Strasbourg at Night

On the way back to the car, I tried to take several different night shots. Most of them actually didn't turn out very well. At least the rainfall subsided.

Welcome to Strasbourg, France

On Wednesday, a couple of us headed to Strasbourg, France, to see a friend perform in a play. It's about an hour and a half away. We got there a couple of hours early so we could walk around and do some exploring. It was a typical rainy day that felt very similar to Portland. Still, I couldn't for a second let the weather ruin an opportunity to explore. Since we didn't have a lot of time, I was everywhere taking pictures and soaking it all in. I'm pretty sure some of my group found it annoying at times. :)



Strasbourg is basically France's own little version of Venice.












Even on an overcast, rainy day, I still found it to be very beautiful and serene.








Every corner brings something picturesque that's begging to be captured.











It has a definite romantic undertone to it.











As long as I live, I don't think I'll ever tire of cobblestone streets.











After having a quick bite to eat (i.e. some not so great vegetable soup and bread), we headed in the direction of the theater. We weren't exactly too sure where we were going. Luckily, we had some great navigators in our group...(right, Mecky? ;) )

Not wanting to be late to the play, we were in a bit of rush. After leaving the water canals of Strasbourg, we walked further into the city. I tried to take a quick video...the thing was, I was a little too quick. Hopefully, this won't make you that dizzy:



One thing is for sure, you cannot spend only a couple hours in Strasbourg. It is a place that needs time to be explored. I'd like to return sometime and do more of that.




The play I saw was Alice in Wonderland, but it was more of a loose interpretation of it. The first hour was a german interpretation and the second hour was french interpretation. The thing that was very unusual about the play was the fact that the cast was made up of people from mental institutions...both staff AND patients. I really appreciated the way in which the play was done, in that none of the mentally handicapped people were put in position where their disability was highlighted or made fun of. To be honest, most of the time I couldn't really tell who was handicapped and who wasn't. They all did an incredibly great job and played their parts well. At the end when everyone was taking a bow, I almost started crying because it was such a beautiful picture of human decency, kindness and respect. One of the handicapped ladies kept hugging the director and clapping with excitement and he just kept hugging her back as the crowd was clapping for him and giving a standing ovation.

Also accompanying the play was some live music. The musicians were fantastic!

Wine Tasting Along the Rhine

I love a great wine tasting. What's even better, is a great wine tasting in an unusual way. After the concert, we crossed a bridge over the Rhine River and noticed a boat that was docked.














There were signs all over the boat that said "Wyschiff"...which means wine tasting. Apparently, there were around 300 different swiss wines to be sampled. We decided to check it out.




Both the upper and lower deck were full of people sampling various wines. Just as we reached the door, a lady stopped us and asked us if we'd like a free ticket. Score! As we went to pay for another ticket, the ticket guy waved us off and just told us to go on in since there was less than an hour left. Score again!





The atmosphere was warm and pleasant. Some wine tastings can be really snooty, but it wasn't the case here.






















There was an assortment of cheese, deli meats and bread that were a nice compliment.
Soon, we were joining in the wine tasting fun.










You hardly knew where to start. There were so many different booths. I saw one nearly empty and we decided to start there. We ended up having a great conversation with a man who owns a couple vineyards and he shared with us his process of making wine. The first red wine I tasted there was absolutely fantastic! Everything after that didn't compare. We sampled a lot of other different wines, but ended up purchasing the very first wine we tried.







The Winner:
2006 Grain Noir Parfum de Vigne

It's a red wine with a mix of Cabernet, Malbec, Gamaret, Garanoir and Diolinoir.

Fantastic!

A Night in Basel

Last Friday, I had a wonderful night in Basel. I went to the most unusual CD release party. My friend, Flavian Graber, had his cd release on one of the little river boats that crosses the Rhine River. The boat seats about 20 people at a time. He and a couple other musicians played acoustically as the boat slowly drifted across the river. With candles lit and Basel's night lights as the backdrop, it truly was a gorgeous setting and such a compliment to the music.
It had been a while since I had taken the time to walk around Basel at night and I forgot how beautiful it is! Beforehand, we took a stroll along the river. Of course, I took several pictures.





























I love this picture! It feels like something out of painting.












This was the view from the boat. You can see just how beautiful it was.
All the videos I tried to take didn't turn out very well and aren't worth posting. Be sure to check out the link of Flavian's music here.



After riding the river boat and soaking up the music, Bryan and I continued to walk along the Rhine.
As we climbed the stairs to the bridge, we randomly stumble upon a protest that was just beginning!




The protest was about ending racism and prejudice agains the Turkish people.









I took a short video and this one actually turned out:

The Making of the Wedding Bands

I had a great start to my New Year's when Bryan presented a ring and proposed to me. :) Since then, we've talked about what type of ring he'd like and what type of wedding band I'd like to go with my ring. One of the great things about being engaged to an artist, is how creative they can be. Bryan decided to make our wedding bands. I have to say, it's pretty darn special!



