Grüezi Y'all!

Ganesh Chaturthi - Mumbai, India

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 12:59:00 +0000

It's been so long since I've blogged that I've almost forgotten how. But my free day in Mumbai was definitely a blog worthy experience that needs to be shared!

So, this one time, in July, my work asked me if I could go to India for a couple of days... I said yes and a week later, I was in Mumbai! I was so totally overwhelmed that I didn't think about spending any extra time in Mumbai so I left Zurich on Monday morning at 8am, arrived in Mumbai at 9:30 that night, worked Tues and Wed and I was back in Zurich on Thursday morning at 6am. I wasn't really comfortable enough to go out by myself at night plus it was monsoon season anyway so unfortunately, I didn't see anything besides the hotel, the airport (which to be fair, is a gorgeous airport) and the office.

So this time, when my work asked me to go back, I was a little more prepared and managed to arrive a day early so I could see some sights! As luck would have it, my free day in Mumbai happened to coincide with the last day of the yearly Ganesh Chaturthi festival. To make a very long and very interesting story short, the Ganesh Chaturthi festival is a 10 day festival that hours Ganesha (the elephant headed God) who is the god that removes obstacles. At the end of the festival, all of the statues that have been made for the year are walked down to the Chowpatty beach and immersed in the Arabian Sea.

There are thousands of Ganeshas that are walked down to the sea each year. Some of the Ganeshas (see below) are neighborhood Ganeshas. Months before the beginning of the festival, donations are taken up from the neighborhood businesses to fund the Ganesha and then once built, the Ganesha belongs to the neighborhood and is available for all in the neighborhood to come to and worship during the 10 day festival.

Before the neighborhood Ganeshas are walked down to the Arabian Sea, the neighborhood gets together to celebrate by dancing, decorating the Ganesha with flowers and generally having a good time. We happened to arrive just as one celebration kicked off and this lovely gentlemen brought us all into the center of the dance party!

My dance partner (right)

busting a move

He kept waiving money around my head and passing it out to the band. He even stuck one to our guide's head!

Our really really awesome tour guide - Pranav!

The neighborhoods build temporary structures for the Ganesha.

Temporary Structure

And the local residents can go into the structure to worship the Ganesha and make offerings of flowers, foods and songs.

Neighborhood Ganesha #2

Neighborhood Ganesha #3


the party has started!

In addition to the neighborhood Ganeshas, there are also Family Ganeshas. Here is an example of a Family Ganesha. They are generally smaller but still amazing and well taken care of and decorated. These guys all get walked down to the Sea as well. This family wanted us to come over and take a picture with them.

Family Ganesha

We stood and watched the parade for about an hour and saw soooooo many Ganeshas! The crowd got bigger and bigger and bigger. It was unreal.

After about an hour of watching the parade, we joined in and headed toward the beach. There were unbelievable numbers of people on the beach.

Every time we turned around, we would see more and more Ganeshas appear on their way to the Sea.

If you'd like to see me busting a move with my new friend and various other short clips from the festival, check out the video that Pranav put together.

So that's the festival. The next adventure was getting home! As you can imagine, with that many people out in the streets celebrating, the traffic was a nightmare. And traffic in Mumbai is already an experience in and of itself! But I made it! I still haven't really seen anything in Mumbai but I'm ok with that. Be able to see and participate in the festival was such a fun experience and the most culturally different thing that I've ever been able to participate in.

If you guys ever find yourself in India, I can't recommend enough calling up Pranav and doing your tour with him (Grand Mumbai Tours). He is a local resident with a wonderful passion for his city and he made the day such an enjoyable and stress free experience.

Trift Bridge - eek

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 14:17:00 +0000

After two days at Engelberg and the Gelmer Lake hike, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could still walk on day 3! Let's head 'em up and move 'em out!

Today's destination - the Trift Bridge!

eeeek

uhhh - where's the trail folks?

go Sophie go!

Swiss wildlife!

checking out Andre

getting sophs ready for her bridge crossing

I don't Sophie thinks this is such a great idea

Ellen and Alan holding on for dear life

i need practice at taking selfies

exploring

Come visit!

Hiking (aka suriving) around the Gelmer Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 13:25:00 +0000

Discussion with the Hotel Dude:

Me and Ellen: We're planning to do the Crystal Hike tomorrow. Can we get there by bus?
Hotel Dude: Yes you can but the bus only runs 4 times a day.
Me and Ellen: Huh. Well then. Is there another hike you can recommend? That's mega cool but easy?
Hotel Dude: Totally. You should should take [the world's scariest ever] furnicular up to the Gelmer Lake and hike around that. It'll take you about two hours [and possibly cost you your life].
Me and Ellen: Okay great!

