Ethiopia Trip

Kevin here.  I just got back from a great two week work trip through Ethiopia and Tanzania.  The vast majority of my trip was spent traveling throughout Ethiopia visiting the various coffee growing areas.  Ethiopia is hugely important in the coffee world -- it's where coffee originally came from and its coffee is truly distinct and has a high demand from roasters all over the world because of its unique taste.

I started the trip in the capital city of Addis Ababa but was only there about 12 hours before we hopped on a plane and flew west to the small town of Jimma.  Like most small towns out side of Addis, it has a few paved roads but most are unpaved and bumpy.  Cows and goats are herded down the streets of town and more than once we were stopped by furry, mooing traffic jam.  We spent 3 days exploring larger coffee estates and eating at farms and at the one ok restaurant in the town.  Ethiopian eating is a unique experience--you eat with your hands and you use a spongy, fermented bread called Injera (think very sour dough pancakes) to pick up the rest of the food on your plate, which commonly consists of goat, beef (sometimes cooked and sometimes raw), various veggies, lentils, etc.  We were served lunch on the farms and it was delicious, but I got tired of the food pretty quickly.  Luckily you can order Italian food in nearly any restaurant or eating establishment in the country.  Ethiopia was briefly occupied by Italy for 5 years leading up to World War 2 and their food influence remained after the Italians left.

After spending time in the West, we flew back to Addis and then drove 6-7 hours south through the Great Rift Valley to visit two very respected coffee growing areas -- Yirgacheffe and Sidamo.  The drive was stunning and the traditional houses in the south looked like they were straight out of a movie set.  I spent most of the drive with my camera hanging out of the window trying to capture the beautiful passing scene.  One night in the south we stayed at a very nice lodge that did it's best to recreate the traditional, circular huts.

Whenever we'd see any children in town or on the side of the road, they'd immediately yell "you, you, you, China!".  China invests heavily in Ethiopia, so they see a lot of Chinese people in their country and have come to think that all white skinned people are Chinese.

After a few days in the South, I headed back to Addis Ababa for 2 days of meetings and then flew down to Dar Es Salaam for a coffee conference.  It was my first time in Tanzania, but I didn't get to see much of it besides the beaches north of Dar where the conference was held.  Even the tiny bit of Tanzania I saw was beautiful and we'll definitely be back sometime to do a safari.

Here are some pics of my trip...

Taha, farm manager, showing us their tree pruning techniques 

Kids on the farm

Those flowers will turn into coffee beans (inside a cherry looking fruit) and be harvested in about 8 months.  They produce an extremely intense floral smell that smells so good.  We even remarked that someone needs to make some perfume with that smell.

No matter where you are in Africa, you always see people walking and on the move.

This is the Ethiopian coffee ceremony.  They roast the beans on the spot over a fire (like she's doing above), grind them in a mortar and pestle, boil them in a hot water in a pot over fire, and then serve in tiny little cups.  This is extremely common and you see this ceremony happening everywhere--from the smallest hole-in-the-wall restaurants to even the airport.  

School on the farm

Happy kids who called me Chinese 

Ethiopian honey is different than any honey I've ever tasted.  It's extremely floral (it takes on the taste of the coffee flowers) and you can buy it in little stalls like this.  Definitely not pasteurized and definitely has left over bees floating in it, but so, so good.   

That's the gate around Prime Ministers Palace in the background.  The guy with the machine gun got mad at me for taking this picture.  So I just pretended I only spoke Chinese.

Found a bunch of monkeys on a morning hike

Nice place to have a morning cup of coffee 

Aregash Lodge where stayed one night

Beautiful traditional round houses all over the country.  Also, very colorful square houses made of Eucalyptus poles and mud and then painted bright, vibrant colors.   

Guard at a coffee washing station

Drying tables at a coffee washing station 

Traditional beehive for producing honey.  I wonder how they decide who has to climb way up there to get the honey...

"You, you, you. China!"

 The Great Rift Valley

We passed a lot of foosball and ping pong tables situated like this throughout small towns

Roadside camel 

Great Rift Valley 

Great Rift Valley

Cupping coffee in Addis Ababa 

Those coffee bags weigh 132 lbs each 

Women doing the traditional method of sorting out the good beans from the bad 

Spoiled on the beach at the conference in Dar Es Salaam 

Weekend in Leukerbad

So, Kevin hit the road for a two week work trip in Africa and the kids and I (mostly me) get a little stir crazy being alone for that long, so my friend and I decided to take a little girls/kids weekend trip to the beautiful mountain town of Leukerbad.

It was a quick hour and a half car ride up to the little ski town in the canton of Valais and boy was it worth it. This little village was the most family friendly place, so great if you are traveling with a gaggle of preschoolers!

Since it was early evening when we arrived, we unloaded the mountain of stuff we brought and headed to an Italian place for dinner. This definitely wasn't fine dining but that didn't matter; we arrived to find a giant kids area complete with a "race track" for the little ones to amuse themselves in while their sherpas (parents) enjoyed a peaceful dinner. JACKPOT!!! Wow, so great.

Vacation food!!

The next morning we woke up to bluebird skies and full agenda for the day's activities. First we went lazy man's sledding: magic carpet up- sled down, repeat until hungry.

After lunch and nap we took the kids to the famed thermal baths to partake in the healing waters, and enjoy some awesome baby waterslides. The kids loved swimming from the inside pools to the ones outside. There is something so magical about being in a warm pool with snowy mountains all around you. I wish I had a camera to capture all the swimming around, but I had my hands full of kids, and I wasn't sure of my ziplock bag camera waterproofing skills. So, sorry no pictures.

We woke up to rainy weather on Sunday, but that worked fine for us, because we took the kids to the indoor ice skating rink for the morning.

