Planet Stoppenhagen

To Denver...

We are 11 months to the day having been here in the UK. If you have been checking into this site within the last month or so, you can pretty much appreciate the pace we have been maintaining over here and the good fortune that we have had to be able to experience the things we have experienced. While we can honestly say that this has been an extraordinary year and we feel thoroughly blessed to have the opportunity, we also must point out some things we miss. Tonight, Steph and I recalled some of the moments/experiences that really make us miss colorado and our friends back there. Here is just a small portion of that list of the things we cherished about everyone and everything back there... (in no particular order)
1. Botanic Gardens open-air concerts
2. Yurt trips
3. Skiing whenever we felt like it
4. Dinner's at the Quiroga's
5. Brett and Lisa's wine/cheese Christmas party
6. Bluestocking Book club
7. Guy's hike
8. Jake's St. Patty's day throw-down
9. Live music venues
10. Annual Willius Football/Chili Cook-Off day
11. Gris-Gris (when's the name change?)
12. Bronco's/Av's/Rockies
13. BBQ's - wherever and whenever
14. Chipotle
15. Everyone there

(Part two of our France trip will be coming soon, I promise!)

Vive l'France - Part 1

(Once again, there are pictures within the body of the following text. To view the pictures, click on the underlined words to see the image that relates to what is being written about. Enjoy.)

One thing about living in the UK is the relative ease of traveling to places such as Heidelberg, Germany, Barcelona, Spain, Alghero, Sardinia, Dublin, Ireland, Brussels, Belgium, and Montalcino, Italy for prices that beat most ski weekends or yurt trips in Colorado. Our latest excursion was to the Languedoc-Roussillon region of Southern France, just west of Provènce. It was to a tiny little medieval village called Nezignan l’Eveque, some 20-30 minutes west of Montpellier. This trip was a little more than a whirlwind weekend trip that the others have been, and was instead lengthened into a good week – July 17-24.

The place we stayed in was a 700-800 year-old house in the oldest part of this serene village. So serene. In the middle of the night it was so quiet so as we could not hear the slightest thing – literally. No wind, no cars, no pedestrian traffic – nothing. Ahhhh, the serenity – if not a little warm and sticky with not even a breeze. This house was one of the town’s stables as part of its history. The kitchen and the dining room served as the living space for cattle and pigs up to as recently as the late 1950s. The original iron hooks and eye-rings are still in place on the ceiling and the walls, which are stone and masonry. Absolutely beautiful. Click here for the place's website.

The week started out (after arriving on Saturday morning) in earnest on Sunday with the passing of the Tour de France only three miles from our doorstep! The 14th Stage from Carcassonne to Nimes passed through the next village, Valros, where we were told was the site of the mid-stage feeding where they slow slightly to pick up small bags containing food and energy bars. We were told that this might be the best place to view the tour since the riders might be slowing down slightly at this point, thus, a better view. Well, if they were going slower, we couldn’t tell, whatsoever. The total time from first rider to last was probably only about 30-45 seconds or so. We got to the spot where we viewed the race about an hour and a half prior to their expected arrival. We toted our wine, cheese, olives, baguettes and other goodies with Ethan on my back and ate and drank while we waited. It was not a boring wait. The “caravan”, a long processional of support vehicles, TV and radio vehicles, sponsor promotional vehicles and other Tour-related vehicles zoomed by in a seemingly endless parade of festivity.

When the time neared the arrival of the riders, the air took on a tense energy filled with the thousands of spectators’ excitement and anticipation. The imminent arrival was heralded by the TV helicopters hovering overhead following the route. We knew that the sight of the choppers meant that the riders would be by within minutes. First the leading official’s motorcycles parted the sea of spectators and then – whoosh, whoosh, whoosh – the cyclists screamed by in a blur. Since at this point Lance had not secured the Yellow Jersey, still 22 seconds behind the leader, Ivan Basso, we couldn’t even just keep an eye out for the Yellow blur. However, in a brief fleeting moment of revelation, I was able to spot the US Postal Service team riding clustered together. So, I knew he would have been right in the middle of that cluster. And, as quickly as they arrived, they were gone and that was that. One of the most exhilarating 30-45 seconds of my life. (The race pictures, above, were taken by simply holding the camera up and pusing the shutter button successively, hoping for some good turnout.) After that, everyone simply packed it in and went home. Not a bad little afternoon.