First of all, the Gelmer Furnicular is at a 106% gradient. Yikes. It was originally built to haul materials up for the dam. Now, in true Swiss fashion, you can pay some money and take it up for fun!

here are the tracks up the mountain

and here's the furnicular that takes you up!

The Swiss do not mess around with their hiking. Here's the description on the website regarding the hike we did [with commentary added]: Trail is not necessarily fully visible [no kidding]. Some parts maybe secured with ropes or chains [thank goodness]. Maybe [definitely] you need your hands for balance [or you will die]. Some parts with exposed crash hazard, scree plots, trackless [what the heck is a scree plot?].

Here we go! Follow the white-red-white markers!

we just started and i can barely see the trail

even with the fog, it was still amazing

one wrong step and splash!

seriously? this is the trail?

white-red-white - and under the rock we go!

thank goodness for the cables!

panorama

coming down the mountain

That was just our morning adventure! In the afternoon, we headed to the city of Meiringen to see the Reichenbach Falls where Sherlock and Moriarty met their ends.

Sophie enjoying her hike

the falls

looking back toward town from the top


Andre hiding from the spray

couldn't resist

Come visit!

Summer activities in the snow? totally possible!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 12:17:00 +0000

We had friends visit! Which always makes us way more fun than we are by ourselves.

For our first stop, we headed to Engelberg to play in the snow!

For future reference, I recommend that anyone that goes to Engelberg do the activities in the following order: Ice Flyer Chair, Glacier Park, Cliff Walk and/or Glacier Cave.

The Ice Flyer Chair is just a fancy name for riding a ski lift during the summer for which you have to pay an extra 12 CHF. As it happens we shared our ride with a man, his wife and son and we got to talking and I mentioned it was a bit of a rip off to pay the extra 12 CHF just to ride a ski lift during the summer. Apparently he's one of the owners of the company that runs the whole place. Open mouth...insert foot... :)

It was fun to be up in the snow during the summer. There were tourists slipping and sliding everywhere. The ladies in their sandals were particularly entertaining.

It was a gorgeous day.


We stopped halfway up to have lunch with an awesome view of a lake in the middle of the mountain.

the view at the top

Enjoying the Ice Flyer Chair!

The Cliff Walk is at 9,900 altitude and it's totally awesome

Ellen and I surviving the Cliff Bridge Walk

Solo selfie at the top!

Group Selfie!

I don't even know.

It was all Greek to me!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 20:15:00 +0000

Couldn't resist.

So, we went to Greece this week. We flew into Athens and spent about 4 hours before heading to the island of Syros. 4 hours was long enough to see the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Parthenon! And almost die of heat exhaustion. Geez. Especially since it was probably about 60 degrees in Zurich when we left in the morning. Andre was actually wearing a light jacket on the way to the airport. We felt like we stepped off the airplane and onto the sun. It made for some great photos though!

The Temple of Olympian Zeus
construction completed in 2nd century AD

the detail on the columns was really impressive

The Parthenon
completed in 438 BC

detail of the upper left corner

a view of the entire structure

Looking at the Temple of Olympian Zeus from the Parthenon

There is so much marble in Greece that even the walkways are marble

hey y'all!

After our whirlwind tour of Athens, we hopped on a ferry to head to the island of Syros. For the last 10 years, the island has hosted the Festival of the Aegean which is a cultural festival that puts on various concerts and performances over a 10 day period in July. This year, Faith's choir, the Highland Youth Ensemble, was participating in several of the concerts so of course, we had to pop down to visit.

We arrived late at night on Wed so we couldn't really see what was going on. We woke up on Thursday morning and looked outside our window to see the gorgeous Aegean Sea.

We spent Thursday touring the island and eating delicious food.

the city of Hermoupolis

Lunch at Plakostroto with an amazing view

this guy just jumped right up on the table like he owned the place

On Friday, Andre and I spent most of the day in the water. We bought ourselves some flippers and snorkels and went and checked out the fishies! That evening, Faith had a concert at the St Nikolas Church which is a Greek Orthodox church from the late 1800s (I think...).

The choir performing

some after performance pics

On Saturday, Andre and I went swimming again in the morning. How could we resist with this water??? We saw lots of colorful fishes and even saw an octopus! We spent the rest of the day exploring the island again and eating some more!

a church in the town of Vapori

if it weren't a bajillion degrees, i would totally move here

It was a short trip and we'll definitely have to go back again! (in Dec...)

Helloooooooo! Anybody out there?!!?

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 11 May 2014 19:35:00 +0000

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! For today anyway. :)

So, how's everybody doing? Life is good here. Andre and I are both working too much so there's not been a lot of exciting stuff to blog about.

I did participate in a client event in January that involved hiking for 90 minutes up a mountain in the snow to eat cheese and drink wine. On the bright side, I was not required to walk back down. Instead, I sledded/sled/slid down the mountain on a stool attached to a ski. Total insanity. And you read the beginning correctly. This was done with a client.

