Kathleen street. Bern.

While on my way to dropping off some paperwork to the Vietnam Consulate in Bern for our upcoming South East Asia trip, I had to turn on Zieglerstrasse or in English, Ziegler Street. "Oh yea, that's right, Switzerland's capital city has a street named after my wife!" I thought. Then I thought, "Do they have a Piotrowskistrasse?" Coudln't find it. Yet.

Milan. Crazy meeting you here.

Kathleen's dad was passing through Milan for business. So, we decided to pop on down for a visit and explore Milan. After a short 4 hour train ride through Alps we arrived at Milan's main station. Kathleen's dad, Joe, was there waiting for us. And we were off!

After dropping off our bags we headed straight for the Doumo. We were surprised to find the square next to it filled with confetti. We wondered what had happened and went for some pizza and beer. After polishing off many slices and some "death by chocolate" type dessert we walked back into the square, only to find thousands of costumed kids in an all out crazy string and confetti war. Neither off us had seen anything like it. We know we couldn't beat them so we joined them. With a couple of cans of crazy string we jump into the middle of the action. What scene. We were all smiles as we headed inside the Doumo with tiny pieces of colored paper in our hair. What an amazing church. Inspiring a real sense of awe. We even got to see "The Last Can." It's revealed only to those that are ready to receive it.

We finally left the Doumo area for a bit of relaxation at Joe's hotel. Then it was cigar time. Joe and I have been waiting since December to share a cigar. We didn't really get the proper chance in Grindelwald. But we took care of that with a nice Jack and Seven at our hotel, before diving into some killer authentic Italian food down the street. Lungs and souls completely satisfied it was time to say goodnight and goodbye. Joe had to catch a 5am flight the next morning.

Kathleen and I stayed for some shopping and further eating before training back to Zürich late Sunday afternoon. Nothing like seizing the day with family!

Fondue fit for king.

We returned to Gstaad in hopes of doing some more top shelf snow skiing at one of our favorite ski resorts. Unfortunately, global warming had something else in mind for us. Waiting in line at a T-Bar as a small crew shoveled snow on the path so that we could get up the hill. The day was beautiful. The skiing was not. In fact it just plain sucked.

However, all was not lost on this trip. Based on a recommendation of one of Kathleen's co-workers, Phillipe, we made reservation at the über glitzy Gstaad Palace for dinner. The Palace is perched over the town as if straight out of a fairy tale. The price of a drink in it's lobby was perched high above us as well. But the people watching was well worth the price of admission. It bordered on surreal. And so was the recommended fondue we ate. Amazing. It was a champagne and truffle fondue. If you wanted to kill yourself by eating cheese, this would be a most pleasant way to go. In fact it's the only cheese fondue we would recommend eating in Switzerland.