The Basel Triangle

We just love the location of our second swap in Badenia which we had to vacate after three weeks, close to the so-called triangle of Switzerland, France and Germany. We've visited here now for several years in a  row and can highly recommend it, especially if you are a foodie and love scenic hillsides. It's situated in the south-western corner of Germany, which has the mildest climate, btw.

A short hop to Switzerland was on the cards now as we had already explored the French side of the border last year. Basel is the closest city in Switzerland when you cross the border. No matter whether you go for one day or longer, you have to pay the road tax of 42 Swiss franks for a whole year (Swiss Franks at the moment almost equal the US $). A burger, on average, sets you back by $18 and a pizza also by about $20. No surprise there; I had paid $5.50 for a glass of tea in a touristy spot in Switzerland about 20 years ago.

Honestly, this German speaking part of the country is very similar to Germany-- only prices jump up! For food, clothes and certainly hotels. But hubby wanted to get an impression too and visit some places I had seen and liked before.

So Basel it was. The weather gods were smiling down on us as we strolled along the embankment of the Rhine which has a strong current here so close to its origin. We visited the famous Waterfall of Schaffhausen of Father Rhine two years ago. Definitely worth a trip to see!

We were flabbergasted when we saw girls in their bikinis on the promenade. To our surprise, people went swimming in the river. You really had to be a good swimmer and a diver to be so adventurous. Mostly young swimmers, equipped with a plastic bag that holds their clothes, had the guts to go in.

For us it was excitement enough to cross the river in a small ferryboat and climb several dozens of stairs to the historic upper part of town.

Chris de Burgh's song came to mind: "Don't pay the ferryman...until he gets you to the other side."." We felt brave just doing that.s

We are Berliners now!

It took me 3 days to adjust to the climate and getting over jet lag so that I'm only starting this year's exchange experience here today. Hubby slept it off for almost 36 hours.
The weather is only beautiful, around 80 degrees with a welcome breeze. We had a few little adventures already in between our napping bouts, but here's about the apartment first.

 It's in a very nice area on the high-end outskirts in Berlin, a maisonette --which should have forewarned me that steps are involved. Not a problem; they keep you fit and all that. But dragging about 250 pounds of luggage up 46 steps almost broke our backs. As I learned on my latest trip to Germany recently, taxi drivers aren't obliged to lift your bags in or out of the car anymore. Must be new union regulations. And our female taxi driver certainly had no inkling to help. She clutched her card machine for payment while hubby and lifted the bags out of the huge van. Then we saw the steps. Somehow I had not realized we were on the 4th floor.
The circular stair case to the upper floor that has a wrap around terrace the size of most Irish flats totally took the wind out of us. No wonder we collapsed. We wonder can you hire a man to carry suitcases up or down the stairs into a car for you? There should be an app for that!

We haven't unpacked yet.
Two nice terraces with lovely views await us for breakfast and other meals.Mega parties could be and were hosted here, I'm sure.

Computer is giving me a tough time rotating the pics. Sorry about that! I'm working on it.

SEASON 6 IS UPON US!

No, it's not Paris this year.

Believe me, it's definitely not Paris although it bears some resemblance, doesn't it?

A street scene, full of cafes and little boutiques in the fashionable quarter of  Kreuzberg .

You're excused to think so, but it is not the Seine. It's the Spree with a view of the famous Island of Museums (Museumsinsel). It houses the Pergamon Museum with the famous statue of Nefertiti, strangely called Nofretete in German.

If you haven't been to Berlin, you're in for a treat and surprise. Berlin is the hottest - and I mean- trendiest capital in Europe with the most visitors in the last 2 years. It will be the start to this years's home swapping adventure starting in early June, earlier than we ever did before. This couple approached us and we couldn't think of one single reason why not leave for our annual trip to Europe earlier than normally. 

We have two more exchanges lined up after Berlin, a little village near Baden-Baden near the black Forest and border to France. I hear you say that we were there before. In fact, it's our favorite area in Germany and we keep returning to it almost every year.

