Ashton Court Romp

It’s been awhile since you’ve seen pictures of the girls running around.  This is mostly due to cold weather.  I don’t like walking dogs in the snow.  And I’ve seen enough snow in the last 6 weeks to tide me over for the next three years!  Though the girls are loving the cooler weather and are much more active, I'm ready for some summer heat.  Somehow the girls drug me out to Ashton Court for a little run around.  

Just outside Bristol city centre, Ashton Court Estate is set in 850 acres of beautiful historic parkland, deer parks, meadows and grassland.  And because you can’t see pictures of the dogs running in grass and snow without a history lesson first…the first owners of Ashton Court Estate, was the family “de Lions”, originally from Lyons in France.

In 1495, the estate was bought by John Smyth, a wealthy exporter of wheat, cloth, leather and lead to Spain and France through the Bristol ports. He imported oil, dyes, wine, iron, fish and salt. However, he never took up residence at Ashton Court Estate and it was the later Smyths who developed the estate to its present appearance.  Clever marriages, land investments, mining and overseas trading secured the estate for over 400 years in the hands of the Smyths.

During the 1st World War, Ashton Court Estate was used as a military hospital and in WWII Ashton Court Estate was acquired by the War Office as a transit camp. Then, in 1946, Dame Esme Smyth, the last resident of Ashton Court Estate, died and the mansion and estate remained abandoned for 13 years before it was purchased by Bristol City Council in 1959.  The building is now ‘Grade I listed’ therefore you’re not allowed to change anything within the entire structure.

Thanks for sitting with us for another history of really old land & buildings (or scrolling to the end of the words so you could see pictures…)!

We searched the internet and asked local Bristolians what the purpose of this was, but nobody knows.

There was still a little snow left in the shaded areas of the park.  Daisy loved it!

View of the mansion with the city of Bristol in the background.

Winerd Night

Um. We might have a reputation.  Knowing our love of board games and wine, our brother & sister sent us Winerd for Christmas.  The description on the box reads, “This exciting board game tests your wine knowledge with every sip. Begin by tasting three different wines -- use the tasting sheet to note their names, where they are produced, and their aromas, colors, and flavors.”

Adam describes it as the grown up drinking game.   Here is the basic premise. You have 3 different bottles of red or white wines. Each player tastes the 3 wines and taking notes about the wine's color, smell, and taste as well as noting the wine's name, vintage, and region of origins.

Each turn, you draw a trivia card which asks a question about wine (read by one of your opponents). If you answer correctly, you advance on the board. Along the board are spaced four Blind Taste Test squares. Whenever you land on one of these, another player secretly pours a glass of any one of the 3 wines. You then taste test what was poured for you now must name the selected wine, its vintage, and the region or country it came from. For each correct answer they move forward 1 space.  To win the game, you must complete a final tasting.  To do this, you must name the wine selected and poured for you. If you are correct, you win the game.

We have been so blessed to have made some great friends in Bristol.  We met Kate & Simon through Adam’s MBA courses.  He ran into Kate at an international student’s mixer and they quickly decided that we could all be friends.  Fast forward 18 months or so and both Adam & Kate have finished their respective dissertations (Kate is working on her MSc in Marketing & did some fascinating research on marketing to new mom’s through social media!) and now theye have time to play with the rest of us.

So a proper game night was in order (as a side note, if you throw the word ‘proper’ into any sentence, it makes it more British – ie. if someone wants some time to ponder an idea, they request a few moments to ‘have a proper think.’  It cracks me up).  We quickly realized how little any of us actually know about wine.  

Simon went out in the lead, the rest of us tasted and guessed as much as we could.  Well, maybe not as much as we could – there were probably only 3 glasses of wine consumed between the 4 of us all evening.  We’ll have to try harder next time we play!

What a game night – can’t wait for next time!

Bristol…A Winter Wonderland

Shortly after returning from our winter holiday Bristol was inundated with winter weather all its own. Most of the locals keep trying to tell us that it never snows in Bristol yet I’m beginning to doubt those claims as it has snowed both winters while we have been here and the year before entered the record books as one of the coldest on record. Anyway here is a photo-blast of some of our favorite pictures from the week’s worth of winter weather.

A couple of close-up shots taken from just inside the house. I couldn’t get Amanda to step outside to take these. She said it was a wee bit chilly outside!

The first few hours of the storm so much snow has already fallen.

