Ardoise

Last night, I had another new Swiss experience. I thought that I'd been exposed to most of them, mainly thanks to my Thursday visits, but turns out I still have a lot to learn.
Anyway, I went out for dinner to a restaurant where an "Ardoise" was recommended. It would entail my choice of a beef steak or "young horse" steak along with fries and a visit to the salad bar. I have tried horse before (actually the first restaurant lunch I had after arriving to Neuch) and didn't enjoy it so I opted for the beef option.
The cool thing about this dish was that the meat was served on a very hot stone. It was still sizzling upon arrival and didn't stop sizzling until about a half hour later (although I did touch the stone much later and it was still quite hot). As you can see in the picture, just the outsides of the steak have been charred and the inside is quite red. I know you can eat beef rare, so if you're one of those people, you'd have to eat the stak pretty quickly. I like my steak well done, so I sliced it up and lay the slices flat on the stone to cook the meat all the way through. It was quite effective.
The sizzling was pretty excessive. I mean, before the waitress would even put the platter in front of us, we had to put on our huge bibs, and you can even see in the picture that there's a lot of splatter on the platter. (Ha ha ha...splatter on the platter...it sounds funny.)
Of course I needed dessert afterwards. Coupe Danemark. I'm going to mniss all the ice cream sundaes they can here.

Grindewald

Back to Grindewald for more hiking and awkward moments which I'm not sure I'll ever get used to.

Here are some pictures:




Grindewald here we come!








Not sure why, but we rode up in the Xamax bus





After taking a gondola up to an altitude of about 1000m, we started our hike in the middle of a cloud.





Above the cloud...and a break for lunch. Much more interesting than your average cafeteria eh?







Straight out of a postcard.






Even higher above the cloud. I guess cows like a good view too.







Makes you want to re-enact The Sound of Music doesn't it? (yes, I know it's the wrong country)




At 2680m - it was too cloudy below to see Interlaken. Last year, the hike was actually painful. It was pretty steep at times and the quads were burning. This year was a lot better. Am I in better shape? Going down still hurt the knees though. I think I'm going to be in a wheelchair at the age of 30. You know, with my bad back, ankles and knees and all.

I said I'm lucky

Proof that I'm darn lucky:

My quite frequent trip back from Burgdorf to Neuchatel has a change in Solothurn.
This past Wednesday, the train from Solothurn was 18 minutes late, but I wasn't too tired (napped to Solothurn) so it was ok. I was more concerned with the fact that usually I get back to Neuch with 12 minutes to wait for the last bus of the night to go home.
The train was going really really fast and making up for lost time. I was bored, so I fell asleep. I guess it turned out to be more tiredness rather than boredom, because after waking up when the train stopped in Bienne, I woke up to see that the sign said that the next stop was Yverdon Les Bain. You see, Neuch is the stop in between the two.
I looked outside to see that I'd just missed Neuch be a couple of minutes (train was going friggin fast). Moments of panic ensued and my groggy head quickly tried to figure out what to do.
Flashback to getting on the wrong half of the train in Bern awhile back and ending up in Murten after the train split in Kerzers. A 90CHF cab ride followed.
Back to the present, I was preparing myself for a nice, three figured cab ride home, when I decided to look at my train schedule for kicks. If the train I was on had been on time, I could catch the last train from Yverdon to Neuch with 14 minutes to spare. Well, we ended up arriving 3 minutes too late.
Wander the station for awhile and go to the track and see the sign still up for the train. No one waiting around 'cept for a sketchy looking guy who's passed out. See a conductor and find out that this train is also late!
One minute later, the train arrives and after 19 minutes, I'm in Neuch and take a cab home. I've decided to treat myself to one cab ride a month, so that was it I suppose. It's not like I take a cab very often, but I guess there aren't too many cabbies in the city, because my driver remembered me from a previous trip.

QED

Moral of the story: I'm really lucky, I'm considering some options so that it doesn't happen again - although at least now I know that I can still get home if it does - and it is possible for Swiss trains to be late.

I'm the luckiest person in the world

I had a FABulous time in Toronto this summer. I was actually very sad to have to come back to Neuch for various reasons, however upon arrival, it's hard not to be comforted by this...














The soccer stadium is really coming together. There was nothing there when I first arrived to Neuch.

Snaps from a summer in Toronto

I do check up on the webcam every so often, but it's nice to see the development of the ROM's crystal in person.















You know, after going to the equivalents around Europe, Holt's was a little disappointing.







I can't wait until I get inside the new opera house.






...errr...I'd be lying if I said that I didn't take this while sitting behind the steering wheel.













I really love Toronto's skyline. I've missed skyscrapers and lots of lights at night.



One last shot before leaving Canadian soil (Terminal 1).

Copenhagen (June 2nd-5th, 2006)

This could have been my second trip to Copenhagen, however last year, I had an unfortunate incident with the local Neuch surgery room the morning that we were supposed to leave. So...I obviously didn’t go, but happily, this time around, I was healthy enough to go.