After that, we'll be heading to Luxembourg. This exchange came about quite unexpectedly after a long wait when we thought we couldn't find another swap. More about all destinations as we go along. 

Your House is not Alone

One of the biggest advantages for me if not the biggest- is that your house is occupied all the time during a home swap. Sure, you can hold your mail and also have a security system in place, but people coming and going, the lights on any given night prevent burglaries as any insurance broker or cop will tell you.
Normally you can expect from your trading partners that they will water your plants or provide pet care if that is needed and part of your arrangement.
In the meantime we have made it into Germany where I'm going to meet my children before making our way down to France. The French family is en route exchange a French version of 95 degrees with  whatever hits them in Florida! For us these temperatures here are breathtaking, literally. On of the reason for our annual journey is the cooler climate. Not so this year! And to bear it without an AC is difficult when you're so used to it. I'm already bored with the never changing discussion that "we only have this heat for a few weeks every year".Yeah, sometimes months! And even these few weeks can be hard on the system!.Not too sure yet if I can grin and bear it....In the meantime: I deserve my refreshments, don't I?

Alsace- We're coming!

We are at it again: Home Swapping with another family. You just can't beat it when it comes to economical ways of planning a vacation abroad or the States - no contest!
It's our 5th season. We had 4 years in a row of successful home exchanges.Well, one turned out to be a bit itchy but the others were all wonderful! I think we had 9 so far!
Our destination this year is France again but a part that is not well known here in the US unless you are a wine aficionado. The Alsace area produces  wonderful wines that are similar to German wines but to some drinkers maybe a little less suspect...:) As a former wine importer and distributor, I had plenty of opportunity to sample and compare them. Rieslings, Pinot Blanc and Noirs, Sylvaner and the inimitable Gewűrztraminer.
And the Alsace region is gourmet country! The cuisine is a little hardier than the typical French haute cuisine or cuisine nouveau you find in Paris or Lyon, again resembling German country fare. If you look at the proximity to my home country on the map, that is not surprising. The other factor is that Alsace belonged to Germany until World War II. Germany ceded the region to France under the Treaty of Versailles. For history buffs and other interested parties, there is more on Wikipedia.

Winefest at Schloss Salem

Last weekend, Schloss Salem (4km form our house and about 12km from the Lake) held its annual wine fest.The grounds and buildings alone are worth a visit and if you can taste wine, have a Bratwurst, flat-bread or ice-cream, and listen to Bavarian brass music- you got it all in one. No beer for thirsty throats, however!

Salem also is the home to Germany's prestigious (and expensive) boarding school. The students, of course, were on holidays. After a hearty meal we wandered the grounds and visited its many craft-shops: a glass blower, gifts made out of wood, a shoemaker and jeweler.

The Schloss is surrounded by beautiful rolling fields and right on cue a Zeppelin went over our head.The Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen is only another 30 km away.We visited it the last time we were here. Highly recommended! At the time the price was to high for us but if you know what a helicopter ride on Maui costs, it might just be worth it too!

Our new "Home"

After Heidelberg, we headed straight to the Bodensee, Lake Constance, the place this year's second home swap.  Here's a rough map where you can see how it is nestled between Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

And this gives you an impression of the elevations around it.

 

For a glimpse of its real beauty just scroll up to the masthead.. That's the island of Mainau in the lake. More about our trip there later.

Lake Constance is one of the most frequented places as far as tourism in Germany goes and in the summer you walk should to shoulder at times. We were here before, stayed in a converted, refurnished castle and were rightly ripped off although the flat didn't even have curtains;neither in the bedroom nor the bathroom. Highway robbery! This experience gave me the idea of looking into home swapping and we haven't regretted it.