In other news, I had a total American moment this week. One of my clients gave out banners to everyone that are in the Swiss colors and are shaped like jerseys. I opened mine and said "hey, cool, now I'm ready for Swiss National Day". My colleague looked at me and says "annnnnnd the World Cup". Riiiiiiiiiight.

Let's see. What else. I was reminded that even after 2 year and 4 months, I still can't properly mail a letter here. I was feeling all proud of myself because I finally bought myself some stamps and had successfully mailed a few letters all by myself like a big girl. On Monday, with a great sense of accomplishment, I dropped off my mothers day card for mom in the postbox on the way to work all stamped and ready to go. On Wednesday, I opened a letter from the Post Office reminding me that international mail costs more than domestic mail. Sigh. The letter was very cool though. The Post Office went ahead and added the additional postage to my letter and sent it on. All I had to do was affix the missing postage to the bottom of the letter and mail it back. The Swiss are very trusting.

And of course, no blog is complete without a picture of Sophie so to appease the masses, I give you...

Sophie playing on the beach!

I thought about promising to update more regularly but I think we all know that's an empty promise so you know, I'll do my best duuudes.

Come visit!!!! We have a guest room that hasn't been used in ages!

Temples and Fishies and Cats! Oh My!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 21:12:00 +0000

At the rate I'm going, it'll be Christmas again before I get all trip properly blogged. Eh well whatdya gonna do?!

first - a quick photo of the city - imagine this in all directions

Tokyo is huuuuuuge (pop 13mil+)

we got lucky with the clear day and got to see Mount Fuji

and now onto the good stuff!

Temples

Woooo boy! If you wanna see some temples, then Japan is the place for you! I think we saw, somewhere around 8 bajillion.

Here we have the Sensō-ji temple

this guy represents Nio, the guardian deity of the Buddha

A few other random pics taken while visiting various temples:

Tiny Buddha!

Bonzaiiiii!

Gotta stay warm

some delicious street food available to help curb your appetite while visiting your favorite local temple

That's it for now. Many more temples to come when I get around to posting about Kyoto! Including a gold one. Oooooooooooo!

Now, onto to the...

Fishies!

In Tokyo, if one is interested, one can find the world's biggest wholesale fish and seafood market. It's called the Tsukuji Market and it's the largest seafood and fish wholesale market in the WORLD. Crazy right. This is where they sold a Bluefin Tuna for $1.8mil last year. They have a tuna market auction at 6am which is open to visitors at certain times of the year. The number of people who can watch the auction is limited and you have to show up at something like 4:30 AM to get in. Unfortunately (thankfully), the auction is closed in December because it's a busy time of year. Whew. But the good news is, tourists are allowed into the market after 9am so we can wander around and see all kinds of crazy seafood and giant Tunas. What a totally weird thing to have become a tourist destination. And here are some resulting totally weird photos:

The market is huge. This is one of many many aisles

Giant Tuna! being carved up!

yum?

Man at work. mmmm Tuna

Boo!

and now....the grand finale...we paid to see...wait for it...

Cats!

No lie. We totally paid 500 Yen to go into a closed off room and pet some cats. When in Rome.... Apparently, a lot of Japanese folks live in tiny apartments and do not have rooms for pets. Therefore, you have these places around Tokyo where you can pay a few bucks and go inside for some quality petting time with some cats!

yea - i was totally excited

i was taller than the normal Japanese person so I got to pet all the kitties trying to hide up high!

they go all out in decorating for their cats

awwwwww

ever wondered what a cat looked like underneath?

even Andre couldn't resist playing with the cats

That's it for Tokyo. Hong Kong and Kyoto to come soon(ish...)

So this one time, on Christmas, I almost got attacked by a monkey

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 08:35:00 +0000

Luckily for you guys, Andre had the camera and was more than happy to take pictures and laugh and encourage me to get closer.

I blame it on the Japanese. They are far too trusting. They seem to think that if they print it on a sign, people will read it and obey it. Clearly, they aren't accustomed to Americans...

Today we went to the Monkey Park. It was awesome. You can actually walk up to within inches of wild monkeys. So, naturally, I did.

My first attempt was a success. I said hello. The monkey looked at me and then just moved away.

The second time, I thought, well hey the first time went well, why don't I try to play with one. So I picked up some snow.

I waved the snow at the monkey and that's when things started to go south.

As you can see, the monkey was clearly not pleased. Apparently I didn't back away fast enough and so the monkey decided to follow up his menacing stare with a hiss at which point, I jumped away quite quickly...

I'm surprised Andre was able to take a picture given how hard he was laughing.

Today's lessons: #1 Don't try to play with wild monkeys. #2 Obey the friendly informational signs in Japan. They aren't kidding.

Here are some more pictures from our day:

Ummmm...excuse me, Mr Nice Monkey, I need to get buy...

