SWITZERLAND 2010 - FIRST WEEKEND

                    It is Friday, Sept. 17th, 2 days after our arrival and I adjusted well to the time difference. Up at 6am I am spending my time sitting on the balcony drinking delicious coffee, smoking one of the most famous Swiss cigar, called Krumme, watching the sunrise and admire all the international plane coming in for landing.

Few minutes before Sunrise

Every morning at 8:45 am, this Airbus 380 arrives from Singapore





                    Later today, Toni drove me to Avis to get my rental car for the next 17 days. I opted on a BMW and was all excited about cruising around Switzerland with that baby, but car rental companies in Switzerland are not better as anywhere else. No BMW was available at the time and there gave me an European style Ford focus with a smelly interior lasting the full 17 days for the same cost!  Oh well !

Only Picture of the stinky Avis rent a car

                    At 5:30 pm Toni, Andrea, Donna and myself drove to a fancy 4 star Restaurant about one hour  from home to have our first Family reunion since 5 years. It was exciting to see everybody again and meet Livia, our new addition to our family. Only my brother Heinz and his wife Lilian was absent. It was a great time, lots of laughter's, reminiscing old memories, good food and drinks.

LIVIA with her Papi Fabian

Fabian & Fabia

Mark & Corinne



Toni & Andrea

Donna had to sit by her self, at least she was across from me

The Ackermann Clan



Donna attending to Livia

                      Saturday another relaxing day at home, we watched Toni playing tennis and later Donna and I walked down to a local restaurant for some Swiss beverages. Toni prepared us hot chicken wings on the grill, there were delicious, and we indulged them with noodles and salad.

Toni impressing the crowd, Agassi style

                       Sunday, last day before leaving for Grindelwald, Donna and I decided to travel with the train  to Zurich and venture on a Boat ride. First we checked out the old town, the Limmatquai and some historic buildings. It was like 12:30 and Donna was hungry craving a good old fashion Cheeseburger. Walking along the famous quarters of the Niederdorf I located a snack bar with a beautiful oversize  picture of a hamburger on the window. Big mistake!! Worst food ever we had in Switzerland, we could not eat this concoction. How is this possible? Never, never have we had bad food in Switzerland no matter what Restaurant. Come to find out, this snack bar is run by some Chinese people.

Famous street for abundant night life

                        We did not let this bother us and went on to a beautiful 2 hour boat ride with some Swiss white wine. After window shopping on the Bahnhof strasse and visiting some shops in the Hauptbahnhof, we enjoyed the ride back home to Neerach. Toni and Andrea awaited us with a traditional cheese fondue for dinner. Afterward, to the annoyance of Toni we had the pleasure to watch a 2 hour Swiss Country Music special on TV.

Notice, I am below water level

Great weather brought a huge crowd to the waterfront

The lake of Zurich

Swans are never missing on a nice lake

Notice the river boat in the background, it is flat to pass under bridges.

Before bed time we had to pack again, because the Eiger, Grindelwald and the whole

BERNER OBERLAND
is awaiting us tomorrow.



                 

SWITZERLAND 2010 - THE BEGINNING

                       Yes, it is already over. One of our beautiful trips to Switzerland, that is! We returned to
St. Charles  three days ago and we are still  trying to get a normal night sleep, tired at 5pm in the afternoon and wide awake at 3 am in the morning. It was a little better last night and soon we are back to our regular schedule.
                  

                       Close to 4 weeks ago,  on Septembre 14 we flew from St Louis to Chicago and boarded a
Airbus 330 from Swiss International Airline to Zurich. The 8 hour fligth time, all during the night, gave us plenty of time for movies, on board video games and some nap time between meals. The food was very disappointing considering it is prepared by Chicago's finest chefs and served on a Swiss Airline flight.