In fact, we are on our 8th swap now and this could easily one of the nicest we have had. The home is very cosy, practical, close to the sites we want to see and has a gorgeous garden. Alas, the weather gods are not with us. While our home swappers are sweating it out bravely in Florida, we light the open fire in the evenings. And this village has several stork nests.When did you last see storks? I was a child when...they all but disappeared.

Tomorrow, we're going to meet our exchange partners of last year. We're all very excited.

Yes, it's the time of the year again. The Intrepid Home Swappers are at it again: we now have a schedule and two partners for about 7 weeks in Europe. How else could you afford it if not by exchanging homes and cars?
I have to admit this planning season was painstakingly slow. Nothing happening for weeks: I wrote to dozens of members on our website, well a site that we use and who gave us a two year membership for free because of the disaster on the houseboat last July. (Scroll down and you can read up on it if you haven't yet!)

The first positive answer came in and made us very happy: my favorite location in the south of Germany, der Bodensee.

To give you an idea if you're not that familiar with German geography:The lake and north of it is in Germany, to the east is Austria and to the south is Switzerland. We'll be near Ueberlingen...if you squint enough , you can just make it out above the word Germany in red. So in Austria and Switzerland, you'll have the famous Alps around it.

You can't tell much from a map, therefore your for enjoyment and interest a real photo of what to expect:

That's more like it, isn't it?
Our exchange partner just wrote me that they are flying to the British Virgin islands today for some sailing. I can't say if it is a home swap, but home exchangers do get around; most of them have the traveling bug!

So we had one exchange and I waited for more for several weeks.Nothing doing. I even signed up with another site to have more places to choose from. They, I have to say, were not very responsive and if there was an answer, it was a NO.
My preference would have been to go to Italy or France for a change. In my experience, however, these folks don't often reply. Neither are they interested in coming to Florida. We were about to give up hope when, out of the blue, an offer came in from Amsterdam.  So we gladly grabbed that, a very nice family btw. We skyped immediately. No dillydallying with them. One more email and they booked their flights and signed the agreement

I often compare home swapping to internet dating. Either there is some connection and interest or there isn't. Sometimes you have to wait, but you must give it a try. Just sitting at home will get you nowhere. So more about Amsterdam at a later stage.
I never finished last year's report. Just back from a trip to Maui and of course I had to write about that: http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/i-ve-fallen-in-love-with-maui
Hawaii has 46 members on our home swap site as well.I wrote to about two dozens suggesting a trip from one paradise to the next.But no takers so far.

A Celtic Find

Our exchange partners prepared a comprehensive information folder with things to do in that area. One spot caught our interest straight away: close to our house is an ancient Celtic burial site, actually around 500 B.C.  It’s called the Hochdorf Chieftain’s Grave. In the late 1970s, this grass mound among agricultural fields was excavated and revealed a most astonishing find.

. 

The original pieces and remains are housed in a museum in Stuttgart but what they have in place here is pretty impressive and well worth a visit.

“A man, roughly 40 years of age and 6 ft 2 in (187 cm) tall, was laid out on an exceptionally richly decorated 9 ft (275 cm) bronze couch on wheels inside the burial chamber. Judging by other objects found there, this man probably had been a Celtic chieftain: He had been buried with a gold-plated torc on his neck, a bracelet on his right arm, a hat made of birch bark, a gold-plated dagger made of bronze and iron, rich clothing, amber jewelry, a razor knife, a nail clipper, a comb, fishing hooks, arrows, and most notably, thin embossed gold plaques were on his now-disintegrated shoes.

At the foot of the couch was a large cauldron decorated with three lions around the brim. This cauldron was originally filled with about 100 gallons (400 l) of mead. The east side of the tomb contained an iron-plated wooden four-wheeled wagon holding a set of bronze dishes—along with the drinking horns found on the walls enough to serve nine people.”

The art work on his shoes and the drinking horns in bronze and gold was exquisite.

Given my Irish farming background, the reconstructed mound reminds me of a bunker silo. In case you don’t know what they look like, take a peek. This is how they are made:

How did they do it all that time ago without machinery?