Swiss Coffee

How long is too long...

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:23:00 +0000

to go without posting?

I think I need to face facts, this blog is no longer a priority for me. I've got too many other projects going on right now, and this one needs to slide a little bit. I'm not sure if I want to quit the blog altogether, that seems a bit drastic, but maybe a little hiatus.

We will see how things develop in the next few months, maybe I'll actually get back to regular postings, but for the moment, I'm taking "blog something" off of my todo list.

Blog Something

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:48:00 +0000

I've had this on my task list for too long. This post gets it off my list.

It's kind of a cop out, I know, but I've got lots going on, and just haven't taken the time to put things here.

Let's see, it's been a while since I've posted, what is going on? Most recently, we were in Kandersteg for some winter walking. It's a very lovely village and it was nice to get away for a weekend. I took lots of photos and hopefully I'll be able to post some soon, but I still am working on my workflow and post processing, it simply takes too long at the moment. The trouble with shooting RAW images, you know, you still have to convert them to JPG to show them.

Prior to that, a few weeks ago we were in Andermatt on the weekend when it snowed close to 1 meter, and it was the fastest accumulation of snow in Switzerland in 30 years. It was beautiful and lots of fun, although I wish the sun would have broken through some, as I got tired of not being able to see where I was skiing, and there's not much to photograph when it's continuously snowing either. This has been a great year for skiing, it just keeps on snowing.

In mid Jan, we went to Laax/Flims for a long weekend of skiing with my cousin and her husband. We had a great time, it was great to visit with family and get some good skiing done too. We had lots of snow during that trip too, and it wasn't so cold as it tends to be in Jan.

This weekend we are going to Geneva to see the Auto Show, I think it will be interesting and I've never been to Geneva either.

In the background, I have managed to keep up with my running, and the Birslauf is coming soon, and I've been trying to keep up with my Deutsch studies, as I'm taking the Zertifikat Deutsch test at the end of March.

Well, I've started with a new system of lists [it's called Autofocus, I read about it on Lifehacker.com] to help me be more productive, so maybe we'll see a few more regular posts coming, and maybe some pictures too.

The Nobel Prize for Economics

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:40:00 +0000

I have been listening to this podcast called PlanetMoney by NPR. I started listening in Sept or so, shortly after the Financiapocalypse. It's been really great in explaining all the crazy financial vehicles that were created in the past few years that have now all blown up.

I was listening to it this morning and they were talking to some famous economists--well famous to other economists and maybe amateur economists--as they normally do. This particular episode was about a guy who gave a speech to central bankers telling them that the current crisis is worse today because of the actions they took over the past year, at least that is how I understood it.

Anyway, I was feeling very thoughtful this morning, and it suddenly struck me how the study of economics is really important. I think it mostly goes unnoticed by the general public until something like this latest crisis happens. I've learned a lot about how money works over the past few months, but not until this morning did it really occur to me that the people who study economics have a really important job. In today's world, they set the policies that basically keep the world economy working.

In my US-centric view of the world, everything seems to relate back to money and profit [much to our detriment, imho, we still need better ethics], and it just sort of clicked as to why there is a Nobel prize for Economics. It always puzzled me in the past, seemed not so important, I mean, who cares about Economics when they are giving prizes for Physics and Medicine?

Today I might argue that the prize for Economics is much more important than any of the others because some Nobel Laureate in the past probably implemented the policies that allow companies and governments to fund the research in all of the other areas (well, there might be one exception: I guess one doesn't really do research in Peace). I find it interesting to see how my perspective can change, seemingly in an instant, even though it was probably months of information that built to my realization.

A New Year Begins...

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:05:00 +0000

And it is the beginning of our 3rd year here in Basel. It has been a really great two years, we've seen sooo many places. I don't think I managed to write about all of them in the blog, I've got far too many half written drafts sitting around on my computers. Suffice it to say, that our friends have frequently asked something along the lines of, "You have been everywhere in Europe, where are you going this year?"

We have a few goals, we haven't been to Norway, or Luxembourg, or Monaco, and countless other cities in countries where we have been to the capital or at least the most toured city of the respective country.

Beyond travel, I've been trying to get myself into shape and that's been successful with my quest for 5000 situps and a running program that I'm still trying to get back to from the holidays. I stopped keeping track of my situps around 3500, but I still do 50 every time I make it to the gym, so at least I was able to form a new habit. This year I'm going to run the Birslauf 10K in April and a half-marathon sometime in the fall--yeah, I think I will be able to run for a little more than 2 hours by the fall.

On the Photography front, I created my first book based on the Basilisk Project. I printed a few copies and gave them as Christmas presents, it was very well received and I was very happy with the result of my first effort at bookmaking. So much so, that I intend to make a few more books this year. I have a few subjects in mind, but I'm not at liberty to discuss them just yet.

I'm going to tell you that I'm going to post more often, and like all New Year's resolutions [which I stopped believing in long ago...] I will probably have an increased frequency the first few weeks or months of this year and slowly fade... again. Well, maybe this is the year that I can manage to be consistent, who knows?

Have a Great and Happy New Year!