Through a referral, we went to a goldsmith in Liestal. Andreas Peter is a very kind man and wonderful to work with.






I've never before seen how rings are made. It was a really interesting process to watch.
First, white gold is melted.





You can see more in this video:



After the gold has been melted into a small form, it is then cooled briefly in water.






Next, the gold is put through this machine in order to give it form and press it into shape.








The gold must be re-heated on a constant basis to ensure that it will not crack.

Eventually, it is hammered into ring form.








My wedding band ended up being a little too small. Here it is about to be re-sized. It was cut in one part and then more white gold was added to enlarge it a little bit.









Bryan's band was a little too big. A section of it was sawed off so it could be made smaller.









After the re-sizing is complete, this was the result.
The final step is sanding the rings so they have that great shiny finish and polish.





Here's Bryan sanding his ring. You can start to see the final result:




I have to say that there's something so beautiful about sharing in the ring process together....It's really profound to be apart of creating something that not only symbolizes your commitment, but also something that will last for the rest of your life with one another.

Fasnacht by Night

Around 7:15pm that night, the fire parade began. Here's a video to give you a taste of what it's like:




As the first fire cart is brought in to the city center, you can hear the crowd beginning to cheer.





The first fires started out relatively small.












As time went on, the fires became huge! I could not believe the height of some of these flames. It was a spectacular view to say the least! As you can see in the picture, some of the crowd is pulling back due to the immense amount of heat that's being generated.






These are what some people call "Fire Brooms". You'd see these several times. I don't know how people carried them. Even with all the protective gear, it still must've been smokin' hot!






So...was winter scared away? Perhaps. It got nervous at least and has been slowly disappearing.

Fasnacht by Day

Every year in Switzerland, around the end of February and beginning of March, there is a celebration called "Fasnacht". During this time, there are parades during the day and even fire parades at night. People dress up in ornate, detailed, and in some cases, scary costumes. All of this is meant to scare the winter away. :) People from all over the world come to see this happen.
And me? Well, I just happen to live where the party's at. Normally, I'm not too crazy about parades and find myself getting bored pretty easily, but it wasn't the case this time around. There were so many interesting things to look at every turn you took. The swiss people were in such good spirits and it was contagious. I took a ton of pictures and videos. It was hard to narrow them down, but here are a few:




I can't tell you how many marching bands there were. The air was filled with music nonstop.










There was something for everyone. Both young and old participated.




How could winter not be scared away by this sight? ;)~












An interesting combination: Smurfs and trombones.





Flowers, confetti, candy and oranges would be thrown from each passing float. As you can see, I was able to experience some of that. You could barely see the streets. There was so much confetti! The best part, was that you could pick up piles of it off the street and throw it at other people. Guess what I did?






Some watched the parade from the windows of their apartments. There were so many people there!








I took a couple videos to give you an idea of the experience:





This video here gives you an idea of how chaotic things got after the parade had ended.






Needless to say, Liestal was pretty trashed after that.

Don't Forget The Garment Bag!

I can hardly believe it's March already! Sorry for my lack of blog posts. All this international wedding planning has been crazily consuming.
So much so, that I've started to have dreams about it.
I had this one dream that I arrived to the church holding my wedding dress on a hanger. I noticed that there were many people in the sanctuary already and I was so excited because there were people there that I hadn't talked to for so long. With my dress in tow, I went inside and started chatting with everyone. As I was walking around, the bottom of my dress slowly started to unravel. Not noticing, I kept on walking around talking to people and dragging the dress along on its hanger. All of a sudden, the wedding music was cued and I noticed the bridesmaids were starting to come down the aisle. Frantically, I quickly changed and put on my wedding dress...only to realize that the entire bottom of it had unraveled and it was now a miniskirt! I was so embarrassed. When I woke up, the first thing I said to myself was "Don't forget a garment bag for your wedding dress!"

The most recent wedding dream I had was a bit of a nightmare. I went to go pick up my wedding dress from the place I ordered it from. I picked up the box and left without checking to see if it was correct. When I got back to my place, I opened it up and realized that they had given me the wrong box and it was a flower girl dress and a bridesmaid dress. I went back to the store and they apologized profusely and then gave me the right box with my name on it. Unfortunately, when I opened the box, I realized that they had ordered the wrong dress. Instead of my beautiful wedding dress, I now had a shiny sequined bronze dress with a silk flower wrap. It was the most hideous looking thing! I collapsed in a heap and started crying because the wedding was in 3 days and I didn't know what I was going to do. I woke up from my nightmare whimpering like a puppy and feeling completely stressed out! It had all felt so real.


I think I keep dreaming about my dress because I've ordered it in Portland but won't be able to see it/try it on until I get there next month...3 weeks before the church ceremony. So sometimes if I think about it too much, I get a little worried that something will be wrong with it. Thank goodness I only have to wait a couple more weeks before I'm back in Portland!