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...

Switzerland - 8 Aug 2008 - Bellevue, Stauffacher and Langstrasse

Switzerland... Day 5...

Today, uncle tan had very kindly offered to take us to a few places to shop for my wind-breaker and other things. We started off in Bellevue, Zurich old town. The boys left me to shop while they climbed the towers. Whew!

Behind us is supposedly the biggest clock face in the world. I discover that Switzerland has many 'biggest' or 'best' things in the world or in europe. Either this is not a modest country or the rest of the world needs work.

This is a view from the tower taken by the boys.

On our way to Stauffacher, we saw this construction worker and recall ah kin told us the day before that she liked to watch the construction workers in swit as they had very nice rock hard bodies. We showed her this photo of her 'rock hard body' construction worker in the evening and we all had a good laugh.

Most of the wind-breaker for ladies were just too long for me, so in the end, I bought a kid wind-breaker for SF79.90 (about S$100) from Ochsner Sport. I love the fit, the fabric (windproof and waterproof and very durable) and the colour (the red is a cross between orange and peach). It was perfect and I would not have found it if not for uncle tan. We bought the Rukka wind-breaker at his office building, which is a shopping centre at Sihlcity. Uncle tan and my hubby also each bought some stuff from C&A, a department store that sells pretty decent and non-expensive stuff.

This is an interesting chair that doubles up as a toy for kids. While waiting for the boys, I was sitting on this chair beside a man. When he got up, I nearly fell off. He quickly apologised. It's not his fault really. He probably assumed I knew and would stand up as well.

Dinner time! Ah kin cooked stewed pork (I think), fried veg and eggs. It was a yummy meal. My hubby gave ah kin a cooking tip for fried eggs - always add some water to the egg mixture before frying. Ah kin tried it the next time and loved the texture.

On our way to Langstrasse, the geylang of Zurich, and me wearing my new wind-breaker. When we reached the tram stop near her house, ah kin gestured me to the phone booth and slowly opened the door, grinning happily, as if she found some treasure. Her ingenuity to get some shelter from the cold wind and her actions tickled me so much I couldn't stop laughing, so my hubby took a photo of us. I was trying to stifle some giggles.

The 'sight-seeing' trip to zurich geylang was disappointing. We saw many sex clubs with 'performances' but no street walkers. Maybe zurich has a law against street-walkers. The sex shops were also closed. What a bore. I guess that's how you measure the cost of living and wealth of a country - there are more sex clubs than sex shops and no street walkers.

Switzerland - 7 Aug 2008 - Muotathal and Shwyz

Uncle tan had been telling us about schwyz and how beautiful it is. I don't know whose idea it was or how we ended up with the decision to take a self-drive day trip to schwyz. The decision must have been rather last minute because we only booked the rented car the night before and ended up with a small beat-up opel corsa with manual gear. The car was so small, my hubby had some difficulty getting comfortable in the driver's seat. But ah kin and myself packed lots of food and we were ready for an adventure. There were some missed turns and problem with the car's power, or lack of it, especially when driving uphill and then there was the problem of fueling it up cos we couldn't find ways to open the fuel tank. But it was all worth it. We got to see the most amazing views of the alps and lakes and apple trees and farmers in action and ate some awesome food at Hotel Haug at moutathal, enroute to schwyz.

An amazing view that we would not have seen if we took the train.

Hotel Haug served the best cheese pan rosti I have ever laid tongue on.

One of the many apple trees in the area. I plucked one and tried. Not like the fuji or rose apple we have in s'pore. This one is sour.

We passed by a mini waterfall and stopped to see if we could dip our feet but the water was not clean. We also saw some very obedient llamas that went into the shed in a herd by themselves, probably to have their lunch.

This bakery in Moutathal offered some of the softest and yummiest cakes. Once we laid our hands on them, they didn't last for all of 5 minutes.

Another lake in Schwyz.