Check back later this week for Part 2 of our trip. It was a week, so there are more pictures and things to write about.

'English' Farm Stoppenhagen

Here are the beginning stages of Farm Stoppenhagen (May) ...Lots of rocks in the soil so I created a walkway. Ethan attempting to help . Yes, I spoke of root veggies and insisted that was all I would do but I got crazy and really only added a few. These are the hands of a gardener gone mad. I yeild fruit, folks, that is what I do - why do I have a real job, well, in order to afford the seeds... anyway, here she lies, an untamed garden. A bit wild like those English. Oh, if you haven't come to visit and seen the house, here it is!... ha a little humor, that is Leeds Castle, this is Castle Stoppenhagen.

Off to France

Ok, tomorrow (Saturday) we head out at 6:50 am for southern France for the week. We have an excellent opportunity to witness history when the Tour de France meanders steps away from the doorstep of the place where we are staying. If you get OLN (Outdoor Life Network) on TV and tune in, maybe you might catch us. Here is a link to the place where we are staying...
http://www.southernfrance.com/village_rental/index.html#vacationvillas
We'll have another long entry with pics in the days after we get back.

Obviously from this picture, Ethan didn't get enough wine in Italy, so we have to go to France for him, you know. (click to enlarge the picture)

Italy

Italy in the summer! (Italy any time, really, is good with us). What a great time to visit. Especially coming from the UK. Leaving 55-60 degree rain-soaked Britain for the hot and sunny Tuscan countryside was overly welcome for Steph, Boni (Steph’s Mom), Moni (Mom’s friend), Ethan and I. We flew into Genoa on Sunday morning, rented a car and drove to Florence. It is pretty sweet driving the Italian Riviera and passing by Portofino, Vernazza, and all the other towns that sweep the hills and hang off the cliffs (literally) into the water, even though we had to pay about 11 Euros in tolls to pay for this engineering achievement of about 50 tunnels through mountains, edges of cliffs and suspended bridges.

It was our 2nd time in Florence and if you were wondering, it is still an amazing city! The weather was great and the people in Florence are fantastic. We didn’t hesitate too long to b-line to the nearest trattoria for a quick pizza and, of course, a bottle of wine. A nearby Merry-Go-Round proved to be too irresistible for Ethan. After being ripped off by paying 20 Euros for 4 gelatos (ice cream cone), we headed to the huge market in the Piazza Central and bought up some leather. The food market here is one of the best we have seen, so we spent some measurable time here tasting all the salamis and cheese and a bit of boar.

We had the chance to hit the town and party it up due to our great babysitters on the trip (mom and Moni)…we had a great meal outside on a sidewalk café in Florence while listening to the Greek footie fanatics race about on their Vespas cheering their triumph (the 2004 Euro football final was that evening, Greece beat Portugal 1-0). Our only complaint – too many Americans. One thing about travel for us and countless others is that we enjoy immersing ourselves in the culture and the experience of something foreign to us. So, when every conversation we hear around us is American, we aren’t really getting that experience. Nonetheless, Florence is still among the top five major cities in the world that we have had the good fortune to visit. (San Francisco, Seattle, Paris and Barcelona make up the others).

Monday we were back in the car and off to Montalcino. Arguably the most influential wine production regions of Tuscany, Montalcino boasts the venerable wine – Brunello di Montalcino. These wines are sought after around the world for their complexity and worthiness of aging. For (Italian) wine drinkers, Tuscany, in general, is a Mecca for the most well known of Italian wines - Chianti. But with a vintage history that only dates back to the late 1880’s, Brunello di Montalcino, has probably become the wine that many serious wine enthusiasts, possibly much like the Roman god of wine, Bacchus, gravitate to.

