...finalmente a Merano

Dear friends, we made it!

We had a stressful day last Wednesday the 13th we had to leave the house, Haarlem and the Netherlands...after 10 years.
We ended up packing and selecting stuff to take with us for the first 2 months 'till 9:30 pm. At the end our neighbors Melisande and Wietske were helping us carrying stuff and getting ready to leave. Thank you Wietske (and Tom), our new neighbors we haven't had time to get to know better; you are a great person with a big heart!

Luckily we had to drive only two hours to Muelheim, to Ben en Sabine's place. Sabine had prepared us a great dinner for she was in Frankfurt attending a wedding of a friend. Ben greeted us at that godforsaken hour (11:30 pm...) and sat with us at the table to chat and have a great end of that busy day.

The next morning we were driving to Strasbourg to meet our friend Herve` and "pick up" his wedding present. That was a dinner at the restaurant Au Crocodile. First we had drinks with Herve`; we hadn't seen each other since the wedding in September. Later we had a great four course dinner with wines (me) at this (former three now) two Michelin star restaurant. We were starting to relax. We were also staying at the Hotel Cathedrale with a beautiful view of the Cathedral (yes) and an amazing building with a wooden, wholly carved and decorated, fachade.

Next morning we head for Zurich to meet Jason and Monika and have (a wedding present) lunch together at a really cool "new" vegetarian place called Haus Hiltl.
I actually just discovered that the place has a 110 year old tradition. It was opened in 1898 by a group of vegetarian German immigrants and is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Europe. Since 1903 it is owned by the family Hiltl and is since then located at the Sihlstrasse 28; in the center of Zurich. Amazing story.

We arrived late so Jason had to go back to work but as we sat down to eat Monika arrived and managed to spend some quality time with us. Thanks Monika. And thanks for the great lunch/present! The food was great and the place had a very nice atmosphere and light.

In the evening our next wedding present was waiting for us! An overnight stay with dinner at the wellness Hotel Castell, in Zuoz, near St. Moritz offered by our dear friends Barbara and Peter (most of you know each other from the wedding I hope). It rained the whole trip but we were driving through beautiful mountains so we were actually just enjoying. The next morning...the SUN was shining!
The Hotel is an old beautiful building with a modern extension designed (if I got it right) by the Dutch architect office UN Studio (I saw also a competition entry by Sir Norman Foster but it looked more like UN Studio to me).
Saturday we relaxed at the Hammam; steam rooms and a quiet pool with dimmed lights. We both had a massage and then drinks on the beautiful terrace overlooking the mountain scenery.
Who wants to leave we thought? Well... We did. Our next stop would have been the spectacularly placed Residence Miramonti in Hafling, overlooking Merano; what a fantastic view we would enjoy there for the next couple of months! I'll try to post a photo very soon...

So here we are after three days of pleasant travel visiting friends and eating good food.
Our parenthood adventure just about to start soon...as soon as babycake (she'll get a name soon, as soon as she shows her face and character) will think she's ready to join us out here ;-)

We'll keep you posted...come back soon.