South Africa, Here We Come

With the college football and NFL seasons fully underway (including the evergreen Favre soap opera), is anybody in the U.S. paying attention to World Cup qualifying? Perhaps not, however the soccer (or football or Fußball) results rank always as front page news in Europe.

In case you're not quite up to speed, South Africa hosts World Cup 2010 next summer. Last week saw the (nearly) final round of qualifying games across the globe. The United States national team officially qualified, no great accomplishment among the weak North and Central American qualifying group against the likes of Honduras, El Salvador and much-feared Trinidad & Tobago. Somewhat surprisingly--albeit a pleasant one for the Swiss--Switzerland also qualified from the competitive European group last week. After a series of botched games and early exit as co-host of the European Championships in summer 2008 (primarily because of the crushing social pressure they heaped on themselves, very Swiss of them), this World Cup 2010 qualification feels somewhat redeeming to this tiny but nonetheless proud country constantly on the European bubble surrounded by talented, confident giants like Italy, Germany and France.

Perusing the newspaper on a tram last Thursday, the day after official qualification, I thus found this typical "local interview" clip quite amusing. Several Swiss and several non-nationals (Argentinean and "loathed" German) are asked about their dream opponent next summer. The German (lower right) gives a great loathed German answer, he wants Switzerland to play reigning world champ Italy. The Argentinian babysitter (middle right) thinks Switzerland v. Argentina would be interesting (it might). But my favorite... the 24-year-old Swiss hairdresser (featured top left) wants an "easy opponent like Chile, USA or Australia, otherwise the Swiss may lose all their games." It's funny because she's right; the USA probably boasts roughly equivalent skill to Switzerland.

There is however an X-factor: while the U.S. historically bombs out terribly in Europe (ranking virtually last in France 1998 and Germany 2006) they can improve markedly on "neutral", i.e., non-European, grounds as evidenced by their sometimes lucky, sometimes surprisingly good run in Japan/Korea 2002. As mega-fans of World Cup atmosphere and attendees in France and Germany, Steph and I already booked our (rather expensive) tickets and hotels in South Africa next summer. After planning our travels on those previous occasions around seeing a (ultimately disappointing) U.S. game, we're instead taking a loose approach: staying in stunning Cape Town and its surrounding wine regions rather than risking soccer's unpredictable fortunes; raucously attended bars and cafés broadcast all the games on TV regardless. Steph visited Johannesburg and Cape Town on a work trip earlier this year, but this will make my first journey to the African continent.

Fun stuff and definitely something to look forward to... USA! USA! USA!

Twice As Nice

Let's see now... picking up exactly where I left off... returning from Singapore to land in Zürich quite early that Thursday morning in late May, I arrived home to a full house...

Yes, can you believe I just recovered a half-started blog entry from nearly five months ago?? That must have been when I lost the blog mojo. Never mind that so many details have faded, I found some good pictures that were never shared and will nevertheless try my best in the recounting...

Indeed, Steph and I were lucky to receive our first-ever return visitors to Switzerland, of course you remember Steph's parents--code-named Kay and Archer to protect the innocent. Gluttons for punishment, they scored some cheap airfares and again landed in Zürich 13 months after their initial visit last year in late April. I blame the Global Economic Crisis for (among lots of other things, as I find convenient) general expense aversion and a relative dearth of visitors in 2009 compared to 2008. Or perhaps that a majority of friends and family are exhausting their schedules raising young children these days, making a trip to Disneyland (much less Switzerland) an arduous undertaking.

This year's 10 days with Kay and Archer required slightly different organization than last year's, per yours truly trying my hand at working again in 2009. A common theme emerges: work interferes with blogging, work interferes with Hobbes's swimming schedule, work interferes with visitors, work interferes with [reader's choice]... Instead of touring Switzerland's entirety, we opted for bookend weekend excursions to France and Germany and left them to their own devices with Zürich as home base during the workdays.

We ventured first just over the border to Strasbourg, a perfectly excellent French border town sporting plenty of interesting German influence amidst the heart of the Alsatian wine region (Steph's and my second trip since June 2008). Awesome Gothic church, great white wine, lots of Flammeküche (Alsace pizza, not to be confused with Pflaumenkuchen, or German plum tart), just a solid European town. Pictures below tell the story. Later that week back in Switzerland, Kay and Archer hiked in the vicinity of Zermatt and The Alps' famous Matterhorn peak (still haven't seen it myself) bordering Italy, and spent Friday with Steph exploring the voluminous castle in Montreaux over in my Swiss-French neck of the woods (I was working), later commuting home with me.