Montalcino is a dream. The town’s history dates back centuries. The narrow streets, formidable ancient fortress and numerous Roman churches all perched high on a hill make this the type of town that constitutes one’s mental image of a Tuscan village. Even though the village is quite small, it is not easy to leave after only two days. Taking permanent residence there would not be difficult, I imagine. There is something about little old Italian ladies and gentlemen of the village going about the same sort of business that they have been doing for centuries. Every morning and every evening, the town echoes with the animated chatter of the locals in the piazzas and on the balconies. Perhaps they were speaking of the current vintage’s expectations, not enough garlic in the pomodoro, or whatever. With no cloud in the sky, day or night or any hint at a breeze, the stillness certainly amplified the experience of being in a Tuscan village.

Tuesday, the sixth, I am convinced, was a total dream and that it never really happened. After reading an article on the 1999 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino, I was determined to find a particular wine label that was favorably reviewed, but is not available in the States. This wine, Sestadisopra, proved to be elusive in the fact that the proprietors of the enotecas (wine shops) seemed to have never heard of it. I thought I had struck out until we came upon the tourism office in Montalcino. There I obtained a winery map, with listing and map coordinates of all of the area’s wineries. Sure enough, Sestadisopra was on the map! Driving there was beautiful and actually relaxing given the fact that we still weren’t 100% sure of where we were going. I actually drove right past the drive not seeing the small handwritten sign until the last second. Driving up the drive, we commented that we needed a 4x4 instead of the little Ford Focus rental. Coming up on the villa, it looked more like someone’s home than a winery. We were further perplexed since there was no sign or indication that this was, in fact, the place. Boni and Moni decided to jump out and see if anyone was around to ask (in broken Italian and simple English). When we were invited inside, I was still not positive that this was correct. Instead, I thought that this was just someone inviting lost travelers in for a drink, which is not uncommon in this part of the world. Come to find out, the old woman was the matriarch of the Sestadisopra wine family and was beckoning us in for a tasting. She made a quick phone call and five minutes later her daughter pops in and whips up a plate of homemade Tuscan salami and local Pecorino cheese for us while we did the wine tasting and spoke in broken languages about the wines. We tasted both the 1999 Brunello di Montalcino and the 2002 Rosso di Montalcino at her dining room table. After purchasing a few bottles, we fondly said farewell and made our way to Castello Banfi. The difference in the two wineries is a study in contrast. Sestadisopra’s total case output for the 1999 Brunello was only 375 cases. Banfi’s was over 16,000 for their 1999 offering. Also, Banfi is the largest exporter of their wine to the US (not surprising when the owners are actually two American guys). Finally, there is no mistaking this place for just someone’s home. In all, we had a day of killer wine, killer scenery, killer food, and killer weather. Again, what a total dream for us.

Wednesday pretty much was a downer in all. Sure, we woke up in a beautiful place and the weather still was impeccable, but it was the day to go home. We drove up to Pisa to catch the return flight and swung through the “Manhattan of Tuscany”, San Gimignano. So dubbed due to the medieval towers that predominate the architecture. Too bad we didn’t have more time to stay in this ancient walled town. A quick 45 minutes and a bite of lunch and we were back on the way to Pisa. That’s pretty much it. Not only that, but the Pisa airport was a zoo, the plane was late, it was dreadfully hot, and when we did get back to London, we got off the plane into 50-degree torrential rain and driving winds. Welcome back - - SLAP! Quite ready to an about-face and get right back on the plane back to a sunny place. A big plus about the flight, though, was the view of the Leaning Tower Of Pisa from the plane window. Looking down on the tower swarming with tourists, it reminded me of a dropped French fry swarming with ants at a picnic. I decided that our vantage point was just fine with me.

Italy once again proved to be a country that most visitors fall in love with. It won’t be the last time we go, I promise you.