some... nude only locations. Say goodbye to travel stress, that Bath just soaked and soothed my worries away. Some Chinese food and a good nights sleep, not bad for the first day of our european vacation!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Germany: Getting There

It's just the end of the third movie on the flight overseas. I don't really know what it was about... Steve Carell was trying to be serious? Awkward. If you've flown overseas you may be able to relate to how i feel right now. It's kind of an interesting situation. I tried the head on the table, I've tried the head tilt back (they don't build these chairs for the vertically blessed), I tried the equilibrium position yet efforts remain fruitless, i've drifted in and out of a sudo sleep with no refreshment, simplyfree frustration. Maybe you have also gotten to the point I have, where frustration has led to submission, "it is inevitable that i must remain awake." The result of this unfortunate position is that i caught the last ten minutes of a strange film and am now left in a perfect position to compose the first blog post of this awsome journey to connect with the family roots! I'm worried about how the first couple of days will go based on the unavoidable consequences of the current circumstance. Let's quickly evaluate these repercussions... First, and most prominant, the mother of all irritation, a headache. It will not only be the result of the sleep lost now but it is compounded by the last few crazy Provo nights (and that's crazy, believe me, haha... No regrets) before the trip. A headache is a problem that no amount of awesomeness can really resolve. If it hurts to think, it hurts to be. That's not a good state to be in when it's vacation time with the family. I believe that headaches are an extension of a much more common international travel ailment, energy drain (jet lag). It'll be hard to enjoy the European countryside if you can't stay awake to visually perceive and analyze it. Why be somewhere so cool if your out cold for a majority of it? My last worry is also related to the above concerns. I believe in metaphysical inertia (I love this topic, look for a post on it later), the angry will remain angry, the sad sad and the happy happy until some force initiates a change. If my vacation starts unpleasant I fear it may stay that way. How am I going to combat all this? I have learned a couple principles from two remarkable women that apply so perfectly and could make all the difference for this trip. Let me start by saying that the mind is a very powerful tool, you can control so much in your life if you learn to control your mind. For instance, climbing is a mental sport, as is running and most other endurance related activities. To succeed you teach the mind that your body can do so much more than what it's used to. Alright, principle number one I learned from an absolutely amazing girl whose wisdom far surpasses mine, I think you will agree that her council is undeniably sound. "You shouldn't worry about things over which you have complete control" (ooo, airplane breakfast just came! :). We may resolve that I don't have complete control over whether or not I get a headache, if i have enough energy or if i'm in a pleasant mood, but the second piece of wisdom argues that I do. Sister Hall, perhaps the best professor at BYU, shares with her choirs that "energy is a choice." We spend the beginning of each rehearsal ridding our minds of the stresses of other non-choir issues so that our time together is effective and meaningful. If you come in tired, you decide to be full of energy. If you come in stressed, you decide to be stress free for at least that hour, and so on. It really works!! I am going to put the combination of these two thoughts to the test. Regardless if I have a 'headache' or 'no energy' I will refuse to let it ruin the short time I have with my family in this beautiful country. I can do that because attitude, energy and enjoyment are all things that I control. Plus, I can always recover, sleep and worry later, but this time... This time is to be full of life and enjoyment. And who knows, maybe all of this positive thought will just cure the ailed mind and give my energy a boost! Looking forward to a great trip! I'll put my obnoxiously happy face on now!