Herbst Messe--The Autumn Fair

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:16:00 +0000

Herbst Messe started on Oct 25 and we've visited a couple of times since. In my opinion, this is the culmination of Swiss Fair food, with cheese obviously being the headliner. This year, I was lucky enough to be introduced to a Käsebangel. First off, there are many, many ways to eat cheese in Switzerland, but the best ways involve melting or grilling of some sort. At the Autumn Fair, you can get Käsekeichli, little cheese quiches, Käseschnitte, a piece of bread with melted cheese on top, Fondue, Raclette--in various forms, with potatoes, bread, or hornli, which are basically elbow macaroni. Needless to say, any fan of cheese must visit the Herbst Messe and sample the best melted cheese Switzerland has to offer.

Back to Käsebangels, as far as I know, you can only get these at one stand near the Petersplatz, it's on the street leading towards Bar Ono and Restaurant Zum Harmonie. It's genius, pure genius. First you have to see how hot dogs are made in Switzerland, they take a small roll or loaf of bread similar to french bread and stick it on a big metal spike to form a hole in the middle of the bread, then pump some ketchup in there, pop in the hotdog and you have a Swiss hotdog. What does this have to do with cheese? Well, take that roll with a hole in it and fill it up with Fondue. Fantastic. Fondue, is obviously not a traveling food, but a Käsebangel is. Grab it and go. Of course, you have to be very careful not to squeeze too much or the cheese runs out all over your hand, and hot cheese on your hand is not pleasant. It's takes some practice figuring out how to eat it without burning the roof of your mouth, but it's worth it. It's a nice small taste of Fondue, not too much to give you that heavy feeling in your belly. The best part, keep walking down the street and you can top it off with a variety of Wurst, the original and only Swiss fast food, as I read on a poster somewhere.

Now it's time for dessert and my favorite is the Beggeschmutz. A delicious ball of marshmallow filling somehow covered in chocolate and rolled in coconut. These are available at a lot of places, but I always look for the hand made ones, which are sort of misshapen compared to the cylindrical mass produced ones that you can buy in trays. Maybe there's no difference in taste, but I like the hand made quality.

With a full belly, walk through to see all the crafts and assorted goods for sale, everything from meat and cheese to hand carved soup ladles. Along the way you may find some other treats like fried apples, hot apple cider, or Gluhwein. It's a tough time of year for your waistline, but when the weather is nice, it's a great place to be out and about.

Training Talk

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:54:00 +0000

Sick days? We all have them, you get out of bed and you just don't feel right. The question is to go to the gym or not? Recently, my Training Sponsor, we'll call him TS for short, mentioned the concept of consistency and that you should go do your training, maybe not the entire workout, or at a high intensity, but just get out there and do a little bit. Of course, it depends on how well you feel, are you just tired or do you have a killer case of the flu? If you have the flu, better just sleep it off, but if you just didn't get enough sleep or are a bit hungover, a light workout could do you some good.

I found myself in this situation on Friday, my allergies were really bothering me, which makes me extremely tired. I have also recently begun tracking my resting Heart Rate, which is measured by a HR monitor when you wake up in the morning, but before you get out of bed. Friday, my HR was several beats elevated--I'm not sure what that means yet, but generally an elevated rate would mean you're tired--maybe too much training--or you could be getting sick. The paradox is that getting the heart pumping, heating up, really helps to clear things out, so I was glad that I made the extra effort to follow through on my plan to run. I rewarded myself with a double tall latte from Starbucks.

Matthew's Cheater's Chicken Paprikas

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:18:00 +0000

First off, it's pronounced pap-ri-kash. This recipe is based on a Hungarian recipe that I enjoy, but this is somewhat simplified for easy week day cooking. I probably make this on average about once a week.

The ingredients as I get them in Switzerland, substitute as appropriate for your country of residence:

~1lb [500g] Boneless Chicken Bits [dark or white doesn't matter]
1 can chopped Tomatoes [stewed also works]
1/2 cup [100g] Sour Cream
~1 lb [500g] Spätzli
1-2 Onions
Butter
1-2 Tbsp Paprika Paste or 1-2 tsp Paprika [powder]
Extras: Mushrooms, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Bacon, Red/Green Peppers, ?

A word about the ingredients. In the US, I was able to find dried Spätzli [here the spätzli is fresh] which is an adequate substitute for the Hungarian version, called Galuskas. This is the biggest time saver, to make the dumplings by hand is quite time consuming, even if it's not too difficult. Another option is to use egg noodles.

I have not seen Paprika paste in the US, and if you can't find it we'll just use Paprika in it's traditional powder form--of course, it goes without saying that the best Paprika comes from Hungry, check your labels. Both forms of Paprika come in Hot or Sweet, I use a little of both.

Step 1: Put a pot of water on to boil, we'll use it to cook the spätzli. Set the sour cream on the counter to warm to room temp. Cut the onions in half, and then slice them. I like a lot of onions, so I use 2 medium to large, but you can get away with only one. Also, any type of onion will do, red, white, or yellow. Heat some butter, maybe a tablespoon or more in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook slowly, don't allow them to get browned, cook until they are soft and translucent.