That's it for now. We're about to have our first dinner at our hotel run by local Japanese folks. I have no idea what I'll be eating tonight. Eeek.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Tokyo - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 01:47:00 +0000

Tokyo - Day 2:

We didn't escape the jet lag quite like we hoped and so we didn't wake up until after 11! But have no fear, we still managed to see the Meiji-Jingu shrine, visit Harajuka and Shibuya and play some video games!

The Meiji-Jingu shrine is A Shinto shrine built in honor of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.

You pass through three of these torri on the way to the shrine

Here's a shot of the back of the entrance to the shrine. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside (people come here to pray)

They also hold weddings here and we got lucky and got to see a couple in full traditional Japanese clothing

After getting our culture for the day, we headed over to Harajuka which is just madness

I am loving the Christmas decorations!

We joined in the shopping madness and even found an entire store devoted to small dogs. Guess who got two new outfits to wear in Zurich?!?!? While exploring, we found an arcade so, of course, we went inside to play! Look closely at the picture to see if you recognize anyone...

After that, we headed to Shibuya to see the famous Shibuya crossing. They stop traffic from all directions and then just masses of people cross in every direction imaginable.

On the way home, we stopped at the 7-11 for a snack.

We bought Pringles and popcorn instead!

Tomorrow, our goal is to get up and out around 9. We can DO it!

Tokyo - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 01:38:00 +0000

I tried to think of a clever title but clearly failed.

I'll get to Tokyo in a minute but first a public service message: beeeeeeeeeeeeep - for the next 30 seconds, this blog will provide you with useful life information. Dear Americans, airlines in America are unbelievably bad. Whenever you fly, choose a European or Asian airline. This test will end immediately following the picture of my gluten free lunch provided by Turkish Airlines. Thank you for your attention.

That's right. Those are lamb chops. And a hot gluten free roll. Oh right AND as much free red wine as I can drink.

Tokyo - Day 1:

Soooo...moving on...Tokyo is awesome!

I think we made a good decision and booked ourselves on a Tokyo After 5 Tour the day we got here. The jet lag is pretty intense so after landing and navigating our way via train to the hotel, we took some power naps and then headed out to meet our tour at 5pm. There were a total of four of us plus our awesome guide, Meg. Our first stop was a Yakitori restaurant. We got there by walking through some pretty narrow alleys crammed with restaurants.

Before:

After:

After the Yakitori, we headed to Tsukishima to try out Monj-yayaki. We cooked it ourselves while sitting around a very low table.

They bring you the fresh ingredients in a bowl.

Chef Andre at work: Step 1 - grill the meat and veggies

Step 2 - make a circle from the grilled stuff and then pour the batter into the middle

It looked pretty gross but everyone swore it was delicious. Unfortunately, the batter had flour in it so I couldn't eat any.

Andre got me this instead:

I'm going to starve here

We also tried a traditional dessert called tai-yaki. It's a cake shaped like a fish and filled with different flavored creams like chocolate, strawberry, etc

Andre enjoying his fish

Check out what we saw in front of the Mikimoto store on the way home

A very American/British/Australian/Irish Thanksgiving!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 21:28:00 +0000

It's official. We're insane. We did Thanksgiving at our house this year!

Even though our friends volunteered to bring most of the sides, we still ended up cooking most of Friday night and allllll day on Saturday.

I let Andre order the turkeys without supervision. Before I knew it we had TWO 12 pound turkeys in our fridge. We ended up baking one and it turned out surprisingly well!

major props to Andre for this!

the other turkey was the big American treat for everyone...we fried it!

Andre and Mitch totally have this under control

needs a bit more oil

we were low on space in the fridge so this is how we kept the beer cold

the table! for all 14 people

dinner's ready!

trying out the hats mom bought us

the gang's all here! (except photographer Andre)

Yoda trying on the hat

I believe the rest of the pictures will have to remain offline in order to protect those involved.

We had a great time and we'll totally do it again another year (maybe in like five after we've finally finished cleaning up from this year...).

Invasion of the Body Snatchers! errr...I mean the relatives came to visit!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 21:25:00 +0000

We had more visitors! Aunt Augusta and Uncle Pete stopped by for a weekend visit while out and about touring in Europe.

We're always really glad to have visitors because it gets us out of the house and out exploring.

We took Aunt Augusta and Uncle Pete to Mount Rigi and Lucerne on Saturday and then on a tour of Zurich on Sunday.

Mount Rigi and Lucerne

We woke up on Saturday to a grey overcast cold day. We almost suggested not going to Mount Rigi but boy are we glad we went anyway. We found the sun! Now I think we understand why the Swiss all flee the city and go to the mountains on the weekend. It's the only way to see the sun - get above the clouds.

our ride up the mountain

that's the cloud layer folks

We didn't really plan well. Since it wasn't too cold in Zurich and there was no snow on the ground, we all thought jeans and tennis shoes would be perfectly appropriate attire.

we were wrong

Sophie was better prepared than we were!

even at the top of a mountain, Sophie can find new friends

Uncle Pete trekking through the snow

he made it!

couldn't help ourselves - it's Sophie-Heidi!