Daisy and Ginger examining the freshly coated garden.

A young local learning how to clear the driveway. I don’t think he’s making much progress but he seemed to be having a good time.

Assorted photos of the park later in the afternoon. Amanda was right, it is a wee bit chilly out here, but really fascinating too.

Our road on the way back home.

Christmas vacation! (teil zwei)

Since Amanda provided the recap for our time in Mürren, I suppose it’s up to me to share our trek back to the UK via Lichtenstein, Austria, Germany, Belgium and France. No small order I assure you but I will see what I can do.

The morning of the 27^th we packed up our belongs, grabbed a tasty Swiss breakfast consisting of salami, bread, some fruit and hot chocolate then caught the train back to Grütschalp along with the subsequent cable car down to Lauterbrunnen.

View from the top of the cable car at Grutschalp 

We managed to get on the road by 10am and made decent time through the remaining tunnels and mountain passes that seem to make up a majority of Swiss highways.

When we first planned our journey we hadn’t really considered attempting to visit Liechtenstein but as our departure date drew closer, Amanda realized that we could visit this micro-nation which sits on the boarder of Switzerland and Austria while only adding an extra half hour to our driving time. We even managed to arrive in the area around lunchtime so we could say we at breakfast, lunch and dinner in three different countries on the same day.  We did find Liechtenstein and drove through the periphery of the country, unfortunately in the process we also got a bit turned around and by the time we corrected ourselves we had almost left Liechtenstein and entered Austria without stopping for lunch, so we quickly pulled over in a parking area and had our sandwiches in the car.

Our hotel in Austria was in a very quaint village that sits in the middle of a valley surrounded by the Austrian Alps. Reutte (pronounced ROY-tteh, only because we said it wrong the entire time leading up to this visit) is the largest of the villages in the valley and makes an excellent base for exploring the surrounding area. Since we were only there for two nights most of our time was taken up touring King Ludwig II’s family home Hohenschwanstein along with the more famous yet still incomplete dream castle Neuschwanstein.

Neuschwanstein

Hohenschwanstein

It was really cold and wet on the day of our tours (34° F) and thankfully we had bundled up because during our 30 minute hike up to Neuschwanstein (the buses weren’t running) it started to snow. This did encourage us to hike a bit faster which was probably a good thing because at this point we really needed to work off some dinner weight.  (Amanda would like me to restate this to ‘I really needed to work off some dinner weight’.)  I have to say we did not have even an average meal on this trip and while I haven’t stepped on the scales yet I’m pretty sure I gained about ten pounds just on account of the bread. But I digress.

A typical lunch during our travels. Mmmm!!

Snow beginning to accumulate on top of Neuschawnstein

Touring both castles is definitely the way to go because the first one (Hohenschanstein) covers Ludwig’s II early life and family history which provides solid context for the second tour.

One of the more surprising things I found at Neuschawnstein was the physical size of the castle. While not on the same scale as either Buckingham Palace or Versailles (which can probably be attributed it’s being built on top of a mountain) it still gives the impression of belonging to royalty. By that I mean that it certainly was not intended to be a strategic military outpost designed to defend the far reaches of the empire like so many other castles were designed for. It was far more considered in design when it comes to comfort and amenities. Of course it was also built nearly 300 years after the last European castle building bubble burst. By the way, if that bubble ever comes back count me in!

That night we attempted the self guided walking tour put together by Reutte’s Tourist Information center but struggled to get our bearings throughout. Perhaps it was the cold weather but there just seemed to be a lot of guess work on our part while trying to identify the sites described in the guide. Speaking of the cold we both decided that Mürren was actually the warmest city we visited on this trip even though it sits some 3,000ft above either Reutte or Rothenberg and in the middle of the Swiss Alps.

Original Fresco dating the 1600's

View from the patio of our hotel room

In fact the absolute coldest temperatures we saw occurred on our drive from Reutte to Oberammergau, Germany were the car thermometer indicated a temperature of -6° C and several of the small ponds were completely frozen over. We didn’t actually stop for very many pictures on this drive due to the icy conditions on the road and my concern that once stopped I wasn’t positive there would be enough traction to get started again but here are a few we did manage to take.