Step 2: Set aside the onions in a bowl or just push them to one side of the skillet. Add the chicken. Add more butter, if necessary to keep the chicken from sticking. Sprinkle with salt and Paprika. This is where I use Hot Paprika, but if you prefer things less spicy, just use the Sweet Paprika. You really just want to brown the chicken, this should only take a couple of minutes for each side.

Step 3: When the chicken is browned, add the canned tomatoes, 1/2 can of water, sour cream, Paprika [1-2 tbsp paste, 1-2 tsp powder], onions, and extras*. I really like a good Paprika taste, but if you add too much powder, some say it tastes chalky. Stir everything together and reduce heat to low.

Step 4: You should have a beautiful orange-red colored sauce, a little thicker than whole milk. If it's too watery, don't worry, we've got some thickening power coming with the spätzli. Just let things simmer for a few minutes while you get the spätzli ready. If you're reading the instructions all the way through before cooking, then you can be careful how much water you add in Step 3 to make sure it's not too watery. If not, lesson learned.

Step 5: Add the spätzli to the boiling water. Wait 2 minutes [or follow the directions for your version], scoop out the spätzli with a strainer or slotted spoon and add to the skillet. The water is very starchy from the dumplings and if your sauce wasn't thick enough before, just cook it a bit after the dumplings are in there and it should thicken up.

Step 6: Stir to combine. Find one of the larger chunks of chicken and cut it in half to check for doneness--it should not be pink. If it is, let it cook for another 5-10 minutes, but every time I've every checked, the chicken was done, the small pieces cook fast. I prefer to eat my Paprikas with a spoon, from a bowl, and with some nice bread to soak up the sauce, yum.

Tips and the Development of the Recipe. I really enjoy this recipe, and I cook it whenever I get a chance. I have had much practice at getting just the right result. Here are a few tips to help you get good results and to explain a little bit of how the method comes together.

Curdling. Curdling is not terrible, and mostly only noticed by perfectionists like me. This is when the sour cream curdles and you're left with small white bits floating around in your sauce. This used to happen to me all the time. The reason: the temperature difference between the sour cream and the sauce causes it to cook instantly. My method avoids this by adding the tomato sauce, water, and sour cream at the same time. It's also helpful to bring the sour cream to room temperature. The cooking process in the original recipe required tempering, which just means reducing the temperature difference, the problem with that is it recommends to cool the entire skillet, add the sour cream and then reheat--who has time for that?

Extras. Another issue with week day cooking is minimizing dishes, and unfortunately, I haven't had good results with making this a one-skillet dish. It is possible to cook the spätzli in a skillet with butter, but I have always had unsatisfactory results; the spätzli seems to soak up the butter and come out very heavy. But, you might be able to save yourself pots or pans from your side dish. You can use the pot of boiling water to quickly cook a vegetable of your choice, e.g. broccoli or cauliflower and then add it to the dish at the end. You can also cook some vege with the onions, you may have noticed that there are mushrooms in the pictures above. That's because for this rendition, I cooked up some mushrooms with the onions, peppers are also good for cooking with the onions.

Bacon was also listed in the extras section, the best way to add bacon is to cook it first, set it aside and use the bacon fat to cook the onions and the chicken. Then add the bacon back to the skillet at the same time as the tomatoes. I hesitate to call it Paprikas when using bacon, as the bacon taste overwhelms the paprika, it is more reminiscent of a sauce I had in Budapest called Bacony, that's not the correct spelling, however, as my keyboard doesn't have all the special Hungarian characters required. It may not be Paprikas, but it is fantastically delicious, I highly recommend it, especially if you can find slab bacon, just cut up into 1/4 in by 1/4 in bits before you cook it, maybe use 1/8 to 1/4 lb, or to your taste.

Paprika. I once happened to catch an episode of the Frugal Gourmet where he was making Hungarian Goulash, and he just poured the paprika in, commenting that you can never have too much paprika. I feel much the same way, but you may not, so adjust the paprika levels to your taste. Also play around with the combination of Hot and Sweet, I've made some batches with all Hot paprika and it really has some kick, which can be a nice change of pace sometimes, or maybe you prefer it that way all the time, experiment and find out.

Training Talk

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:14:00 +0000

What have I been doing with myself for the last few months with no posts? Well there was a lot of travel, I hope to catch up on that soon, but also I've decided to step up my efforts to get in shape and so I want to introduce something new; posts about training to discuss interesting things about fitness.

In Sept. I started an 8 week Run/Walk program, leading up to 30 minutes of running. I love to run, but for numerous reasons, I have not been able to continue running consistently in the past. I decided that I probably started off too quickly, with too much running, and that usually resulted in an injury and discontinuation of training. This time I decided to take it slower. So far, so good, I've finished the 3rd week, which has me running for 6 min with a 1 min rest and repeating up to 30 min.

Even before I started the running program, I set a goal to do 5000 sit-ups in 100 days. I'm not doing as well with that one, today I'm at 2550 and I was supposed to finish on 31 Oct. I had a few setbacks, but I will reach my goal eventually, and I think that 50 sit-ups a day is a great way to a stronger core.

