Switzerland!

Christmas 2007 was one for the record books for me. It was the first Christmas I didn't spend with at least some family. What did I do you ask? Well if you read the title of this entry you probably have a pretty good idea! Marina and I spent a week skiing in Saas-Fee and Zermatt Switzerland. Here is a picture of the mountains in the village where we stayed.

This is a sign from the metro alpin in Saas-Fee- the worlds highest (altitude wise) underground trainline. To get to the top of some of the ski runs you would ride a gondola and then change to the train which took you up most of the rest of the way!

Here is a photo of Marina at the top ready for her first run of the trip.

Here is me... I didn't spend all of my time in this position!

We got a little bored of skiing/ snowboarding after a while so we spent one day sledging. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. There was a designated lift and a very long zig zag run specialy for the sledging. I was run off the trail by some young-uns but it was a blast!

Here is a view of our village from the window of our hotel. It was a car free village which made it much more enjoyable I think. The nicer hotels would run golf-cart like vehicles to take people fom the bus station and or car park to the hotel and lifts.

We took a day trip from Saas-Fee to ski in Zermatt. It was a much bigger and busier village and we only were able to ski half a day. Getting there and back invloved a 2 hour bus and train trip each way. In case you didn't know, Zermatt is where the Matterhorn is... and there it is pictured below.

One of the mountains in Zermatt had an overground train instead of a gondola lift. There were some chair and pull lifts to get you the last bit up the mountian but the train did most of the work. In order to keep the trains from sliding on the tracks there is a third rail that is geared!

One afternoon we took a gondola up the mountain without our ski's so that we could explore the ice caves near the top. They were very... cold? yes. strange? yes. I really didn't know what to make of it. Nonetheless here are a couple of photo's.

Here is an actual picture of us together - imagine that!

We scheduled a half day's worth of time into our trip back so we could wander around Geneva a bit. I didn't take many pictures but here they are:

Prague Christmas Markets

In December I took a trip back to Prague to check out the Christmas markets. Christmas markets are open air markets, typically on the main square where vendors sell trinkets, Christmas decorations, and perhaps most importantly food and drink. There also may be caroling and music performances. Many cities in Europe have Christmas markets or festivals with those in Germany, Vienna and Prague being the more famous for their own reasons.

The Prague markets didn't let me down. The square was dressed up with a huge lit tree and there were plenty of market stalls. There was chestnuts roasting, mulled wine flowing and plenty of cinnamon & sugar breads being baked over open coals. The air was very cold but the atmosphere was warm and friendly and the scents amazing. The caroling was confusing because I recognized some tunes, but obviously they weren't singing in English!

I enjoyed some roast pig and plenty of mulled wine. The most common treat was cinnamon & sugar breads. They basically take biscut dough and roll it into a long strand, then wrap the strand around a wooden dowel the size of a closet rod until about four inches of the dowel is covered. Then they roll the dough-dowel in a cinnamon & sugar mixture and twist it over coals until it is baked. Once it is cooked they slide the bread off the roll and hand it to you in a napkin while its still steaming! Mmmm... tasty!

Here is a picture of the square at night. I am not going to explain the rest of the pictures, they are mostly just buildings that I thought worthy of a picture.

British Language & Culture

Back by popular demand! It is time once again for me to share some of the idiosyncrasies of British language & culture!

I'm not taking the mickey, these are the correct pronounciations:
Borough - 'Burah', not 'buroh'
Decade - 'DEcade' not 'deCADE'
Era - 'eera' not 'erah'
Fillet - 'fill-it' not 'fil-ay'
Jalapeno - 'jal-a-peno' not 'hol-a-penyo'
Pasta - 'pass-ta' not 'pah-sta'
Schedule - 'shedyual' not 'skedyual'
Vitamin - 'vitt-a-min' not vite-a-min'

My spelling was a right laugh before, but now?
Centre
Theatre
Colour
Labour
Finalise
Terrorise
Aluminium
Speciality
Draught
Tonne

Sorry. What?
Want a band-aid. Better ask for a 'plaster'.
Suspenders? Those are 'braces'.
Baby crib? Its a 'cot'.
"Have my secretary check my diary." Your what? Americans would call it a calendar, or appointment book.
"She's really got her knickers in a bunch." (i.e. she's upset) They are talking about womens underpants... not knee length trousers.
Speaking of trousers... here is a joke for you: What's the difference between a man and a dog running? The man wears trousers and the dog pants.
Speaking of pants... I suggest not ever saying "I am not wearing pants" even if you are wearing shorts. It will elicit giggles I assure you. Pants = underpants
Car rental = car hire
U-Haul = self drive hire
Looking for the elevator? Try asking for the 'lift'.
"Blimey. There sure are a lot of punters out today!" What am I... on the river Cam now? Punters = roughly shoppers
Looking for a napkin? Try 'serviette'. (where am I France?!!)


