Bookworm Press

My nephew and I took a trip to the lovely Bernese country side. The Emmental, a valley in the canton of Bern, is famous for its green meadows, rolling hills, its many typical Bernese farms, and, of course, for its famous Emmentaler-Käse–the cheese with the holes, known in the United States as “Swiss Cheese.” I have to specify though that the cheese with holes from Emmental is just one of the roughly 450 types of cheeses produced in Switzerland. In addition, not all so-called “Swiss cheeses” are made in Switzerland, and there are big differences in quality.

All of this and more we learned during a demonstration at the Schaukäserei, a cheese dairy, where we not only watched a demonstration but also got a chance to try our hands at making cheese. It was very enlightening, informative, and a lot of fun!

Preparations and explanations by our master cheese maker!

And here we go: my nephew Rico at work!

Teamwork, I’m taking over for the moment.

This isn’t the Emmentaler cheese but a soft cheese. You can add herbs, pepper or just have it plain.

After our “heavy work” we checked out the rest of the dairy. The beautiful farms and the peaceful environment make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time!

Did I mention they had excellent coffee and dessert?

It was once again a memorable day in Switzerland!

Situated at the border with Germany, Alsace has a long history dating back to pre-roman times. It’s an area where battles have been fought and Alsace was invaded and switched back and forth several times between France and Germany. Now, a part of France, it shares its cultural identity with both countries. The German and French influence is visible among other things in the names of towns and cities as well as in their language. Alsatian is an Alemannic dialect related to Swabian and Swiss German. Since the end of the Second World War, however, when Alsace was annexed by France, most Alsatians speak primarily French.

Here you can find more about the fascinating history of the region: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsace.

Together with my nephew and friends, I spent a few days in this lovely part of the world that had been unknown to me until now. I was charmed by the beautiful timber frame homes and lush gardens in the villages and towns, by the warm and friendly people, and the gorgeous landscape. Alsace or Elsass is definitely worth a visit.

And the food was excellent. I loved the so-called Flammekueche or La Tarte Flambée, a kind of thin pizza-like dish:

The Alsace is also a famous wine region with a perfect climate to produce mainly white wine, Riesling and Gewuerztraminer among others.

One of the most fascinating sights was the amazing castles that tower above the countryside. Here are a few pictures of Haut-Koenigsbourg (note the combination of German and French in the name of the castle).

Artistic and functional: A “Kachelofen” or a tiled stove with beautiful carvings.

Near the castle is another fascinating sight: the castle Kintzheim above the town with the same name. The highlight there, aside from the castle itself, is the Volerie des Aigles (Flight of the Eagles) with its birds of prey show. Here these endangered animals are raised and protected.

After a few fun-packed days, we’re back in Switzerland to relax for a while. There is an extensive heat wave all over Europe. In Switzerland, we find some shelter from the heat in lakes, swimming pools, and forests.

On my morning walk through the forest, I discovered these wood sculptures carved into the left-over trunks of trees that had been cut down. Enjoy!

The following day, we said good-bye to Monteverde. A new driver picked us up and drove us to our last destination, the town of Manuel Antonio at the Central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Our hotel there, called Si Como No, was nestled in a lush rain forest and had a gorgeous view of the Pacific Ocean. But first we enjoyed a 4.5 hour drive through beautiful landscape and quaint towns. Halfway to our destination, we stopped for a light lunch, a little shopping, and a surprise view of some impressive animals!

Yes, crocodiles, and a lot of them, sunning themselves underneath a bridge.

And below is the view from our new hotel, Si Como No–Yes, Why Not (quite a name!). It was beautiful and as in all the places, the service was top-notch with friendly, warm people.

See the sign above? “Do not feed the monkeys”–we didn’t see any monkeys near the hotel, but we were in the rain forest after all, and on our tour through the Manuel Antonio National Park the following day, we saw them as well as many other exotic animals. The national park combines both rain forest and beaches and it was one of the most exciting and beautiful parks we had seen on our trip.

On our walk through the Manuel Antonio National Park, our guide, as well as the other guides, had the perfect means for us to see the often far-away and hidden animals. He brought along a tripod and a strong telephoto lens. We were able to see through the lens into the forest, and he also took pictures with our cameras that he held against the lens. The resulting photos made it look as if we were standing right next to the animals. Really smart! Here are a few photos of the park.

