Switzerland - 9 Aug 2008 - Uetliberg and Street Parade

Switzerland... Day 6...

It was a gorgoues saturday morning. Uncle tan brought us to uetliberg to climb the uetliberg tower. We took a train from Binz, within walking distance from ah kin's house, to uetliberg and walked uphill for 10 minutes before reaching the peak.

On board the train towards uetliberg. The swiss trains were always clean and punctual. Very efficient and reliable system, like the s'pore government.

Uncle tan had mastered the skill of self-sufficiency when it came to taking pictures, with great accuracy too. No need to take second time.

At the uetliberg train station. I'm really loving my red wind-breaker. Goes well with all background :)

The uetliberg tower. It was not a tough climb really.

The view from the top.

Enjoying the best view in the world with the best guy. I shared my thought with my hubby: 'I doubt I would appreciate travelling this much if I didn't have a great partner to enjoy the journey with.' If that's not the best line on earth to say to a partner, I don't know what is. Sure beats 'You complete me'.

At the cafe after the climb, where we had our little morning tea - hot chocolate for me and latte/cappucino for the boys, and sausage, of course. Uncle tan was very good company. He was always available when we needed him but also 'conveniently disppeared' when we needed a couple moment.

We went home around lunch time to meet ah kin to go to the street parade in the afternoon at Bellevue.

Street Parade

This was my first street parade experience, not counting the s'pore swing, which was quite lame really but I was a teen then and any social gathering was good to participate. This one at Bellevue, old town, was an eye-opener in many ways. The europeans (heard this parade was also attended by people from neighbouring countries) were sporting and creative and young and old took part in the event. We saw some very 'interesting' mature people shaking their stuff. Woah!

People really dressed up for the parade and were game to pose for cameras and have a good time. The techno music was infectious as you see many people, including the mature ones, grooving along. The europeans were a committed lot. We saw some people dunking red bull, to keep themselves alert and ready for some fun. Of course with this kind of revelry, you would find sex and drug abuses. Condoms were freely distributed. We headed home before the party got really 'steamy'. When we saw the evening news, we were glad we left the party early as the place was packed with people determined to get high.

This must be for some charity purposes as the old folks were dressed up as doctors in wheel chairs accompanied by sexy nurses. Some reporters were interviewing them.

What's a street parade without street food? This steak burger tasted yummy but cost about SF12 (about S$15)

We spotted captain jack sparrow and couldn't resist his charms.

The horde of people in the afternoon, even before the real deal began.

I gave this woman 100 marks for courage. She is like what, 60 years old? Ah kin and I wondered how come her 'er hems' were so smooth and perky when she had so much wrinkles on her face?

This was a refreshing parade all by itself. Whenever there was a 'sinful' parade, there would be a counter-parade to remind all to refrain, restrain and resist. Cool!

Outside ah kin's apartment, heading towards an italian restaurant for dinner.

Molino, an italian restaurant at stauffacher. The decor was beautiful, with a big chandelier and painting of countryside on the walls.


The food was good too. This pizza was chockful of goodness, with cherry tomtoes, parmesan and mozarella cheeses - fresh ones, not from plastic packs (I hope), parma ham and some wild rockets. The dessert was tiramisu - gorgeous. We were so full, we had to doggy-bag some pizzas. Apparently, this doggy-bag concept was not popular with swiss. They never packed the food for us, so in the end, we took home the pizzas wrapped in napkins.

We decided to walk home to digest some of the food in our bellies, and along the way, we passed some lavendar bushes outside a florist. I plucked some, to the amazement of my companions, who tried to shield me from potential attacks by passing swiss. I explained that this purple stuff could help me get to sleep easier, so they relented and let me took some. The fragrance of fresh lavendar accompanied us as we chatted and headed home through the chilly night...