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Holiday Fun with Old Friends

3 of my primary school classmates decided to holiday in Switzerland. It has been so long since I went on holiday without my family. I think the last time was when Tobias was little and I went for a few days to Bintan (If my memory does not fail me) with my best friend from Poly while my mother looked after Tobias.

Here are a few pictures, just some highlights of what we saw and did:

One of the many presents my friends brought us – THANK YOU!
The Holy Ghost Church in Bern
One of ten falls at the Trümmelbach falls
Iseltwald on Lake Brienz where people queue to take a photo at the filming site of a well-known Korean TV series
Top of Europe – Jungfraujoch
View of glacier at Klein Matterhorn
View of Matterhorn
Inside the glacier
On the Glacier Express
Old Town of Konstanz, Germany
In the Butterfly House on Mainau Island, Konstanz
At Mainau
View of Lake Konstanz from Mainau
Orchid display at Mainau
Church at Feuersee, Stuttgart, Germany
Vineyard in Stuttgart
Center of Stuttgart
Spring Festival Stuttgart
Lausanne Cathedral
Fountain at Lausanne Flon
Morning view of a street in Lausanne
Lexi was with us in Lausanne
Another view of Lausanne Cathedral
On the boat to Evian, France
Lexi on the shores of Lake Geneva on the Evian side
Source pump of Evian water
At the Tulip festival Morges
View of Old Town Zurich

As you can guess from the above pictures, we went to lots of places, saw a good number of things and walked many steps. It was so much fun; talking, laughing, sharing, and being together 24/7 for 17 days. We loved it all! Who would have thought that friends who only reconnected a few years ago after not being in touch for many years could have such a blast, traveling together across 3 countries!

Looking forward to seeing you gals again real soon!

syc

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Chasing the Snow…

Yep, that’s what we did for the February sports holidays here in Switzerland. We went searching for snow. Why? Because global warming/climate change has meant that this alpine nation, once known for great skiing didn’t get enough snow for the season!

So we went up to a mountain we had never been to before, having heard that they might have more snow than others – we went to Crans Montana. Not somewhere we would usually go because it’s a bit further away and has been known to be expensive.

While there was little snow in the village, just a short up the way you could see the white stuff so it was not too bad. We had an okay time. The husband and son said the snow was not good by the afternoon, so they returned early and decided not to ski the next day. Lexi and I had a wonderful walk across the mountain; the views were amazing. But I took a tumble on an icy patch near the end of our walk; that sort of put a damper on things.

The hotel we stayed at was nice, the staff lovely and the food pretty good. So no complaints there. We left early on the 3rd day and made a pit stop at Fribourg, the university city in the French part of Switzerland. It was nice to see this city again after many years.

Here are some photos of our trip:

Stained Glass in the church
Pumpkin Soup
Goat’s Cheese Main Course
Schnitzel
Steak with an interesting knife
Apple dessert
Morning View
View of World Cup Ski Run
Right Click, Open in new tab to see panorama
Lunchtime view
Evening View
Liked this piece of art in the hotel lobby

SYC

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Murder By The Seaside (10 Authors)

I finished this book a few months ago but have not had the opportunity to write a review.

It has been a while since I have read a compilation of short stories like this. This one is by Cecily Gayford. And I did enjoy it. It was nice to be able to read a whole story in just a number of hours and then move onto the next one in the same genre.

The ten authors are Arthur Conan Doyle (honestly it was this name which attracted my initial attention), Anthony Berkeley, John Dickson Carr (Carter Dickson), Gladys Mitchell, Cyril Hare, G.K. Chesterton, Micheal Innes, R. Austin Freeman, G.D.H. & M. Cole, and Edmund Crispi.

The stories have a death, an investigation and are located near or at the seaside hence the book title. Numerous characters are amusing but several are quite stereotypical.

Some of the stories are quite enjoyable. One or two left me wondering if it would ever catch the attention of a writer’s agent today. They all have a good premise but I think it’s the way some of the stories are written which made the difference. A few seem to be just a few people speaking about what happened and a couple had some sections of what might be called info-dumping.

But overall for some light reading, for when you just want to relax with a mystery but don’t really want to overwork your brain, this is a good book.

Happy Reading!

syc