Spiders anybody?

Above is one of the so-called Holler Monkeys. And they do holler!

That long green thing above is a snake. Ewww. Not my favorite animal!

That furry ball above is a sloth.

And here we are at the Pacific side of the park and the end of our walk.

Above you can see one of the guides with his super camera that allowed us a really up-close-and-personal view of these elusive and fascinating critters and plants.

After our exciting tour, we relaxed with some Costa Rican drinks and good food at the hotel.

We planned to go back to the Pacific Ocean the following day for some swimming. Unfortunately, that was a day with a typical tropical thunderstorm and rain, so we had to skip it. In the afternoon, we ventured across the street to a butterfly sanctuary. Since it was raining part of the time, the butterflies were hiding, but Diane got a few good shots anyway.

And, sad but true, the end of our trip was here. The following day, we were picked up again and driven to the airport. During our drive there, we experienced the only glitch on our journey. The van of the driver had an oil leak that needed to be fixed. We were of course worried we wouldn’t make it to the airport in time, but our driver was a pro and brought us safely and on time to San Jose. Good bye, Costa Rica and thank you for a wonderful time. We’ll be back!

PURA VIDA

If any of you guys are thinking of traveling to this beautiful country, I can highly recommend Felicia Clarke of Costa Rican Vacation, who created a great itinerary for us. Everything on this trip, hotels, tours, guides, etc. was perfect!

Here is the website and contact information: https://www.vacationscostarica.com/

After another leisurely and scrumptious breakfast of tropical fruit, eggs, fried plantains, delicious coffee and … and … we went on a tour of the Hanging Bridges across the jungle in the cloud forest of Monteverde. In spite of the fact that the bridges swayed a little, they felt quite safe and granted us a gorgeous view of the huge trees, luscious foliage, beautiful flowers as well as of the many different types of birds and a bunch of creepy crawlers. Like all our guides on these tours, this young lady was an absolute expert on hundreds of names of birds, plants, and animals. To be honest, most of the names went in one ear and out the other, but that was okay. The visual experience was very impressive.

After the leisurely and informative walk across the bridges, we were off to the adventure of the day–Zip-lining over the jungle. When I first realized what we got ourselves into, I thought of an old German saying: “Alter schützt vor Torheit nicht.” Roughly translated it means: “Old age does not protect you from foolishness.” After a few moments of rapid heartbeat, however, we started to enjoy that thrilling adventure!

The photo above was taken after we got a good look at what was going to happen, but before we tried it out. Do you see our forced smiles? But here we go! Pura Vida!

Above is the map of the seven cables we rode. What a thrilling adventure it was.

Yes, we survived. Pura Vida!

After relaxing for a while in our beautiful hotel, we had another adventure planned. We went to visit a bat sanctuary, where we could admire those amazing animals that are so important for our own survival. Without them, we’d be eaten alive by mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects. Bats are valuable for many reasons. The sanctuary was inside and fairly dark–bats are of course nocturnal animals–and there was no flash allowed. We didn’t want to disturb them, so we didn’t take any photos. But here is a chart that shows the wide variety of bats as well as a picture of two bats that we saw on one of the tours we took later.

Below, another look at this gorgeous and peaceful environment of Monteverde.

The following day we left Monteverde and were driven to our last stop, the town of Manuel Antonio at the Pacific Coast,  Stay tune for more of Pura Vida.

The following day, we were picked up by our driver and taken to the Arenal Lake, where we enjoyed a boat ride over the lake, then a hike up the hill and, finally, a ride in a van over a very bumpy road–they call these rides “Costa Rican Massage” since that’s what you get as you literally hop up and down in the car. Fortunately, the van was rugged and must have had a perfect suspension. And also fortunately, I don’t have any back problems!

Several other tourists joined us and we met quite a few people from Canada as well as England.  The destination of our journey was the cloud forest of Monteverde, where we enjoyed a coffee and chocolate tour at the Don Juan estate. After our arrival, they first served us a delicious lunch on the terrace where we enjoyed a gorgeous view of the cloud forest.

A true paradise! After enjoying our leisurely lunch, we met with some of the other people for the coffee and chocolate adventure! Alex, our guide, was a wonderful expert on the growth and production of coffee and the preparation of chocolate.