            Ready for departure in Chicago           

Arriving in Switzerland



Landing in Zurich

                         We  landed on time Wednesday morning at 10:30 am in Zurich. Passport check and luggage pick up took all of about 15 minutes and we were greeted by Toni, my brother, who drove us to his house in a village by the name of Neerach about 13 minutes from the airport. There was Andrea, Toni's wife, welcoming us to Switzerland and their home. Of course we had lots to talk about since we did not see each other for the past 5 years. For dinner Andrea baked a delicious Plume (Zwetchgen) tart and we also had Nusslisalat with Eggs,Tillsiter Cheese and Servelat. After dinner Donna and I had to call it an early night, because of the time difference, long flight and deprived sleep.

Arrived at Andrea & Toni's home



Donna is exhausted from Traveling



                          Thursday we planed a relaxing day to recuperate from the travel. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and not a cloud in the sky. Donna, Andrea and I went shopping and it just so happened, it was a grand opening for the store and we enjoyed some veal bratwurst and beer outside in the sun for next to nothing.
In the afternoon we went to a farm. Toni and Andrea volunteered to feed the horses and clean there stable. Afterwards we went for a walk in the countryside and later Andrea fixed us an other great dinner. She surprised us with  Veal Marengo, butter noodles and salad.

Toni loves to help his neighbors



Andrea was in charge to feed the horses



     

The farmer's dog joined us

  Great, clean country side       

First night at Toni's back yard



Toni, Andrea and me observing arriving airplanes

   

                  Two great Days, more to follow shortly!!

          

BLOGGER BLOCK OR LAZINESS ?

After several complains over the past months, my brain is working overtime to find excuses why there have been no new entries in my blog.

Lets see:

First of all, it was summer time and according to the St. Louis paper the hottest since 1934, Which kept most of us inside with full blasting air conditioning.
We also had the world Cup for over a period of 30 days, and of course we could not miss a game.
The heat could not keep us away from our by-weekly or sometime weekly Golf games.
I did not do much cooking for lack of appetite this hot summer, mostly cold stuff.

My favorite food in the summer

I had the privilege and enjoyment to babysit Jacob and Luke a few time during their summer vacation.
But overall, there was really not much activity in the Ackermann household this summer.
All this hardly counts as a good excuse, so it must be blogger block or worse, my Laziness.

Looks like blogger block

Baby sitting, the easy way

I know for sure that I have to do better.

There was actually several events this summer worth mentioning.

We had a great combination party for  Daniels birthday and Windy's master degree graduation an the 29th of May.

Daniel received his corvette

Congratulation

Daniel enjoying his birthday

Windy is happy that college is over

Daniel tests his archery skill

We also celebrated Fathers day at Gina and Daniels with pool party, flank steak cookout and lots of cocktail, inclusive some German liquor they brought with them from there trip to Germany and France.

Great day for a cook out

Grandma and Luke enjoying the pool

Watching world cup by the pool

Brian, Windy and the boys  finely took a family vacation for the first time. They visited Disneyland in Orlando and spend some time on the beach somewhere by Clearwater.

Just last week Daniel, Gina, Eric and Karla vacationed in Cancun for the second time this year. They all come back with a sensational sun tan. (no photos available yet)



My contribution to a sweet tooth an a rainy day:

Pecan diamonds

( simple recipe, hardest part is rolling out the dough)

Linzer dough:
8oz         Butter
6oz         Sugar
1 ea        Egg
5oz         Hazelnuts finally chopped (in food processor)
1/2 tsp    Cinnamon
4 drop    Vanilla
1 tsp       Backing powder
10 oz      Flour
Mix all  ingredients gently and let rest in refrigerator for 20 minutes
Roll out dough and line  a 11x15 sprayed baking sheet
bake for 8 minutes in 350degree oven

Pecan filling;
8oz    Butter
6oz    Brown Sugar
2oz    Sugar
2oz    Honey
2oz    Heavy cream
16oz  Pecans  coarsely chopped
Mix all ingredients except pecans in sauce pan and boil for 3 minutes constantly stirring
add Pecans and pour an to bre baked dough.
bake for 18 minutes  in 350 degree oven.
cut in to diamonds wile still warm.

Now the most exciting news!    Donna and myself  are exactly 2 Weeks away from flying to Switzerland for a few days. We will spend some good time with family and friends and some time in Grindelwald in the middle of the Berner Oberland. We will return sometime in October, (maybe, ha)!