The Swiss Indoors

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:03:00 +0000

I'm currently watching Roger Federer play in the finals at the Swiss Indoors on TV, where yesterday, I watched him play live in the semi-finals. Last year I went to the Swiss Indoors, but it was in the early rounds and I wasn't lucky enough to see Federer play then, or any other top 10 player for that matter.

Many people have watched him on TV and thought he was an amazing player and then to see him up close and personal, in a small venue like Basel's St. Jakob, was fantastic.

Roger had 15 aces in the course of a stellar 2-set, 6-3, 6-2, defeat of Feliciano Lopez.

I also was able to watch the doubles semi-final matches which were also something to see. The last match of the day ended when a frustrated player through his racquet to the ground with such force that it crumpled into a heap of carbon fibers and synthetic materials. This show of unsportsmanlike conduct resulted in a point being awarded to his opponents. It also happened to be the final point; game, set, match. Kids don't ever throw your racquets.

Federer just won his 3rd Swiss Indoors title in a row, but he only hit 8 aces in his last match. ;-)

This is interesting, Roger is conducting his interview in Swiss-German, which is almost totally incomprehensible to me and apparently to many others, as the Eurosport announcer is translating on the fly into High-German.

Dazed and Confused

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:48:00 +0000

I feel a bit dazed and confused, as it's Friday night, the sun has just set and we're getting ready to watch a movie and call it a night. It has been an exceptionally busy July, we've been to 3 countries, with plans to hit one more on the last day of July, and somehow in between all the travel, I've managed to plan a trip to Russia to see Moscow and St. Petersburg, very exciting.

I've actually written a long post about the first day of our first trip, which included Tallinn and Helsinki, but I've haven't gone through the pictures yet and I like to have good visuals. After all, I take, on average, 100-150 pictures per day of travel, although there have been days when I've only taken a handful, it just depends on where we are and what we see. Anyway, for each photo I would like to label it as something that I will take credit for, or something that should be deleted [although I never delete any photo unless it's clearly out of focus or otherwise unrecoverable--you just never know, just because I don't like the composition today, doesn't mean I won't like it tomorrow]. I would like to add some keywords and then I have to "develop" them, as I shoot all my stuff RAW which means the files are really big and I can't post them on websites. All that takes time and I'm getting there... maybe I'm procrastinating a little and maybe I'm being a little perfectionist, but I'm trying to get better, really.

We're home this weekend, not much planned, the weather looks to be nice, so hopefully we'll do something outdoorsy, hiking or swimming, or maybe even canoeing.

A brief summary of our July travels: It's colder in north-eastern Europe, even during the height of summer we wore jackets all through Estonia, Finland, and Poland. Finland and Estonia were great, we did some bicycling, which was something different. Poland is a really cool place to visit, Krakow has amazing buildings, almost the entire old town is restored, Warsaw looks more modern, reminds me of Berlin. The food was fantastic, from elk to pierogi, it was all delicious. Overall, 2 long weekends, 4 cities, 3 European capitals, and a further appreciation of history, more to come, soon...

Perfectionists Anonymous

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:47:00 +0000

1.5 hours. The amount of time it took me to clean my bathroom and wash the kitchen floor (because once you've got a bucket of water and a mop, you might as well do both tile floors at once, right?).

How long does it take you to clean your bathroom? We had a cleaning lady in NJ and she cleaned our entire 1300 sq. ft. apartment with 2 bathrooms in about 45 min. including mopping the hardwood floors. Hmm, I'd never make it as a cleaning person.

In my defense, our bathroom is currently spotless and every knick-knack (don't get me started, I feel strongly that knick-knacks should not be displayed in the bathroom, but Sarah feels otherwise, one day I will move them ) is properly dusted, the soap dishes are cleaned of soap scum, the floors were swiffered and mopped, the toilet cleaned inside and out, the shower scrubbed, the rugs put into the washer.

When I have a task that I don't actually look forward too, I often hear the following phrase echoing through my head, I'm not sure where I heard it or read it:

"A job worth doing, is a job worth doing well."

Personally, I know that I am a perfectionist, a curse I struggle with for every task. If it's not perfect, it's not done, hence 1.5 hours to do some simple cleaning that takes a normal person 20 min. The phrase above... just a perfectionist trying to rationalize their disease, I need help.

Or maybe I don't, maybe it's the rest of you who need help. Join me, fellow perfectionists, let's make this world better! Imagine, everyone follows all the rules! Every corner of every apartment is spotlessly clean, it will be utopia! All we have to do is convince the slackers they are doing it wrong.

Well, I've got lots more tasks to be perfectionist about (and you were wondering why I don't post as often as you or I'd like, because it's not perfect, that's why).

It took me 15 min to write and proofread this post. Another 5 min to find this link with some interesting points about our disease [warning: there is some foul language in the link, but if you are a perfectionist, it's nothing you haven't heard or said yourself ;-)].

Perfectionists Anonymous

Summer is here...

