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Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Get Your Kids On The Train Cheap With The Junior Card

08 Feb

A friend of mine at work was telling me about the Junior Card offered by the SBB for children.  The yearly card costs only 30 swiss francs and it allows your child under the age of 16 to travel with their parent or grandparent for free when the adult has a valid ticket.  Talk about a great deal.  I guess I still don’t need the card as kids under 6 always travel free.

Despite the relatively high costs of public transportation for individual tickets in Switzerland there always seem to be good deals for families on the go as long as you are willing to look around for the offers.  The junior card is just another great example of how family friendly Switzerland can be.

 
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Amazingly Fast US Passport Renewal

14 Dec

I noticed my passport was going to expire in about 6 month time at the end of November.  Around the same time I was looking into getting a passport for my daughter.  Having looked into the process for renewal by mail on the US Embassy Citizen Services page I learned that I could renew my own passport by mail and the process would take around 25 working days.  I should of course plan for possible delays during heavy travel periods.

Seeing as the description also mentioned that once my old passport was in Bern it would have to be sent to the U.S. for processing I was not optimistic.  But having planned to stay in Switzerland for Christmas this year it sounded like a perfect time to renew.

After a day of running around an collecting my photos and paperwork to be mailed I put everything in th epost on December 2nd and didn’t expect o hear a word until early January.  You can imagine my suprise then when I got a letter that included my new passport on the 10th of December.  Finally the first time ever that a government agency has done something quick and efficient.  Kudos to the people in Bern for getting this done so fast.

Hopefully I will have the same experience in getting my daughters passport.

 
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Fall Walks Around Baldegg

20 Nov

After the cold weather we have had in the last week I think it is time to say goodbye to the beautiful Swiss fall season and start to prepare for winter.  This fall I had a chance to take a few weeks of vacation and stay at home around the house.  Most of the time was of course spent taking care of our new daughter.  But even in the chaos we managed to get out of the house to enjoy the fall colors.

I really enjoyed spending afternoons hiking around Baldegg, where the level gravel roads are perfect for our ‘all terrain’ stroller.

As it gets colder I just hope we will still be able to continue to enjoy the outdoors.

 
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Returning From the UK

25 May

Bibery in the Cotswalds

Wow, did I really need that vacation.  It seemed like a long, long time since I had a bit of time to relax and do some things for myself.  It was a relatively late planned trip for my wife and I but we had decided to take a trip to Cornwall, the south western corner of England.

Cornwall had long been on my list as a photographic destination to capture some of the famous rocky cliffs and amazing ocean views.  I know I haven’t posted one of those views here, but I need to do a little digital magic to some of the photos before I am ready to share them.

While we were on the way down to Cornwall we also stopped in a few villages in the Cotwalds area where I got my introduction to mushy peas.  I have to thank a couple of colleagues from the office for turning me on to mushy peas.  Its a great side dish to fish and chips and something I will be trying to make at home.

 
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Airplane At the Swiss Transportation Museum

25 Feb

Swiss Air

Today is a photo post.  This was one of the many airplanes at the Swiss Transportation Museum in Luzern.

 
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Posted in Photography, Swiss Day Trips

 

Swiss Transportation Museum

24 Feb

Swiss Transportation Museum

This weekend we took a trip to Luzern to visit the Swiss Transportation Museum.  It is a trip I had wanted to take for some time, but for whatever reason I just hadn’t gotten around to it. Part of it was probably the fact that I thought it would be more of a ‘Man’s Museum’ and I wasn’t sure my wife would enjoy it.  After all what do you expect when you are going to see a collection of old trains and cars.

What I found was something much more than just a collection of trains and cars.  There were also boats, planes, a submarine under restoration and the only collection of ski lift chairs I have ever seen.  All of the exhibits were really fantastic and interactive.  Everything looked to be brand new.  I don’t know if that was just Swiss cleanliness or the fact that the place was in fact using a lot of the latest technology for its exhibits.

I was amazed at the size of the place as well.  The museum is built on a large campus with several buildings and we spent a good 5 hours walking around.  More amazing than that was the fact that my wife actually enjoyed it.

In the courtyard between the buildings there were also plenty of interactive things for kids.  There were scooters and bicycles as well as a huge sand pit with a bunch of construction related toys to play with.  I would imagine that the place is hugely crowded in the summer with all sorts of rug rats.

It was definitely worth the trip and the 28 CHF admission fee.  Keep in mind if you are going to take public transportation you can get a 10% discount on the entrance fee by buying you ticket together with you train ticket.  Just ask at the ticket window.

One of the highlights for me was the automated parking robot that displayed the museum’s car collection.  It is a bit hard to explain, but think of all the cars as if they were sitting in an enormous shelving system.  About 5 levels high and maybe 10 vehicles wide.  For the demonstration show a huge robotic carriage would pull the full sized cars off the shelves and bring them down to display them in front of the visitors.  It was really an awesome sight to see.  I took a few pictures so maybe I’ll post them in a future post.

