Missing life in Luzern

My things are packed, the apartment (almost) clean and ready for handover.  I have been reflecting on what I am about to leave behind - not just the place but the lifestyle.  I feel truly lucky to have lived this life in this place and hope that I'm able to carry some of this back with me to combat the hustle and bustle of US life.  At the risk of changing my mind here are some things I will miss about my life here in Luzern:

* Walking to the corner bakery (and there is one on every corner) for a fresh bit of something something for breakfast

* Getting a spontaneous call from a friend to meet up for a drink in 10 minutes

* Sitting at outdoor cafes

* The 22% tax rate

* Farmers market twice per week

* Stunning views of an Alp ringed lake outside my office window

* My 10 minute walking commute to work

* My clean happy white loft apartment and it's fab roofdeck

* Church bells marking the hour

* Sundays where you are forced to just enjoy yourself because nothing is open except above mentioned outdoor cafes

* Good yogurt

* Good jam

* Having a working wood fireplace

* Walking on cobblestones every day
* Being surrounded by 400 year old painted buildings

 

* Christmas market
* Hearing alpenhorns and yodeling in one of the old plazas

* Pretzel bread

* Being no more than a 2 hour flight from all the most interesting places in Europe

* Being free of the hassles of car ownership

* Experiencing winter without wind chill factors or snow boots

* Catching sight of the little old lady in the red Pope car
* Summer festivals - especially Blue Balls

* Witnessing Fasnacht (but once is enough)

* And soaking in the natural beauty all around me every day.  When I moved here I promised myself I would never take it for granted.  And I never did.

If you don't like the weather, wait a minute...

Like my fellow New Englanders I grew up claiming the most changeable weather on earth.  We New Englanders like to bemoan our erratic weather almost as much as we complain about our sports teams letting us down.  But New England has nothing on Switzerland for changeable weather.

In fact, the weather in Switzerland is not at all what you'd expect.  Let me guess... you're picturing sunny springs with wildflower covered rolling hills, cold snowy winters to put Boston to shame, Alpine peaks rising sharply white against a crisp blue sky, and a dreamy mild summertime where temps don't get much past 80.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

I was interested to discover that summer can be brutally hot here.  I moved here in June 06.  That July was one of the hottest on record with temps almost every day in the 90s.  But here's the thing.  On August 1 the temps dropped to 60 and rainy to the surprise and frustration of my poor sister who came to visit that day for 2 weeks vacation in August with only tank tops, shorts and bathing suits in her suitcase after my warnings that she would need to try to stay cool.  Off we went to the store to buy her a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt in which she sulked for the next 2 drizzly overcast weeks.

And I was prepared for winter.  I mean, I'm a Boston girl!  I had the heavy coat, the snow boots, scarves and gloves galore.  I was prepared for whipping winds stabbing me during my 15 minute walk to and from work.  By December I was tired of waiting for the cold to arrive and left layers at home so avoid getting to the office sweaty and red-faced. My snow boots 4 winters later have never been used - the most snow I've ever seen on the ground is maybe 3 inches and that is usually gone by morning latest. Temps hardly ever dipped below freezing.  40 degrees is pretty much the norm every day November till march.

While the winter temps were a happy surprise, gray skies were not.  It's amazing to me that you can go weeks and even months and pretty much never see the sun.  I had no idea how clear and sunny Boston winters are.  Frigid, but sunny.  Here it's like November in Boston all the time - gray, drizzly and raw.

And now the crazy unpredictability.  Yesterday I walked to work and my AC worked hard to keep me cool in the 90s weather with the sun pounding through my floor-to-ceiling windows.  Just as I was leaving work, a charcoal colored cloud rolled along one side of town and the rain started falling.  I barely made it home when the sky opened up and the rain started coming down sideways.  Wind howling, rain pelting.  Pretty soon it exhausted itself and I got my AC going and fell asleep only to be woken up hours later by a violent lightening storm and more pelting rain.  Today it's hot and sunny.  You learn to carry an umbrella even if there isn't a cloud in the sky.  And at least once a summer here, there is a hail storm with blueberry-sized hail.

So, you might be surprised to hear that summer in Switzerland can be just as hot as Boston and winters are never as cold. But whatever the weather, if you don't like it, just wait a minute and it's bound to change.

Beijing

Having gone to China for work I had a day upon arrival to run around and see some sites.  I had looked forward to it but hadn't really been quite prepared for what I was going to experience.

First, the Great Wall.  I am not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.  Enormous, majestic, winding into the far distance.  The Great Wall was so much more than I could have imagined.  Pictures will have to tell the story.  It's hard to find words.

    

I arrived at 7:45 am when it was still a bit cooler.  I climbed stairs for almost an hour surrounded by Chinese families.  By the time I got near the top it was almost 9am and searing hot at 90 degrees.  I made some friends along the way - a couple of cute girls ditching their parents, and a few locals asking to have a photo taken with me (guess they don't meet many Westerners!)