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:31:00 +0000

and it's a busy time. I fixed my computer, even though I thought it was working, I had to replace the motherboard, now I think it's really fine and I'm using it to write, right now.

We have spent a few weekends at home and one weekend hiking near Gstaad. It was a fantastic weekend, the first weekend we were able to spend time outside because it wasn't raining. Since then the weather has been fantastic, warm and sunny. We've even been Rhine swimming a couple of times already. It's really nice to jump in the river on a hot day and float downtown.

This weekend we're spending the 4th of July in Tallinn, Estonia and we're also spending a few days in Helsinki, Finland. It's not supposed to be as warm there, but the sun won't go down until something like 2 am, so we're pretty excited to check it out.

Enjoy your 4th of July weekend!

The Police Reunion Tour

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:39:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Last weekend we were in Cologne, Germany. We were there to see The Police Reunion Tour. The concert was actually in Düsseldorf [about 20 min away by train], but we were there last year for the same concert (but it was canceled because Sting had a throat infection and was rescheduled for this year) so we decided to check out Cologne, which is the home of the biggest cathedral in Germany. You know my fascination with old churches, this one takes it to a new level. It was constructed over a period of 600 years! It also has the bones of the Three Magi, you know the ones who came to visit baby Jesus.

Anyway, the concert was great, so good in fact, that we are going to see them again tonight in Zürich! It's true, the original hits of The Police were popular when I was just a young lad, but admit it, you know all the hits, Roxanne, Walking on the Moon, Message in a Bottle, Don't Stand So Close... They are all performed with a new level of craftsmanship that, when compared to the original recordings is much more mature. 20 some years has done good things for The Police and I'm excited to see them again, this time in the Stehplatze or the Standing Room area.

It's that time again...

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:08:00 +0000

Happy Birthday Family and Friends!
Happy Birthday to all of you who have birthdays in June. I had intended to add a nice photo or graphic or something, but with the computer conundrum taking all my time, I'm a bit behind on my todo list [or should I call it my wish list?].

Enjoy your day, or hope you had a nice day. ;-)

A Taste of Two Spains

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:04:00 +0000

A long weekend in Spain, 4 days, 4 flights, 2 cities, and numerous sights. We flew from Basel to Madrid on good old EasyJet, a flight just under 2 hours. We stayed at this hotel right in the middle of the city.

It was raining when we arrived and we took the subway from the airport to the city which was pretty convenient and way cheaper than a taxi. We made a few wrong turns trying to find our bearings, and only when I finally pulled out the map did I discover that the street our hotel was on intersects with the square where we exited the subway twice and at right angles. Not feeling brave enough to go out and find a restaurant, we ate at the hotel and it was good, not great, and it was nice not to have to trudge through the rain.

The following morning we walked around and visited some of the local sights. In my humble opinion, Madrid is more like Paris or New York than the other European capitals we visited. It's a huge city, it's got a great subway system, the architecture is a fantastic mix of new and old. If you like Fifth Avenue, you'll love the shopping street in Madrid.

After touring the Palacio Real, I declare it my favorite European palace. The building is still in use by the government and it is impeccably maintained. It is at once majestic, but not overwhelming in its lavishness. It has some fantastic art including one room completely covered in porcelain. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed inside, and I can understand no flash being allowed, but really, no photos? I'm tired of all these fantastic places not allowing photography, I'd even pay for a camera pass like they have in Prague or Budapest. I can't figure out if they just want to sell more postcards and books, if they are truly concerned about preserving the artifacts, or if it's terrorism related. Sooner or later, they're going to have to get over it, because cameras these days can be so small, it's almost pointless to restrict it--a quick search on flickr yields 12,435 photos for "palacio real madrid".

We spent the rest of the day walking around enjoying the cold, or should I say cursing the cold weather. It wasn't raining, but it was may 18c, and the forecast for Basel was to be much warmer--why is it that we always travel with the cooler weather?

We had lunch in the old town, a fixed menu with some gazpacho to start and a nice beer in a really cozy cellar of the restaurant. I had some lamb chops and it was good.

In the afternoon we hit up the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Art. This place had a really outstanding collection of art. We thought it was a small museum, but it turns out to be fairly large and we spent a good 2 hours going through the whole thing, and at a quick pace. Definitely worth the visit, if you're into art.

We walked back through the old town to the neighborhood or our hotel and had dinner at a nice out of the way place called Cornucopia. The food was really good, the dessert, the wine, a great atmosphere, good service. I would definitely go back, if we are ever in Madrid again.

Breakfast is great in Spain, coffee and churros, yes churros like you get at Taco Bell or at a carnival, but, of course, much better. There are lots of little cafes around and even when I ordered what was basically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, two of us had breakfast for less than 5 euros.

Today was another museum day, we spent most of the day at the Museo del Prado. The highlight: Spanish painters, including Velazquez's Las Meninas. We also had a great lunch at the museum cafe, and missed a bit of rain while we were inside. My favorite painting turned out to be El Lavatorio, by Tintoretto. I had the audioguide and it said you have to view the painting from the far right because it was installed in the front of a church and everyone would be looking at it from that angle. What was most impressive, however, was that when viewed from that angle, the proportions looked much better, I was fascinated in the skill it would take to customize the perspective to such an odd viewing angle.

