A good weekend
I tried to post this several times yesterday, but for some reason Blogger wasn't letting me download pictures. So here it is... a day late...
It was one of those beautiful fall weekends in Basel. Cool in the mornings, sunny and warm (but not humid) during the day, and everywhere we went it seemed everyone was out enjoying the weather. On Saturday, we drove up to an area in the Alsace called Viel Armand where you can find the Hartmannswillerkopf National Memorial and Battlefield. I've never been a big history buff, but you can't help but be fascinated by this place. The cemetary and the memorial contain the remains of over 12,000 French soldiers, and beyond that, you can hike through the woods and find dozens of old WWI trenches. I didn't really know what to expect when Kirk said we might see trenches... would it just be ditches dug into the woods? These structures were unbelievable. They were stone and brick with steel reinforcements and if either of us were more comfortable being inside tunnel-like structures I'm sure we could have explored for hours. Here I am walking down into one of the trenches.
After hiking around a bit, we came across some beautiful viewpoints overlooking the valleys of the Alsace. We were in the Vosges mountain range, which our German landlord pronounces as the "Vo-Jesus". That always makes us laugh.
We also made it over to the local Kürbis Fest this weekend. It's held at a farm not far from our house. It was one of those special only-in-Switzerland events that I love. During the Fest, not only do they sell lots of varieties of pumpkins from the Kürbis Markt, but hundreds of people (I'm not exaggerating) were there to try the homemade Kürbissuppe and Kürbiskuchen. The soup was delicious and I plan to try making some later today. I didn't try any cake, however, because the line was too long for me. Check out the big vat of soup!
Even the cows had a good time...
It was one of those beautiful fall weekends in Basel. Cool in the mornings, sunny and warm (but not humid) during the day, and everywhere we went it seemed everyone was out enjoying the weather. On Saturday, we drove up to an area in the Alsace called Viel Armand where you can find the Hartmannswillerkopf National Memorial and Battlefield. I've never been a big history buff, but you can't help but be fascinated by this place. The cemetary and the memorial contain the remains of over 12,000 French soldiers, and beyond that, you can hike through the woods and find dozens of old WWI trenches. I didn't really know what to expect when Kirk said we might see trenches... would it just be ditches dug into the woods? These structures were unbelievable. They were stone and brick with steel reinforcements and if either of us were more comfortable being inside tunnel-like structures I'm sure we could have explored for hours. Here I am walking down into one of the trenches.
After hiking around a bit, we came across some beautiful viewpoints overlooking the valleys of the Alsace. We were in the Vosges mountain range, which our German landlord pronounces as the "Vo-Jesus". That always makes us laugh.
We also made it over to the local Kürbis Fest this weekend. It's held at a farm not far from our house. It was one of those special only-in-Switzerland events that I love. During the Fest, not only do they sell lots of varieties of pumpkins from the Kürbis Markt, but hundreds of people (I'm not exaggerating) were there to try the homemade Kürbissuppe and Kürbiskuchen. The soup was delicious and I plan to try making some later today. I didn't try any cake, however, because the line was too long for me. Check out the big vat of soup!
Even the cows had a good time...
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