Weekend In Switzerland

Goodbye Switzerland

2011-12-23T02:10:00.005+01:00

I haven't posted in a while because the family has been busy. We've been setting our accounts, packing up our stuff and moving away from Zurich. We've moved to California where can resume the American experience of living in a suburb.

We had a fantastic three years, and we really enjoyed it, particularly after we moved to live in the city. My wife learned some German, and my son is effectively fluent in German and Swiss-German, and I got to take a boat-load of photos and have a good time at work.

Hopefully I'll come back to this and write up some short essays on the lessons we learned, living as an expat in Switzerland, but it seemed like I should end the year up saying Goodbye, and Thank You to Switzerland for the good times.

Knabenschiessen

2011-09-11T14:35:00.000+02:00

Today was Knabenschieseen. The important part of the day is that all of the children ages 13 to 17 can compete and show off their rifle skills.

For the rest of us, we get to go to a huge fair. To make it more exciting, it is almost a parody of Switzerland, without the emphasis on order or good engineering. So these rides are setup in the week prior to the event and run from morning until midnight for 3 days, then they disappear for the rest of the year. Everything is expensive and chaotic, and rather a lot of fun.

My son went on his first roller coaster with a loop, and tons of other rides. We played some carnival games and we ate some unhealthy but tasty food. It was a good day out for the entire family.

August 1st Fireworks / Swiss National Day

2011-09-11T14:31:00.000+02:00

I'm going back and trying to pick up the things I forgot to post about.

How could I forget to post photos from Swiss National Day. For the week leading up, there are firework stands all over the city doing a brisk business, and then everyone gets to celebrate Switzerland by blowing stuff up. The rules seem to be remarkably lax, in a way that really just works in this country.

My son is still pretty young, so we where a bit limited in what we could set off in the clearing next to the house, but we had fun with it. A couple of medium sized fountains, some buzz bombs and a bunch of smoke and sparklers this year. It was good fun and we only got attacked by one of the buzz bombs.

Then late in the evening the people of the city started showing off. You can buy incredibly large fireworks at the grocery store, and people seem to indulge themselves. For hours into the evening people are setting off nearly-professional sized rockets from the balconies of their apartments. Then, very late in the evening the professional give their best to create a finale for the evening. It is lots of fun, and amazing how much we can see just looking off of our back porch.

Basel: Augusta Raurica

2011-09-11T14:25:00.000+02:00

At the end of August, there is a little town near Basel that holds a Roman Festival. Named, romerfest, or more accurately Augusta Raurica.

It is pretty easy to get to from Zurich, just a train to Basel and a small train out to the right town, then about a 10 minute walk to the park. They ran busses, but my son and I walked. Along the way we found a need shelter on the side of the road that held some ruins for us to look at.

The event itself was a lot of fun with fighting demonstrations, plenty of good German food, and lots of little exhibits to entertain kids. My son tried to grind some seeds into flour, and other kids worked at sawing stone or carving wood. All of things things are harder than they look.

They also have some good demonstration fighting matches with the announcers speaking in Latin, and then being translated into German for the audience. The gladiators did a fantastic job, and it seemed to be a very good exhibit of how we understand the roman fights to have worked.

Highly recommended as a once a year experience that shouldn't be missed.

Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe

2011-07-23T19:22:00.000+02:00

The highlight of the Interlaken trip was hoping on a train with my son one morning and riding up to Jungfraujoch, the 'top of europe'. This is the highest train station in Europe at about 3300 meters. The idea is that you shouldn't neat to be in any kind of decent physical shape to be able to stand on top of a mountain... instead you should ride in comfort to the top and merely be able to step outside and enjoy the view.

So... sure, sounds great.

The trip up from Interlaken takes 3 trains, designed for the increasingly steep slope, and with the final train being in a tunnel for almost the entire time. No sense in exposing your track to the elements when you are on the top of a mountain I suppose. The entire journey was lovely with lots of opportunities for photos along the way.

One of the highlights is the ice caverns that they have built in order to keep the tourists entertained. They have a variety of little scenes and one crevice you can climb through. Very cool, but not terribly extensive.

You can walk out of the comfortable tourist enclosure in a few directions, all of them give absolutely stunning views out over the mountains and the glaciers.

I had the most fun with the camera, but my son assures me that the coolest thing on the mountain was getting to ride an intertube down a sled run a bunch of times. He might be right.. It is a wild ride and at the end you hop on a conveyor belt to haul you back to the top so you can do it again.

Schloss Thun

2011-07-23T19:10:00.001+02:00

We took a day-trip out from Interlaken to visit Thun Castle in the pouring rain. Although I'd love to see it in the sun, the rain didn't detract all that much from the visit.

What I didn't get pictures of was the Thun Fest (Thun is pronounced 'toon', so particularly amusing for a musical festival) or of the hoards of Organ Griders that had flooded the city with wooden boxes that produce loud and occasionally pleasant music.

We walked from the train station over to the old town. It was absolutely lovely, even in the rain, however it was also Sunday so all of the stores where closed. This probably was a good thing since I saw a neat juggling supply store that would have easily gotten a bunch of money from me.

The castle itself is a museum with a few simple exhibits. The best thing you can do is climb and climb and climb and end up looking out of the towers down over the city. And down in the basement they have an exhibit of what a potter would have looked like up until basically the early 1900s. Very cool. The rest of the exhibits didn't do all that much for me, but the experience was well worth having.

At the end we had a fantastic meal at the Ristorante Al Ponte while walking back to the train station. I had a cordon bleu variation that was grilled chicken topped with ham and cheese and then covered in a gorgonzola cream. Fantastic.

Interlaken

2011-07-23T18:55:00.000+02:00

We just returned from a 4 day visit to Interlaken in central Switzerland. It is about an hour by train from Zurich to Bern and then another hour on to Interlaken, so a very reasonable trip to make for a day or a longer vacation.

We stayed in a traditional swiss hotel, so low ceilings and terrible pillows but otherwise charming. The weather was just good enough for us to enjoy the highlights of our vacation (the next few posts), but it was mostly chilly and raining the rest of the time.

There are mountains in basically every direction, except for the few times there is a lake in the way. Absolutely lovely.

And here you see the native birds of Interlaken, the paragliders. This place appears to be an adventure sport capital with hoards of back-packers roaming the streets and a constant stream of tourists falling from the sky. They also offer rafting, hiking and various levels of mountaineering.

For us it served as a lovely base camp for our visit around town and out into the surrounding area.

Happy First Birthday Aliosha

2011-06-27T22:17:00.000+02:00

A year ago a puppy was born who would join our family on our adventure in Switzerland. He has a been a great member of the household, learning his place and doing his chores (mostly sitting on dad's lap every morning and evening, sometimes helping mom fold socks).

We've gone on a bunch of adventures. We went to legoland together in the winter. He got to play in the frosty grass and help out on the miniature golf course.

We all went up a gondola to visit Pilatus over Lucern. He didn't get to ride on the rodelbahn, but he got to join us for the gondola ride and hike up the mountain and keep an eye on all the people trying the longest rodelbahn in Switerland.

He came with us to Europa Park, this time getting to come in and see all of the rides and the people having a great time. He wasn't sure about all of the roller coasters, but he certainly found a few that he really should have been able to go on.

Finally, he has joined us on countless walks around Zurich. He may not be the kind of Swiss dog that will bring you a stiff drink if you are stranded in the snow, but he is working on fetching a diet coke, and he always has plenty of warm furry love to share.

Basel Zoo

2011-06-26T16:57:00.000+02:00

We've been to the Zurich Zoo a bunch of times lately and we hadn't ever made it to the Basel Zoo, so due to the recent birth of a Snow Leopard we decided it was a good time to try it out. If you catch the right train it is just an hour from the Zurich HB to the Basel station, and then less than a 10 minute walk over to the Zoo. A reasonable entry fee and servicable food made it a great trip for the day.

Immediately after you get in they have a fish, reptiles and penguin house. Lots of really nice exhibits including some penguins that are really curious to see all of the animals on display around their home. They took a real interest in the tourists.

This owl was behind a fence, but I got lucky on his distance from the fence, good lighting and a nice depth of field. Not all of the cages are camera friendly, but better than what many zoos manage.

There are a number of indoor exhibits, in this case a little indoor bird house that was small, and warm, but had a couple of these guys flying around.

Finally, this sleepy guy was about 2 meters from a plexiglass wall and just staring at the tourists who had chairs to sit in while staring back. Really fun to be this close to him, even if he wasn't up and about.

We had a great time, and it looks like they are building out a huge new gorilla exhibit, so at some point we will have to go check in again. The snow leopards also didn't seem very excited about the heat so all I got was a picture with a tuft of white fur in the corner of it. In the fall perhaps they will be a bit older and more willing to come out and show off.

Zurich Mittelalter Spectaculum

2011-05-26T21:02:00.001+02:00

This weekend they are having a Middle Ages Faire next to the Fraumunster. I've gone to dozens of these things in the US, but the novelty here is that six or seven hundred years ago this same thing was likely going on right here. An awesome setting for the event.

The whole thing was pretty small, but it had all of the bases covered. They had a handful of games for children and a neat little human powered ferris wheel.

They also had the normal assortment of people practicing their trades. Working looms and lathes, a small working foundry, a bit of leather working, some jewlery and someone tuning Ocorinas. You could show up with a sufficiently large pile of money and leave dressed in style in leathers, armor or a dress and carrying the bow or sword of your preference. All I left with was a bottle of mead... so it was a good trip.

Europa Park in Rust Germany

2011-05-24T14:17:00.006+02:00

We spent the weekend at Europa Park in the relatively nearby town of Rust Germany. Clearly the marketing people didn't get involved until after the land had been purchased to build the theme park.

It is about two hours away from Zurich by car. We would have happily gone by train, but there was an accident on the German part of the track that had it closed for the day we needed to go. On the day prior when we went to buy tickets we had this pointed out clearly by the SBB.. that it was the German part of the track that was broken. Instead we had to run off at the last minute and get Avis to loan us a car. Turns out I still don't like driving.

We stayed at the Colosseo, which is one of the park hotels. It was very nice and it was great to be so close to the park and get early entrance benefits on the second morning. I'll note that the food wasn't great, despite the very premium price... and the wifi was dreadful.

The downside of the park is that they clearly suffered from some serious Disney envy for a period of their growth. The pirates of the Caribean knock-off is an obvious example of this. So is the copy of space mountain inside of what looks like an epcot dome. It is a pitch dark coaster that will bump the crap out of you and has black lights and asteroids... its uncannily like Space Mountain from 20 years ago.

However, at some point they seem to have gotten over themselves and focused on what they are good at. They build some awesome rides. Blue Fire is a great example of a modern coaster, full of smoothness and awesome. And the Silver Star is a great negative G roller coaster combined with an advertisement for Mercedes.

They have a lot of water rides, and they've done a great job of building stuff out that is fun for all ages. They have rides for children and a couple of great playgrounds. They have a bunch of rides for kids of all ages, particularly once you get over 1.2meters... and then they have a couple of really great 'adults' rides. Fun for the whole family.

They also have not merchandised and marketed this thing to death. They have a mouse mascot, but for the most part they just built a park to be a lot of fun, not to synthesize the marketing harmonies. They could improve the eating situation, but everything else was really a blast.

Also, you can bring your dog. They don't let you bring your puppy on rides, which seems unfair, since you can bring your toddler on the train. My buddy was depressed when I told him he couldn't go for a ride on the Posideon.

Rapperswil Zoo

2011-05-07T09:37:00.000+02:00

Catching up with some past weekends, we had a recent trip to the Rapperswill Zoo. Located at the far end of Lake Zurich it takes about 40 minutes to get to by train followed by a 5 minute walk from the station.

It isn't a zoo in the same sense as the Zurich Zoo, instead they focus on making it accessible to children and they run it on more of a budget. They have a sealion show that runs every few hours and they do tricks and a bit of a performance. There are plenty of playgrounds and rides offered on camels, horses and possibly elephants, as well as a horse-drawn train that you can ride on.