We had another nice meal at a very touristy place, but the food was good and then we headed home, and packed up as we were flying to Granada early the next morning.

Granada could not be more different than Madrid. It's located in the south of Spain and it feels more like a an old Tuscan hill town from Itally, certainly there was no feel of the big city here. We only had about 24 hours to spend here and we had reservations to see La Alhambra in the afternoon, so we headed to the city center to check it out.

We wandered around, visited a church, enjoyed the feel of the city, had lunch and walked up to La Alhambra. La Alhambra is a palace on a hill overlooking Granada, built originally in the 13th and 14th centuries. It has stunning views and stunning details carved out of stone, fantastic gardens, and a just a general wonder about the place. We had a fantastic day exploring the many buildings and gardens. The photo is just an example of the intricate details that are found through the palace buildings. Definitely a don't miss, if you're ever in southern Spain.

There might be more to tell, and there are more pictures to show, but that will have to wait. I'll post a link to the photos when I get them edited.

The Computer Conundrum

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:18:00 +0000

The biggest mistake I made last month was buying components to build a computer. I did the research and selected a system to give me the best bang for the buck as determined by ExtremeTech. I'm thinking I'll order the parts, put it together, install the software, good to go, right?

Wrong! I got things to boot, got the OS installed and when I started installing drivers, the system froze. I tried to re-install the OS and that froze. I have spent many, many hours researching and trying different solutions, but I'm really in a big hole because all the parts are new and I don't have any extras. Therefore, I can't swap in a different video card here, or another hard drive there and find the piece that is bad. Of course, tech support was not helpful at all, telling me it's probably a software issue.

Well, I desperately wanted to avoid "software" issues and thought I would be able to make a system work from components, and then I could upgrade different parts later, instead of being stuck with some proprietary hardware from Dell or HP or whoever.

Where do I go from here? Well, I'm going to start over from the very beginning, the least number of parts I can use to get the system running, and add things one at a time. If that fails, then I will have to get professional help--in German, probably.

The blog has suffered due to the Computer Conundrum, I've got a post started about Spain and need to finish up with my parents visit, and we also have been to Lisbon in there too.

No rest for the weary, however. Yesterday I went to Bern to get more pages for our passports, today Art Basel starts and I want to check that out, tomorrow we're having a small dinner party, and Friday we're going to Cologne and then Düsseldorf to see The Police in concert. Busy, Busy, Busy.

Btw, I forgot to mention if you are subscribing via email, don't forget to verify your email address. When you sign up, you'll get an email with a link, and you have to click the link to verify your email address before you will get any updates.

Our Long Weekend in Madrid

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:34:00 +0000

Well, this afternoon we are off to Madrid for a nice long weekend and we are even going to spend a scant 24 hours in Granada to see the Alhambra.

What else is new? Well, are you tired of constantly checking this website only to find I haven't updated it in a few days [or weeks ;-P]? Does "RSS Feed Reader" sound like a foreign language to you?

Well, now you can subscribe via email!! Yes, just put your email address in the little box on the right and you'll get an email every time I add a new post! [but no more than one email per day, regardless of how many posts are published].

Don't worry about your privacy, I'm not going to do anything with your email addresses, I just want to make it easy for you to get updates. Nothing else, only emails when there is a post.

Also in the background, I'm working on editing lots of photos, and of course I will probably add hundreds more this weekend, but I'm through the photos from Budapest and I posted an album on flickr.

So much to do, so little time. I'm also building a new PC, I'm getting scared that my laptop is going to die. Let's face it, I'm not very nice to it and the amount of times that it gets really, really hot is far too many for a long life. Therefore, I'm building a desktop and then I can implement a proper backup strategy and make sure all my data [mostly pictures] is safe.

Check back next week to find out how Madrid was--oh wait, you can subscribe via email and find out automatically!

Flogging Molly in Zürich

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:23:00 +0000

Last Monday I went to Zürich to see my favorite band, Flogging Molly. It was just me and a friend [Sarah's not so much into FM], and we had a great time.

Flogging Molly defies to be defined, but I would describe them as Punk with a strong Irish influence. They have an accordion, a flutist, a fiddle, just a fantastic group. Their shows are high energy and there's lots of moshing--do they still call it moshing? You know when every one in the standing area jumps up and down and generally tries to bump into as many people as possible.

We sat in the balcony, as we hadn't had enough beer to join in the mayhem on the dance floor. I enjoyed the concert immensely. The opening bands were pretty good too, and it was very similar to when I've seen them in the US. At first, I thought the crowd looked a little rougher, but the amount of feet flying through the air in round house kicks [it's all a part of the moshing, don't ask me...] was far less than at an NYC concert.

I didn't get to see them last year, as they played at a 3-day concert in Interlaken and I wasn't committed enough for 3 days and they didn't have any single day tickets. I've got my fix, at least for another year...

