Enjoying life with friends

For those of you who haven't been here in a while, you can read about our Austria trip here and here.

We have been pretty busy socialising lately and it won’t stop throughout summer. Life is tough, you know. Last week, we took a few days off and drove to Austria to visit some friends, and this past weekend, we were home and close to home. We had a great time.

Suse and Andreas, our friends form the Bavarian region came over to visit us. After their arrival, early Saturday afternoon, we started with a nice welcome drink: a pink Moët. After the welcome drink, we took the tram to Basel and walked around to show Suze and Andreas a bit of Basel. We shortly discussed whether we should bring umbrellas or not, as the forecast for the afternoon was thunder showers. We decided to challenge faith and leave the umbrellas at home. A good decision as we were so lucky with the weather; we didn’t get a drop of rain all day! We got off at the tram stop “Bankverein” and walked down the Freiestrasse. Neither Suse nor Andreas had visited Basel before, so this was their first view of this nice town. The first acquaintance with Basel centre was a small shock. The first looks in the shop windows made a sound of disbelief escape from Suse’s mouth. Yes, she was shocked by the prices of articles displayed in the shop windows.

We continued our way down Freiestrasse towards the Marktplatz (Market place). Of course we had to show them “Globus”, a beautiful department store, with an excellent food department offering exclusive foods, spirits and wines. All their merchandise is displayed in such a nice way that it's amost impossible to just walk straight through. We continued our stroll up to the Münster cathedral to enjoy the view over the Rhine. Then we walked down the (many, many stairs to the quai to take one of the idyllic ferries across the Rhine to the other side of Basel. Note that this one (out of four) runs on the power of the current only. When we got off the ferry, a crossing of just a few minutes, we looked at the beautiful old houses nestled along the Rhine and decided to stop for a drink on the terrace of one of the many restaurant.

A bit later we continued our walk through the backstreets to arrive to the “Caveau”, a nice wine bar where we sat down for an afternoon aperitif. We enjoyed an excellent Merlot from Chile and had plate of different cold cuts and “Hobelkäse” (a very tasty, thinly cut cheese called Sbrinz). Andreas enjoyed the wine and the plate as he loves the “Bündnerfleisch” (a thinly cut dried salted beef). After the tasty aperitif, we walked over to the restaurant where we reserved for the evening dinner, the Atlantis. The restaurant is known for its cozy ambiance and superb kitchen. We all enjoyed our dinner accompanied by a nice bottle of Cabernet Syrah Penfolds BIN 389, one of my favourite Australian wines. Even Suse, who said “I’ll sick with water for now” couldn’t resist its lovely full taste. She even wrote down the name. I guess she’ll be on a specific wine hunt next time she’s shopping…

After dinner we took the tram back home and sat down in the garden to enjoy the nice evening weather. After a short while, Suse made herself immortal by feeding Dale his vitamin paste from the tube. Yup, she's been added to Dale’s “Tube Of Fame” guest list. I think Suse fell in love with our black feline. The ladies went to bed one after the other and Andreas and I enjoyed a last (2 or 3) drinks while chatting in the garden. Around 3 am we decided to get some sleep, too.






The next morning, Dale amazed Andreas and Suse again with his almost human behaviour. The famous words “gutti-gutti” (“feeding time”) made him run in from the garden and up to the kitchen. After he was “served” his breakfast, we had ours. Suse wanted to feed Dale some of the yoghurt, but without success. I immediately knew what was wrong. You must know that Dale is brought up in a very good way and knows how to eat correctly. I took a spoon - don’t laugh - and scraped through the yoghurt cup to fill the spoon with the rests of yoghurt and presented it to Dale on the spoon. And, you might have guessed already, Dale calmly licked the yoghurt from the spoon until he was done. Another surprise for Suse. Yes, Dale is quite an amazing animal.

Around noon, Andreas and Suse decided to drive off as they had plans for the evening at home. Before they left, we planned our next visit to them to make sure it wouldn’t take that long until seeing each other again. So, we’ll be back in the Bavarian region at the beginning of August. We’re all looking forward to it. Their just such adorable, fun people. After we fixed the next date, we said our goodbyes and off they went.

That evening, we were invited at TBF’s. The special reason was that a fellow bloger Colon Blow (Mrs. TBF's brother) and Mrs. CB were visiting. We arrived at the TBF residence around 5 pm and as always, we were warmly welcomed by both TBF’s. For the first time we met Colon Blow and Mrs. CB in person, after we had only known each other via cyber space.


By the way CB, this reminds me, you should put up a few posts again. It’s been quite some time now :-) I know we’ve bugged you all evening with this, but a blog needs to be maintained, kept alive!