The only change of country sign we saw even though we crossed 9 different country boarders to see 7 countries on the trip.  And all my passport says is France :(

Cross country skiing was very popular this morning - we saw probably 30 or so people in the 10 mile stretch

Oberammergau isn’t exactly between Reutte and our next destination stay in Rothenburg but Amanda had been there twice before and had found memories of the main street filled with beautifully carved cuckoo clocks, nativity scenes, Christmas ornaments and hordes of tourists taking in some year round Christmas shopping. We spent about an hour and a half meandering through the winding streets and ducking into the local shops in search of the perfect Christmas tree ornament and perhaps the perfect cuckoo clock. While we didn’t manage to come home with one of the many wonderful clocks (let’s just say they are a bit proud of their cuckoo’s, and rightfully so) we did find ornaments and decorations that will add to our growing collection.

The drive to Rothenburg was by far our shortest of the trip and allowed us to wander the city on arrival and even catch the Night Watchman’s tour recommended by the incomparable Rick Steves.  Another side note here: We strongly recommend any of Rick Steves’ travel guides. We have yet to find a suggestion that isn’t worth the time or expense and even more important his directions are spot on. In fact each of the hotel’s we stayed at during this trip was a Rick Steves’ recommendation and throughout the cities of Mürren and Rothenburg you can find shops and vendors who proudly advertise discounts when you present your guidebook. It’s almost like a cult following in some of these places but they really are exceptional guidebooks.

The city of Rothenburg is an amazing place. It looks much like it did in the late 1500s after the numerous occupations during the thirty-years war (not the thirsty-years war as Amanda first read in the guidebook) left the city financially broke and unable to develop. Now, however the citizens and local council embrace the unique setting that one of the few remaining entirely walled and completely enacted renaissance cities provides, as tourists from around the globe flock to the witness many of the more indelible aspects of Bavarian culture.

In some ways its very similar to Oberammergau in that many of the shops that line the streets of the old town specialize in intricate Christmas ornaments, beautiful cuckoo clocks from the Black Forest region of Germany and ornate beer steins which display many historic Bavarian town’s and cultural landmarks. Where it differs though is the setting itself. Most of the time it feels like you’re walking among life-sized gingerbread houses or stepping into one of the intricately carved clocks. Truthfully, really this isn’t much of a stretch as several of the clocks you can find in the local shops are modeled after historic homes within the city, a few of which are approaching 700 years old.

View from the front door of the Hotel Cafe Uhl

Town square Rothenburg

Amanda atop the medieval wall

A really big beer stein. Now if only I can find an appropriately sized Bratwurst!

View back to our hotel. Last building on the right in front of the tallest watch tower 

Perhaps the best part of our stay in Rothenburg was the location of our hotel. Situated just inside the medieval walls and within an easy walk of the town square the hotels parting piece was the bakery that takes up the entire ground floor of the hotel. I mentioned earlier that we didn’t have a bad meal on this trip and while everything certainly tasted wonderful there is something simply spectacular about waking up in the morning to the smell of freshly baked bread of every variety. It really does kick the appetite into gear though as I may have gorged myself on other local delicacies as well such as the best bratwurst I have ever had wrapped in a fresh roll and topped with local mustard.

Our Hotel

Enjoying the best Bratwurst ever!

and washing it down with a really good pretzel!

Simply amazing!!

In fact I was so engrossed with my bratwurst that I failed to get a picture of Amanda devouring her pretzel, but I can assure you I have never seen one disappear so fast.

After we begrudgingly handed over our room key and left Rothenburg behind, we had one more region to travel before we could make our way for the French coast and the strange sensation of riding in a car, in a train, in a tunnel under the channel. The Rhine valley is historically one of the most important waterways in all of Europe with it having significant strategic and commercial value throughout its history. In addition to the historic impact the Rhine valley has on regional economics and politics, it is beautiful to drive through and enjoy a picnic lunch. It’s also really big. So big, in fact that photos don’t show the fully story as you stand on one of the ferry’s that transports cars from one bank to the other. That’s right in many places throughout the Rhine valley the river is so wide and the water flows so fast that it is far cheaper to employ ferries to transport people and supplies across the river than it is to build a bridge.  I tried to get a few pictures to help illustrate this but I still don’t think they do the mighty river justice.

View down the Rhine as the ferry boat makes its crossing

The final stretch of our Christmas holiday was remarkably uneventful with the exception of our return trip through the chunnel. I’m still not used to that method of travel yet. All told it was a wonderful ten days and I hope we have effectively shared our experiences with you look forward to seeing you all again soon. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!