This was going to be the last big trip of the year, and since I’d never been to Scandinavia, I was pretty excited to go. The flight there was pretty uneventful, except for a Tara Reid spotting at CPN. Her hair was way too bleached blonde, and her face looked really tired. Her eyes especially looked really bad. I guess all that partying really catches up to you.
After arriving to the hotel, we walked through the main pedestrian shopping street, realized that everyone there really is incredibly beautiful and made our way to Nyhavn (the locals call it the "longest pub in the world") where we would take a canal boat tour.

We floated by the incredible new opera house which I would love to go into but since it was on an island, I’m not really sure how you would get there for a concert though...maybe they’re SO cool that included in the ticket price is a booking for a boat to pick you un from the "mainland" to take you to the opera house.
In the different canals were various working boathouses. I wonder what they would look like on the inside, and how they would compare to the different yachts that were in Monaco.
That night we decided to hop the border. We ended up taking a train to Malmo, Sweden. Yep, another country added to the list! We didn’t end up going until really late, because we had dinner reservations at a restaurant that served us traditional food (I tried herring...it was okay), so by the time was got to Malmo, it was really dark (not a good thing for me) and all the stores were closed of course. Most of the stores that we did walk by were the same at you would find in Copenhagen, which makes sense since it’s so close by and everyone there says that Malmo isn’t even really Sweden...it’s just an extension of Denmark.

The next morning, we took a bus tour of the city including a stop at the famous mermaid and afterwards, we were let loose to explore the city. Of course I had to go shopping, but was thrown off by the crazy inflated prices. I could have got the same things in other countries for half the price, so I unfortunately didn’t indulge. Nothing stuck out as being so special that I was willing to dish out the cash for it. Maybe I’m just not into Scadinavian fashion. It’s not like it was really different or anything. I’ve been looking for the perfect pair of jeans, and in Scandinavia they really like the tapered, pencil jeans, which do NOT look good on me. I know it’s the newest fashion, but I need fashion to be flattering as well.
Kind of spurred by the experience last summer and being intruiged by a "water menu", coupled with my lack of interest in alcoholic drinks, I’ve sort of started a "water collection". I had a blast at Harrod’s adding to my collection, and have slowly added items along the way on my different travels. Denmark was no exception.
Little random tidbit for you: popsicle sticks were invented in Denmark.
Later that day, we finally went to Tivoli Gardens! WHEEEEEEEEEEE! Sure, there weren’t as many crazy rides as amusement parks in North America, but still, after being away from stuff like that for such a long time, it was really exciting. Their most interesting
ride was the "world’s tallest carousel". While waiting in line, we spotted Tara Reid yet again. It really wasn’t that cold, but she was wearing a huge yellow down North Face coat and of course a baseball hat pulled down really low over her eyes. I don’t know if she was in that get up so that no one would notice her, but honestly, the yellow didn’t help along with the fact that her "entourage" included two guys wearing bright orange sweatshirts. Anyway, I’m pretty sure that no one knew who she was except for us...as proved by the fact that a couple people asked us who she was a why we were talking about her. The ride wasn’t really scary per se, except for the very first part where the whole carousel got raised up all that way into the air. That part was just crazy because it went a whole lot higher than I was expecting (it was pretty high), and rest of the ride was just nice, because it gave you a great view of the city below. We ate at Wagamama that night (a little disappointing) and spotted Tara and her crew a bunch more times.

The next day, we went to the Louisiana Modern Art Gallery where we got to see some cool art including some Worhols. It was quite the adventure trying to find them, as you had to go through different buildings and rooms. I wonder if the gallery purposely did that so that you would have to walk through the whole gallery first. And there weren’t any signs or anything to help you find them. There were a lot of other pieces that I really enjoyed. I think I sorta like modern art. It’s different, makes you think, inventive and creative. I also like impressionist stuff too.












The greatest moment of the day...finding out that they sell m0851 products in their store!






Afterwards, we went to Kronborg Castle, the castle that Shakespeare used in Hamlet. Deep in the super dark dungeons of the castle (it was REALLY
dark...dark enough that my eyes weren’t adjusting – which might not say much – you could even rent flashlights, which in retrospect would have been really useful) was this guy who was keeping that city safe.






Back in town, we went shopping a little bit more (still couldn’t find something that I wanted for my "special" purchase) and we found a nice restaurant in Nyhavn for dinner. I had lobster! It was my first time eating lobster in Europe and I loved it!
I thought that maybe I would by some cool interior design thing as my special purchase, but I didn’t actually find a piece that I wanted, often because it was too big to be taken on a plane or too fragile for me to trust myself with it. I ended up buying a large book of Hans Christian Andersen stories.
The next day, we went to the Viking Ship Museum in nearby Roskilde where we saw ruins of ships. It was really cool to have another thing that I’d only seen pictures of or seen in movies come to life.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend, but I was getting a little tired from all of the traveling. For three weekends straight I made the trek to Zurich Airport. First for Amsterdam, then this one, and the last week was for Helsinki. That being said, I wouldn’t change it. I mean, how many people have the luxury for taking off almost every week for a holiday.