My friend and I were a little unsure how it would be taking two two-year-olds and a four-year-old on the ice with only two of us, but it worked out fine. Michelle Kwan we are NOT, but everyone enjoyed themselves, and these wooden penguins were lifesavers!

After a quick lunch we headed back to Lausanne with three sleeping kids! I'm hoping the snow in Leukerbad lasts a few weeks longer, because I'd love to take Kevin up there for some more Swiss winter fun!

Around Here Lately...

 Here are a few highlights from our phones of life around here 

lately...

Kevin and Quinn went on the highest Ferris Wheel in Montreux a few weeks ago. What a view!

Trains, Trains, Trains!

This little train has provided the kids with hours of enjoyment and me with hours of trying to get the stubborn little thing back on it's track!

QP has taken up reading on his way to school, he likes to spend his mornings catching up with the local French daily. The other day his teacher told me that he gives her a weather report from time to time.

 Baking season is in full swing here, although my general feeling is that it's kind of pointless to bake when you can just walk around the corner for a delicious pastry. Unfortunately I'm the only one who feels this way.

On January 6th we Celebrated Three Kings Day with special bread and Quinn found the tiny king in his piece!

We hit the road and visited Annecy France to do some shopping and site seeing, what a cute little city!

The kids are busy perfecting their recipes for their future pizza parlor.

 This rainy January won't keep us down! We had the park all to ourselves for some messy puddle jumping and general craziness.

Les Fabuleux Village des Flottins

On the last day of Christmas break, our friends invited us to join them in Evian France to see the Flottins. Every year lutins (or elves) come down from the Alps and build huge driftwood sculptures throughout the city of Evian. During this time children can climb on, run through, and play in these beautiful works of art, while their parents enjoy the brisk French air and a cup of vin chaud.

We went on the last day of the festival and got to see the Lutins as they marched through the city by music and torchlight to the shore of Lac Léman. We waved as they boarded their boats to row back to the mountains until next year. So magical, and also a bit unnerving for the four year olds among us! After all, these elves weren't your average run-of-the-mill red and green Christmas elves, they were mountain things. They were a bit ragged and may have had a bit too much of that delicious mulled wine that's everywhere these days!

We had high hopes of grabbing some street food for dinner, but when the only things we found on the street were popcorn and mulled wine, we ducked into the nearest boulangerie and grabbed some sandwiches for our hungry kids.

 Eating around here is treated so differently then it is in the US. People really enjoy sitting down for a long meal with friends and family, and don't seem to settle for a quick meal on the street. The amount of grab and go type food is limited here because of this cultural difference, and I have to say I don't mind a bit!

The kids enjoyed their sandwiches then ran through the flottins like the wild elves that they are until way past their bedtime, when finally boarded the boat and headed back to Switzerland.

It was a night to be remembered, until next year mountain elves!

A few Days in Lucerne

Life around here during the week between Christmas and the New Year slows waaaaaaay down. The Swiss take their holiday family time very seriously and the entire city shuts down, so we took a quick two hour train trip to the beautiful city of Lucerne, to do a little touring around. 

Lucerne is a gorgeous little medieval city located on Lake Lucerne. It is really compact, and flat so as we were traipsing around we felt like we saw a ton, and we were astounded by how flat it was! We booked our trip last minute, and found a great little hotel near the train station, within easy walking distance to everything, perfect for us. 

Upon arrival we tossed our bag in the room and headed out for a good lunch. Since moving here I have become an expert at scouring the internet for family friendly restaurants in the cities that we go to...from what I can gather Swiss restaurants are not always super family friendly. We found a really nice Swiss place on the water and settled in for a big lunch! 

As you can see here, the kids ate their weight in "things that are white"... or as I like to call it, vacation food! 

PS- Isn't that an awesome cheese grater!

With full bellies and happy kids we headed off to tour the city. We walked over the historic covered Chapel bridge which has burned and been rebuilt several times throughout history. In fact someone told us that after the last time it burned the Japanese put up part of the money to rebuild it because it's a very popular wedding destination for them. While I'm not sure if that's true, it was really neat to walk the bridge and notice the old and refurbished paintings under its eaves.  

The old city was filled with lights and we loved looking at all the Christmas decorations on the buildings as we walked to the Dying Lion Monument on the other side of the city. This relief is huge and is a memorial to the Swiss mercenaries who dying fighting in the French Revolution. 

Near the Lion Monument we decided to take a break from the cold and check out the Glacier Garden. In the late 1800's glacial potholes were discovered in Lucerne and now there is a lovely little museum devoted to these and the history of the area. Apparently, a few ice ages ago Lucerne used to be a very temperate beachside climate! 

The best part of the museum however was the "hall of mirrors" We had a blast walking through this until Quinn slammed into a mirror wall... twice. Poor kid, we had a little trouble getting to him, because we were stuck in the mirror maze too! It was one of those parenting moments that you wish you could see a movie of... kid running into a wall, then turning around and running into another wall... you know, you hate to laugh but you just can't help it. Luckily for everyone, our little wrecking ball was not injured. Here are a few pictures of the kids and I playing with the "funhouse" mirrors outside.

The next morning we went to the Swiss Transport Museum and WOW we were not disappointed. That place is huge and really approachable for transportation geeks of all ages, they even have a couple of flight simulators! Here Kevin and Quinn are learning about shunting trains.

I have to say that the highlight for the kids was the full outdoor kid sized construction site where Quinn was able to live the dream and shovel rocks into holes for an hour! So fun. My favorite part of the day was the Lindt Chocolate museum which was a "tour" of Lindt chocolate from cocoa bean to finished product. It was fun to see, and the free samples at the end of the tour were the perfect way to end our very busy day!

Lucerne was a lovely charming little city that we look forward to visiting again!