Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Switzerland das good ja


flower arrangements in Yverdon

highways for you cally

eating buffet at Migros in Yverdon


The reason for the visit to Yverdon, to see my great gran for her 100th year birthday this year!

and shes still going strong and very very sharp, theres no fooling her or paying for your own coffee!

missing one person...

Ben found this rubbish bin unlike no other

enroute to Interlaken

swiss countryside view from a very high cable car near Grindelwald

the parents car behind ours, look at the altitude we are at!

cows and their clanking bells around their necks

swiss explorer

the mist enveloped us in seconds

we nearly lost ben to the mountain

surveying the land 



happy chappies


what a walk

mom and a double Eiger in the reflection

the train station where they said we were going and the hill behind it which we ended up climbing...

we found a deserted svis cabin (Eiger face and Monch the mountain peak on the right in the background)

Mamfred and the crystal lake

a most cool museum type place with hundreds of cameras on the ceiling, flashing and making camera noises at random

conquering the mountain

about halfway up that hill i was talking about, is this ice cold pool with benches in the pool where weary travellers can rest their hot, swollen feet in the frozen pools. the sviss are very considerate and think of everything. each bench is also named according to which mountain peak you will be looking at when you sit on it. while we were here we heard a rumbling which sounded like a helicopter and were lucky enough to see a medium sied avalanche as a part of a glacier fell down the Jungfrau.

The mommy bear in Bern. the town is named after bears and they still keep  live bears there. they have a mommy, and two large cubs in one area and the daddy in the other. the cubs are going to be sent to Czech republic soon, because there are too many bears for the space.
 
Bern


ben was disguised as a frog that day

ooo, aaaaaaaah


this is a statue which is a bit controversial. its a statue of a guy eating children, he has them strapped around his belt and everything. as this is a german part of switzerland and this statue is quite old... the lady next to us told us that he is a jew and it was a kind of beware-the-jew-they're-evil example


and what would svitzerland be wizout zi chocolate?

christmas came early!

id like a slab of that and a slab of this with your edible gold printed logo on the back, thank you very much


lots and lots of cable pollution

i couldnt believe my eyes and neither could all the japanese tourists. this is a... urinal, in the street. thats ben on the right and manfred on the left.



so cute! this was my breakfast from the bakery

bikes are all the rage in switzerland

High on the hill lived a lonely goat.... yodelay, yodelay, yodelow

Susan in the smart. smart cars are relly spacious inside? who would have guessed! i nearly killed us trying to drive on the righthandside when my lefthandside instincts kicked in


Susan at Werners house

you get this picture on chocolate wrappers too

all the rage eco land art and alex. we modified some already existing stone structures


plankton got his top wet

ben skateboarding, minus the skateboard.. it only really works in photos

hangwoman

we found a magic broomstick!!

alex had lots of fun zooming around

watch out potter, here she comes

more than even ben, could handle

there was a yodelling festival on in Interlaken the weekend we were there! so everyone was walking around in this traditional dress. (pretending to take a photo of someone but having alterior motives is such fun)

very precious swiss farmers hay bales  and some monkey

Susan with mom who was clearly having the time of her life on this contraption where you run and move the disk while holding on. it gets faster and faster.

the reason for the visit to the awesome fun place... the human hamster wheel and the hamster, i shall call him... Alex

small horses, wooden horses, broomsticks, real horses, alex tried them all out

they even had a short zip line. this place was the best ever!


we look kind of spare without a third body

this is an insane bobsled thing. i cant believe its legal in switzerland. so many things can go wrong i think someone died on it last year, never the less, we all tried it, mom included at varying speeds controlled by our own brakes while it hurtled along a sheer track down the mountain.

the reason for the crying mother and a satisfied alex is... you will never know


for ben and my last night in Interlaken before flying back to rome we went out for dinner. it was so nice speaking english and even listening to german was refreshing although Manfred did put in a mexican accented italian sentance every now and then to make us feel at home. the are the perfect hosts and we had a lovely, energetic time in switzerland. i didnt see one fat swiss. thats all folks and now its back to italy...

Monday, June 27, 2011

Beaune in France! wi wi!

so... my parents are amazing and gave us a holiday in france and switzerland!!! which was unforgettable. france is so beautiful and peaceful and so much delicious bread
this tiny little dwarf door caused a large bump on my head

view from the window, also...
my dad also brought me his old camera from SA so im taking professional photos now. except only uploading low res images. if anyone wants any of the images in high resolution just ask and il email them to you.

some seriously skinny 100 yr old stairs

was so nice to see my family again :)

walking to town through the vineyards


look at these cool gingerbread houses

miniature europeans

french gelatine cuisine

gigantic almond meringue

hotel dieu, hospices de beaune
an old hospital, well worth the visit. beautiful tiled roof


ben

view from our cottage in the countryside

our 100 yr old country abode, beautiful weather, just relaxing in the sun




chatting up the statue

aleex!

this is the courtyard in a small village outside beaune where my mom got my dads proposal letter.


found this gigantic horse




look at the beautiful buildings in this village! we couldnt stay long enough here


Monday, June 6, 2011

Naples/ Napoli in a blur

went by train to naples for the day on business (hehe)

visiting the leather factories and people who make our leather products, and they actually are, made in italy!

all sorts of exciting stuff like this lying around

yes, i see, two tone leather hmm, we make our products out of this, yes you saw them, oh. well have you seen my foot at the bottom! these are the glorious sheets of leather we make products from! theyre beautiful

surprisingly small workforce and everythings made by hand!

naples not so nice. we didnt see much of the city centre and only drove to and from the train station into industrial areas but i did see tons and tons of rubbish lying on the street just like here.

spent the same time travelling as we did in naples

italian countryside

so, naples is where pizza originated, the naplolians cannot resist stuffing you with their prized thick crusted pizza (which is different to pizza elsewhere) and it is delicious. their coffee is also much better than rome's and actually very palatable

the napolians were disgusted but ben was thrilled when i lugged back an entire pizza for him from the leftovers of our lunch.

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flowers in our street are in full bloom and the jasmine! everyone has hedges of it lining everything, cascading over walls onto the street and im very glad, that im not allergic to it!
 
deserted office

happy to be working while evreyones taken the day off ben? no, neither was i


so we went to the beach in ostia, along with everyone else in rome, and their aunty! hot, packed and not  the cleanest water or whitest sand, thats if you can find a spot of sand to put your towel. wondering why this is my only picture of the beach? well, this character took the overtly perverted award of the day. he stood, fully clothed, no intention of moving, for about an hour, in the position you see him now. staring at the tanners and everyone on the beach in front of him. what took the cake was him pretending to answer calls while taking photos of the two topless german girls infront of us. we were very relieved when he finally left



beautiful and delicious macaroons, a gift from nina, she is so sweet!
 


Friday, June 3, 2011

Tourist season has begun

yesterday, 2 june is festa della republica in italy. so we headed to town for the action. we somehow missed everything it started raining and we headed home. we did however meet up with crowds of people along the way...

Quirinale palace, closed today

aah, wrong turn and ended up lost in the crowds at trevi fountain!

someone in this tightly packed crowd squeezed my bum and had the nerve to shout 'excuse me hey' over his shoulder!!

tempting tremezzinis!! at piazza barberini