Uncle tan was so enthusiastic in getting all of us to explore the Holloch cave that he forgot to mention that the interior of the cave was 4 degrees celcius and and the whole expedition lasted 2 hours. I was a little worried cos I only wore a light top with a thin sweater and a fashion scarf - hardly items that would keep me warm. Ah kin was more worried. At least I have more natural insulation than she has. But her uncle tan was sweet to borrow a worker's jacket for her, so she didn't freeze her skinny butt off. The cave expedition was a fun adventure although the guide was like 100 years old and only spoke german. The most exciting part was when we had to pass through a gate or door. Once the guide opened the door, we could feel strong wind gushing towards us but it was only when you passed the door that you felt like you were literally swept away by the wind. Ah kin had to hold on the the guide and her uncle tan to stay grounded. It was an amazing thing. Where did the wind come from in the middle of an enclosed cave? Puzzling.

Towards the end, it was not as cold as I had feared. We all survived, and I was particularly proud of ah kin who used to need someone to hold on to while crossing the overhead bridge. She went on a full-day driving trip, braved the climb and the coldness of the rugged caves and risked being swept away by the strong wind. Although she was shivering for the rest of the journey, she was ok the next day.

The upward climb to the cave. We could feel the chills as we were climbing.

The skyview from the entrance of the cave.

We were in this adventure with about a dozen students and their teachers.

After the cave adventure, we treated ourselves to the cakes we bought from the bakery, at a scenic spot while driving uphill.

Another beautiful sight to behold along the way.

When we got home, it was late, about 9pm. We were all tired. So the boys returned the car and bought some take-away kebabs from uncle tan's friend. It was another fulfilling day. The next day, we were going shopping for my wind-breaker :)

Switzerland - 6 Aug 2008 - Zug and Lucern

3rd day in Switzerland...

So many people have talked about Lucern. I even know of someone whose middle name is Lucern. So we decided to see what the fuss was all about. Before we reached Lucern, we stopped by a town called Zug where we saw a beautiful clear lake with big fat swans. They must be well-fed by the people there, probably with cheese :p We stopped by a cafe for the supposedly famous cherry liquer cake, which turned out to be too strong for me.


There were many water fountains that tourists and locals could drink from that tasted better than tap water (Swiss tap water is potable like S'pore) and cold! So we saved a lot of time and money looking for clean drinking water. This one was in Zug.

The famous bridge in Lucern. It had paintings and words along the bridge roof that were supposed to mean something but we could not understand a single thing. That is the thing I dislike about Switzerland. It's just not tourist-friendly. Even in a tourist town like Lucern, nothing is in English. Some people could understand and speak English but those who couldn't, we just gestured and pointed until they understood us. I bought a German-English dictionary but never used it. I just feel that if you wanna earn my money, shouldn't you be the one making the effort? Obviously, they don't care much about tourist business.

We were lucky that there was a street market on that day and we saw some fat yummy sausages. Our first street food! And it was the cheapest meal we had for the entire stay in Swit. A serving of sausage and bun costs SF7 (about S$9). It was yummy though.

The stone fruits were sweet and juicy. This peach was courtesy of ah kin.

We were rather bored with Lucern and it was a very hot summer day, so we decided to see if we could dip our feet in the lake nearby. Ya, we are suckers for lakes. We saw some people sat near the edge of the lake and joined them but we were the only ones who took out our shoes and relish in the coolness of the lake water against our skin. Soon, a caucasian couple joined us in dipping their feet in the water. They were tourists too.