London (July 13th-18th, 2006)

[Note: Since I'm so behind on my postings, I'm just posting pictures of some trips with words here and there...I'll try to come back to them and provide more details, but for now, this is what I've got!]



Piccadilly Circus - I still don't understand why they call an intersection a circus. Where are the clowns and dancing bears?




Apparently the Queen shops here. I personally find Harrod's a little bit more exciting, but Fortnum and Mason is pretty posh.
I wonder is she's ever bought either of these:













I went to my first real opera. The Royal Opera had a production of Turandot and since there happened to be a show while I was there
instead of a Royal Ballet performance I decided to splurge (seriously - if you want to see what's going on onstage, those tickets aren't cheap!). The performance was incredible. I was a little distracted by the text and sometimes felt like I was missing the visual performance because I was trying to read instead. The affect of the chorus in the background was amazing, and to top it off, Ben Heppner was the lead role!

Of course I did a lot of shopping while I was there. Bought a bunch of things that I'm proud of, but disappointingly, I found out that Thomas Pink shirts don't look perfect on me, so I didn't fulfill an item on my wishlist. That and they didn't have the right size in the vest I wanted. But, I did find another Jermyn Street store that I snatched up more crisp shirts from!

I finally got to Portobello Market:
It was lots of fun. Too many people in spots, but fun to be in the middle of everything. I ended up buying an antique bracelet (although I doubt its true antiquity). Oh, I also bought lots of fruit too. Raspberries, kiwi, apricots...yummy!







Any movie fans recognize this?







I was running out of shows that were in town that I wanted to watch, so I decided to go to the Blue Man Group. All the parts that you've seen in promotions or whatever - well, they're the best parts. It's an ok show I suppose, but that being said, I wouldn't recommend it to many people. There are many more shows out there which are better. If you're really wanting to see a show, and there's nothing else, fine, go see this one, but other than that...don't bother.

I made it to Trafalgar Square, and although I didn't go into the National Gallery (not high enough on my list of priorities) I did dunk my feet in the huge fountain. There was some kind of rally going on about conflict or something or another going on in Turkey/Cyprus/Greece...I'm not really sure (you know me and my lack of worldly knowledge). I also saw the church of St. Martin in the Fields! Yes, the only reason I know of it is because of their chamber ensemble.
I really wanted to get to some of the gardens in and around London, but I knew that if I got to one, that would instantly be saying goodbye to a couple hours, and there was just too much to do. So late in the evening after I'd finished my barrage of activities for the day, I made my way to Kensington Gardens to check it out a bit. To get there, I walked on this street filled with houses for ambassadors or something. I love big/pretty houses. Kensington Gardens was a little blah. I couldn't find the memorial for Princess Diana because it was getting dark (bad eyes) and because there weren't really good directions on how to get there. When the park closed, I wanted to make my way through Hyde Park to get to a tube station, and after walking for a REALLY long time in the pitch black (I am definitely the perfect candidate for laser eye surgery) I met up with some park security who showed me on a map where I was, and made me realise just how big the park was. I took a detour and found a tube and after a great day, just crashed for the night.

Sidebar: I know it's ghetto...but I love Primark.

I finally spent some time in the museums. I didn't have enough time to go through the whole Natural History Museum, but I did go through the whole Dino Gallery. You know that often I care more about the design of a museum rather than the content, and this exhibit was a
great mix of ideas. I don't really have any pictures of it, but I went through the whole Science Museum and it was alright I suppose. Not as many interactive parts as I would have liked. It seemed like all the interactive parts were geared towards a younger audience (due to where in the museum they were located), which is unfortunate, because people of all ages should be exposed to tactile things rather than just having the learn from reading copy.

I'd seen the changing of the guards in the winter, and of course I wanted to see the redcoats and bear hats, so I joined the crowd one more time to watch it all again. Sure, I need to read up about why they walk x number of times back and forth and what the ceremony means and such, but it's touristy and I'm a tourist. I really want to experience as much as I can when I travel, and this was just another thing. I wonder what the guards are thinking during the ceremony.


"I am wearing the coolest looking hat ever...too bad I can't see where I'm..." *as he walks right into my camera* (no...just kidding...I sort of feel bad that I'm taking pictures of them like they're on display - but I guess they are).






I crossed of LOTS of things off my "To Do in London" list (although there's still many more things on it). I got around to touring Royal Albert Hall and loved it. While I was there, I also found out that the Proms were on. I bought tickets to Proms 3 (including Debussy's La Mer) and had a blast! I was where people all over the world were listening to on their radios! Wheeeee!
So, I never knew why they were called the "Proms". The only context for "prom" that I know is a fancy school dance. Well, obviously it's not that. "Proms" is actually short for promenade because during the Proms, there's an area right in front of the stage that's open to the "Prommers". These are the people who promenade/sit/lie in this area as the concert goes on. There's even a nice fountain in the middle of it!

**********

Of course, in London, I also stumbled upon the premiere of Superman Returns, but you can see pictures from that here.