Our New Neighborhood in Athens

We are back in Athens after a vacation in Switzerland that was WUNDERBAR. On our way back to our apartment from the airport, our driver informed us that we had been moved to a "new" apartment. This was good news as we were glad to be away from the six lane highway that ran past our old place. Our new building is about 25 years old and is in a well established neighborhood in Athens called Maroussi. We like it and have been working on making it feel like home. There is still work to be done but here is a snapshot of our new digs...

living room

hallway to spare bedroom

written translation of washing machine instructions

German washing machine

spare oom

bathroom

kitchen

kitchen

entry/livingroom/office/dining room

living room

our bedroom

our bedroom from hallway

our building (we're on 3rd floor, right)

Chinese restaurant across the street

organic market

cafe

Starbucks close by

center where small, cobble stone streets converge (and traffic doesn't stop for pedestrians)

small street in Maroussi

butcher shop

Prochain arret: Zermatt

When every muscle in your body hurts and you were the last one out of the snowy hills, no one around for acres, only you and the jagged ridges, then you know you had a good day skiing... or so says Matt. We have been in Zermatt for the past four days and today took the cake. The sun was shining, the Matterhorn towered above powder fresh snow, and the pasta was delicious just over the border in Cervinia, Italy. Our faces still burn with the sting of cold wind from the tip-top of Mt. Crumpit. We weren't the first ones up the mountain, but we were definitely the last ones off and now we can feel the tug of bed and the aching reminder in our joints of a day well spent. Here are a few pictures...

Achtung, baby. Teri approaching Italian/Swiss Boarder.

Teri schussing down the piste.

Biblical references and symbols are found throughout the area.

All smiles before the epic day began...

Beyond the misty mountain

Lunch in big Italy

Inside the slope side "Chalet Etoile".

Vino Rosso and rigatone gargonzola i spinach.

Really just hashbrowns, but the umlaut over the "o" makes all the difference.

Here are some more pictures from our trip. We visited some friends that we met in India and who live in Thun. We had a wonderful weekend with all five of them. We even learned how to count in German thanks to some hard fought games of Uno. Thanks again Herzogs!

Lake Thun

Teri, Matt, Mariza and Marcel



Tea Time

Haselnusslebkuche

We also visited Bern, the Swiss capital.

Pretzels

Sausage

The quiet zone on the Swiss train. Note that headphones are also verboten.

Une Grande Vacance

View from gondola, Verbier

Morning sunshine

Matt and Aunt Lynne make a fire

Fondue

An Apres Ski of Vin Chaud (hot mulled wine) on the mountain at sunset

Saint Bernard

View from Mont Fort 3330 meters

View from L'Orchidee, Uncle and Aunt's place

Matt and Uncle Gene with morning coffee

Aunt Lynne with bean soup

Teri on train from Geneva to Verbier

Greetings from Switzerland! We are starting off the new year with a vacation in the mountains and we begin our journey in Verbier. We are visiting our Aunt and Uncle here in their hilltop hideaway, and they are so generous for putting us up yet again. We have spent the week skiing on the sunny slopes around Verbier and enjoying the fresh mountain air. The view is breathtaking and it is so refreshing to spend so much time together being active outside. Skiing is one of Matt's very favorite things to do and he is quite good at it. Teri, well, it will take a lot more time and practice for this novice to be able to ski down the mountain without too much trouble, but she'll get there.

More to come!...

Deluge

We've recently discovered how to connect to the sometimes-strong-but-mostly-weak internet connection at our apt, so we decided to post some pictures we've been harboring in our camera for the last two weeks.

O tannenbaum

This is the replacement tree for the one that was torched in the riots at Syntagma Square

".... As soon as I get my hands on you...!" the statue seemed to say. Making it up as we went along at the National Archeological Museum in Athens.

Very famous statue. Very famous.

Graffiti from the riots after the shooting on Dec. 6th

The dark face of anarchy

More dark faces of anarchy, a.k.a. crazed Panathinaikos fans (Note the flares at the far end of Olympic Stadium)

The 2004 Olympic grounds

Teri outside of a tiny Greek Orthodox church 

On a walk around the hood

Matt posing in front of our apt building--ours is the second floor balcony