FEUERWERK

I had the great honor of being a guest on a boat for the fireworks celebration of Swiss National Day.  This takes place on Lake Biel, and its an all out show similar to our Labor Day show on the Ohio River.  Here's a few clips.  Thanks Christoph!!!

1st week

Hi everyone!!!

With the exception of missing my lovely bride, I am doing very well.  Although everything is upside down here, and even though French Dressing is white but tastes the same, I've been able to navigate myself through Swiss life just fine for the first week.  I keep myself on the go, so as not to spend much time thinking about the people I miss.  My German is serving me well, and I'm able to communicate the basics with the locals, although they have to 'switch' themselves to German, as it is rather seperate from their native 'Swiss German'.  My senses have been overloaded.  Every one.  My ears hear the Swiss tongue backed by a chorus of cowbelles, my tongue experiments with the chocolates, breads, cheeses of the Swiss, not to mention the local beers and the carbonated water.  My sense of touch has been violated by the large flies that take bites out of me in the night, as I live next to a farm in Worben currently.  But all I have to do to see some neat stuff is look right outside my window:

I was on the phone with my dad when a few of these guys 'dropped in':
I was only here to two days before my first little trip, I drove to Bern, the Swiss capital.  It was about a 30 minute drive from my apt., taking the backroads to catch some scenery.  I took alot of pictures of Bern, the first time using my camera.  Afterwards I discovered accidentally how to format my camera's memory, and lost everything.  Oh well... with it being so close and grand, I'll be making many trips to Bern.  I did capture a few shots at dusk from the hill:

In a nutshell, its the capital, and Einstein did his most important work while employed at the patent office.  Other that that, its just maybe one of the coolest places I'll ever see.  It has a very distinct look and feel to it, especially from the street view.  Google it, its cool.

Friday was Swiss National Day.  August 1st.  Its pretty much like our 4th of July and seems to be celebrated the same way.  Fireworks and grill outs.  I think I'll be making a seperate entry for the festivities and right now just write about Avenches and Murten.  Being as it was the celebration of the beginning of Switzerland, I thought I'd check out a little relevent history.  Avenches (pronounced Avanch I think)  was the Roman capital of Helvetica  yadda yadda, google it.  It was much larger than it is now.  The main part of the town is not featured, as I came to see the Roman ruins that lie in the farmlands behind the town, and neglected to photo any of the city newer than 1000 years old.  It was about a 40 minute drive and they speak French here.  Here is a street view, and if you look carefully in the backround you can see the Roman wall and Gate.  But don't strain your eyes, I have a zoomed in photo below:

The next three photos are of the Coliseum, which according to the tourist signs had a third of the capacity of the one in Rome when it was at its largest.  There are stories of seats missing.  And most of the seats are reworked as there apparently is an opera that performs here:

The tower was a medieval addition, with narrow windows as it served as more of a defense structure:

In the backround you see a glimpse of the 'downtown' area which I neglected to photo.
Heres that gate:
A column, the only one left from a big ol' temple:

And the more exciting of the Ruins:  A big part of this structure was for a theatre.  Like all Roman ruins, It had been quarried for many centuries, leaving very little behind from what it once was:

Here I took some video of me walking around in this old Roman stuff.  Sorry for the lack of clarity, I had to dumb down the video enough so that I could upload it.  I'm sure you'll find the dirty cow footage with no problem....

1st week cont'd: Murten

On the way back from Avenches, I stopped in Murten.  This medieval town is sort of a mini Bern.  There was a famous battle here some 500 years ago and cannonballs remain in the defensive walls.  Otherwise its a load of eye candy.  The streets are filled with cafe's, and it smells like great food!

the castle!

I understand these to be grapes across Lake Murten... I read somewhere this area is somewhat known for its wine.  Or maybe its just corn and peas over there.  I dunno.

The Jura Mountains keep us seperated from the French.  and they speak a lot of French here.

over and out! :)

Nawlins! We're back from our Haunted Honeymoon!

They have these drinks on Bourbon Street called "hand grenades".  As you would think by the name, such a beverage has a purpose.  The claim is that they are 'the most powerful drink on bourbon street'.  Pretty good.  We got one, and we split it.  We would joke the entire trip about 'throwing back a couple of hand grenades' just cuz its so fun to say!  The truth: ' throwing back a couple of hand grenades' would probably result in 'throwing up a couple of hand grenades, plus lunch, and maybe breakfast'.

Cafe du Monde is a must hit hot spot.  These french doughnuts, called Beignets, are served up 24hours a day.   Pretty much like a funnel cake to us Ohio folk (note the powdered sugar).  But you can legitimately eat these for breakfast.  or dinner.  or late night post boozer snack.   And a "coffee" is kind of like a latte, about half steamed milk. 

Oysters.  This pretty much started out as a dare.  We got a half dozen oysters in the half shell, and ended up liking them!!  So we got more later in the trip.

You're wondering if what they say of oysters is true.  Yes.

... yes!

Here's a dozen of our little buddies, and a fork full of jambalaya to boot!
Shelly outside the famous Preservation Hall.  Thanks for the tip John!
Inside Preservation Hall.  