 
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Posted in Swiss Day Trips

 

Hot Air Balloon Over The Alps

13 Feb

Balloon Over Chateau D’Oex Switzerland

Today I spent some time going through some more photos from our trip to the Chateau D’Oex balloon festival.  I liked this balloon a lot.  I guess it is a bit stereotypical in its style compared to some of the more elaborate balloons we saw.  But sometimes I think simple is good.

 
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Western Spirit Rides Again

06 Feb

Western Spirit Over The Swiss Alps

Two weeks ago we went to the 2011 Chateau D’Oex International Balloon Festival.  It was the second time we had visited the the balloon festival.  This time around we managed to get a room at a bed and breakfast right in town so we could forgo the morning commute to the launch site.

We arrived late on the Friday night that the festival began and stayed for Saturday and Sunday.  I was a little disappointed that the weather didn’t allow for any flights on Saturday.  I attempted to go skiing on that day which was a bit of a disaster due to lost gloves, mountain fog, and really icy conditions on the slopes near Gstaad, but that is another story.

One of my favorite balloons from the last time we visited the event was Western Spirit, piloted by a couple from the U.S.  I was glad to see that the team had made it back this year as well.  We were so close to having a chance to meet the team as well.

For the ‘mass accenccension’  Which sounds somehow like a church event, we took up a position a few hundred meters above the launch site on a mountain rode.  Western Spirit ended up landing only about a quarter mile from where we were, but alas, there was an impassible gorge between us and the balloon so I guess we’ll have to wait until she rides again.

 
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Posted in Festivals, Swiss Day Trips, Travel

 

Hiking In Adelboden

21 Dec

Hut on a winter hiking trail near Adelboden Switzerland

I had a chance to use a gift certificate for a hotel stay recently.   The gift was given to me this summer by some friends and I hadn’t had a chance to use it.  My wife and I were waiting for some good weather this fall to use our Smartbox gift certificate but the weather just never cooperated.  Seeing that the certificate was going to expire in February 2011 we decided to take our chances and book a weekend in Adelboden.

It was just the start of the ski season in Adelboden.  Although I didn’t manage to make it to the slopes we had some fantastic weather on Saturday afternoon and did some winter hiking.

We also had a chance to meet with a work colleague and friend that has a small flat in Adelboden.  It was a nice opportunity to see the local side of the town culture.  We meet a few of her friends and visited a few local watering holes.  It was interesting to watch the locals.  From what I understand the locals are really just getting ready to go into hibernation.  From some of my conversations I learned that as the tourist season ramps up the locals don’t go out much.  Places are too crowded and it just isn’t worth the trouble.

What I also learned was that many Swiss in this local resort towns only have jobs for about 8 months a year.  They work for the summer tourist season and then the winter season.  In between the seasons there isn’t much going on so many of the hotels, stores, and resturants close.  What also struck me is that sometimes the locals don’t even know where they will be working during the next tourist season,  jobs are guaranteed and it is common to move around.

If you think about it working only 8 months a year means the locals have to practice an extremely good form of financial planning and discipline. Not that I wouldn’t expect anything less of the Swiss.  The reality is these seasonal works are still paying rent, utilities and buying food even during 4 months of the year when the are not getting any pay check.

The hiking and scenery in Adelboden were fantastic but what was really interesting were all the little things are learned about the local Swiss culture from my friend.  Hopefully I’ll get to go back someday and have another chance to mix and mingle with the locals.

Finally to the guys that gave me the gift certificate, thanks, it was perfect and we had a great weekend.

 
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Posted in Swiss Day Trips, Travel

 

Evening In Monaco

20 Nov

Port in Monaco

Last weekend we took a short trip to the French Riviera to visit Nice and Monaco.  This is of course the off-season so the hotels where cheap and restaurant reservations were not required.

Although the weather was not the best we still made the most of the long weekend including a trip to spend the day in Monaco.  While we were there, there happened to be a carnival along the port and it made for some great photographs in the early evening light.

Monaco itself is quite odd compared to its surroundings.  The entire country is only 0.75 square miles.  It is a small island of cleanliness and order in an otherwise extremely ‘French’ region.  Monaco is served by a train station that is linked to the French rail system but as soon as you step off the train you know you are somewhere else.

The streets are pristine.  I don’t think I saw a single cracked piece of concrete or a paver out of place in the pedestrian promenades.  It is otherworldly right up there with Switzerland.

It was also fun to walk along the Monaco Grand Prix race circuit.  The yearly formula 1 race takes place directly on the streets of Monaco.  I’ll save that for another post though.

Monaco was packed with tourists even in the off-season.  There was a big cruise ship at the port which meant the traditional sign waving tour guides were wandering the streets hearding their cruise companions along to all the tourists sites like heards of sheep.

It was a nice place in a strange sort of way.  Worth a visit for a day, but I don’t think you would need more time than that.

 
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Posted in Photography, Travel

 
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