Besides chocolate and coffee, the versatile Don Juan estate also grows sugar cane, different fruits, and peppers. Have you ever seen the fruit whose seeds are the origin of chocolate? It was a first for me. Below is the picture of the “chocolate fruit” with its slimy seeds that taste nothing like chocolate at this stage. But wait for its magical transformation!

From the fruit above to the delicious chocolate:

In order to sweeten our tour and learning experience, we got to try our hands at preparing some chocolate of our own:

That was yummy!

One of the advantages of growing not just one fruit or vegetable like in the so-called mono-cultures but a variety of produce is the fact that they can harvest and work all year round and not just during the one season. In addition, growing different plants together serves as natural protection against bugs and diseases. The Don Juan estate like many outfits in Costa Rica emphasizes its biodiversity and protection of the environment. One of the major attractions of the country is Eco-tourism.

Here is a picture of another crop–a variety of peppers.

Let’s get to the main crop: coffee. Right after tourism, coffee export is the second largest source of income in Costa Rica.

During the tour through the coffee production, we received a historical overview. Some of the machines and instruments used in earlier times are there for illustration. Here are a few pictures about this fascinating process. Below is the symbol of the San Juan estate.

The next picture shows the way coffee beans look after they have been roasted for different periods of time. The roasting time also determines the darkness and strength of the coffee. My favorites are the dark roasts and I drink coffee black.

Below is one of the old-fashioned roasting machines. (I think that’s what it is. We received so much information that I can’t remember all the details.)

Don Juan, the founder of the estate

After our introduction to coffee and chocolate, we got to experience the process of sugar cane. See below

Some of our group were hard at work to press the sugar cane and extract the juice which is, of course, the basis of another famous product of Costa Rica: Rum!

We did get a taste of straight rum. To me it tastes better in a mixed drink and rum is the basic ingredient in many of the drinks in Costa Rica.

After all the excitement of the day, we were driven to our hotel Belmar in the Monteverde Cloud Forest, a charming place, where we relaxed because the following day was going to be another adventurous one with a walk over nine hanging bridges in the jungle and an adventure in the true sense of the word–zipping (literally) high above the forest.

But first a few pictures of the view of the luscious cloud forest from our hotel in Monteverde.

Yes, relax girls, you’re going to need all your strength, stamina … and courage for the next day.

Stay tuned. More to follow!

On the third day of our stay in Costa Rica, we spent a leisurely morning enjoying a breakfast buffet with the most wonderful tropical fruit–pineapples, mangos, papayas–and many other delicacies and, of course, delicious coffee. In addition, we took a dip in the pool.

The rest of the morning, we were resting in front of our cabin, when, OMG, the following happened. First we thought we were hallucinating. After all, sloths are in forests and though there are lots of trees around the property of the hotel, we didn’t expect this little guy to just appear out of nowhere. He climbed down a tree, then slowly (it’s a sloth after all) crawled to the next tree, climbed up again, then down again. After that we saw him approach the next cabin, climb up the wooden rocking chair, down again, up the second chair, and then disappear. Shortly thereafter, the maid who was cleaning the next cabin, came over and motioned us to follow her. And there was Sammy (we named him in the meantime), curled up next to a chair in the corner, taking a nap.

One of the staff of the hotel came by with a long stick. I thought he was going to poke Sammy, but he only held the staff above the animal. Sammy grabbed on to the pole with both paws (or whatever you call the “hands” of a sloth) and the man carried him away toward the denser forest.

It was quite an experience and here is a video of Sammy. As you can hear from the noises we made, we were very excited. This was definitely one of the high points of our stay. I mean how many times do you have a sloth right in front of your bedroom, unless you live in the jungle? Unfortunately, the video is too large to put directly into the post, so here is the link to it!

https://onedrive.live.com/?id=8B7DD27C54709B7D%2130440&cid=8B7DD27C54709B7D

After the sloth adventure, we were booked for another excitement–Kayaking. When we decided on the tour, I said I had done this many years ago. Well, as I found out, that wasn’t true. I had been in a canoe once not a kayak. Then again, they are similar. Our driver and our guide took us to Arenal Lake, where we boarded a kayak for ourselves and the guide paddled in a different one. It took us a while to get the rhythm going, but we managed not to hit each other on the head with the paddle or splash each other. After a while, we were able to move in a fairly straight line. It was hard work, but also a lot of fun.