We went up to the roof in the “Fishbowl” for the a glass of wine. Mrs. TBF had again arranged for a nice appetizer consisting of king prawns, olives and bell peppers stuffed with olive and/or blue cheese. Delicious! I could feed on snacks like that all night. We chatted away while TBF showed his expertise on BBQ-ing once more. He made sure that the prepared meal was slowly cooked to the right point. He is a master of grilling. Once the meat was ready, we were kindly requested to come downstairs for dinner. We enjoyed an excellent dinner of stuffed turkey breast with Cranberry sauce and a mix of oven roasted veggies such as bell pepper, mini potatoes and mushrooms. A very tasty meal! After dinner, we sat outside on the balcony and at a certain moment heard the rain pouring down. Dessert was served on the balcony; Vanilla ice with strawberries macerated in grand marnier. Yummie!

All evening, as we were chatting away, Colon Blow at a certain moment was the involuntary victim of our harassment. He was “criticised” (again) for not posting on his blog for so long (last post: March 17th, 2007!!!); struggling at times with his new camera missing the fun shots because of being late with the right settings and switching off the flash which led to dark pictures. Poor guy! But he was a good sport and laughed along with us. Wanna take a look at his blog and read about his adventures in Switzerland? Just click here and read about his past few weeks with his sis and bro-in-law. But, give him a bit of time, though. They've only flown back on Wednesday.

At a certain moment, the wind got pretty strong and the rain was swept on the balcony so we decided to go inside. At that moment, TBF told CB and me that he had to show us a funny passage of the movie “Borat”. We actually ended up watching about half the movie before CS and I decided to go home. We had a fun evening, enjoyed meeting a fellow blogger and his lovely wife, and had a great time with all. After we arrived back home, we both were so tired that we just crashed into bed.

Monday, we took it easy. Just enjoying a quiet day with the two of us, reading blogs, listening to music and enjoying a glass of champagne. We had a fun filled weekend again, but tomorrow, a work week starts. When I think that I had to get up 4 am the next day to appear on time for a meeting in Germany that started at 8.30 am, pfewww. It was a toughy…

PS: As so as we get the pictures from Andreas, we'll update. Blogger won't let me upload more for the moment, so I'll try again later this evening or tomorrow.

Kangaroos, emus and crocodiles

Not only does one find all of these creatures in Australia, but also served on a plate in a restaurant near Basel. That’s right. It’s called “The Boomerang” and serves Australian specialties, beers* and wines.

We had been planning to have dinner there with TBFs for quite some time, now, and we finally set a date: March 17th. To add to the fun and entertainment, Rammy and John, another couple of friends, would be joining in as well.

Not only had we agreed to meet at TBFs for an aperitif, but since it was coincidentally St-Patrick’s Day, everybody wore something green. John and Rammy had gotten there earlier in order not to miss the rugby game that was broadcasted that evening (John is a big fan of rugby). After a few drinks and lots of chatting, we decided to walk the 2 tram stops to the restaurant. We were warmly welcomed by the owners, Rolf and Linda, and their daughter Bianca, and taken to our table. It’s a very small restaurant, maybe 35-40 seats, but it was packed full.

Most of us had a salad as starter, but TBF just had to try the crocodile. I now realise that I forgot to ask TBF what he thought of his starter. I’ve had it before and the texture is similar to chicken breast, but with a slight fishy taste to it.

Mrs. TBF had never eaten emu steak before, so she decided to go for that as a main course. It’s a delicious red meat, maybe a bit of a cross between beef and a touch of game, but much milder than deer or such. Rammy had the lamb and the rest of us went for different cuts and preparations of beef.

Orange-X chose a lovely Penfold's St-Henry Syrah wine to accompany the meal …and us!

Notice TBF’s “alcohol vein” (as he likes to call it) on his forehead. I guess it works somewhat like a barometer. I’m not sure.

When Rolf arrived with the main course, we just had to take a few pictures, so he even accepted to sit down with us for a quick photo.

Just as Rolf came in with the last two sets of plates, he pointed out that the plates were very hot. Too late: TBF had already done the test. Ouch! Seeing Feeling is believing, right? Ahhh, there’s nothing like warm food served on a hot plate.

The dinner was excellent! Do we look happy, or what?

Rammy had had a long day, so she decided to go home around 11pm and let us five go on with the fun. About an hour later, we asked for the bill and John suddenly realized that Rammy had left with his wallet. We started making jokes with the owner and with a friendly wink; Rolf said that he had plenty of rubber gloves and dirty dishes. Naturally, TBFs came to the rescue. We left the restaurant and walked back to TBFs for a last night cap.

While Mrs. TBF and I sat in the living room and chatted, the men went to the TV room to watch the end of the rugby game that TBF had taped for John, followed by a DVD with short sketches. Notice how King the cat secured himself a good spot on the chair. Isn’t it funny how men are so easily entertained?

We left around 2.30 am and drove John home. It was a great evening, had lots of fun and we enjoyed many laughs. I think we have to do this more often.

*the real stuff, brewed in “Aussieland” and not in Europe