After Mount Rigi, we headed to Lucerne to see the Chapel Bridge and have some weiner schnitzel

Andre and I were all excited because Uncle Pete said he wanted a weiner schnitzel and Andre found this restaurant in Lucerne that cooks the weiner schnitzel at your table. So imagine our shock when we get to the Old Swiss House and we open the menu to read all about the Old Swiss House at Busch Gardens in TAMPA! Are you kidding me!??! At least the one in Tampa never cooked the weiner schnitzel at your table so that was cool. Everyone said the weiner schnitzel was delicious. Probably because they used approximately 1 pound of butter for each schnitzel!

mmmmm - the smell of melted butter was amazing

it took two people to handle this crowd

yum

And one last shot of the bridge as we headed home:

Zurich

We were total lame tourists on Sunday and didn't take any pictures! We did a guided tour of Zurich which was actually really cool for Andre and I and probably much better for Aunt Augusta and Uncle Pete since they actually got to hear the history of the buildings and things we were looking at instead of just me and Andre pointing at stuff and saying hey isn't that cool?!

Who else wants to come visit???

who knew chocolate chip cookies were so damn difficult?

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 19:56:00 +0000

yea yea i know - i'm way behind on my blog - i've got one word for you....DEAL! :)

I'll get caught up this week but first I thought I'd entertain you with the stories of my regular everyday life.

Sooooooo as you may recall from a previous blog, here in Switzerland, it's customary to bring a treat to the office on your birthday (still weird but whatev'). Last year, I brought a few different things including some triple chocolate chip cookies which turned out to be a massive hit. Interestingly, even though the Swiss eat tons of chocolate, they don't appear to have made the leap toward putting chocolate into a cookie. Probably chocolate by itself is unhealthy enough for the Swiss and they aren't interested in adding butter, sugar, etc. Crazies!

Anywho, so I thought this year I'd whip up a quick batch of cookies and I'd knock my customary obligation out of the park!

Did.not.work.

I don't know what the problem was (certainly it wasn't me) but after my third batch of really flat overcooked cookies, I threw a mini fit like a five year old and went to bed early. Literally pans and cookies all over the counter and they stayed there for days. I'm surprised I didn't wake up to divorce papers the next morning. :)

I took a week to cool off and I tried again. Mostly because during the week, we received Christmas gifts from our neighbors and so now I'm not only ducking my customary work duty but I'm also the crappy neighbor that hasn't given a gift yet. Sigh. So, rather reluctantly, I took the cookie dough out of the fridge (the extra from last week was frozen and thawed) and got to work again. Over the week, I purchased a few molds that were probably meant for jello or something but I figured, I would trap the bleeping cookie dough into a shape so that it couldn't flatten itself out into a shapeless blob. Take that cookie dough! And it worked!!!!

I'm so festive.

And then since I only had four molds and tons of cookie dough left (and not enough patience to continue making four cookies every 15 minutes), I decided put it all into a pie plate and see what happens. Take that Martha Stewart!

I'm going to tell them that Sophie helped.

My poor neighbors. It's the thought that counts, right? RIGHT???

Blogfest 2013 - #3 - Oktoberfest!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 19:18:00 +0000

Yea baby!!!

So we figured that attending Oktoberfest was a mandatory event while living here in Europe. I'll be honest, I wasn't so much looking forward to it. The idea of sitting in a tent with a few thousand of my closest friends all hammered off their asses? Not so much. But I was pleasantly surprised. We had a really excellent time. The atmosphere there is just so much fun. Before you even go into the tent, there are these huge fairgrounds with all kinds of rides and food and drink booths. I do, very highly recommend, riding the rides prior to entering the tent to drink! But anyway, inside the tent, everybody is in a great mood, the band is playing and everyone is singing along. Sometimes while standing on the benches. Two drunken thumbs up!

The tents are huuuuuuuuge

this is maybe 1/4 of the tent

and so are the beer steins

His and Hers

somehow, our friends managed to convince us that appropriate attire was this:

before

during

a little later

and after

The best part of Oktoberfest? They close the party down at 10pm!

There are a ton more pictures but they will most certainly not be uploaded to the internets. Feel free to drop by and visit if you'd like to see the rest!

Blogfest 2013 - #2 - the Swiss Grand Canyon

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 16:26:00 +0000

After a busy and hot summer, we decided to do as the Swiss do and go to the mountains for a weekend. We found a nice hike in Flims which is about a 2 hour train ride away from Zurich.