They also have a surprising collection of animals. Zebras and giraffes, elephants and camels, lamas and meercats... and more mundane fair such as horses and donkeys. All of this in a zoo you can walk across in just a few minutes. The animals don't seem unhappy, and the elephant enclosure is top notch in terms of visibility and entertainment provided for the animals.

Overall, it is a great way to spend a day hanging out with the family and some furry friends.

Mallorca: Off the Beach

2011-05-07T09:28:00.000+02:00

Although the focus for our trip to Mallorca was to sit quietly and relax, we couldn't entirely avoid being a bit touristy. First, let me recomend our hotel, the Aya in Palma de Playa, it required some walking to get places, but was lovely and reasonably quiet, and we had an awesome view of the beach and the constant sound of waves. It was about a 20 minute walk to some of the reasonable restaurants, notably Asadito which was excellent.

It isn't reasonable, however, to walk into Palma, so we tried the bus once, and after that we took Taxis whenever we needed to go somewhere. It costs about 20 euro for the taxi compared with 3 for the bus, but it is well worth it for convenience.

We spent a little time walking around in Palma, toured the castle and walked around the cathedral. It was all very pretty, and unfortunately I never got a good view for a photo on the cathedral. The town is an interesting combination of historical buildings and modern city, and it seemed fairly easy to get around in by Europea standards (windy roads, questionable signage, etc).

We also took an old narrow-gage train up from Palma to Soller for a bit of scenery outside the city and the beach. It was pretty, but we decided our time was better spent relaxing at home and headed back before the 3 hour siesta break in the afternoon. No kidding... there is about a 3 hour period when you can't get on a bus because they took a break.

As we got back we ended up in the super modern train and bus station under Plaza de Espana and we are excited about the future of transportation on Mallorca. It looks suspiciously German in design, but it will be great if you can quickly and conveniently zip around the island.

I should also mention the food, which was uniformly pretty good. What shocked us most was how inexpensive the food was, ranging from the mid 20s to about 40 euros for dinner. Mostly as a comparision to Swiss prices this seemed like being fed for free.

It was a fun trip, and we look forward to returning one of these days for more time on the beach.

Mallorca: The beach

2011-05-07T09:11:00.000+02:00

We spent a long weekend visiting Mallorca, which isn't in Switzerland, it is an island in the Mediteranea that is owned by the spanish for the benefit of the Germans. The German's consider it to be their party island, and we found that speaking a tiny bit of German was more helpful than knowning spanish... they really understand their tourist trade. You could get by on English, like any tourist town in the world, but it is best to think of this place as as a beach vacation in a somewhat roudy beach city in Germany.

We went at the very end of the low season, so we got a reasonable rate on the flight and the hotel and it wasn't very crowded. The downside was that it was hot enough to go spend quality time in the ocean, and despite being described as a 'moderate breeze' it was windy enough to make it hard to walk at times.

We had a lovely couple of days, and this set of photos was taken from our various walks up and down the beach in Palma De Playa.

Lucern Pilatus Seilpark

2011-04-25T18:39:00.000+02:00

We decided to celebrate a Monday holiday by grabbing the kid and the dog and heading up to the mountain above Lucern. From zurich it takes a little over 2 hours by train, bus and gondola, but it is an awesome experience. Atop the mountain sits the longest rodelbahn in Switzerland. This isn't one of those wimpy ones with rails, you are in charge of your own speed and leaning into corners... or you can haul your broken carcass back up the hill yourself.

It really is an absolute blast. And we got lucky and the weather was absolutely fantastic. Just a touch of snow still in spots on the ground and a light jacket when the clouds went over was all that was needed, otherwise it was perfect in a t-shirt. Typical top-of-the-mountain swiss food, so expensive and not terribly exciting, but they covered the typical bases with chicken nuggets and sausages and a horrible lack of coke light.

Highly recomended, and if you are more adventurous and older than 6, let me also mention the ropes coarse. It looked like a lot of fun.

Zurich Landesmuseum

2011-04-22T16:30:00.000+02:00

After 2 years in the country we finaly went to the most conveninen museum in Zurich. It is located just across the street from the HauptBahnhoff so you really can't miss it. It covers the history of Switzerland, with an emphasis on the reformation, but covering all kinds of different parts of Swiss history. You apparently are not supposed to take pictures inside the museum, but I took a few before they explained it to me.

Spring has sprung

2011-04-22T16:03:00.000+02:00

Things will be a bit out of order since I've had technical problems in uploading pictures for the past few weeks. But I've had a run of good luck at finding pretty flowers and bunnies, and here they are.

Zurich Zoo. First of 2011

2011-03-13T15:10:00.000+01:00

Today was a father-son trip to the Zoo, its a zoo, so there isn't much else to say, but we paid for our annual ticket and I'm already looking forward to going again in a few weeks.

We played around and saw lots of stuff. This is a great playground that would surely be ilegal in the US just for pure fun content and lack of safety.

Then we grabbed some food. The zoo dining isn't the best tourist food in Zurich, but it is passable.

Mostly it was just a really good trip.

ZüriCarneval

2011-03-12T18:59:00.000+01:00

I came across the link for the ZüriCarneval on Friday night and decided it looked like something fun to drag the kid and the camera too. We got there a little early and came across the different bands practicing and goofing around instead of the parade, but it was still fun.

Montreux / Chateu de Chillon

2011-03-06T14:13:00.002+01:00

After entirely too many months without taking the family on an adventure, my wife finally had had enough. A few weeks ago we had talked about making a trip but wimped out when the weather started to turn, and so on Tuesday we decided that the time had come to get out of Zurich. On Thursday we booked our train and hotel room and on Friday afternoon I snuck out of work a bit early, grabbed the kid, met the wife and dog at the HB, and we headed west.

West to Montreux. We hauled our stuff to the Royal Plaza hotel, which was lovely, and crashed for the night. Strangely, our room didn't have black-out curtains so at around 6:30 am the light started to stream through the huge windows and so did the sounds of birds. Birds in the Hitchcockian sense... there where lots of birds everywhere, and they all wake up very early in the morning.

We had breakfast in the hotel, and the only thing exciting was the price... although repeated efforts to wander around town failed to show us a more reasonably priced or interesting place for breakfast. The we headed out for a morning walk. It turns out that every lake-side city in Switzerland, with the exception of Zurich, has got great walkways and is extremely child and family friendly with parks everywhere. Montreux has a theme of having little lake-side animal decorations and bamboo artwork. Strange, but cute.

Once the dog had been walked thoroughly, we headed off to visit the nearly castle, the Chateu de Chillon. It is an amazing Castle that has been refurbished and then given a great walking tour to highlight the best parts of it. We passed on the ipod based audio tour and read the book while exploring. Absoultely fantastic adventure.

After the castle and a bit of a walk around town we went back to entertain the dog and then head in for dinner. Lunch had been depressingly American, so we wanted to do something fun. We used the relevant Google tools to find Le Rouvenaz, which provided us with a wonderful Italian dinner.

View Larger Map

We went back and crashed, then headed home bright and early Sunday morning.

Another lovely Swiss adventure.

Lego Space Shuttle

2011-01-23T16:58:00.000+01:00

So, one great way to spend the cold and wet winter days is to work on a long project with your son. My 5 year old and I completed the Lego Shuttle Adventure after a many months of part time work on the weekends. 1204 pieces later, we have a completed space shuttle for me to keep on a shelf in my office.

I picked out the pieces and he did the vast majority of the assembly, with me nearby for quality assurance and testing work. The age suggestion was 16+, but I think that was because they are particularly evil in the bagging of the legos. No step requires you to dig into less than 2 bags... frequently every part you need is in another bag.

Anyway, it was a good adventure and a great memory. Always a fine way to spend the time.

Arizona: There and back again.

2011-01-02T17:12:00.003+01:00

The family headed back to Arizona for the holidays to spend some time with the family. We did all of the normal American things when visiting the homeland. We went to Target, ate out, checked in at Target again, and then had a large meal, followed by some more shopping, occasionally at Target.

I'm not sure how, but we picked up a few hundred pounds of stuff to bring home, none of it consequential... but we had a great holiday with the family and it reminded us of the good and bad of living in Switzerland.

The food here isn't nearly as good, but it is much less likely to kill you. Even trying to cook at home it was more difficult to come up with reasonable things to eat. On the other hand, we had some fantastic meals out and everything seemed very inexpensive.

And the variety of stuff you can buy is just a shocking difference. This is how you end up with over a hundred pounds of junk... the temptation of walking into a store that has 50 lego sets to choose from, instead of the more normal 5 or 10 that you would find here. Similarly measuring cups, brands of cereal, or types of crackers... the US emphasis on choice is really enticing and missing from our Swiss life.

But we are happy to be back, sleeping in our own beds, not driving 3 hours per day and trying to lose the pounds we packed on over the short trip. We miss everyone from the states, but we are getting settled back into our quiet family life.

Feeding a giraffe at the zoo was a highlight. The fundraising efforts of the Phoenix Zoo seem to be doing just fine as they are completely rebuilding the zoo and adding animals like crazy. It is really amazing.

I've been amazed at how few photos I had of the town I lived in for over a decade. And once again I only had a little camera to document things. It really is a very lovely place to live and I wish I'd gone a bit more crazy with the DSLR before I moved away. Let this be a lesson to readers... the home you live in may not always be as close by.

The Fountain Hills Fountain.

Good night, Arizona.

Legoland Germany

2010-11-06T15:26:00.001+01:00

[First a note, its been ages since I updated the blog and we do still live here. A combination of technical problems with blogger and a new dog have kept posting off the top of my todo list.]

A couple of weeks ago while my son was on break we decided to make a run for an amusement park. Europa Park was completely booked so we picked Legoland. We went to the one in San Diego a few years ago, but the one in Germany (near Ulm) is substantially different. We brought the dog along and we stayed on the park at the "feriendorf".

The trip from Zurich was a bit long for a dog and a kid, something around 4 hours, with some extra time to change trains since there wasn't a direct line.

The Feriendorf is part camp-site and part little duplex cottage hotel. We really liked our room, it had a seperate bedroom for the kid and almost all of the essentials that we needed. It didn't have wifi, which strikes me as really strange, but otherwise it was fine for sleeping. What it wasn't fine for was getting to without a car. We had two problems here, the first is that the bus from the train station drops you off at the front of the park, and the Feriendorf is on the back of the hotel. You can walk through and they may bring your luggage (not quickly, so good luck catching a morning bus/train on the way back) but you cannot bring your dog. So if you've got a furry friend you need to walk all the way around the outside of the park along the road. It is a pretty good hike.

Accomodations aside, we had one afternoon and a full day at the park. The weather said that the full say, Friday, would be awesome, and when we arrived on the Thursday it was chilly but not bad, so we started doing rides. We had a good time and they've got 2 fairly big roller coasters, one smaller one, and a handful of other rides (notably the robot arm ride). We had a ton of fun there wasn't a line to be seen in the entire park so we pretty efficiently rode a lot of coasters.

The next morning was much colder and overcast, so much so that the rides didn't actually start opening until after noon. This really put a cramp on our style and so it turns out we didn't get to do any more on the 'full' day than the 'half' day.. but we saw Clutch Powers in 4D and rode a bunch more rides until it was time to return to the hotel and then to our normal lives. I you haven't seen the Clutch Powers movie on DVD it is a good show and highly recomended.

The food was not spectacular. In fact, it was almost spectacularly bad even by the standards of amusement parks, so don't expect to be amazed here. They also tend to close restraunts pretty early at least time time of year so you are stuck with the hotel food, which is arguably more expensive and less appetizing than what you can eat in the park. We had a good time, but it is another park that doesn't need frequent repeat visits, or more than about a full day of focused attention in order to get the most out of it (adjusted for having zero lines).

Our lovely room is right behind the pirate ship.

Not the lego view of Lucern (in keeping with being in Switzerland, despite the park being in Germany). They had all kinds of neat city models built and available for wandering around.

This is pretty much what the robot arm ride is like. You can program the 'difficulty' level of the ride, they strap you in, and the robot arm swings you around. My son and I had a great time, and then I went back and set it for 'insane'. At one point I'm pretty sure it threw me onto the ground and started swinging the chair at me... but my wife assures me it wasn't actually that bad.