   

Using every moment of my time I did a motorcycle sidecar tour of Beijing and a zip around the Forbidden City.  Beijing is an amazing mix of the hyper modern and the ancient.

But my favorite part of Beijing is the little old neighborhoods called hutongs.  Some are really old and run down, others are revamped and trendy.  All of them give you a feel what old Beijing might have been like.

   

   

   

Chinese food in China

  

I have to admit, I was NOT looking forward to the food in China.  I have heard horror stories of the dishes containing parts of animals that would never see a plate in any other country.  Chicken legs, fish eyes, scorpions, intestines, brains and on and on.  Based on advice from a co-worker I was determined to tell anyone taking me out for a meal that I was a vegetarian.  Meat? Who me?  No, not even fish.

Luckily my first meal out cured all my fears and I never looked back.  Who wouldn't love a restaurant called "Made in China"?  With a sense of humor like that you gotta give it a chance.  

The photo at the top is an amazing dumpling plate they serve.  The dumplings are handmade right in the open kitchen so you get to see the action.

 

This was pretty cool to watch.  Look at those cute little packets of happiness!  I followed the dumplings but real Szechuan chicken which was spicy and delicious!  

While in Beijing I was told repeatedly that you have to try Peking Duck.  Uh oh - food with a head!  Lucikly, I was guided to order the 1/2 duck which was - thankfully - sans head. 

Peking duck comes with several parts.  In the back of this photo you'll see a plate with marinated strips of the crispy skin.  Then the meat is in a really nice sauce (dish in front).  On the left you see a plate of julienned cucumber and some other veggie.  You wrap it all in a - well, a Chinese tortilla for lack of a better term - and dip it into a lovely soy sauce.  YUM!

And what would Chinese food be without dim sum!  We tried all kinds of dumplings.  Again - they make these by hand!  Some were pork, some shrimp, all delicious.

Moral of the story - don't be chicken of eating in China.  

Love Stockholm 2010

Coming to Stockholm for a work meeting I had no idea I would be landing in the midst of the event of a lifetime for a Swede - a royal wedding.  Love 2010 is the celebration, open to everyone, of the marriage of the crown princess of Sweden.  When the King eventually dies or steps down it will be his eldest daughter who will be crowned Queen of Sweden.  It is pretty interesting because, though there is a prince, the rules were changed to have the line of succession go through the oldest child, regardless of sex.  Poor Prince was born being the heir to the thrown and then it got swiped away and given to big sis.

Anyway, the city is full of people and police.  They are having concerts, shows, events, and strange people up on stilts to entertain the visitors.

Read more about it in the link above.

Stockholm itself is a fantastically beautiful city on the water.  The city has gorgeous gracious architecture, a quaint old town called Gamla Stan, and hip bars and restaurants.  It's clean and fun and beautiful.  Quite a nice recipe for a good travel location.  You can take a boat ride out into the archipelego - a series of cute little islands where they have upscale summer cottages and the well heeled Swedes can spend their summer days fishing and shopping for the latest in Swedish design or art.

Summer is a little bizarre - it is light almost all the time now (end of June).  We finish dinner at 10:30pm and it's like dusk.  If you wake up at 4am, you can see the light trying to creep through your hotel curtains.  Friends here tell me trying to get their kids to sleep is nearly impossible since putting them to bed at 8pm is like trying to put them to sleep at 3 in the afternoon.

Winter by contrast is the opposite.  I first came to Stockholm in January many years ago.  The sun rises around 10am and starts to set around 2-3pm.  No wonder Swedes are known for their drinking!

It's a really fascinating place and for people who aren't into the exotic or bizarre location, Stockholm is perfect.  Literally everyone speaks English, menus in English are easy to find, people are friendly, food is good, etc.  They have one of the coolest museums I've ever seen called the Wasa Museum which is a building built around an enormous wooden ship from the 17th century.  It sank in the archipelego on its maiden voyage due to improper ballasting.  They pulled it up in the 1970s or so and it's in gorgeous condition.  You can walk in platforms up and around the ship and there are great little displays and explanations everywhere to convey what the ship and sailing were like in its heyday.  Stockholm also has a cool site called Skansen which is a huge park filled with traditional and historical buildings from all parts of Sweden's history that were brought here to kind of recreate a Swedish village.

I've probably been here 5 times and every time I thoroughly enjoy Stockholm.  I look forward to the next trip!

Finally - South Island, New Zealand

  

I first came to New Zealand back in January 2001 after working out of our office in Sydney for 6 weeks.  I had chosen to visit the North Island and had a great week going to Kerikeri, Waiheke Island and Rotorua.  But having thoroughly enjoyed New Zealand and its sites and people I really regretted not taking more time here.  So, New Zealand represented since that time my one travel regret and the South Island in particular has been at the top of my wish list for almost 10 years.

