Liechtenstein

Castle in Vaduz

On Thursday, Olaf had business in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, about 80 minutes away from where we were staying in Zürich. Instead of taking a bus, train and cab to get to Vaduz, we drove a rental car.

Lake in Switzerland, on the way to Liechtenstein

On the drive back

I love love driving in Europe. I love stopping whenever we see something interesting, which we got to do on the way back from Vaduz. Trying to find a post office, we drove off into a picturesque valley in Liechtenstein.

After dropping off our postcards, we hiked to a little castle on a hill in the middle of the valley.





We were trying to find somewhere to eat dinner and ended up driving to the top of massive mountain, into a ski village.

Lake in Switzerland

On the way back, we stopped here for dinner. Olaf had a schnitzel with fries and I had fresh asparagus with shrimp.

I was so hungry...

I ate a horse. On accident.

My friend Ina (Garten- and YES, I consider her a friend though we've never met) raves about the picnics she makes for her and Jeffry (Garten- her wonderful husband) when they're traveling. What's good enough for Ina is usually excellent for me.

Except that my picnic was sabotaged by my own failure to read labels- I accidentally bought and ate horse meat :( Dislike. Actually, I liked it, until after I ate it and realized what it was. I thought I was eating very lean prosciutto.

I was sick all day.

Zürich, Switzerland

Hello there!

Last week Olaf went on a business trip to Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. As is our 'thing', we met up after he finished his business in Vienna :) The trips are usually very busy for Olaf, with client meetings from breakfast through the evening. We're just glad to be together and not spend those nights apart. Plus, I get to explore lots of new places :)

It rained for most of our trip but I took advantage of a dry spell on Wednesday, to snap a few photos in Zürich.

Royal Wedding

Everyone in London is very excited about the royal wedding today. It's been declared a holiday for everyone and there will be lots of celebrating around the country. Olaf and I are in Switzerland, missing all the hoopla (on purpose). Many Americans are taking advantage of the long weekend and have already hightailed it out of London.

My friend Johanna's comedy show "Better Off Wed" is starting a second season in a few days. It's playing at Second City in Chicago. I took some girlfriends to see it last year, and we all loved it. Jo asked me to comment on the royal wedding for the show's blog, as we live in London.

Here's a link to the Better Off Wed Blog:
http://betteroffwedshow.com/better-off-blog/

Good luck with the new show, Jo!

ps- I took the photo above during my run- it's of the cavalry rehearsing for the wedding in Regent's Park

South Africa Day 5

Our last full day on safari was really a mixed bag. This boy up above was big and WILD, and very aggressive. I wouldn't want to run into him while on foot. He gave us one good stare down and then thundered off into the bush.

Above is my favorite little creature, a jackal. She wasn't scared of us at all, but perhaps irritated that we interrupted her sunrise nap.

Olaf wanted to see hippos, and luckily we did. Big, lazy ass hippos rolling around in the river.


The first hour or two of our evening drive was pretty uneventful. I had made the choice of where to go on our drive, so if we saw no wildlife it would be pinned on me. While the four of us were looking for leopards in the trees, Brett stopped the Cruiser and jumped out. Apparently we almost ran over a very important snake. I'm not sure of the name, but I know A. it is the fastest striking snake in Africa/ the world/ or whatever, and B. it is responsible for the highest percentage of fatal snake bites. Ick.

Brett, our snake-loving guide, jumped out of the car and pursued the dangerous snake with MY CAMERA. Actually, I was glad he did, because his pictures turned out great :) Looked like a total mad man laying on the ground, supposedly "just out of striking distance." Right.


The evening picked up nicely. We saw a few rhino and a brown hyena carrying an antelope head (awkwardly, uh, because of the big antlers).

We stopped for our sundowner in a nice little meadow, but our party was quickly crashed by two big, hungry rhino. We opted to take our beers in the car and watch while they mowed the grass.

South Africa Day 4, Wild Dogs and Elephants

We were so pleased after seeing the wild dogs the night before, we really didn't expect to see them again. Lucky for us, the pack killed an antelope on a road early in the morning. Because we were in the car, the dogs were very relaxed and didn't mind us observing them.

With what was left of the kill.

The dogs were gluttons- look at that big belly! They all were walking around like they were pregnant ;)

On our evening drive, we noticed a herd of elephants walking single file across the road. I thought it was cute and very organized- I knew I liked elephants. Thankfully we had our smart ranger with us who interpreted their movements much better than I- the elephants were headed to a waterhole!

The elephants picked up speed as they neared the waterhole. They were so excited! Lining up single file, they drank their fill before having a little play time :)

The baby elephants were having an absolute bawl, rolling around in the water and getting good and muddy.


This was definitely my favorite part of the week.

South Africa Day 3, Wild Dogs and More

Our third day at Madikwe was great! The reserve is known as the best place to see wild dogs, which are endangered. We were constantly looking for the dogs, while the rangers were trying to track them by looking for paw prints in the dust.

Finally, we ran into a ranger from a private lodge where the dogs were last spotted with a kill. Lucky for us! The lodge was kind enough to let us into one of their suites, where we could stand on the balcony to observe the dogs.

The wild dogs were very social with each other, but seeing us on our feet made them very nervous. We stayed for a good 30 minutes, just observing the dogs.




Babies babies! Our visit coincided with the beginning of the rainy season and the animals giving birth. We saw many mini's stumbling around, trying to stay upright and master the art of walking on four legs.