Inside this castle is a Dragon, and since it was Halloween, also a bunch of spiders, rats and ghosts. This is probably the best coaster in the park and it really is a lot of fun.

Still here

2010-10-16T17:36:00.000+02:00

I realized it has been a long time since I posted. I still live in Switzerland, but the weekend trips have been cut down dramatically lately. We got a new member of the family and he is just now getting better at long train rides and crazy adventures. I'm not sure what the winter will bring, but we plan to be back up to full speed by the time the snow melts.

In the mean time...

Conny-Land

2010-08-23T19:29:00.000+02:00

On Sunday we went to Conny Land. It isn't too hard to get there from Zurich, although it requires a switch of trains in Wintertur and then a bus ride out into the north east corner of the country. Total transit is about 90 minutes if you time it right. It is worth noting that the bus only runs once per hour (at most) so you better plan things in advance, particularly if you expect to come home at some point.

We had a good time, although I'm not sure the value for the money is very high at about 30 chf per person to get in. It might be a good season pass option if you live close, but considering the commute for us I think this will be a one-time deal unless we want to do the dolphin-training thing some day.

They've got Dolphins! It is a pretty good show with some simple tricks and they may an effort to show off someone who paid for the dolphin training class. Lots of fun to see them jump around and do their thing. They've also got sea lions, who perform a show. Again, not spectacular but a lot of fun.

They have one really big adult roller coaster, the Cobra, but I didn't get to ride on that one. It drops you, you go through a loop and stop... then zip backwards.

Beyond that they have a large galeon swing, two 'water rides', some carvinal rides and a jurasic park tour with light guns (that apparently have an effective range of about 1 meter).

I'm not sure how they managed to do it, but I don't think the staff is Swiss. The place isn't run super efficiently, typically with only one person operating each ride, so the lines can get long even if the park isn't busy. They've got stores at the end of rides, and it is basically a knock off disney. I'm not really down on it, and we did have a good time.. but once was plenty.

Jakobsbad / Kronberg Rodelbahn

2010-07-25T17:52:00.000+02:00

Another weekend, another metal sled down a mountain. About a 2 hour train ride east from Zurich, at 32 chf per adult with halb tax cards. It isn't the shear mountains and tunnles of heading down south, instead it is a hilly farmland and it is still realy lovely.

The adventure begins about 10 meters from where you exit the train and they sell a variety of tickets for whatever you may be interested in. They've got the Rodelbahn that we went for and we bought a book of tickets that would let us go on 10 rides for 81 chf. They've got the gondola that takes you further up the mountain, and they have what looks like a really awesome ropes course.

Americans may be surprised that they would build a really complicated ropes course, give you a helmet and a harness and wish you the best of luck. Normally these things require guides and training and all that other safety nonsense. Here they expect you to understand the impact of gravity if you are 10 meters up in the air, and to only unclip one of your 2 safety lines at a time. People seemed to be having a good time with it and I'm certainly going to try to sneak out one day for 'team building' in the near future.

The rodelbahn starts with a very very long pull up the mountain and then dumps you off at the top for a great ride down to the bottm. It is a 2-rail design and feels pretty safe even at very high speeds. Probably the strangest thing was having cows grazing next to the run, sometimes only a meter away... Moooo!

Sattel Hochstuckli

2010-07-18T17:57:00.000+02:00

It has been a very warm summer so far this year and it has been a few weeks since we went out and did something exciting. This weekend we decided to go to Sattel Hochstuckli and see what we could do.

It is harder to get to from Zurich than it should be, so the wife finally convinced me to use our mobility pass to rent a car. We had one more errand to run on the way home (wait for the post on buying a puppy in Switzerland in a couple months), so I eventually relented. The drive went smoothly thanks to our gps unit and relatively little traffic being on the roads at 9:30 am on a Sunday. We got to the base of the mountain in Sattel at around 10 and it was clearly a popular place with other visitors. We bought the 'family day-pass' for 99chf so that we wouldn't have to worry about what we did to entertain the kid, although I'm pretty sure that we would have been a few francs better off buying just the stuff we wanted. Oh well.

We had a decent top-of-a-mountain swiss meal. These have their own unique appeal, being of lower quality and higher price than normal, but coming with a lovely view.

There is a rotating gondola up to the top, with a lovely view, although as you can see from the picture the glass is a little bit smudged. When you are there it doesn't diminish the spectacle at all.

In addition to the food and the view they've got a few things going for them. The Stuckli Run Rodelbahn was probably the most fun. Rondelbahn translates into English as 'sled in a metal track for crazy people'. You get in a little sled that has a hand-break, and go leaping off the hill in a metal track. This one is nice and long and at the bottom of the hill you get snagged on rope and it pulls you back up to the top. Lots of fun. My wife also proved that you can crash it if you ignore the 'slow down' signs... but she'll be fine.

My next favorite was a huge bridge spanning a nearby canyon. It was a bit windy and swaying pretty heavily but really pretty and kind of fun to walk across. They've got a ton of inflatable bouncey castles and trampolines for the kids (bit creapy to take a bunch of pictures, so I refrained), but my son enjoyed it.

And for the more grown up folks they've got a ton of hiking trails.

We had to leave at 2 to get to our next appointment but the 4 hours flew past and we had a nice cool outdoors experience. I think this might have even sold me on renewing the mobility subscription so we can do a few more road-trips this summer.

Basel

2010-06-25T07:01:00.000+02:00

I took last Monday off work to play hooky. My mom was in town and we took a quick trip up to Basel to see some more of Switzerland. I haven't been there, except to change trains, since my first visit to Switzerland almost 2 years ago.

Still looks pretty much the same, but it is a lovely old town. Compared to Zurich, it is amazing how much more 'old town' there is, as well as how much more practical and modern shopping seems to be available, at least on the Swiss side. We wandered from the train station, into the old town and looked at lot of churches and neat buildings and statues on the way.

I'm not sure why, but we came across some folks dancers performing in one of the squares, and although they where kind enough to announce what they where doing in English... they 'why' was lost in translation, or possibly just should have been apparent to me.

Zurich Zoo: Mosola

2010-06-20T15:34:00.000+02:00

After over a dozen trips to the Zurich Zoo, you would think that we had seen most of it, wouldn't you? Not true, apparently. They have a little bit of Madagascar that was apparently placed in a building and air-lifted to Zurich for our amusement and enlightenment. This isn't an exhibit with animals in cages, instead it is a large chunk of rainforest with trails for you to walk through and the plants and animals going about their lives.

You can get CLOSE up to the animals if they permit it and it is really amazing. It is hidden off behind the petting Zoo that we had avoided in the past, and also near a large bat exhibit. Go figure.

Italy: Day 6 Como and Zurich

2010-06-19T16:42:00.002+02:00

We arrived in Como and, to complete the pattern, ran into some problems with our directions to find the hotel. Of note, they had extremely clear directions printed in the reservation... they just didn't lead to the hotel.

We grabbed dinner, a little bit of Internet, and passed out.

In the morning we woke to this.

Despite being game to face the storms in Venice, this one was too much for us. The Internet weather agreed with our observations and it all looked bad. We never even saw lake Como, but we swam our luggage back to the train station and opted for an early retreat to our home in Zurich.

This gave us time to get settled in before the kid was returned to us and we decided that it was a better choice than taking a tour boat around the lake in the torrential rain.

I've posted a quick shout-out to my travel equipment, in case you are planning on taking a train/road trip in the near future and want some suggestions.

Italy: Day 5 Venice

2010-06-19T16:13:00.004+02:00

As all good walking trips should begin, day 5 started with a lot of walking. We needed to be at the Piazza San Marco by 9:30 for our tour, so we started at around 8am and tried to get lost for the first hour. We came across some really cool churches and random out of the way buildings, and a couple of different bakeries.

Eventually we ended up in the square to find our tour of the clock tower. The careful observer will note that this photo is from the wrong day (or that we walked super quickly). It has the date, digital and analog time, phase of the moon and the sign of the Zodiac. It also is crowned by the Ventian Lion (notably above Mary), and two men who bang on the bell to mark 2-minutes until the hour, and then the hour.

The insides are entirely mechanical as they have been since it was constructed, although in 1998 they finally stopped making someone live in the tower and raise up weights every 12 hours to power it. It is now run by a system of motors that keep it wound. Really amazing stuff.

Once that tour finished we took another extremely round-about path back to grab our luggage and continue on to our final stop. Before we made it to the hotel and train station we stopped for ice cream, sodas and small trinkets about a dozen times, frequently just to try to find some air conditioning and get out of the heat.

Italy: Day 4 Venice

2010-06-19T14:20:00.003+02:00

On our arrival the previous evening we had a little trouble finding our hotel. Google maps was having issues and the hotel had changed the address of its' entrance since we had printed our information. As a result, we ended up hauling our luggage with us into the far northwest corner of the original Jewish ghetto... until the locals helped us realize how far off the path we had gotten. Super friendly folks, and it was a huge help for us. I'll get the maps fixed, so don't worry about that. After getting to our hotel we found food and passed out.

Our first full day in Venice was at least a week long, I'm certain of it. We got up early and started with the slow water bus (vaparetto) down the Grand Canal, with me taking pictures and the wife reading from the Book of Rick
and giving her best tour guide impression. It is an impressive sight, one amazing building after another as you slowly putter on down the river.

Eventually we got to Piazza San Marco, which was a recurring theme for the city. We had a 10am appointment for the Doge's Palace Secret Itineraries Tour. Despite some early morning heat and humidity this was really an impressive tour. Lots of little dark wooden rooms at the top of the palace with a great tour guide who explained how the government of the republic worked. The split of power between the nobility and the commoners and the checks and balances within the system sounds like it was brilliant. I think the tour gave a decent impression of the work-lives of the people running the government, and mixed in stories of Casanova being imprisoned, a rapid rebuilding after a fire and a little bit of torture. No pictures though, since they like to protect their tour business.

Out in the courtyard there is the ever-present Venetian lion, holding his book of peace and looking out over us.

After the tour we grabbed a boat to Murano. Murano is the glass makers' island, kept far from everyone else to prevent them from burning down everything. At this point it doesn't offer all that much to do in terms of lunch, but has dozens of different glass shops to let you buy trinkets or works of art. As we learned later, there isn't all that much variety and unless you are looking at the really huge artisan works you are going to see the same items repeated over and over. We didn't actually see someone making glass figurines until the following day back on Venice.

After we'd contributed to the economy of Murano we grabbed a boat back and crashed in our hotel for a few hours. After our rest, we got up and headed out for dinner and an evening walk. We made it about 200 meters and got hit in the face with a bucket of water. Actually it was a series of buckets, falling from the sky. In the midst of this torrential downpour we ran across the bridge in front of the train station and dashed into the first restaurant we found. We learned that having 'snacks' on the sign out front means that they microwave your food.... so the wife and I had microwaved Italian food in Venice watching the rain fall.

When we gave up on the food and the rain had slowed down we headed back out for a walk in the drizzle. Once you got accustomed to it it was kind of lovely and very quiet. It improved further once I bought my own umbrella, and we wandered through back streets until we got back to San Marco.

Due to fairly light crowds after the rain we not only got to take a gondola ride, but we negotiated a slightly improved rate on the cost. I should have done my research first, but apparently 100 euros is the going rate for the 'short tour' in the evening from this area. I was happy to get them down to 70 and stay married.

The weather finally turned lovely, with the temperature dropping and some nice clouds and a sunset.

Then we walked back to our hotel to collapse.

Italy: Day 3 Verona

2010-06-17T22:02:00.004+02:00

We got into Verona in the evening and ran into a little trouble finding a taxi and ended up just hiking to our hotel. Not too bad, but the exit from the train station into the city wasn't as obvious as one would hope. Want a hint? Head south a bit first, or better yet, wait for a taxi.

After we found our hotel, we went into the Piazza Bra and saw a lot of people enjoying a night out at the opera. We grabbed a very reasonable dinner at the Pizzeria Olivo and then passed out.

The next morning we returned with the camera and got a picture of the Arena Di Verona, which appeared lovely, but it was early so we just kept walking rather than staying to tour inside. Later in the afternoon there were a couple of Roman guards standing around and a truck bringing in some small sphinxes.

