The 34th Annual Chateau-d'Oex International Hot Air Balloon Festival

The next series of pictures were taking on our trip to Chateau-d'Oex (pronounced day), on January 28th, to attend the Festival.  Chateau-d'Oex is a charming little village in the Swiss Alps.  It is located about a 1 hour train ride northeast of Vevey.  The dates for the Festival were January 21st through January 29th.

The Festival is truly International.  Although most of the 40 plus balloons and crews were from Northern European countries, there were balloons and crews from Japan, Russia, Canada and the US. 

When we arrived, the weather was such that it was "iffy" if any of the balloons would launch.  When we went to lunch the weather was clearing to the point we thought they might be able to launch the balloons.  However, after lunch it started to snow more heavily and the visibility was very limited.  We went back to the launch site and there were about a half a dozen balloons being inflated, even though the crews knew that they would not be able to launch. 


One of the sponsoring companies of the festival was Nespresso-thanks to all you Nespresso devotees. 

Last, a little history trivia.  Chateau-d'Oex was the place were Bertrand Piccard, from Switzerland and Brian Jones, from Britain, launched their hot air balloon, named Breitling Orbiter 3, to begin the first ever non-stop flight around the world.  They launched on March 1, 1999 and landed in Egypt on March 21, 1999.  The balloon when fully inflated was about 188 feet tall.  Attached to the balloon was an enclosed capsule, which contained Piccard and Jones.  The capsule was about 17 feet long and 9 feet high.  One can only image what it was like for the 2 men to be in the capsule for 20 days.  The capsule was on display at the Festival, unfortunately we did not get any capsule pictures.

2 tickets to Chateau- d'Oex s'il vous plait

The pastries at the train station are so flaky and delicious the crumbs explode when you take a bite...

...leaving a meal for the birds. 

Vevey train station 

The picture is for Logan and Jack...the best part of the trip-the train. 

Around Chateau d'Oex

the bakery celebrates the balloon festival with tiny cakes replicating the town and the balloons

At last the few balloons still able to inflate for display in the poor weather

Uh Ooooooh

Kaput

The marching band, uniformed and ready to celebrate the triumphant balloons

The Scottish entry after a rough night. The largest balloon in the festival.

The sponsoring company's balloon. 

Au Revoir Chateau d'Oex

To Market To Market to Buy a Fat Pig

The farmer's market is a bi-weekly event on Tuesday and Saturday. Much smaller than Portland's impressive park blocks, etc,  but all the enthusiasm and local color.  Hold onto your wallets. 

 The route to the market down Avenue Nestle

Arrival at the Market. The space is not much but check out the back drop.  It is also the only place in town with free WIFI so people are sitting on the steps desperately clutching their electronic devices. I want to make fun but cannot say I didn't do the same when trying to play Words with Friends.

 See what this lovely lady is holding in her left hand? That is what a 16 Franc Chicken  (roughly $18 US) looks like. 

 Cutting a small hunk of bacon. Retail price....wait for it about $18 lb

 God bless the stupid Americans

 Spreading our meager wealth with the fishmonger. But doesn't he just look like you want a fishmonger to look? 

 The egg lady was nice. At a buck an egg-no wonder. 

Oddly, fruit and vegetables were the best bargain. They are probably all from Italy as it is too cold here to support this produce. 

Bread-the best part

 Le buerre is zat way

 A productive day of shopping and delectable dinners all week.  Au Revoir!

Room with a "View"

We moved into the apartment on Thursday. Using that term loosely as in, we moved all we had in our suitcases. Our personal stuff was shipped and freight has been delayed until Sunday. Apparently nothing happens on Sundays in Switzerland so we will get our boxes sometime next week after they clear customs.
Here is a challenge for the readers: we have at least 12 large blank white walls. There is one Cannon Beach poster and a few pictures coming.  What does one put in all this blank space that doesn't cost a ton of money and helps personalize? Take a look at the pictures and comment with your best advice please.

Yes , we live on Avenue Nestle. 

 The front of the building -we are in the salmon colored section.

 Most of the apartments feature some kind of commercial space on the ground floor. I guess appliances are better than living over a stinky restaurant.

 Also, the local rental car place is on the floor of our building. Nestle gets a decent rate that I think we can share with our friends.

 Boring entry-I should have brought my fabulous urns.

 The entry hall is nice and big with big storage closets on both sides.

 The kitchen is fine except that there is only one electrical outlet and at least 3 appliances that need it.  We brought our spice rack from home in our suitcases.

 Our bedroom. Very plain but two huge wardrobes. We'll take a view photo later when the weather is nice. Great Alps view but mountains are fogged in right now.

 Guest bedroom/office. Another decent sized wardrobe and twin trundle beds that make into a king.

 Jack's duckie lays in bed a lot.

 View from guest room with a little Alps in the distance over the roof tops.

 La Salle de Bain. Shower works better than expected.

 Living and diningroom. Yes, that is a BIG yellow sectional.

 Some friends that Lindsay and Jack sent with us.

 Looks like we'll have room to get a grill.

 View toward Lake Geneva from the deck. It will look better on a less "Portland-like" day.

 Our first repast. Be it ever so humble, it is nice to be settled.

 Jim finds this cool. Storage area in the basement has big heavy doors like a bank vault.

The second vault door.  Picture Maxwell Smart entering Control.