Lake Arenal is a man-made lake that provides electricity for the area. It’s also a nature resort with lots of water birds–we saw a few American Egrets and other birds. Our guide said there were crocodiles near an island in the lake. We thought he made that up. During one of the following tours, we did in fact see crocodiles, so perhaps it wasn’t a joke that they are in this lake as well.

Above is our guide, looking very amused at our attempts at kayaking!

In the background, the ever-present Arenal Volcano!

Stay tuned for further Costa Rican adventures–real crocodiles, and the scary adventure of ziplining! More to follow.

Hello dear Blog Followers, Friends, and Family!

My friend Diane and I went on a nine-day-long tour through Costa Rica. It was our first time in this country that everybody we knew, who had been there, raved about. They were right; it is a truly magical place. Interesting exotic animals–sloths, monkeys, bats, just to name a few–friendly warm people, excellent food, gorgeous landscape, jungle, beaches, cloud forests. It was an intense time and I’m still trying to absorb the many impressions.

Let’s start with some pictures. Since my flight from Los Angeles and Diane’s from Cincinnati arrived several hours apart, we were met at the airport separately by a representative of the travel agency and driven to our first hotel in the Arenal area that was three hours away. Passing through customs was a breeze with the help of our “welcome person” who taught us three words we needed to remember during our vacation. Sadly, I forgot two of them but the most important one stuck with me: Pura Vida, which is used everywhere and means something like “Life is good.”

On the way to our hotel, Mountain Paradise (and a paradise it was, indeed!) next to the town of Fortuna in the Arenal area, I had my first cup of the famous Costa Rican coffee at this little coffee shop/gift store.

Our hotel in Fortuna was a real gem, situated on a hill overlooking the gorgeous landscape and the Arenal volcano in the background. We had our own casita. There was a swimming pool with wet bar and a waterfall on the property. In fact, our bathroom had both a normal shower and a waterfall shower, which was more fun than practical, but we truly enjoyed it.

Our Casita

The day we arrived we spent relaxing and enjoying a delicious dinner outside with a wonderful view of the Arenal volcano.

The next morning after enjoying a scrumptious buffet breakfast, we were picked up by our personal guide who accompanied us on our tour through the Arenal National Park. It was a warm day, interrupted by a few cloud bursts–May is the end of the dry season, but rain showers are frequent albeit short already during this month. It was a wonderful hike, during which we discovered tiny but poisonous snakes on trees (I can do without snakes, thank you very much, but fortunately our guide knew how to spot them). Other animals that we enjoyed more are the many different kinds of birds, some sloths hanging from the trees, and so-called holler monkeys (they really do holler!). In addition, there was a enormous variety of exotic plants and colorful flowers.

This plant above is called “Blood of Christ.” The population of Costa Rica is mainly Catholic, including a variety of other Christian groups, so Christian names abound.

More pictures of plants animals and the ever-present Arenal Volcano (which once destroyed several villages but hasn’t been active for many years). The hike brought us to a place with a wonderful view of the volcano as well as Lake Arenal (a man-made lake we’ll be visiting the following day).

That fur ball above is one of the Holler Monkeys. He was quite far away and therefore somewhat out of focus.

Our friendly guide on the right who knew the names of thousands of plants and animals. It was his first tour after college and he was really great!

Lake Arenal

This is at the bottom of the volcano with Lake Arenal in the background. I just took off my yellow rain poncho after one of the short downpours that are so typical of this area. Now, we need sunglasses again.

On the way back, we enjoyed scenes of the always green, fertile landscape of this area. It reminded me of Switzerland. In fact, as someone told me, Costa Rica is sometimes called “the Switzerland of Central America,” because it’s so green.

The next day, we went on a Kayaking tour on Lake Arenal. But before that we had a close encounter with a sloth by the name of Sammy. Stay tuned for more!

I’m so excited because my book was just nominated for the 2018 Readers Choice Awards contest by TCK Publishing!

Please vote for it under the Mystery Book Category at https://www.tckpublishing.com/2018-readers-choice-voting-page/

To Vote:

1. Click on the link above to get to the Voting Page, then scroll down to display the book list.
2. Click on the left or right arrow on top of the list to get to the “Mystery Book” section.
3. Scroll down to the book The Italian Sister and vote.

Let me know if you have problems.

And thank you kindly. Much appreciated!