We hiked about, generally following the Rick Steves' Italy
walking tour and looking at a lot of amazing things, incluing this old Roman wall, countless churches, bridges and towers. We both agreed that Verona was absolutely wonderful, but probably only good for one day of active sight-seeing.

We walked back to have lunch at the MezzaParte in the Piazza delle Erbe. We started with just a simple meal of pasta and it was fantastic. So good in fact, and so warm outside, that we decided to have some gelatto. It was by far the best we had on the trip, it clearly was the home made product they assured us it was. And then we had a little bit of rain. Rather than face that we started drinking. My theory was that they had done so good with the two previous orders that a potentially complicated drink would be an excellent test, so I had a mojito. It was a little grassy, but tasty and a good way to pass a few minutes until the sky cleared.

Take a note of that lion in the Piazza delle Erbe, particularly the open book. That is the lion of Venice, proof that Verona didn't always control its own fate. Speaking of fate, my favorite story for the city was about the family that ruled over it for a period of time that made its wealth making ladders. Honestly, ladders? The trade secrets involved in that must be pretty astounding for you to be able to keep a monopoly on them for generations. Despite the wonderful buildings and artwork, a city where the ladder guy is your ruler might reflect badly on the intellect of the general population.

There is another famous story about a young woman who once looked out over this balcony when she should have gone back inside and forgotten about the idiot who was yelling up to her. Her family was right, it wasn't going to work out.

Italy: Day 2 Florence / Firenze

2010-06-16T22:06:00.003+02:00

We started off with an early breakfast and some quality walking around the city looking for old buildings, narrow streets, churches, statues and a good bakery and we found all of them.

By 10 o'clock we made our way to the first of our organized tours, the Palazzo Vecchio tour. We got to see the inside of the Doge's palace with an excellent, but slightly shiny, tour guide. We got to see a secret passage, old maps, older floors and lots of painted ceilings.

We headed across the Ponte Vecchio and along all of the jewlerly shops (which we avoided) and near a bunch of restraunts (which we didn't).

After we finished lunch we headed off to see the Pitti Palace and its gardens. We enjoyed our walk around the gardens, which are something between the English and French styles. Neither a wilderness nor highly manicured, and the effect was lovely, if somewhat hilly. At the end we went to the 'costume' exhibit and were underwhelmed. It was about how modern styles are influenced by older styles.. and we really didn't care.

As the late afternoon approached we went back to our hotel, grabbed our stuff and headed off for Verona!

Italy: Day 1 Firenze / Florence

2010-06-16T21:37:00.001+02:00

The first day was mostly travel, it was over 6 hours by train, including a change in Milan so trains took up most of our first day. For this part of the travel we went first class, since the extra leg room and more comfortable seats really start to matter after a couple of hours. Worth noting, in Italy every train in the country is late by about 20 minutes, except for the one you are trying to make a tight change onto.

When we got there we learned that color plays an important part in the street addresses in Firenze (known to Americans as Florence). We eventually sorted out where our hotel was and dropped off our bags before heading out for a nice walk before dinner.

Although we wandered past some markets and assorted lovely buildings the highlight was Piazza Del Dumo and the Campanile di Giotta (huge white church).

Out in front is the Bastistero di San Giovanni which, aside from the amazing marble, has images carved on pannels on each of the doors.

This church was popular with the tourists and my wife didn't read the sign carefully about the dome tour and insisted that we do it. I on the other hand did read the sign and actually enjoy steep climbs up old buildings, so I agreed. About 432 stairs later I was standing on the very top of the dome leaning off and taking pictures of the surrounding town, and my wife was abandoned somewhat lower after looking up at the final climb she decided to wait for me. We also got to take a few pictures of the dome from a narrow viewing ledge right up under the dome.

We ended with a passable dinner and an early night. We managed a fair bit of walking on the first day and we thought it was fairly hot. It turns out that things would only get more humid and generally warmer throughout the trip.

Hang out by Lake Zurich

2010-06-06T14:22:00.000+02:00

For the past two days we've just been enjoying the awesome weather and walking around bits of lake Zurich.

Yesterday we started at the HB, stopped by the Apple Store to buy a pedometer and then walked up to the lake and around the western edge for a while. Although taking pictures would have been a bit creepy, it was absolutely full of people out worshiping the sun. A few of them braved the still chill waters of the lake, but most where happy to sun themselves in the park.

Today my pedometer nano was charged and we took my son on his bike down to walk around the east side of the lake. It was earlier so more people out moving about and fewer people just laying in the sun. There is also a bit of a street fair going on so lots of boothes and the carousel open even on a Sunday. A Sunday? yes really, on a Sunday.

In 4 hours we walked about 7 thousand steps and didn't even begin to burn off the wonderful schweinbrautworst and cider that I had for lunch.

Everyone is excited to get outside while it is sunny but not yet brutally hot. Its lovely!

Spieleland, Germany

2010-05-24T19:00:00.001+02:00

For the second day of our trip to Germany we went to Spieleland, an amusement park a short drive from Ravensburg.

So, in software development there is a class of joke-wisdom that says that the first 90% of features take 90% of the time and budget and that the last 10% take the other half. The trick is that the last 1% is what matters.

Our 5 year old action-seeking kid had a good time on the rides (even the 6-year-old ones) and we all had a great day. But it wasn't the kind of thing you need to go back to. The rides are spread out, and there isn't a real 'density' to the experience, it feels like someone owned a field and stuck a bunch of amusement rides in one part. Then they put a few rides somewhere else, a big playground and a couple of places to sell ice cream. Then they charged admission.

It is amazing how things feel different without the passion and commitment that you see in the Disney parks. The next tier are the Lego Lands, SeaWorlds and Universal Studios where they've got a love for the material and they pack the experience as tightly as possible, but without the obsessive compulsive Disneyism. This kind of park is the third or fourth tier, which has the check-boxes filled but no soul. Rides? check. Food? check. Stores? check. Characters? faint check.

Anyway, it is good for a day with a 5 year old, but outside the range of 5-6 I'd avoid it unless I lived within an hours drive.. in which case I'd buy the season pass and smuggle in lunch on my visit each Sunday for two years.

For people who would like to go as tourists (perhaps from Switzerland) be aware that there is no reasonable public transit to and from the park. You can get there, but only a few times per day, not related in any way to the opening and closing times of the park. Really... crazy. If you mess it up it is a 20 Euro taxi from the hotel near the bus stop into Ravensburg. Not the end of the world, but make sure you have some cash on you.

From Zurich, what kind of cash are we looking at for a trip? (2 adults, 1 kid)
Train travel: 160 chf
Hotel: 430 chf
Park: 115 chf
Food (cheaper than Zurich...)
What I'm getting at is that it isn't that much cheaper than Disney :)

On the other hand, it is a new experience and we got to wander around a cute German town. And we spent about 2 hours less on trains in each direction.

Ravensburg, Germany

2010-05-24T18:32:00.001+02:00

It was a three day weekend so around Wednesday of last week my wife and I decided we should go do something fun. We went down the list and decided we should leave Switzerland and go explore a bit more of Germany, but with a kid-friendly twist.

Saturday morning we got up at some unreasonably weekday-hour of the morning, got ready and headed off to Ravensburg. We changed trains in Schaffhausen (which looks really pretty and we should go visit again) and got to Ravensburg after about 3 hours of travel. We stayed at the Hotel Residez, which is clearly a very old building that has had a lot of love, but not a lot of advanced planning in its construction. We stayed on the top floor in a room that had 6 different levels. Each one about a 4cm step up or down from the others and most of them sloped slightly. The roof was more steeply sloped and the whole thing creaked mercilessly. I slept better in this hotel than any other one that I recall... a good pillow and mattress make everything else irrelevant. The restaraunt downstairs is also pretty good.

View Larger Map

We got in early enough that we got to go hit up the street fair for lunch and have a nice walk around the old town. it is absolutely lovely, and filled with the interesting architecture, churches and shops that make Europe so much fun to wander around. They had a little bit in the way of playground equipment, and it was enough to keep the kid entertained as we walked.

Lovely city, but a day is probably enough to get a good feel for it. I got to spend a few minutes in German stores to establish that prices aren't really any better than Switzerland (you can play games with the VAT, but the savings are still pointlessly small). I did buy a Nerf gun I'd been unable to find in Zurich, so I declare victory on the shopping front.

When traveling to Germany, but aware that you will need cash, possibly even more than in Switzerland. I blew through 200 euro in 2 days even while trying to do everything on my debit card. Sigh. I've got no idea what we spent it on.

And for the tenants in Arizona who made me pay to get pigeons chased out... here is what Europe thinks about pigeons.

Lucerne Verkehrshaus (Transport Museum)

2010-05-16T18:18:00.000+02:00

The weather was overcast and a bit chilly, so we returned to my favorite museum in Switzerland to keep the family entertained. I brought the macro lense, the kid brought his need to scooter around and the wife brought her sense of humor. A good day for all.

One of my favorite things about this museum, is that in the 18 or so months since we arrived in Switzerland it has changed dramatically. They constantly have new stuff to see and explore, and they've also got a passable cafeteria, so it makes an easy place to visit. Since our last trip just a few months ago the weather has improved, so the outdoor things are all open, including horse carriage rides and some jet fighters under a tent. Why? Who knows, but Grifen (A division of Saab, apparently) had some spare jetfighters and loaned them to the museum. I figure it is like leaving your car in an airport for advertising... perhaps some arms dealer or wealthy warlord will be out with his family and see these things and think "Wow, I gotta get me one of those". They had some advertising brochures as well, talking about 'force multipliers' and 'less than 10 maintenance hours per flying hour' and other importat factores for an aspiring warlord to keep in mind.

I focused on just taking a bunch of pictures, since I haven't got room in my appartment for another jet fighter.

Most important thing about having a jet airplane? Keeping it grounded.

Go to Brussels?

2010-05-13T20:28:00.000+02:00

I flew up for business, but it is about an 8 hours train ride from Zurich.

On the way back I got a chance to go walk around the old town a bit before heading to the airport. There are a lot of other things to see, but the old town has a couple of highlights. First on the list is the food that they are famous for. They will sell you one of two kinds of 'Belgium waffles' and cover them in the unhealthy treat of your choice. They also well sell Belgium frites, which are french fries or chips, depending on your version of English. The place below was so tacky we had to try it... but of questionable quality.

There is a square with all kinds of really amazing buildings, and then we headed off to see one of the two famous statues in Brussels. The other one is of an atom and was far off ... but this was of a small boy peeing in a fountain. Someone had dressed him, which is more weird than normal, and not likely what you will see if you visit. This boy is so famous that peeing boys are used as decorations, inspiration for corkscrews, bottle art and all sorts of other things.

Finally we found an extremely pretty church that was holding a service (it was Ascension Day after all), and enjoyed the music briefly before heading back out into the rain to go to the airport.

Did I say rain? It rained constantly in both cities I visited... bring a good umbrella, a waterproof camera, and a towel. I'd love to go back some day with my better camera, but only if I can be sure that I'll have some light to work with.

Hiking the Utliberg

2010-05-09T18:13:00.002+02:00

The weather was sunny this morning, so we took the opportunity to go for a hike. Train part of the way up Uetliberg and then hiked up the rest. We chose to get off ta the Ringlikon station and the signage was pretty good for the rest of the way. It isn't terribly steep in most places and it is always beautiful. A great way to spend a sunny day this time of year.

When we finished our hike all the way to the top we came back down to the train stop, grabbed lunch at the cafe (60 chf for 2 adults and a kid) and then road back home. Lots of fun.

I'm always amused at how much work the Swiss are able to put into keeping nature natural. Rare do you see a trail or stream bed that hasn't been re-inforced and covered in concrete tiles.

This was a view of our destination, always nice to know you are headed the right direction.<

Bern (repost)

2010-04-25T21:11:00.001+02:00

We decided to take a daytrip up to Bern. It is about an hour from Zurich and was one of those cities that we just hadn't managed to get to yet, despite it being known for having a wonderful old town and... Bears.