Just a peek of the many graves in St. Louis #1

Marie Laveau's tomb is the 2nd most visited in the U.S.  Elvis is #1, and JFK is #3.  Shelly makes her wish:

The northern border of New Orleans is referred to as the Lakeside.  This part of town got the worst of the hurricane, and driving through its suburbs reveals many homes still in ruin.:
Shelly got her haircut.  As usual, the severed locks will be donated to a children's cancer-wig charity.  But first, lets have a beer!
Random pic of Bourbon Street during the day.  For nightly pics, I suggest doing a Google Search:

We did a swamp tour via airboat.  the main attraction of course is the alligators!  They swim right up to the boat because they know we have goodies.  Our guide lured one out of the water with some chicken so we could see how big he was (they appear smaller in the water)

See the gator in this pic? on the log, lower right....

Alligator head coming out of the water, just above the headphones:

Here's a cool pic of Shelly holding a baby:

Alligators love marshmallows!  Our tour guide referred to the marshmallows as "swamp crack" because of their gator-luring ability!  Watch the video:

Everybody asks: " so are you guys going to stay in a  hostel on your honeymoon?  Of course we did!  A lot of people couldn't handle this travel method, but we dig it.  Here's the room, romantic eh? Oh yeah!

Success!

  Planning a wedding is hard work.  I'll tell you right now, it was totally worth it for us.  We're very very lucky to have so many wonderful friends and relatives....  it was you that made our evening so special for us!  

We drove to New Orleans on Sunday!  Driving to the Big Easy was 12 hours of wedded bliss, wrapped up in Volkswagen, and greased down with KFC.  We got lost about seventeen times, but never argued once!

It will be some time before we get our pro photos of the wedding, but I bet you have a few shots you could send me so I can post them here!

I'm gonna go get some crawdads! 

e.

ERROR CORRECTION

I accidentally had the wrong time for the ceremony posted here on this site!  It's 5:30 @ Seasongood, as it says on the invite.  I corrected it below as well.

Cheers,

e.

WEDDING WEDDING WEDDING WEDDING

WHEN & WHERE

June 7, 2008

Cincinnati, OH

ABOUT OUR BIG DAY

The ceremony will take place at Seasongood Pavillion in Eden Park, 5:30 pm. Reception immediatly following. It will be at Mecklenburg Gardens. If you've ever been to Mecklenburg, you know it is going to be a great time with great German foods and lots of beer!!

Click the links for more info!

ABOUT SHELLY:

Shelly Nicole Wenderfer- Birthday April 28, 1981. I was born and raised in Cincinnati, OH, as the youngest of three. I graduated from McAuley High School back in the day and Mount St. Joseph and University of Cincinnati in more recent years. Right now I am working as a full time Professional Counselor at Centerpoint Health on the west side. In my free time I like to make stain glass projects and play with my puppy, Roo.

ABOUT EUGENE:
Eugene Michael Hoffman - Birthday October 14, 1981. He was also born and raised in Cincinnati, OH. He has a younger sister, Jennifer, and brother, Dan. He graduated from Colerain and has just finished his 2-year Mechanical Engineering degree from th

e University of Cincinnati. Some call him Mike, and some call him Eugene. My family, his family, old friends, and I know him as Mike because he once went by his middle name. Most of his coworkers and some of our other friends know and call him by Eugene. So if I call him Mike on the site you will know why. He's a music nut, and is also known to sell / buy stuff on Ebay, and mess around with big old cars.

HOW WE MET:

Highschool Sweethearts, aaawwwwww! We have been together for 10 years.

WHEN WE GOT ENGAGED:

December 31, 2007
I always wanted to see the ball drop on Time's Square... So when Mike took me on a surprise trip to New York I could scratch that one of the list! And of course at the final countown, he 'popped the question'. It was awefully crowded, so he never made it to one knee... but it was

wonderful enough! :)

SHELLY'S ATTENDANTS:

Diana Noyes , Maid Of Honor -- Sister of the Bride

Jennifer Hoffman, Bridesmaid -- Sister of the Groom

EUGENE'S ATTENDANTS:

John Pegram , Best Man -- Best Friend

Dan Hoffman , Groomsman -- Brother of the Groom

SPECIAL GUEST:

Aaron Jacobs, beloved friend of the couple, will be performing the ceremony!

OUR FUTURE AND THE FUTURE OF THIS BLOG (Please read this!):

Bookmark this page! As you've probably heard, we will be spending the early years of our marriage in Switzerland. Mike has signed up for a job rotation, and we will be living in Lyss, Switzerland for three years. We've been very busy getting ready for all of this, we invite you to check for updates on this blog over the next few years. We intend on documenting our adventures right here, and keeping you posted on any news we have. Of course, you can expect to find many pictures! So please come back, and please post comments, and please email us so we can all be in touch while we're gone!

"...till death do us part."

Registry

Shelly and Mike are registered at Bed Bath and Beyond and Dillard's. You can view those registries by clicking the repective links. Also, another great gift idea for the newlyweds would be an Ikea gift certificate, because they would like to replace some their older furniture before they leave.

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