Stein am Rhein

Thomas took us to Stein am Rhein for a bit of tourist fun. It is a famous town due to all the painted buildings. This church has a super high, skinny tower (the picture really doesn't show) that was last reproofed by a single man and some ropes. He apparently did a hand stand on the little gold ball on top. yikes!

Its an adorable little town

And the paintings are very grand

Overly touristy of course, but hey

watering trough

Pretty buildings

St. George, the patron cain, guards their sewers. fun for him

more paintings, blow them up and look at the stores, they are odd

Castle on the hill

Eric and Thomas

Just cause I like it

Part of an old monastery, I think

View from the castle

and the castle itself

More of Thomas and Denise's house

Thomas's office

The garden from the living room

A tiny door, saved for the pure oddity of it

The second floor room that Eric and I are staying in.

The next door bedroom. The oddest long skinny room I've ever seen. All 3 main living floors were divided up like this

Christmas lights in town

Schaffhausen

Eric and I have started our winter European trip in the Swiss town of Schaffhausen. We are staying with his friends Thomas and Denise who live below the castle.

The town of Schaffhausen is pretty cool. It has been rather foggy since we got here, so not the best views, but pretty.

The castle has its own resident deer

They live in the moat

The rest of the castle is surrounded by a vineyard where they grow all the grapes for the town's wine.

And they are protected.

Going up into the castle, we first passed through the stables which was a wonderfully cavernous place.

It's a pretty simple castle. This winding ramp takes you up the tower to the battlements.

Eric at the door to the caretakers place on the top of the tower. It's a tiny bit small

Not a bad place to live, no?

The view over town and the Rhine

Thomas and Denise's house, from the castle

Schaffhausen in the fog

On the way back into town

The town has wonderful lights strung up for the holidays

A moment of pretty light, this was the coolest building around

I like this style of building for some reason

The church square

Thomas and Denise have a lovely old house in the middle of town. It is something like 600 years old.

The bottom floor used to be a wine bar or something. The stories of the 6 centuries of smoking stench are wild. It smells ok now, after a lot of hard work. or it did till my curiosity got the better of me and I opened up an old closet. oops.

I swear there isn't a right angle in the place, or even a strait line.

they have a lovely garden, quite big for an old city.

Thomas's machine shop, which is the old cellar

I will eventually take more pictures of this lovely place.

Freezing fog

On the day of the final for my Saturday class, the fog that covered portland decided to freeze just over the school

Fall 2011 classes

PCC classes

Early morning BI 101

Late morning BI 101

Let's just say, there were a lot of term papers to grade!

BI 101 lab

These poor saps were stuck with me for lecture and lab

CCC Classes

BI 112 Saturday. Troupers for sure.

(that's the mitosis interpretive dance, if you are wondering)

BI 101 night class.

This was a really great group.

BI 112 lab

Last bits of fall

Since we had such a cold fall, there were really spectacular colors. My garden was surprisingly beautiful

My boys

Making wine

Eric's neighborhood is so very cool. They have set up a wine cooperative. We all get together and smash up grapes under the supervision of Josh who actually knows what he's doing. Eventually, we get to drink it. Eventually.

I don't have pictures of the crushing party, but here are some of the pressing party pictures.

This is Josh, who conned us all into doing the heavy labor. ;)

Rin and his bud Chloe

Eric and I. Man it was cold.