The weather was absolutely lovely today so we dropped off our travel gear (Kindles and such) at a locker and headed off for a walk through old town to get to the bear pits. The old town is absolutely amazing. Endless rows of buildings that look like they came straight out of your imagination about how a ancient Swiss city should have looked. And then a mall moved in and set up shop.

OK, so having the signs from all of the normal places stuck on the buildings is a bit strange, but you can overlook it, and as you get off of the major streets things become more low-key and authentic looking. As expected it is well maintained and clean and only has traces of the graffiti common in so many cities.

The far side of our journey took us to see the bear pits, both the old ones and the new ones. The bear certainly seems a little bored, but surely nothing like he was in the old sterile 'pit' that he was kept in. This one is much more open and gives him a view of the city and the river. Only one bear was out, not the cubs, which was unfortunate but not terribly surprising. He was at least being a good sport and walking around so the crowd could get a good photo of him.

It was a lovely walk with plenty of fountains and churches and other stuff to see.

edit: Blogger ate the first attempt, trying again.

Walking / Soccer

2010-04-25T16:04:00.003+02:00

We decided to take my son for a bike ride near the house for entertainment this lovely Sunday. The price is great and the transportation time is reasonable, so it is highly recomended for entertainment. I brought my camera and followed along and took pictures of various plants that are enjoying the warm weather as much as I am.

To our surprise we came across the Heuried soccer field and stopped to watch the end of a game. The team in red ended up winning (we think.. didn't see the whole game) and everyone played a good game. I must say though, it is impossible to play that game and not have a couple of frames come out looking pretty embarassing. This was mostly taken at 300mm, and since the glass I own isn't very fast I crankd it up to ISO 1600 even though it was a bright sunny day. That seems to have worked out well enough.

These shots never really get old.

Sechselaeuten is back! Winter is dead!

2010-04-19T19:15:00.001+02:00

The annual festival where we have a huge parade in Zurich and then put a giant snowman on top of a fire and murder it, has been completed. Winter is not only over, it has been publicly humiliated and killed to appease the masses. When we say we've had enough, we mean it. Do not mess with the Swiss over the changing of the season. The weather now afraid to snow here.

The parade runs for hours and the guilds march through, throwing out their bread/sausages/dates/candies and whatever. Various bands also march along, in one case playing Sousa marches, much to the amusement of the band nerd I was with. In general everyone has a good time and it was an absolutely wonderful day for it.

I ditched to go watch the final bit from home with my family, and then, after the real Böögg (aka Boegg or Boeoegg) was sent to his firey demise, we ate a little one of our own, purchased from the local purveyor of expensive chocolate treats.

Zoo Season is back.

2010-04-11T13:49:00.000+02:00

Remember, there are benefits to getting to the Zoo early. Fewer crowds and other things..

Don't just lay about on your log at home, go out and explore the wonderful Zurich Zoo.

Take your cubs, they'll get to see all kinds of neat things.

What else are you going to do on a Sunday? Clean the windows?

Lausanne: Day 2 - afternoon

2010-04-04T18:52:00.000+02:00

After the tower, we proceeded on to the Vivarium, which was an unexpectedly good reptile house. From the outside it looks terrible; badly painted, under a freeway and out in the middle of nowhere. From the inside it is packed full of various snakes, spiders, crocodiles and other fun. You won't spend a lot of time there, but for what it is, its pretty cool.

Then we headed back into town and back down towards the lake (after a nice nap at our hotel). It was looking pretty overcast so we walked over to the Parc Olympique and the Olympic Museum. It was very Olympic, and I mean that in the sense that they will only accept payment by visa because that is their sponsor credit card company. If you can get past the fact that the Olympics have possibly lost their way, and the very nice tribute section dedicated to the people who work at the IOC you'll get to see a lot of neat memorabilia and information. My favorite was a display of all of the medals awarded in modern times. Very neat to see how things have changed.

After that we headed back along the shore to the pirate restaurant right next to the metro station at Ouchy. It has a cartoon pirate for its logo, and yet strange didn't have any kid friendly choices on the menu. Honestly I didn't see anything for myself either... so we ate next door at Boccallino and had some pretty good Pizza and Calzones.

Then back up the metro to the train station, back up the stairs... and sleep.

The next day we woke up, hit the playgrounds for a bit then took a nice leisurely train ride back to Zurich. All told despite the stormy predictions of the weekend we had about 5 minutes of light rain across the weekend. Wonderful.

Lausaane: Day 2 - morning

2010-04-04T18:37:00.000+02:00

We started off our morning adventure with a light breakfast at our Hotel, then grabbed the metro halfway up the hill and began the climb to see the Cathedrale De Lausanne Notre Dame. It was absolutely beautiful. Inside in one corner and in a small protected outdoor section they have some of the original paint that would have once decorated the entire church. I'm really curious why they stopped painting or maintaing churches in that fashion since it must have been absolutely amazing. They also have a huge organ built into the back wall and it would be fun to hear it play some day.

After that we wandered around that general area, viewing the different old buldings on top of the hill and then heading off to our next stop, the Lake at Sauvabelin. They have a petting zoo, a playground, a restraunt and a huge tower. I'm not sure why they have a huge tower, but I hate to let huge towers pass without standing on top of them. So that was a fun detour from the trip.

Lausanne: Day 1

2010-04-04T14:46:00.000+02:00

We decided to run off to Lausanne on Easter weekend, it is about 2.5 hours from Zurich by train, and although it may be one of the least scenic trips we've taken in terms of the train ride, that just means it is only beautiful.

We arrived at the train station and hiked up some nearby stairs to the Hotel Elite. It was a really great place to stay, reasonable rates, a separate room for the kid to sleep in, and nearly tolerable beds and pillows. I'd recommend it highly, particularly since it came with transportation passes and breakfast. A real deal at around 200 chf per night.

We dropped off our stuff and set about finding lunch and a playground. Lunch was Tucinos across the street from the train station and it was fantastic. Huge piles of gnocchi in a four cheese sauce for me, left me full for the rest of the day. Not far down the hill from the train station we came across a great park and spent some time there. Lots of things to climb and slide on, and in the summer they have some neat water toys. They also had a large humanoid to climb in (see the first picture). It may also be home to pigeons, but this city takes entertaining children very seriously. We saw a number of good playgrounds, all much better than what you find in Zurich.

The weather forcast for the rest of the weekend wasn't good, so we headed down to Ouchy by the lake and wandered around a bit, even coming across a bit of a street fair. Absolutely lovely day with some gelato and views of the mountains over the lake. Trying to capitalize on the weather we then grabbed the metro and then a bus and headed to Saint-Sulpice. Apparently there is a boat during the summer but it wasn't running yet so we had to make a round about trip.

The church at Saint-Sulpice was having a performance so the wonderful sounds flowed out of the old church and we stopped for a bit to listen. They also have a nice shore-side park to let the kid run around and for me to take a ton of pictures of the local ducks (redacted for your pleasure).

Exhausted by our long day we headed back into the city and ate at Le Restaurant at the train station. Not our most exciting meal plan but really very good, and close to the hotel so we could go and pass out for the night.

Trampolino in Dietikon

2010-03-22T06:54:00.002+01:00

It was a rainy Sunday and our kid needed to get outside and do something to burn off some energy. We couldn't get excited about going to the pool again so we ran down the list of places to take your kids where they might have fun and two things came to mind, Starbies and Trampolino, and since we hadn't been to Trampolino it won.

Now, in a fit of bad planning both of those places are a long walk from public transit. Too long in the rain, and much to long with the tired child you will presumably have at the end of a few hours of wild play. So we had to rent a car. Mobility.ch is pretty awesome and happened to have a car we could borrow and so I added another hour of so of driving time to the previous 3 hours of Swiss driving (in about 15 months).

Trampolino was packed on this Sunday morning just moments after it opened and it kept getting more busy. Every table was booked for a birthday party and the floor was thick with kids. Americans looking for fire exits, a clear view of your kid or even the ability to find them again... don't try this.

They've got a bunch of trampolines, a slide, a huge climbing structure and a strange tent-like object you can climb up. It was apparently a lot of fun for the kid and the wife and I sat in the corner and enjoyed some noisy but mostly un-interrupted reading time.

Then we grabbed lunch and went home. Let me recommend against lunch, the hot dog was questionable and my wife seems to have gotten food poisoning from the chicken.

As for the cost? 14 chf for kids and 7 chf for each adult.

Melide, Swiss Miniature Villiage (Lugano day 2)

2010-03-14T18:57:00.002+01:00

For Sunday in Lugano we wandered around a bit and then headed out to see the Swiss Miniature Villiage in Melinde Switzerland. If you wonder how to get there? Don't sweat it. You get off the train and really cannot miss the sign.

If you have ever wondered if you've seen everything in Switzerland, you haven't. This place is basically a checklist of the amazing stuff you have missed and is pretty amazing in its own right. They took the most famous things from the country and constructed them in miniature and build a walking path through it. It took well over an hour for us to wind our way through it and be amazed at all of the things we now need to go see full size. I went to some effort to make the photos look as realistic as possible, although you can't help but think that pictures of miniatures are tilt-shift camera tricks, I think they came out ok.

Reality is the blurry thing in the background.

Lugano Switzerland (day 1)

2010-03-14T18:48:00.001+01:00

We took an overnight trip from Zurich to Lugano. It is about three hours away by train and was a wonderful break from the cold weather that we have had lately. At 10C it was nice light jacket weather and we got to spend a lot of time outside walking around.

We arrived at Lugano and dropped our stuff off at the Walter Hotel, located right on the lake, and a good combination of comfort and low price. Expect a european hotel with terrible pillows, a little road noise and otherwise excellent. Then we grabbed lunch at Pizzeria Mary Ristorante, it was absolutely delightful and the culinary highlight of the trip.

Then we set about walking to the Park to the east and playing on their playground, and having a bit of gelato to celebrate the weather being warm enough to eat it without being insane. We took the little tourist train around the edge of the lake to see some more sights and then wandered through the old town. It was a great way to spend a Saturday.

Technorama 2010

2010-02-21T14:48:00.000+01:00

It was a lovely day and we decided to go to the Wintertur technorama anyway. A nice hour of transit from our home to the Wintertur HB then another 15 minutes on a bus and you get the best hands on science museum in the country. This is the first time that we've been able to wander through all 3 floors of the real exhibits and still get out with only a small breakdown. It was interesting to see that in the months since we last went they've changed a few things and added some new exhibits. They also changed the big electricity show, but it is still mostly talking (in German) so they clearly didn't get a greatly improved script.

If you are in Switzerland with a kid of any age, this is something you should really take time to go see. I'd rank it behind the Transportation museum, but only barely.

Sledging: Saas Fee and Saas Almagell

2010-02-13T15:19:00.001+01:00

Last weekend we went sledging in the Alps. What is sleddging? You take a 'rail' sled, which is basically a traditional sled design that works well on a fairly solid surface, two metal rails with a platform for you to sit on. Imagine a sled that isn't made out of plastic.. its like that. Then you go up to the top of a mountain and find a course that has been compacted into the hill. Since you can't sled like this on fluffy snow it needs a prepared course. Then you sit on the sled and go flying off the mountain, typically at a moderate angle to the hill and frequently with some cutbacks. You can go very fast, but steering is tough since it is done by pressing your feet into the ground, leaning and praying. It is a lot of fun, but no doubt does have some risk associated with it.

We headed from Zurich by train (and 2 busses) and it took about three hours to get to our hotel at Saas Almagell. We dropped off our bags and rented some helmets and grabbed a bus (via Saas Grund) to Saas Fee.

Once there we got an expensive and simple lunch and then headed up to the ski lift to rent some sleds and buy our lift passes. The sledge slope here is fairly wide, about 3M, and had some hard turns and some ruts and bumps. It also has variable speeds, so at times it is very fast and has some spots where you will likely need to walk. We also ran into some snow shoe hikers, but overall it is a nice 6.5km run down the mountain. Very well marked and easy to follow and we ended up running it twice.

After that we walked over to the Feeblitz Rodelbobbahn, which is basically a metal and plastic sled on rails. You get pulled up the mountain by a cable and then dropped off to race down the track. You've got control over your speed with a handle but mostly it just tosses you down the course. It was a ton of fun for everyone.