My Portuguese Man-bag

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:42:00 +0000

I've been thinking about getting one for a long time. Not sure if I was ready to take the plunge, but summer is almost here and that means I won't be wearing a jacket, which is lately the home for my wallet, phone, camera, etc.

Pants pockets you ask? No, first off, after I moved to NJ and spent a lot time in NYC, I can't put my wallet in my back pocket, too easy a target for pickpockets--even though you could argue that removing a wallet as thick as mine [think George Costanza...] from my pocket could not be done easily, I saw a guy remove someone's necktie without them realizing! Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme and maybe I saw it on the Discovery channel, but it still fuels my pickpocket paranoia.

I digress... so traveling with nothing in your pockets is difficult and here, in Europe, you can't go ten feet without seeing the proper solution to the problem -- The Manbag. Some have also referred to it as a Murse, short for Man-purse. It's usually styled like a small messenger bag that hangs over your shoulder across your chest.

We were in Lisbon this weekend and as we had some time to do some shopping, Sarah and I selected this bag as my first manbag. I say, "my first" because I'm still not sure if I like it, but I'm also pretty sure that there will be more to follow. This one's a nice size, plenty of room for a wallet, mobile phone, camera, sunglasses, and a nice size pocket in the back perfect for guidebooks!

I took it for a test drive yesterday when I was out to the printer to proof some photos from the Basilisk Project [my first hardcopies arrive this afternoon!] and although my pockets were empty, I was not completely comfortable with the small bag. Strangely enough, if it was a full size messenger bag, I would have felt fine, but it still feels a little bit like a... a purse.

Well, you reach a certain point and utility outweighs what other people think, and it's totally normal here anyway, everyone has a manbag. Now, my biggest concern is that the rest of my wardrobe doesn't match up to my stylish new manbag. That's right Adolfo Dominguez is a Spanish designer, I think this is the first "designer" item I have ever purchased, unless you count Ralph Lauren or Kenneth Cole, but they're too big to be "designer" right?

An Historic Journey

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:07:00 +0000

On Tuesday my parents, who had been visiting for nearly two weeks, left Europe to return home. I've been thinking about how to write about their visit. It was pretty exciting for me [and them], as my Dad had only been to Europe once on a tour of Italy and my Mom had never been to Europe. Basel is really located in a great location, so close to so many countries. When I asked my parents what they wanted to see on their historic journey, the choices were too overwhelming. My Dad wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and I wanted to take them to Hungary, so that was the foundation of my planning for their trip.

They arrived on a Wed afternoon and after the overnight flight, they took a nap. Later on, we walked around a bit and had a nice meal in Basel and the following day headed for Budapest. The weather in Basel for the previous month was rain, practically every day, but when we got to Budapest the rain had cleared and we had really nice sunny weather.

We arrived at the airport in the late afternoon, where there was a taxi waiting for us. This time we're going first class [Sorry D&B], last time we took the airport bus which really wasn't much cheaper for a group of 4 people and takes twice as long. We did have the same experience that the driver was not chatty at all, but I know from personal experience, it's hard to chat in a language that you're not familiar with, and since we don't know how to speak Hungarian, we had a quiet ride.

We checked in to the Hilton in the Castle District and walked around a bit before dinner. We got a nice view of the parliament in the soft afternoon light. When dinner time rolled around, we found an amazing restaurant in the Castle district. My Dad and I got the Chef's menu, which was 4 courses + a surprise 5th course. We had some really nice Hungarian wines with dinner, listened to some nice classical guitar, and after spending some ridiculous amount of Hungarian Forints [or HUF for short] we turned in for the night.

Happy Birthday Family and Friends!

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:57:00 +0000

Happy Birthday to all our friends and family with May birthdays.

I'd like to say I will send you a little something on your birthday, and I'm working on getting there, but what can I say, I'm a slacker, and a procrastinator, so birthday cards are usually late, if they come at all. Especially now since they have the added time of traversing the ocean.

Enjoy your special day, we're thinking of you!

Lame Post Titles

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:02:00 +0000

I am really disappointed with the way I have been titling my posts, the creative juices just aren't flowing, or maybe I just need to look at a thesaurus more often...

My parents arrived yesterday afternoon. My Mom's first trip to Europe and we are showing them around proper. Today we are heading to Budapest. I'm quite excited to return and to bring my Dad, whose grandparents are all Hungarian. I have been meaning to do a bit of research on our family tree to see if we can find any relatives, but unfortunately, I didn't get around to it, so we could walk past them in the street and never know it. I know that my Great-Grandfather had 5 or 6 brothers who remained in Hungary, but we're not sure where they lived. Someday, I'll track them down...

Anyway, the weather looks good for our trip and we have all the travel books out, we've reviewed the photos from our last trip, what am I forgetting? I guess we're ready to go...

Weekend Update

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:40:00 +0000

We had a nice weekend at home. We had some friends over for brunch on Saturday, which was nice because we normally have brunch on Sundays and so when we were done it was nice to have a feeling that you still had another day until Monday.