That's it for now guv.

Food for thought

This was an email I was forwarded and found quite interesting. I forwarded it to a few, but I thought I would post it here as well. It is pictures from families around the world standing in front of the equivalent of a weeks groceries. Listed above the pictures is the country, family's name, city's name and the amount the "groceries" cost in local currency and US Dollars. I found the variety in types of food and cost amazing.

Germany: The Melander family of BargteheideFood expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07

United States: The Revis family of North CarolinaFood expenditure for one week $341.98

Italy: The Manzo family of SicilyFood expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

Mexico: The Casales family of CuernavacaFood expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09

Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-JeziornaFood expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27

Egypt: The Ahmed family of CairoFood expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

Ecuador: The Ayme family of TingoFood expenditure for one week: $31.55

Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey VillageFood expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing CampFood expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

Milan

I'm too sexy for Milan, too sexy for Milan, New York and Japan! Well maybe not, but if you've heard the song, forever woven into fabric of popular culture by Right Said Fred... well then you know what goes through my head every time the name of this fashion mecca is mentioned. Gucci? Prada? Versace? Dolce & Gabbana? Lamborghini? Ferrari? We didn't bring enough Euro's it seems. Ah well... at least we were able to enjoy some pizza, some wine, a cappuccino and some gellato!

Marina and I made a weekend trip to Milano this past November... something to do with shopping I think. I don't know but Marina does like her shoes and handbags! Though I seem to remember coming back empty handed.

We did some shopping at the Galleria Vitorio, a 19th century covered shopping street on the Piazza Dumo. It is pretty impressive huh!?

This is part of the Piazza Dumo which is the large square in front of the Dumo (cathedral).



... and this is the Dumo. Strangely the tour includes walking around the roof. The views were great. The Dumo is one of the largest cathedrals in the world. It was built over several century's and is a bit of a mash up of architectural styles.

There are over 2000 sculptures on the cathedral and when that is the case apparently you have to start getting imaginative in where you put them.





The building in the background is the Castello Sforzesco. The monument in the foreground I am not too sure about. The guy wearing the cape? Pretty sure that is a formal military or police uniform.



This is street car, as I am sure you figured out.



That's it? Yep. It wasn't a long trip. My greatest regret? I didn't book a ticket to see The Last Supper by Da Vinci. It is painted on the wall of a church in Milan, but you need to book tickets a couple of months in advance! Dang. I guess I will be visiting Milan again....

Cheers!
Scott

The Netherlands

I decided to do some sight seeing in the Netherlands with Marina after a meeting we had in Amsterdam. The meeting ended on Friday and we stayed through Saturday. Admittedly one day is not a lot of time to see a country, but it isn't very big!! I had been to Amsterdam several times so we headed straight to Rotterdam on Saturday morning. It was about an hour train ride from Amsterdam. It is one of Europe's major ports and is well known for its modern architecture.

Once off the train I headed for the most important place I could think of... anyplace to fill my belly! I found a nice little cafe that overlooked the citys famous bridge, a little harbor, and one of its more famous residential complexes.

These are the houses... One of them was converted into a architecture "museum" so we were able to go inside. I can't even begin to describe the layout for these "houses" but I will give it a shot. Each cube is one residence and the "stem" has a front door in it at the ground level. When you open the door you are faced with a steep spiral staircase. Once you are up the stairs it opens into a first floor living/ dining/ kitchen area. The next level up is the bedroom/ den type area. All of the cabinets, shelving and most of the furniture is built in to maximize space (and presumably reduce the need for lugging furniture up and down the stairs). There were a couple of them for sale... but I wasn't tempted. :oP

I think this was a bar or restraunt. I don't remember, but the theme struck me as funny....


This is what the dutch refer to as a pissoir (that's urinal to you). This one is quite fancy and very permanent looking, most of them were plastic. They seemed to be everywhere... the dutch must have small bladders. Yes. You do just use them in broad daylight, out on the street, or wherever they may be. I found it quite humorous at first... but as the day drug on... they came in handy on a few occasions!

After skipping about town in Rotterdam we headed for The Hague. When you first exit the train station this is the sight that greets you.... and you thought you had trouble finding your car in the wal-mart parking lot!

We mostly just wandered around, but at some point we took a tram down to the beach. I didn't wind up with any beach pictures for some reason... here are some pics of random places of interest. I wanted to track down the International Criminal Tribunal... but we were pressed for time and it was pretty far down my list (I'm not that nerdy!).

Yea... I finished another post! Now I am only three months behind...