Here's a link to the hike should you ever find yourself in Switzerland and looking for a nice half day wander through the mountains.

We took plenty of pictures of course!

Before we get started, a nice shot of a typical Swiss village:

And now, the Swiss Grand Canyon!

For next year, we must figure out how those folks got down there with rafts and canoes. That looks totally awesome!

Andre and Sophs checking out the view

the hilllllls are alive with the sound of muuuusic!

We also hiked by the absolutely amazing Lake Cauma.

So, who wants to come visit now!?!?!?

Blogfest 2013 - #1 - We Moved!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 16:03:00 +0000

Sooooo, seems I've been a bit remiss in my blogging over the last few months. Time to catch up!

First up.....we moved! After over a year of commuting for over an hour each way, Andre finally convinced me to move apartments. We moved to the other side of the Zurich lake.

Here's some perspective:

It's about a five minute walk from our new place to the lake which should be totally awesome (in about 10 months...). In the meantime, we have an excellent view of the train tracks and the lake!

Here's a shot of one of Switzerland's finest trains.

The trains are a bit loud but everyone we've talked to says you get used to it. Here's hoping that's true!

We have an excellent picture window (please ignore the boxes - we're not 100% unpacked yet)

The new place is basically the same size as the old place but our bedrooms and the bathroom are much bigger so as a result, we have waaaaay too much living room type of furniture. Time to get on the Swiss version of e-bay and get to selling!

Our old apartment had a glass shower door so when we moved in to the new place, we had to buy an emergency shower curtain. There's wasn't a lot of choice. It's growing on me though!

And of course, with the new deck we have, Andre had to go out and buy himself a present...

We've already put it to some serious good use!

Coming up next...the Swiss Grand Canyon

oh and come visit!

Pura Vida!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 16:13:00 +0000

Pura Vida! The literal translation is "pure life" but the Costa Ricans (or Ticos) use it all the time. For thank you, hello, please - seems like it might be similar to Aloha.

Anywho, so I just got back from Costa Rica. I met some friends there to celebrate one particular friend's 40th birthday (he shall remain unnamed but his initials are: A.L.A.N.) :)

Leaves and Lizards

This place was fantastic. It's in the middle of nowhere. You must absolutely have a car with 4x4 to get to this place. Especially if it's been raining. In general, the roads in Costa Rica aren't the best. There are some paved roads but there are also a lot of unpaved gravely roads. Driving was quite the adventure! We were really glad to see this sign:

We stayed at the Hummingbird Hacienda which is a nice big cabin with two bedrooms and two baths and a seriously awesome porch.

The house was surrounded by some crazy colorful flora and fauna. Some of my favorites:

Lorita helped check us in

I don't what this is but it's hot pink so I like it!

We saw a toucan while eating breakfast

One of the gardeners actually caught this guy and brought him to breakfast for us all to check out

of course, there are hummingbirds at the hummingbird hacienda

Bird of Paradise

this guy was huuuge - love his stylish orange antennae though

it's a sloth! (mostly it's a sloth ass)

Since we were hanging out in the jungle, we did jungle-y stuff!

We're ready to zipline and repel!

uhh - you want me to what?

Here I come to save the daaaay!

I totally got stuck on the line. So I had to turn around backwards and pull myself the rest of the way.
What you don't see is everyone on the platform laughing their asses off.

On one of the lines, we came in and hit a cork thingy. Scared the stuffing out of me.

Repelling down was totally awesome

repelling = awesome / climbing back up = not so awesome

The famous La Fortuna Waterfall

If you'd like to see more, check out the pics in the album below:

Zipling & Repelling - Costa Rica July 2013

We also did a jungle night walk.

We thought we were wearing boots for mud.
Turns out, we were wearing boots in case of snake attacks. Grrrrreat.

frog!

And we went horseback riding and saw some excellent frogs and monkeys!

they call the frog on the left a "blue jeans" frog

we had a delicious lunch with a view of this waterfall

Alan and I managed to get across the rocks. Coming back wasn't so easy!

monkey!

Our last day at Leaves and Lizards and we finally got to see the Arenal Volcano!

Riu Guanacaste

After three days of rainforest fun, we headed to the beach for some sun and sand.

This guy was just catching some rays by the pool

and his cousin too

spot the tourist!

wave came right as I clicked

hey look at that!

I love how they store the fish while they keep fishing.
oh and Go Vols!

these two dudes were fighting over the empty shell - guess it was moving day!

i thought this was one crab when i took the picture
didn't see the other guy until I reviewed the pics :)

For more flora and fauna, check out the album below:

Flora and Fauna - Costa Rica style

and for more scenery shots, check out this album:

Costa Rica Scenery

That's all folks! If ever you want to go to Costa Rica, give me a call. I've got some great recommendations for you!

first day without rain in a week and we went to see.... water!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 20:18:00 +0000

but it was purty!