After brunch, we took a nap, nice. Then we headed out to get some supplies for some DIY. Sarah needed a lattice for her rose bush and had plans to use bamboo and tie them together with string. And again, I find myself asking, "What did people do before the internet?". I did a quick search on youtube and found a few instructional videos about how to lash two poles together. We decided to go with a square lashing. Of course, we could have just got some string and wrapped it up until it looked alright, but that is not the most efficient method and probably would not have looked as nice. Here are the results.

Above is the properly tied square lashing, nice and tidy.

The finished piece. Now the roses will have a nice place to bloom!

An April Weekend in Venice

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:11:00 +0000

This weekend we got back to work on our list of "must see" sites in Europe and this weekend's destination was Venice, or Venezia, Italia--Italian names roll off the tongue so smoothly. A short 1.5 hour flight and we arrived at the Venice airport.

We took a bus from the airport to Piazza Roma and then a water bus down the length of the Grand Canal to Piazza San Marco just as the sun was setting.

Our hotel was a short walk from Piazza San Marco. We had a pleasant meal at the hotel [at a 20% discount for guests!] and called it a night. We awoke the next morning to a foggy view of the San Zaccaria Church. San Zaccaria houses the remains of St. Zachery, the father of John the Baptist.

We had planned to visit the Basilica San Marco first, as it is closed most of the day on Sunday and the guidebooks said crowds could be avoided by getting there early. It actually worked out pretty well, we didn't have to wait to get in and by the time we got out there was a significant line.

The Basilica is pretty amazing. There has been a church on this site since 832, but what remains today was originally built in 1094. The interior has been restored and is covered in gold mosaic tiles. Photos are not allowed in the church, so we settled for buying a nice book about the church.

Upstairs is a museum and the most amazing part are four bronze horses from the 3rd century AD. They were so lifelike and just amazing in the subtle details, and not to mention that they are nearly 1800 years old!

The weather wasn't great, it was cloudy and raining on and off. We spent the rest of the day walking around a few of the districts of Venice. We had some fantastic pizza at a restaurant on the Campo Santo Stefano. We walked across the Rialto Bridge and through the Rialto markets.

It was great to wander around the narrow streets and over the canals and I took plenty of photos, trying to take advantage of the brief periods of sunlight. We tried to stay away from the crowds and most of the day we did not feel crowded, but anytime you come near a big attraction, like the Basilica, then the crowds are everywhere.

We planned for dinner at one of the recommended restaurants in the Castello district and we were not disappointed. Al Mascaron specializes in Venetian seafood. I don't have the greatest appreciation for seafood, so I went with a nice Tuna steak. We had the mixed appetizer which included octopus and sardines, a few things we couldn't identify, and some vegetables. I tried most of it, and it was pretty good. We sat a heavy wooden table with paper placemats. We shared our table with a lovely couple from England. We enjoyed our conversation, our food, our wine, just a great end to a long day of walking.

Sunday we checked out of our hotel and headed to see more of the Cannaregio and Castello districts. This may have not been the best way to arrange our day as there was some kind of unending tour group walking through the exact route that we were exploring. We tried to find a route that was a bit more off the beaten path, but there are only so many ways to get from point A to point B in Venice and we kept running into the horde. It was truly amazing. At first we thought, we'll wait until this group passes. After a few minutes, we decided to move along and we found our first site, a church, San Francesco della Vigna. We spent 15 or 20 minutes looking around inside and at the klosters and when we came back out the tourist crowds were still coming! At certain "choke" points the crowd stalled, for example when crossing a small canal, here's what it looked like:

We eventually found our way into the San Polo & Santa Croce district and had a fantastic lunch at Antica Birraria La Corte, in the Campo San Polo. Another recommendation from the guidebook that paid off. I had lasagne and Sarah had some delicious pasta that looked like giant spaghetti. Then we had the Torta della Casa, Cake of the house. Fresh fruit on top of custard in a tort crust, delicious.

Dorsoduro is a pleasant district on the south side of Venice and that is where we spent the remainder of our afternoon. The sun had come out, the rain had stopped for most of the day and again we just strolled here and there admiring the architecture, canals, and sea--we don't get to see much of the sea in Switzerland.

As so our weekend came to an end, after seeing plenty of museums and churches and canals, we picked up our bags at the hotel and waited to catch the water bus back to the airport. I would not recommend this method of transport. The boat was crowded, slow and did not have a good view of anything, and since both Sarah and myself have a tendency to get sea sickness, we were very uncomfortable. It wasn't terrible, but taking the bus and then the water bus down the Grand Canal was much better, somewhat cheaper, and about the same amount of time. We have been told that taking the train into Venice is the best way, but I neglected to research that option before we left.

The Basilisk Project continues...

captainn00dl3@gmail.com (Matthew) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:46:00 +0000

I usually like to post pictures and so this one has to be about Basilisks as that is the last thing that I've photographed recently. I'm still working on a project to photograph all of the fountains in Basel that look like this:

This is the reverse angle, but I like this composition a lot. I got out in between rain showers yesterday. I had intended to catch some large magnolia trees nearby, but they are already past their bloom!?!

This weekend we are off to Venice, so look forward to some nice photos next week. Although, it's supposed to rain a lot while we are there, so it will be a challenge, but I'm up for it!