Christian Sperka Photography | Blog & Site | Custom Luxury Tours

My visit is almost at an end but this weekend I spent some more time with friends and family in Germany.

I enjoyed two more excellent lunches at ‘The Fuchshöhle’ and at the ‘Villa Martini’ in Bad Säckingen.

Tomorrow I will get a COVID-19 PCR test at the Zürich Airport and if everything goes well then I will be on a plane back to South Africa tomorrow night.

If you read all my travel post and looked at all the posted pictures then this trip looks a bit like a food tour. But I think that there are few better ways to spend quality time with family and friends then over a good meal.

I had a very enjoyable visit and I am looking forward to be back in April 2022.

Today’s picture is of tall trees in the Black Forest, Southern Germany.

Picture data: iPhone 12 Pro Max

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I had very busy and very enjoyable three days with lunches and dinners, catching up with many more friends in Switzerland and Germany.

And today good friends, who live in Lucerne, took me on a boat ride onto Lake Lucerne ‘Vierwaldstättersee’. They own a beautiful wooden speed boat and we spent a pleasant autumn afternoon on the water. The day ended with a superb dinner at the Hotel Montana in Lucerne which features an incredible view of the city.

Today’s picture is of misty mountains ‘in blue light’ around Lake Lucerne, Switzerland.

Picture Data: Canon EOS R6 with RF 24-240mm lens.

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The new ‘Lewa Savanna’ at the Zürich Zoo is definitely worth a visit. I had a good look at this new exhibit and got a complete tour by the responsible curator.

Seven species (White Rhino, Reticulated Giraffes, Grevy’s Zebras, Scimitar Oryx, Impala, Ostrich and Helmeted Guineafowls) share the large savanna, which is dominated by five large Baobab trees. Spotted Hyenas, African Brush-tailed Porcupines and Meerkats are featured in exhibits around the Savanna. And as always when I visit the Zurich Zoo I spent a bit of time in the Masoala hall (a unique indoor rain forest).

I had a few more great meals with friends and with one of my brothers. I have a feeling that I will be able to count all these excellent lunches and dinners by looking at a scale!

After a visit to good friends at Lake Zürich I stopped by the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln in Switzerland. It has a most impressive church. Unfortunately I had not enough time to stay for one of the services to listen to the monk’s Gregorian chanting.

Before I returned to my parents home in Germany last night My route to took me to my old ‘home town’ called Zofingen in Switzerland. I lived their from 2000 to 2008. Another delicious lunch with friends!

Today’s picture is of a Panther Chameleon at the Masoala Rainforest Exhibit, Zürich Zoo, Switzerland.

Picture Data: Canon EOS R6 with RF 24-240mm lens.

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Another two enjoyable days with lots of excellent food!

A good friend of mine, who I met first over two decades ago, invited me to his 80th birthday party. I had a great time and I stayed up until three in the morning, eating and talking a lot. The venue for this was one of my favorite restaurants/hotels in Switzerland: The ‘Hirschen’ in Obererlinsbach.

Herzlich Willkommen!

Today I had a very good roasted duck lunch at a local Chinese eatery; with my parents, brothers, nephew, nieces and their boyfriends. Only my oldest nephew and his girlfriend are currently in North America and could not join us for this feast.

And I finished off this afternoon with one of my favorite deserts ‘Vermicelle Meringue Glace’ (=Chestnut mouse spaghetti with meringue from the Swiss Emmental, topped with unsweetened, freshly whipped cream).

Today’s picture is of sunflowers on a small field on the edge of the Black Forest, Germany.

Picture Data: Canon EOS R6 with RF 24-240mm lens.

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Today was a culture day. I went to one of my favorite museums, the Foundation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland. They featured a very interesting exhibition of the Spanish painter Francisco José de Goya (1746-1824)

https://www.fondationbeyeler.ch/en/home

In the evening I had a exquisite dinner at a small restaurant in Germany, called the ‘Voderhus’ (= front house), together with a very good friend of mine, who was my first business partner and colleague. We worked together from the mid 1980s until I moved out of IT in 2008.

Today’s picture is of the front of an old town building (from around 1600) in the town of Bad Saeckingen. It is the entrance to a delicatessen store owned by friends of mine and to a restaurant called ‘The Fuchshöhle’ (the fox hole).

Picture data: iPhone 12 Pro Max

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A seasonal salad at the restaurant ‘Voderhus’.

The last two days I have spent with my family in the village in which I grew up and around the town where I went to school.

Yesterday evening my brothers and I had an excellent dinner at one of my favorite restaurants called ‘Die Fuchshöhle’ (the fox hole).

Today I went for a walk around a small lake near town. This was a great opportunity to capture the beautiful autumn color and some local wildlife.

And this evening my brothers, a niece, a nephew and I enjoyed visiting a small local fairground (which is called ‘Chilbi’ in Southern Germany). Great fun, especially for the ‘young ones’!

Today’s picture was taken at the ‘Bergsee’ (= lake in the hill) near the town of Bad Säckingen, Germany.

Picture data: Canon EOS R6 with RF 24-240mm lens.

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