When we reached ah kin's home in the afternoon, she was so surprised to see us home so early. Well, it was supposed to be a relaxing tour, so we did not see the need to maximise every minute. We were just happy to chill and take things easy. We played cards that night or was it on the second night? We found out that ah kin and uncle tan were not gamblers. They did not even know how to shuffle cards, which is good. Gambling is bad, according to uncle tan, who sang, 'du bo zhen ke pa, po huai wo de jia...' Translation: Gambling is frightening. Breaks up my family. End up he had the biggest win... of chocolates. It was fun playing with them :)

Switzerland 4 - 14 Aug 2008 - The first 2 days

This is sort of an impromptu trip suggested by my hubby. Well, I kinda 'made' him take me there through my constant whinning about how lucky ser kin is, staying in switzerland, enjoying the fresh air, blah blah blah. So he booked the tickets with his krisflyer points and we landed in the land of the alps on 4 aug.

On the first day, ah kin took us around town and we spent half the time hovering over kitchen wares in Coop, a department store. We discovered that our husbands and ourselves love to check out kitchen stuff.


Ah Kin introduced us to the drinking water fountain.

A colouful sculpture at the main train station, Hapbahnhof.

The main train station, Hapbahnhof. We spent some time here trying to figure out what train passes to buy.

Then in the evening, after ah kin's very healthy (mostly vegetables) but delicious dinner, we took a walk with her and her uncle tan around the neighbourhood, admired the nice cottages and took in some fresh crisp swiss air. Uncle tan said we must breathe in as much fresh swiss air as possible and purge out all the polluted s'pore air.

Rhein Fall, Schaffhaussen and Stein Am Rhein

When I woke up in the morning at about 6am the second day, I opened the kitchen window and breathed in precious fresh air and took this picture from the kitchen window of the surrounding houses. I cherished the quietness and did my breathing exercises. Then I woke up my hubby for a morning walk around the forested path near ah kin's place. This would be my routine for most of the days at ah kin's house.

We decided to take it easy since this is supposed to be a relaxing trip. We went to the famous Rhein Falls. We were so amazed that we could feel the waterfalls at such close range. It was breath-taking..

After the Rhein Falls, we went to Schaffhausen, a quaint little old town, to have lunch. During the course of our stay in swit, we realised that the restaurants in Switzerland were not very creative. The standard menu items were sausages, potatoes either in fries form or rosti (like hashbrown) form, local cheeses and some sandwiches. In some better restaurants, veal would be part of the offing. So our first meal in the restaurant in Schauffhausen was quite unique really. I had ravoili with tomato fillings while hubby had chicken gordon bleu. I did some decent shopping in this old town in a shop that sold surprisingly cheap clothes - 3 tops for SF3.99, SF6.99 and SF9.99. To find cheap things in swit, you really must be patient and lucky.

The buildings in this old town were just beautiful with paintings. The buildings in Stein Am Rhein were equally mesmerising. So I prefer Schaffhausen and Stein Am Rhein than Lucern. Lucern was just too touristy.

(Top) Through a window atop the castle in Schaffhausen. Yes, we climbed those steps. The wood-carved structures inside a church in Schaffhauen.

(Below) The streets in Stein Am Rhein. Very few cars.

Another building with paintings in Stein Am Rhein.

Sitting at the bench taking in the beautiful sights of the lake.

I could stay here all day...

Jason M'raz - I'm Yours

I love love this song from Jason M'raz called 'I'm Yours'. I don't usually like reggae music but this is a happy song that makes me wanna groove.

http://www.imeem.com/people/cJ3F01/video/NgfT8ndY/jason_mraz_im_yours_music_video/

I Survive Shape Run 08!

I jioed many people to go walk with me in the Shape Run as early as May but only 2 brave friends joined me - sharol and pei shang. They were really sporting. Even though we had to pay $30 just to walk (divas don't run cos like so unglam!) and endured the long long queues for the goody bags (not fantastic), t-shirts and other stuff under the grueling hot sun, they were very jovial throughout. We had some good bonding time chatting as hordes of very serious and active women ran past us. Of course, when we passed the camera crews, we sucked in our stomachs, swung our arms and acted like pros. It was a fun experience for our first national run, although I would not take part again, unless I become one of those serious runners one day. I doubt.