Saturday we visited the impressive impressionist van Gogh art exhibit in not-so-far-away Basel, Switzerland and then trained it yet again to finish the long weekend in Mainz, Germany, home to a nice Hyatt and quite near the Frankfurt international airport for their flight home Monday. Mainz scored better than expected, pleasant in its own right, more than simply a Frankfurt suburb. The highlight of the trip was an afternoon historic castle and vineyard cruise down the Rhine River through the heart of the Rheinland-Pfalz region. Castles on bluffs around every turn with Riesling vineyards strewn steeply below. We disembarked at one of the many villages along the way for a light lunch including a liter of the local white for a bargain 5 Euros served by the 85-year-old proprietress. Ich kann es nie genug sagen (I can't say it enough): Germany rocks!

Strasbourg pics link here. I think I have Rhine pics at home, but no access tonight in Lausanne. Sorry! http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=368064518703%3A542620968

Blog Back On! - summer recap

Okey doke, here we go again! My blog output dropped so anemically this summer that I simply must have saved up some creative energy, eh? I'll try to keep the next posts short and rapid-fire rather than too-big bites. Otherwise I can't even keep a Part 2 post alive these days. But don't worry, if you're really curious about the intracacies of dog-grooming in foreign lands I'll try to finish that last post too.

In the meantime, check out our fancy rooftop garden this summer. Pictured here: San Marzano tomatoes, a rampant basil weed, thyme (obscured by said weed) and yellow tomatoes, also accompanied (not pictured) by a robust potted rosemary bush and not-as-robust Italian flat leaf parsley. All soaking up the sun on a lovely blue-skied summer day, of which we can boast quite a quantity from June through September this year, a longer summer and overall less rain than last year. We suffered one hot spell for about two weeks, only about 30-32ºC (86-90ºF) and less humidity than in the Midwest U.S., but those conditions can wear on you slightly without a shred of air conditioning at home, while sleeping or in the office (also sleeping?). And although overall I'm not a big weather-complainer, this year provided even the curmudgeons scant fodder.

So we overplanted our first-ever rooftop garden a bit, underestimating how much sun the plants would devour six stories up, and watched the tomatoes strangle each other mid-summer to yield ultimately a high count but low average weight tomato--more like large cherry tomatoes. Regardless they were fantastically delicious off the vine, especially the sweet yellow tomatoes. One summer evening we prepared the classic Italian, rely-entirely-on-quality-raw-materials caprese salad with freshly-picked tomatoes and basil with olive oil and a cheese reminiscent of fresh Mozzarella (that I mistook for a special Italian-commune-labeled Mozzarella but was actually more of an under ripe version that oozed after cutting; the cheese options in the average Swiss grocery might confuse you too!). The result... not bad at all! There may have been wine too...

I'll sign off here with one more summer pic. You'll remember that the Most Spoiled Dog on Earth enjoyed the services of a full-time caretaker and entertainer during the summer of 2008, since his primary servant then lacked a job in the human world. Hobbes's new typical schedule of Mon-Wed as the only boy in the house (with his servant in Lausanne) plus Thu-Fri with a work-from-home companion didn't settle well at first. After voicing his discontent several times regarding too much time home alone--including knocking out our internet for a full week (Swiss service doesn't exactly jump to fix things) and climbing up all 88 lean mean pounds on the brand new dining room table (really a first, I would've loved to see it) to impart a few choice, deep claw scratches in the wood veneer--and with lots of help from our awesome Mexican dog-sitter Mitzy, he was more or less on board with the new routine in Summer 2009, pictured here plotting to terrorize a family of ducks on Lake Zürich. Could you tell by the smile?

Whoah! Excuse the delay!

A quick note to the blog faithful--sorry for the long delay! Hopefully we'll still find out about Hobbes's new groomer. This whole working thing really puts a crimp in my blogging style. And I guess we had a busy summer. Here's a picture from a trip to Valencia, Spain, in August to tide things over for now. We just returned home from Oktoberfest in Munich this weekend, our second annual trip, that's certainly always good blog fodder also. So hold tight please and I'll get back in the groove..!