That night we ate back in Saas Almagell, which is less touristy and dramatically cheaper. And in the morning we went to the Almagell sledge run. It isn't as well marked and is narrower, but it has a nice long fast run in the middle (see video below for the experience). As always, your safety is your problem, so be careful and wear a helmet.

From Swiss10

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Get snowed in

2010-01-30T17:44:00.000+01:00

It is hard to capture what falling snow looks like, but I think the two pictures above do it some justice. Things just picked up again so it isn't always this white, but we've got some serious snowfall going on. Tomorrow there will be more sleding, just as long as we can get the doors open and get outside. By 7 am I expect the busses, trams and trains to have things sorted out and we'll get a lovely frosted Sunday.

On the other hand, I'm going out tonight and I expected that coming home at 11pm in this stuff is going to be pretty unpleasant if it looks like this at 6pm.

First sledding of the year

2010-01-16T22:24:00.000+01:00

Back from a few busy months before the holidays and a trip to Arizona we are out enjoying our weekends again here in Switzerland. The snow here in town is mostly melted but just a little ways up Uetliberg at the Ringlikon stop there is a nice hill for sledding with your kid. The snow isn't terribly deep but it is packed nicely for all kinds of sleds.

Wonderful fun and it wore out all three of us in just an hour or so. Hiking up the hill with your sled takes a lot out of you. By the time we left, around 3pm, things had started to get crowded.

Zoo. Scarey-cat edition

2009-11-01T18:31:00.001+01:00

It was a lovely day and we hadn't been to the Zoo in a while so we headed off early to get there at 9am when they opened. I took the little camera, so of course we saw a few new animals and I tried to take what pictures I could.

The most interesting one to me was the Manul, aka Pallas' Cat. It starts off looking like a slightly pudgy house cat sitting calmly on a rock, watching. Then it yawns and you realize that it isn't exactly cut out to be a domestic kitty.

The coati was out, keeping the spectacled bears entertained.

So, how about this neat model they had in the lobby?

Actually, I took a picture of some penguins, trying to make sure it clustered in the middle of a fairly large scene and ran it through a software based tilt-shift convertor. Not as good as using the right equipment, and the shot wasn't composed exactly right, but it is a neat and easy trick to do. So, does it look real or faked with little penquin models?

EuroDisney (Paris)

2009-10-17T09:35:00.002+02:00

We just got back from a family weekend in EuroDisney. It was the low season and during the week, so the rate where reasonable and we had to spend very little time waiting in line. Except for the sudden cold spell it was the perfect time of year to take our son on a special adventure.

EuroDisney vs US Disney options. The setting in general and discovery land (tomorrow land) in particular are really much better than the US options. And space mountain here is a whole different generation of roller coaster, smoother, faster and better in all ways. On the other hand, things seem a lot less 'mouse-y' here, without the subtle details hidden around the park. Things also do not run as smoothly and the level of maintenance (chipped paint, etc) seems to be lower. All three of them hold up well though and I certainly wouldn't fly across the pond just to go to a different one.

The Cheyenne hotel has great access to the park and the train station, and the breakfast is adequate if a bit simple and crowded. The beds however lead me to recommend that you upgrade to something nicer, it was extremely hard to sleep, and after a few days of constant walking and adventure sleep becomes really important. Service in the hotel was also a little questionable, with our request for heating in our room being met with an hour of confusion and poor communication.

Pictures in Disney. Why is it so much easier to take pictures of parades, but the rides are what people actually enjoy? I'm not sure, but it probably explains why they still do parades after all of these years.

Carnival

2009-09-13T14:20:00.002+02:00

I'm sure it had a specific name, but I never figured it out. This morning the family headed off to a carnival being set up next to the tram stop we go to every morning. They've been setting it up for over a week, starting with the big ferris wheel to make sure everyone knew what was coming. It was an absolute blast, made better by having my son be his most delightful self. It was Switzerland so it was expensive, but let me highlight a few things that might surprise tourists.

1) It was 2.5 to 15chf per ride and each ride is independently run and takes cash... no tickets carnival-wide.
2) Rides run a long time to give you 'value'. You will be very ready for most of them to stop.
3) I swore they had trademark laws here, but apparently they are not applied to carnival rides.
4) It is still a carnival, not held to the regular standards of swiss/german engineering.
5) You are responsible, as the parent for deciding if your infant should ride the roller coaster, not them.

This is a view of about half of the rides, from the top of the wheel.

There, I fixed it.

Yes, you might need a drink.

Zurich Zoo - Portraits and Kids

2009-09-06T17:02:00.000+02:00

It may be the last absolutely fantastic day of the year to go to the Zoo... so we did. Weather was perfect and despite some construction it was fun for a walk around. All of the babies from the prior spring are out and about and the animals are all showing off. We even had lunch at the Zoo (first time) and it was about 60 chf for the three of us, but as tourist-location food goes it was decent.

Learned a few things as demonstrated below:

Baby penguins are ugly.

Turtles are cool.

Lions are magestic, even when young.

The O-face of an elephant is not romantic at all.

Paris Nights

2009-09-04T22:50:00.000+02:00

We had a lovely time, despite the rain and a bit of illness. I recomend a few days of wandering around even if you aren't big into museums. If you are, then I recomend a month of wandering around.

The city is amazing, and I really hope that they find a World's Fair or the Olympics or something to motivate them to really clean the place up and do something innovative and new. With royalty in their past their greatest monuments have come when they really put every effort into showing off for the world. Without that motivation, things seemed doomed to slowly slide into decay.

Farewell, Paris.

Paris - Day 3 - Versailles

2009-09-04T22:43:00.000+02:00

My wife got to choose her tour and with a little input from me we went for the 'bike tour of Versailles'. And it rained. We got about 100 meters from the bike/tour office riding towards the train station when the rain started. Nobody was full prepared so we all got instantly soaked, and things continued along that trend. Train out the the palace, then purchased a fine lunch at the bakery and other stores and then headed out into the grounds. The rain continued until we got the far side of the reflecting pool where we planned to have lunch. The rain let up for a few minutes and we got about halfway through the picnic before the rain came back. Then it got seriously wet and chilly for the final ride back up to the Palace.

We parked our bikes and went inside for the tour, thankfully they didn't seem to mind that we dripped all over their wonderful building. And after 90 minutes of touring about with the audio guide we came back outside to find the sun shining, and everything was lovely for what little was left of the day. A very brief ride back to the train station and then zipping back into town to drop off the bikes.

Being crazy we then set out on another aimless hike seeking food, which we finally found... and the wife got food posioning. Ooops.

The first photo below is of a charming farm villiage created so that Marie Antoinette could feel like she lead the 'simple life'. Moving on to a view of the back of the palace from a mile away, the interior church and some sunlight.

Paris - Day 2 - Segway

2009-09-04T22:31:00.000+02:00

My choice of tourist options for the trip was to ride around on a Segway for four hours with the wife. She was a great sport and ended up having a fantastic time. It turns out that it is a pretty lousy way to see Paris, but Paris makes a fine background for goofing around on a fancy scooter. Everyone on the trip had a really good time and I only had the little camera with me, but a few shots ammused me.

On the picture of the tower, notice the girls in the lower, right third of the picture, seeing them pose for their own photos was pretty funny.

Paris - Day 1 'the walk'

2009-09-04T22:24:00.000+02:00

What better to do with a weekend in Switzerland than run off to Paris with the wife for a couple of days. We spent the first day realizing just how great we have things in Zurich. Mostly the public transit and the awesome airport. Once we got to our hotel and dropped off our stuff we decided to head east. We walked to the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-Élysées, past the Louvre and to Notre Dame. Then we went off into the Latin Quarter for dinner. That is a really long walk (over 5 miles, apparently). I hauled along my camera and over the next few days took 1,110 photos. I'll edit that down a bit for posting.

I'm trying to pick photos to show variety and some of the amusing and interesting things, not to just demonstrate that I took pictures of the 4 most famous things I came across.

We had a great time, but really, they need to hire some Swiss folks to fix their public transit system.

Animals

2009-08-17T18:15:00.000+02:00

Another thing to do is take pictures of animals. I was having a good time with my new 70-300 lens both on normal telephoto and on macro for a few patient ducks. Quack, guys, and thanks.

4 hour cruise (Lake Zurich)

2009-08-17T18:11:00.000+02:00

The four hour lake Zurich cruise is really just a popular mis-use of the public transit to go to Rapperswil and then loop around and come back. Make sure you check the times so you finish the trip in the same direction you started.

Anyway, the boats are pretty nice and serve expensive treats and drinks to help you pass the time. The day was a little bit hazy so the panorama shots all came out pretty dull, but I got some scenes of neat stuff happening as we circled the lake. This was actually the first time I've seen a water skier on the lake, but there are endless mountains, churches and great little shoreline scenes to see.

Rapperswil

2009-08-17T18:02:00.000+02:00

We went for a round the lake, 4 hour boat tour and got off at Rapperswil to walk around the old town and have some lunch. It is a delightful little walk and I highly recomend it. They've got shopping all over the streets and a nice little castle up on the hill with amazing views.

Olde Lucern

2009-08-16T19:22:00.000+02:00

We did a little walking around Lucern before heading back to Zurich and I got a couple of shots. Everything was closed for Sunday, but it is a great little walking area full of watch shops, ornate buildings and cobbled roads.

Lucern, the hard way, aka Rigi Kulm

2009-08-16T19:18:00.002+02:00

Wonderful trip today. My dad was in town and based on the advice of some friends we took a delightful trip from Zurich to Lucern, the long way. First to Arth-Goldau by train, then up to Rigi Kulm along a cogtrain. Cogtrains are the solution for going up a mountain with a train, since a normal friction train would just slide back down. They have a geared 'cog' that fits into a series of metal holes in the middle of the track. We had lunch at the top and then back down the steepest cog train in the world to Vitznau. From there we meant to catch the steam boat, but instead took the rather luxury commuter ship (we had first class passes, very snazzy).

And after ice cream and a nice walk around old town Lucern, obviusly closed on a Sunday, we headed home to meet up with the wives and kid.

The first three photos from Rigi Kulm, with the first one having a little color correction done. It is worth noting that in the middle of summer (August 18th) you can see glaciers at eye level. The last one looks out from Lake Lucern. Two of them have some lens flare as the UV filter I bought was the wrong diameter and I didn't bring a hood. This trip was exactly what my wide angle lens was for though.

Macro Lens Playtime

2009-08-15T15:48:00.000+02:00

I got a new lens and got to take it out for a spin while at Schloss Kyburg. It is a 70-300mm lens from Sigma and it has a nice macro feature. They had bees out to polinate their flowers and I had a few minutes to play around in the garden and take a bunch of photos. A couple turned out OK I think.

So on weekends, you can always amuse yourself with a cheap camera lens.

Schloss Kyburg

2009-08-15T15:42:00.000+02:00

Today we went out to see another Castle. You take the train for about 30 minutes to Effretikon from Zurich, and then a bus that runs hourly up to Schloss Kyurg itself, for another 30 minutes or so. The first part of the bus trip isn't very scenic and goes through an appartment complex or two, but then it starts to open up and show you some of the country side. There is an entrance fee, but the castle is nicely decorated and furnished to give you a sense of how the people lived. Everything is in very good condition and it will take you at least an hour to casually stoll through everything. There are a few nearby restaurants, but nothing jumped out at us as special so we ate after we returned home to Zurich.

August 1, 2009. Swiss blow stuff up day.

2009-08-02T09:35:00.000+02:00

For the past few weeks there have been Coop tents in various places sellin fireworks. I'd looked inside at a small one and found a lot of stuff that I would not consider safe for my 4 year old to be around and let it go. Then, on the way home Friday I stopped at a larger tent. They had some fireworks like I've never seen in the US, even growing up in the laweless woods of Missouri back in the days of yor... Imagine a bottle rocket, only 5 feet tall, attached to a stick with a 1 inch diameter and with a soft-ball sized explosive sitting on top. You can spend 2 chf or you can spent 200 chf on a single firework. And if that isn't enough, you can choose from one of the 900 chf paletts of stuff they have on a poster.