It's basically been raining here since Mom and Squeeze left last weekend. My poor friend Sallie got into town on Friday night with her two suitcases in the pouring rain. Being the good host I am, I greeted her at the airport with her own personal umbrella!

On Saturday, we just didn't even bother with the tourism. We met some friends for brunch at 2pm, sat there for hours, eventually came to our house for dinner and I believe they left sometime between midnight and 1am. There are no photos from this adventure. :)

But there are photos from today's adventure over to the Rhine Falls! According to my excellent Fodor's book, the Rhine Falls are 492 feet wide, drop 82 feet in a series of three dramatic leaps and are split at the center by a bushy crag straight out of a 19th century landscape painting. This is a good example of why I am not a writer because here's what I would have said "the Rhine Falls are big and purty". Also, what is a bushy crag??? That just doesn't sound right....

Pics!

a view from the back

and a view from the front

we totally took the yellow boat out to the bushy crag

i'm falling!

Sallie, Sophie and Andre pushing their way through the tourists

Sophie enjoying the view from the top

family portrait!

Next weekend, we sleep!

Invasion of the relatives!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 26 May 2013 21:00:00 +0000

Mom & Squeeze invaded for a week and we all survived! :)

Part 1: Zurich

We started the great European adventure with a tour of Zurich. As luck would have it, we had the best weather we've seen all year. Check out mom and Squeeze in front of lake Zurich:

We walked their butts all over Zurich. They got to see the main train station (built in 1871) and the Grossmünster (construction started about 1100) where they got to see a giant gargoyle style statue of Charlemagne who is said to have commissioned the church.

and a shot of the view from the Lindenhof with the Grossmünster in the background:

Part 2: The UK!

On Sunday, we headed to Weymouth (a seaside town in Dorset, UK) to visit my mom's cousin and her fiance'. We had a fantastic dinner and took a nice stroll down to the beach.

View from the beach looking toward Portland

everybody (and their ghosts) trekking back to the house

on Monday, we got up and Squeeze and Colin headed out to run a quick errand. I think this was Squeeze's first time on a bike in a few years - look at him go!

After Squeeze and Colin got back safely, we all headed over to Portland to check it out. Portland is famous for its Portland stone and was the site of the 2012 Olympic sailing events.

a view of the harbor

adults misbehaving

ooo - so tell me, what's that there??

and of course, we had to stop and visit a pub for lunch! The Cove House Inn has been around since the 18th century on Chesil Beach.

cheers!

we did some more wandering

this old dude stopped to give us a history lesson on this chain - thanks man!

Colin took us to see a fort!

contemplating life / napping

rock climbing :)

made it!

and Andre made a new friend...

and now Colin's turn to try and lift the giant chain

check it out - cannonball in the wall!

On Tuesday, Donna cooked up a fantastic British breakfast. We ate too much and then headed back to Zurich.

Part 3: Bellinzona and Lugano

On Wednesday, we got up and started our drive down to Lugano. We drove down via San Bernardino and made a stop in Bellizona to check out the castles.

some views on our drive

some castle shots in Bellinzona

of course Sophie came!

don't do it!

a view of the other two castles and a really old church

now if you'll look over there, you'll see some more old shiznit...

Sophie LOVES castles!

finally, we made it to Lugano! ahhhhhhh Lugano

check out the dorky tourists

look closely...find the tourist....

On Friday, we headed to Monte San Salvatore. Once we got to the top, mom and Squeeze got to enjoy a short little snow shower. Bwuhahahahaha.

check out how tiny we are in the lower right corner

Mom and Squeeze enjoying the weather :)

We returned to Zurich via the Gotthard tunnel. 10 miles in a tunnel - that's enough to give someone some claustrophobia. For your future travel plans, I would recommend this drive over the San Bernardino drive. The views were amazing. Too bad the camera was packed in the trunk!

We had a fantastic time! It was so hard to say goodbye. :(

Who's coming to visit next?!?!

guess what I haven't done in a while!?

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 05 May 2013 20:07:00 +0000

post pictures of Sophie!

The sun was finally out on a weekend day today so we took advantage and spent our Cinco de Mayo drinking in the sun. Then we took Sophie out for some frolicking!

if you zoom in on Sophie's face, you'll notice her tongue is
hanging out so far, she's almost licking her back

a man and his dog

Next weekend: We clean! Liza and Mike are coming to visit in 13 days! YAY!!!!

Mother Nature can bite my @ss!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:12:00 +0000

So this week, Mon - Thurs, while I was inside slaving away, it was sunny and about 70 degrees here. It was absolutely beautiful. And then, Friday the rain came. And then Saturday, we woke up to this:

totally not cool

In other news, we went to LA! We went for the baptism of our nephew. He did not enjoy the experience....