And the laws? As far as I can tell, it is rude to start forest fires and everything else is just fine.

So we sat on our porch last night and watched the show. Mind you, the first three pictures below are done by folks just setting stuff off next to their house. And the third photo, the really zoomed in close one? Is at 52mm (not very zoomed in) and not cropped at all. It was CLOSE, particularly considering we where sitting on our porch in the middle of the city.

I'll try to get a video put together of some of the rest of the shots.

Anyway, the sky was littered with explosions from about 9:30 until 11:30, most of them privately funded, but many of them competitive with what professional shows can look like. The only difference is that without electrical firing the timing isn't as closely spaced. Although, considering the money that was sent up into the air from some of these guys, it would surprise me if they don't have professional gear to do the ignitions.

Schloss Lenzberg

2009-07-26T15:03:00.001+02:00

Lensburg castle was having a special even today, where they mixed a little more renisance festival than usual with their beautiful castle. Some extra cannon blasts and sword finding really go a long way to liven the place up. Inside it is a really amazing collection of different rooms decorate to different periods.

The price for today was a bit steep at 18 chf per adult and *gasp* they charged for our 4 year old. But the quality of the museum makes it well worth it. They also ran special bus schedules and made it impossible for you to get back to the train station and then actually return to Zurich without waiting 25 minutes. Fortunately the Kiosk was open on a Sunday and we all had some ice cream to hold us over.

Wildnispark Zürich, Langenberg

2009-07-23T16:26:00.002+02:00

I had a Thursday to take my son out and keep him entertained and choseWildnispark Zürich, Langenberg. It is free, which is nice and in Zone 50 so it was pretty cheap and easy to get to.

On the other hand, it is a large hill covered in trails with a couple of areas that may or may not have animals in them. So 'zoo' might be a little bit optimistic as a description. Instead it is a wonderful mountain hike that might have some animals sleeping near you, but out of sight. In theory they have bears, which would have been fun, and some other animal areas we didn't have the energy to go to.

As expected in Switzerland they have a nice playground and if you own a car you can cheat and start near the top.

Back to the transport museum, Lucern

2009-07-19T15:16:00.000+02:00

We woke up this morning in Zurich and the weather was grey and cold, so we decided it was a good time to go for a longer trip to something indoors. For two adults and a kid under 6 it was a bit expensive, but we had a great time. From the Zurich HB it was a little over an hour, and except for 10 minutes in tunnels on the trip it is really scenic. My son spent the time on the way out listening to music with me, and watched a show on the way back.

24chf per adult for the train ride
27chf per adult for the tickets
And we spent about 40 on lunch. A nice way to go through 150 francs, well worth the trip.

Since we went in the winter they've done a ton of work to make the place even more awesome. The car area is open and has a robotic storage system for matchbox cars... and real ones! And they've cleaned up the center space and filled it with active stuff for childred to do. You can do 'construction work', ride around on scooters and drive some remote controlled cars and boats. And it still has trains, boats, space stuff, planes and anything else you might use for transportation. Pure awesome.

It was another chance to play with the wide angle lens. And something was a little wonky with the D90 and it really wanted to run ISO3200 for some reason, but as long as you don't zoom in it should be fine.

I started with a bit of a self portrait with the help of a friendly train.

A movie? Yeah, you can do those too.

2009-07-18T17:37:00.003+02:00

My wife has a crush on a kid named Harry Potter. Or something. When each book was released she would prepare by reading all of the prior ones. You can imagine how this got to be a bit time consuming towards the end.

At one point we left England on the day a book was released and she read it on the flight home (to Arizona). When we arrived, she bought the American copy and read it to figure out the differences. Yeah, she's a fan.

Anyway, we really wanted to see it pretty quickly after it came out and get the full experience so we went to the theater at Sihl City. Some of the showings are marked (E/d.f) which means english vocals with german and french subtitles. They have assigned seats and it is all very nice. All told, we spent roughly 40chf on tickets for two, 30 on two bottles of coke and some popcorn, and another 20 to have the child entertained in the mall for a little over 3 hours. Yeah, 80 chf for the two of us to watch a movie. Thankfully, its a really good movie.

Felsenegg: The other side of Uetliberg

2009-07-11T18:09:00.000+02:00

We've taken the family up and down Uetliberg a bunch of times, but always from the Zurich side. To celebrate having a mother in law in town we decided to catch the train down to Adliswil and take a cable car up the mountain. As a warning to people who follow us, it is a bit of a hike to get to the cable car, so make sure you at least have good shoes and that you do not fear a stretch of steep paved sidewalk.

A few dollars to buy the pass to get from Adliswvil to the zone with Felsenegg in it and they put you in a little box (holds 26 theoretical midgets) and they send you up. Takes just a few minutes and the view is very nice. Then you've got another 5 or so minutes of walk to a small childrens playground and a nice little restraunt. Although it is summer I decided to remain a tourist and have Fondue, everyone else decided they wanted to live a bit longer and had either chicken nuggests or Rosti with cheese (ok, a very little longer).

The view from the restraunt was really amazing, spoiled slightly by the poor light and clouds, but still pretty inspiring. Highly recomended easy side trip from Zurich.

Heuried Recreation Area, Zurich

2009-07-05T14:38:00.000+02:00

We've moved and gotten settled in our new place and it was time to spend time with the new things nearby. In Dietikon we had a nice indoor pool, but here they have an outdoor pool and skating complex that is pretty amazing. For 6chf for each adult you can spend the day with a play pool, a lap pool, a pool for slides (including one that would fit in any $50 water park in the US) two skating rinks and a lot of grass and play areas.

The other day while walking around I took some photos, but I didn't try to capture the 'big' slide. It really was a lot of fun. The only downside with this place is that the water is cold, but with temperatures in the high 20C range, that isn't all bad.

Walking around Zurich in wide angle

2009-06-14T20:18:00.000+02:00

So, I just got my Father's day present and I opened it a bit early. It is a 12-24 Tokina lens for my D90, so I walked around the town this Sunday looking for places where I'd like to use the lens. I found a few.

They've been decorating many of the major roads with large flower pots, many of which are really cool.

And behind some bars I found a poor Rhino being held captive. Fortunately I could sneak the lens in past the bars.

Its time to look at the Alps.

Towards the end of the walk we found a nice little park. Not only a bunch of flowers and trees, but also the only green water in the country as far as I can tell.

Another weekend, another trip to Zurich Zoo

2009-06-01T17:19:00.000+02:00

The last holiday weekend for a while and we went back up the hill to the Zurich Zoo. Weather was excellent, and, as always, arriving at 9am is the right answer. LOTS of people standing in line but we have an annual pass so we walked right in. By 11 the crowd was starting to form so we took off for lunch.

Fantastic weather makes this a great place to hike around and a new zipline was fun for the kid.

Train Show - Zurich

2009-05-24T13:31:00.000+02:00

We went out this Sunday to go see a 'train show'. It turns out that what they meant was, come ride our little steam trains! It was really pretty awesome, and you'll have to forgive my take on this since I'm doing it without understanding what was going on at all.

So, because of the relatively small appartments and lack of space in general, guys need to have a place to really indulge their crazy hobbies. One of those hobbies is to build intricate, working, steam trains. What is the point of having a steam train without a track... so the guys band together to build better trains and a huge track with lots of switches, bridges and round tables. Then, from time to time, they let visitors ride them and charge them a very token fee. Wives are invited to sell cookies to the visitors and everyone is happy.

1 foot tall steam trains are pure awesome.

Stuttgart Zoo

2009-05-03T21:32:00.000+02:00

On Saturday morning, we dragged the extended family out to the Zoo to get there when it opened. Germany has the same Saturday morning habbits as Switzerland, and the wise tourist will be up early so that they can enjoy themselves before the crowds arrive at 11.

As their website says, they are not really a Zoo, but a combination of a bunch of amazing architecture, a botanical garden and a Zoo. And the whole experience is really great. Absoultely tons of animals, and the path for walking around between them is surrounded by flowers and winds through some amazing buildings. One of the most interesting Zoo aspects was that they have the primate housed in what looks like dens decorated by Ikea, very modern, although still meeting their needs. No fake trees here. They even have a sea lion shows, aviaries and a butterfly house we didn't get to catch.

I can't recomend this place high enough if you are in Stuttgart.

Ouch, I bet that hurt.

Dinosaur Musuem in Suttgart

2009-05-03T21:17:00.000+02:00

So, technically Stuttgart is in Germany, not Switzerland, but the extended family headed up there for the weekend. We got up there after a 3 hour train ride from Zurich and after a quick nap we headed up to the Natural History / Dinosaur Musuem in Stuttgart.

I think the best comparison that we have is with the Dinosaur Museum in Aathal that we went to a few months ago.

This museum was certainly a lot more professional and clearly had a lot more money behind it. It was ready to handle schools worth of people and had a lot of hands on things to do. Most of it was too complicated for our 4 year old to really get excited about, but he did enjoy a big pit where he could clear away some red sand and see 'bones'. He also enojoyed running around and looking at the dinosaur models.

I'd say that the Aathal experience was a lot more fun for a 4 year old just because it had more models to look at, even if it was stacked in a little bit more dense than was comfortable. Definitely a different focus and a different source of funding.

This was well worth doing, but if you kid isn't one to focus on reading about what they are seeing, don't expect it to consume very much time.

And for photos? I got out my portrait lens for a few of the shots, lets see how that worked out.

Locarno, Bellinzona side trip

2009-04-26T17:07:00.000+02:00

After hiking two castles of Bellinzona, having a nice pizza when we returned to town and about an hour of laying in our hotel room in pain we decided it was time for something different. Swiss trains always have an answer for potential boredom so we decided to take a side trip. We could have gone to Locarno or Lugano. My blackberry, Google and the Internets voted for Lucarno so off we went.

We arrived about 20 minutes later and walked towards old town and not more than 50 meters into our walk we saw a funicular train. You can't walk past one of those, so up the incline we went. You can look down over the entire city and laggo Maggoire. Closer, a wonderful sanctuary stands out as something to go see, so we did. The cable car to the top of the mountain didn't seem like a good idea to my wife, so we headed back into town.

No surprise, but we found a castle, although we never actually figured out how to go in. They have a wonderful old town full of cobbles, little alleys, and steep hills they take it all the way to the extreme. They had music playing in the middle of each little plazza with people doing different live performances. We finally found a wonderful place for dinner, had a dessert while walking out to look over the lake and then caught a train back to our hotel in Bellinzona.

The GPS swore we'd walked just over 8 miles for the day, and my knees think that it wasn't paying attention to some part of the trip.

Bellinzona: Sasso Cobaro

2009-04-26T16:54:00.000+02:00

We continued our walk up to the third castle, and as you can see from the first picture, it is extremely high. The final destination is 1600 ft above sea level which is about 700 feet above the town. We actually detoured on the way to go visit a church, but we eventually made it all the way to the castle and up to the tower to look out over the city.

This was more of a home than a castle, but it was a very impressive home. It has a wonderful restored wooden room to show the quality of work that had been possible at one point, and a display of photographs that wasn't related to the castle at all. It also has a fancy restaurant that was didn't have anything practical for lunch.

Keep this in mind, you've climbed about 2.5 miles and 700 vertical feet at this point and nobody has thought it would be a good place to sell you a sandwich and a drink. I strongly recomend this hike but you need to bring your own provisions. Also, the busses do not run on Saturday or Sunday, so after you get the the top you realize you are only halfway down. Back down you go.

It isn't too bad going back down, except that once you leave Montebello you can take a different route (starts near that vineyard in the picture). Do not take that route, it will kill your legs and knees with cobble stones and rough stairs. The other way is much better.

Bellinzona: Castello Di Montebello

2009-04-26T16:42:00.000+02:00

Saturday morning we woke early, grabbed our free breakfast and headed into town (5 minute walk). It was a bit chilly, and there was a street market setting up but after quick wander through old town we set up to climb the mountain and visit the second castle. The first picture is one one of the two paths that you can follow to walk up the hill. It is extremely well hidden but it works, and it is much better than the other path this is more cobbled. This one at least offers some flat stairs. This castle is about 300 feet above the city, so expect some climbing to get here.