LA was great. I thoroughly enjoyed the weather and the FOOOOD! Our first stop upon arrival was at an In-N-Out Burger. We ordered two burgers, two fries and two drinks and the total was about $11. We both started laughing and probably confused the heck out of the guy taking our order. A burger alone would cost close to $20 here in Zurich. Anyway, we devoured our dinner and then went to bed at 5:30pm LA time and slept for 12 hours straight. :)

We hit all the big spots while we were there: Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, and Universal Studios.

Some observations:

Being an audience member at the Jimmy Kimmel Show = totally fun! but quite a lot of work. I was exhausted from all the happiness by the end.

I reeeeally miss Mexican food. We had Mexican for breakfast the first day there and the second and for lunch on more than one occasion. Yuuuuum!

Traffic in LA suuuuuuuucks.

And most shockingly....Hollywood is totally the same as Pigeon Forge. Madame Toussands Wax Museum, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Hard Rock Cafe and rather disappointingly, no famous people!

Happy April 21st! Here's hoping we see spring in Zurich sometime soon! like tomorrow...really...not kidding Mother Nature....make it happen

oh my gah with the snow!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 18:55:00 +0000

it's snowing here again today - i'm only surviving with the knowledge that in less than 12 hours, I will be on a plane headed toward Los Angeles, CA!!! Mexican food - here we come!!!!!!

So we went skiing a couple of weeks ago - shocking I know

Here are a few pics:

why not?

i can't get over how big these places are

wooo - Jess and Andre tearing it up off piste!

a very Swiss looking town

aaaand the 50 year old radio in our hotel room

Snow, snow, go away, come again another day - like December. Seriously. I'm over the snow. I may not come back from CA. :)

That's it for now. We've both been working like crazy so not much to report.

Come visit! Especially if you like snow!

I'm here all night folks!

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:02:00 +0000

Soooooooo, on Thursday night, I went online into my Swiss bank account to transfer some money bank home. We still have some bills and such that get paid out of our BofA account so every once in a while, we send some money. This time I managed to send a grand total of......wait for it.....10CHF which translates into $10.42. Oh by the way, transferring money isn't free.

Summary:
Transfer to BofA Account = $10.42
Wire Transfer Fee = $12.00
Total Increase/(Decrease) = $(1.58)

Sigh. And now, attempt #2!

remember when movies were only 90 minutes long?

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 20:11:00 +0000

We've been pretty boring around here lately. We've done some skiing of course and then otherwise, we've just been hanging out around town running errands and doing our taxes. We did get adventurous and go out and have brunch last weekend. Watch out world!

This weekend, we had quite the cultural weekend. We watched Life of Pi, Les Mis aaaaand Weekend at Bernie's. :)

After we survived Les Mis, we had quite the lively discussion around the following topic: Remember when movies were only 90 minutes long? Or a really long movie was 2 hours?! Can we bring those runtimes back? Along with the $5 price?!

I think Les Mis would have been better in the theatre. At home, it was too easy to do other things. Check facebook, go get a beer, etc.

I was trying to hold out to watch Les Mis until after I finished reading the book. However, I've been reading the book on my Kindle for three months and I'm still only about halfway. Victor Hugo sure had a lot to say about some really off-topic topics...Waterloo, Convents, Paris street orphans, etc. I blame the Kindle for suckering me into this book. I think the Kindle should warn you when you start a book that's 8 bajillion pages long. After about a month of reading, I found myself in a bookstore and I decided to check out how long this *%*^&ing book is.

ummm...holy crap

and that's about one month of reading

I think this will be the end of my "classics" kick. It started with Pride and Prejudice (which to be honest, I only read because I wanted to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and thought I should read the original first). I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the original. So I thought, hey, maybe I would like some other classics. It's all been downhill since.

Anna Karenina = whiny and waaaaaaaaay too many additional pages after the book should have ended

Wuthering Heights = full of horrid horrid people

I actually like the story parts of Les Mis. It's the two hundred page diversions that I'm finding it difficult to muddle through. But have no fear, I will not let Victor Hugo get the best of me!

And that's your random post for today! Next weekend, we go skiing again!

we totally cheated on Sophie this weekend...

noreply@blogger.com (Mrs. T) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:02:00 +0000

and went Hundeschlittenfahrten! How's that typical German word for ya!?

Andre making some new friends

it's freaking 20 degrees out and this dog is curled up and sleeping all peacefully

every time a dog walked by, all 30+ Huskies were at attention and barking like crazy

let's go! let's go! let's go!

the dogs got super hyper once harnessed to the sleds

Andre getting some instructions

my dogs are having a short nap before the next run

and he is ready!

Andre's favorite part was watching me take a downhill curve too fast and totally flipping the sled. The bruises on my legs do not agree....

Hundeschlittenfahrten was great but I'm ready for some warmer weather. Bring it on mother nature!