Montebello was our favorite of the three castles, it is well preserved and has a great view. You can walk on many of the walls and they have it set up to be 'safe' by european standards. You can hurt yourself if you want to, but it shouldn't happen by accident. A working draw bridge and a stunning view of the Alps out of each window made it a lot of fun to wander around.

Bellinzona: Castlegrande

2009-04-26T16:33:00.000+02:00

We has a baby sitter in town this weekend and my wife chose Bellinzona for our getaway. As always, she chose a wonderful place to visit, and after we arrived on Friday night we checked into our hotel and although it was a bit overcast we grabbed lunch and set off to explore the first of the three castles of Bellinzona. The Castlegrande is located on a hill in the middle of town and is the largest of the castles and the easiest one to get to. It even has an elevator if you want to cheat and get wisked straight into the courtyard. It also has the most extensive museum of the three and is the most tourist friendly.

It is worth noting that Bellinzona, despite having three amazing castles and a delightful old town is not really ready for tourists. As we found out later, they don't run busses to where you want to go on weekends and they actually have pretty limited choices for food. We stayed at the Leon D'Or hotel, which was cheap and servicable for a few nights but certainly not a resort. It is also across the street from the train stop, so that made is extremely handy for our brief trip.

Pictures of the visit to Castlegrande

It wasn't our plan, but because of a bit of rain we stayed inside and checked out the exhibit of Ötzi that was going on in the castle. An unexpected but amazing pleasure. As a brief hint, it has nothing to do with the area, but he is the oldest mummy on record found trapped in a glacier.

When life gives you wires

2009-04-21T22:03:00.000+02:00

Make wireaid? Hmm, not sure, but the Swiss do love being clean and to that end they absoultely love electricity powered transportation. We've got electric trains, electric trans and even trolley busses that run on electricity. And we've got absolutely tons of amazing old buildings and beautiful things to look at in the city.

The problem, is that the city is hidden behind a mesh of wires that do not exactly fit in with the architecture. So I took my first stab at going out of my way to highlight some of the amazing work they've done to hang strands of wire all over this city. I think a lot more could be done, so in the future I'm keeping my eyes open for particularly intricate work done by the magical electrical spiders in charge of this stuff.

Sechseläuten

2009-04-20T19:07:00.003+02:00

Today the Swiss celebrate the end of spring with a great parade and then burning winter in effigy. For Americans, imagine something like ground hog day where you rely on the rodent to tell you how much time is left for winter. Ok, now imagine if you gave the rodent a grenade. it is somewhat like that.

They have people representing each town and/or canton and/or guild and they have a parade through a couple miles of downtown Zurich from about 1:30 until precisely 6pm. The start time is more approximate because it just takes a while to get everyone lined up and if you've got a bunch of instruments you might as well start playing....

I had to leave before the end, but got to watch the final explosions on the news at 6pm. As I recall it took 12 minutes and 55 seconds before the final explosion, which would seem to indicate that winter isn't completely through with us.

I couldn't cut my parade photos down to 4 (I took 2 gigs worth of them), so I'm trying a new way to view them.

Zurich Zoo

2009-04-12T13:10:00.000+02:00

Spring is in the air, it is Easter day and we've got a annual Zoo pass and unlimited use of the trains and trams between here and there. We woke up early and hit the road to get there just after 9am. We stayed until 11, when the crowds arrive, and then headed home. It is a great way to spend a Sunday.

Clearly it is spring, the flowers are blooming, trees are starting to get leaves and every almost animal exhibit has a baby in it. As usual a gig of photos came back with me and below are a few from this trip. Watching the elephants get bathed was particularly enjoyable, they clearly understand how to ask nicely for a shower.

Swiss Cruise

2009-04-05T14:47:00.000+02:00

For whatever reason, the public transit system in Zurich includes a couple of boats on the lake, and one of them offers a 90 minute round trip. Essentially you pay just like the tram and this crosses 3 zones, so its around 8 per adult without a 1/2 price card. We started our day out slowly but got into the city to catch the 11am boat trip. The boat wasn't overly crowded and the weather was absolutely awesome so a light jacked was plenty. We sat up on the top deck until the end, enjoying the lake air and sun.

At the end we grabbed a 10chf plate for fries, then headed off for the next part of the morning. A hot dog picnic just on the east side of the river. Drinks and hotdogs for three people was almost 40chf, but we got to feed ducks and swans and look out over the lake.

We finished it off with a ride on a really pretty ferris wheel. 13chf for two adults and a child (one of the few things children pay for) and it was a nice view back over the city and helped with any lingering need to look out over water.

It was a long morning, but a heck of a lot of fun.

Our boat was named after the mountain that looked down on us the whole time.

Everyone likes to eat bunnies.

They do like their flag.

Not the london eye, but very pretty.

London - Friday morning

2009-04-05T14:38:00.000+02:00

Friday morning I got up, cruised by work to drop off my stuff and kept going. Got back just in time for my 9am breakfast meeting. So, basically went from the Victoria Station to the Price Albert memorial. The weather was nice but overcast so the sky in all the pictures is without any character at all. Made me really glad I at least tried to take pictures the night before.

Hungry yet?

I'm not sure why, but apparently it was the morning to have the police moving horses and cariages around the city. Made it fun to be walking around with a camera though.

This memorial is amazing and I'd never seen it on any prior visits. This photo just touches one corner, a little.

London - Thursday night

2009-04-05T14:31:00.001+02:00

One benefit of living in Switzerland is that the rest of Europe is pretty close, so I'm counting this as a valid 'weekend in switzerland' topic. I also did it for work, making it both cheaper and on a weekday. I needed a few hours of meetings in person on Friday and it worked out to be dirt cheap to fly out thursday morning and back late Friday.

I stayed in the Airways Hotel Victoria, just a 5 minute walk from my office near Victoria Station. As far as I can tell expedia through it in for free with purchase of the British Airways tickets. The room was clean and quiet but basically it was a queen sized bed surrounded by walls on 3 sides and with a 18 inch wide path along the other. There was a bathroom and a door, and you could keep your luggage in that 18 in wide 'hallway'. Not high class, but I'm pretty tolerant of places where I'm going to pass out, wake up, rinse off and run. I got in at 10 and was back out at 6 the next morning. The whole trip was $385 plus a couple of trips on the tube and a nice cheeseburger.

I've got a map of the trip, but basically I took the tube from Victoria to Picadilly Circus at the start of rush hour (slight mistake) and then started walking. You'll notice everything is at dusk.
Trafalgar square:

Millenial bridge in shadow:

Cheeseburger was at GBK and very good.

I don't think it is just me, I think it really is impossible to wander around London without having any destination in mind and not end up hiking along the Thames.

Also, my original plan was to see a musical or a play, but after 3 hours over the prior week trying to choose one and another bit of time standing in front of half-price tkts I gave up. I've apparently seen everything that I have 60 pounds of interest in.

Laax, Switzerland

2009-03-22T15:57:00.000+01:00

This weekend we took off for Laax for our first and probably last real ski trip of the season. From Zurich it is about 30chf with a halbtax card by train and takes about 2.5 hours. Our hotel room was in the Sagnina, one of the nicer hotels and room rates seemed a bit rough. The hotel was clean but the walls are pretty thin and people are out late, so it was a bit of a problem with a family.

The Rider lodge is nearby and is very cheap. It is also a 24x7 party and only the truely commited party animal should consider it.

Several options are available for food, although everything opens a bit later than you would expect, noon for lunch, for example. We stared our day early and really craved a good lunch by 10.

We had hoped to sign my son up for ski lessons, but they do not do any organized instruction on the weekend. Instead you can hire a private instructor for several hundred francs for a 2 hour class, we decided to go sledding instead.

This was taken near the top of the sledge (sled) run. It was about a 15 minute run at high speed and was an absolute blast. Frequently the edge of the mountain would loom before you and then as you got to it you'd see more track ahead. It swerves through the forest at one point and whenever you look around you see an amazing view. Well worth the trip. 12 chf per sled got us nice sturdy wooden sleds for rent and a lift ticket let us go around twice before we got tired. The constant breaking required to steer (and not go flying off the edge) makes you feet a bit numb, and I'd recomment bringing good shoes and socks. It is also pretty rough to be second in row, so leave a good spacing between riders.

I'm not sure I'd got back to this specific resort, but we had a good time and certainly wouldn't recomend against it. My biggest complaint would be the noise in the room with traffic, people walking buy, and loud neighbors. In favor? The scenery was amazing and the sledge run was a blast.

Outside at the Zurich Zoo

2009-03-01T17:49:00.000+01:00

The snow is starting to melt and it is just wonderful to spend a few hours in the morning walking around the Zoo. We got there at 9 and the place was mostly empty but by 11 it was starting to get really packed, including a line at the entrance. Let me recomend being there early to enjoy the peace and quiet.

With the exception of the elephants who where having their cage cleaned and the zebras I didn't find, everyone else was out and enjoying their time in the snow.

Inside at the Zurich Zoo

2009-03-01T17:44:00.000+01:00

The weather has warmed up and we made a trip up to the Zurich Zoo. Lots of snow on the ground still, but the weather was nice with just a medium jacket. We started out with the inside part of the Zoo this time, full of penguins, birds, lizards, frogs and snakes. The exhibits aren't huge, but they do a great job of bringing you close to the animals and keeping them in clear view. Obviously the snakes aren't terribly lively, but the penguins where frenetic.

Sledding Uetliberg

2009-02-23T06:25:00.000+01:00

Uetliberg offers two kinds of sledding. They have a long run down the hiking trains (about 3 km) from the top, or you can get off the second to last stop and do the kidy slope. Thats what we did. It also has great opportunities for snowman building!

Uetliberg

2009-01-17T21:55:00.000+01:00

We took a trip this weekend to ride the train up Uetliberg. It stops about a 10 minute hike from the top, and even with a lot of snow and ice on the ground it is a pretty nice walk. At the top you can enjoy some drinks and snacks to fuel your way back down. We got lucky and the sun came out and the fog burned off making for a really amazing view (and plenty of lens flare issues).

Just a little ways down from the top people have found some good sled hills that still have plenty of snow. For the dedicated sledder you can even go down the 3km hiking train and use the train to take you back to the top.

Zurich Zoological Museum

2009-01-04T15:16:00.000+01:00

First, let me say its free and easy to get to from Zurich. It is partway up the hill and part of the University so it has an incredible view out over the city. Did I mention its free? It is also very creepy. A good friend of mine once refered to a similar place in Dublin as the 'dead zoo', which is a delightfully accurate way to name it.

It is a neat way to let your kid see a whole lot of different animals up fairly close. No real zoo could ever have such a complete collection of different types of rodents or birds just because of the logistics of taking care of them. However, being dead and stuffed, these animals are able to be displayed very densely and up from close (protected by glass) for your inspection.

Animals under glass.

Animals in cages.

A mamoth skeleton.

Oh god, I'm just not sure.

Zurich at dusk

2009-01-02T19:23:00.000+01:00

We went for a nice evening walk from paradeplatz towards the lake and along the river. There was some light snow/drizzle as you see on my lens in one shot, but it was a very pretty walk.

Part of the path back along the river.

A frozen fountain we spotted off down a little alleyway.

What appears to be a circus on the water.

Fraumunster over the bridge.

Winterthur Technorama

2009-01-01T15:06:00.002+01:00

Just about everything is closed in Switzerland today, with the fortunate exception of the Technorama in Winterthur. It was 26chf (with 1/2 price card) for the transportation, 50CHF for two adults and 35CHf for lunch. We had a great time and spent about 3 hours wandering around and trying out the different exhibits. They've got a model train exhibit with little to touch, but the rest is hands on. Lots of things on magnetism and other obvious sciences and them some wooden machines to play with on the top floor.

For people who don't speak German the presentations may not be too much fun, but all of the permanent exhibits have instructions in English, French and Italian to go with the German.

Lunch was adequate, but I'd recomend going out to eat, you can do much better.

Slightly smaller trains than what we saw in the transport museum.

Lightning in a bottle.

A tornado to play with.

Wooden machines that make noise. All driven by the power of curious children.