What's the big deal about the South Island of New Zealand?  Well, it's supposed to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.  Most of the Lord of the Rings was filmed in the South Island (if you've seen the movies, you're probably now nodding your head understanding what the big deal is).  New Zealand is nice and small so easy to cover lots of ground.  It's fairly cheap once you get there - it's $.75US for every $1NZ.  And of course, English is the spoken language so it's easy peasy to travel here.  

I'm also really interested in the Maori culture which is the indigenous population of New Zealand.  They are a polynesian people like the Samoans and Hawaiians but were known for being fierce warriors.  New Zealanders have really incorporated Maori culture into their own - one way is to perform the haka (it's a war song that warriors would sing to intimidate their opponents) before their rugby games.  It's pretty impressive.  It's a very interesting culture - you can get a glimpse in the movie Whale Rider which I would recommend.  The girl in it is remarkable and was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in this movie.

When a work trip in Sydney came up again I booked a week before work as a vacation in New Zealand.  My sister came along.  Our itinerary was to fly into Christchurch which is the main city of the South Island and rent a car and drive down to Queenstown which is considered the extreme sport capital of the world and a great base to explore the most beautiful region on the SI.  From there we'd fly back to Sydney.

We arrived in Christchurch on a Sunday afternoon, rented our car and headed to our cute little B&B.  Luckily I've driven on the left quite a bit in other travels so my sister was off the hook and settled into the passenger seat for our trip.  We quickly discovered that the "biggest city" on the South Island was TINY.  Get this - of the only 4 million people living in New Zealand, only 1 million live in the entire South Island.  And of that 1 million, almost 400,000 live in Christchurch.  Christchurch has a population similar to Tampa, FL.  It's a quaint town with a beautiful square and relaxed pace.  It was the perfect place to start our week.  

After 2 days, we got on the road south.  It's about a 6 hour drive from Christchurch to Queenstown so I looked on the map and picked a place in the middle to spend the night.  That place is called Lake Tekapo.  Since it was just a convenient stopover I had no expectations and we were totally wowed.   Lake Tekapo is a vast gorgeous blue lake ringed by mountains and topped by a big sky that must rival Montana.  We couldn't stop snapping photos here.  At the town side of the lake stands a gorgeous little stone church dedicated to the pioneers of New Zealand.  What an amazingly beautiful place.

That night we booked a trip up to the St. John's Observatory and this was a highlight of our trip.  The town of Lake Tekapo is teeny tiny and all of the lights are low wattage and have covers pointing their light down.  There is nothing else around and the result is one of the best and clearest places in the world to star gaze.  And we had a perfectly clear night.  Looking up you feel like you are seeing the night sky for the first time and you're aware of what we lose by living in cities.  Part of the experience is that a professional photographer mounts your camera to a special tripod that moves with the night sky and we got spectacular photos of the Milky Way and Magellan's Clouds which are actually two galaxies that are visible to the naked eye.

After rising at dawn and snapping more photos at the lake, we got back on the road and drove to Queenstown.  

Queenstown itself is busy and touristy but you're not there for the town.  Hordes of tourists flock here to bungee jump, skydive, parasail, whitewater raft, hang glide and anything else you can imagine that combines adrenaline and sport.  To me it's much prettier from up on top of the local mountains accessible via gondola ride.

For those of us who are a bit tamer than the rest Queenstown is also just a good base camp to explore the surrounding areas.  There are beautiful scenic drives everywhere and adorable little towns to explore.  We did an amazing daytrip to Milford Sound which has to be one of the most beautiful places I've been.  Living in Switzerland I'm used to beautiful mountains.  But the mountains of New Zealand range from rugged Alp-like beauty to dramatic green Jurassic park like mystery.  If Switzerland and Hawaii had a child its name might be New Zealand.

 Milford Sound

From Milford Sound we did our one adventurous activity - a 20 minute helicopter ride in the area.  I'd never ridden in a helicopter before and it's much different than any plane ride.  You levitate right up into the air and the wind bobbles you around more than you're comfortable with.  But the views are extraordinary.  And helicopters can land almost anywhere - in our case on a glacier:

The ice is incredibly beautiful - white and aqua and in cool formations.  Makes you want to paint.

We spent our last 2 days enjoying the beautiful fall weather and visiting some of the cute little towns around Queenstown.  Glenorchy is right in Lord of the rings country and Arrowtown is a little old mining town that's been beautifully preserved.

   

Another wonderful trip.  Although it's quite a ways away I highly recommend it.  Most people have Australia on their wish list but to me, New Zealand is far and away a more interesting and doable vacation.  If you want to see the full album of photos it is here. 

The longest journey of a frequent traveler.

I'm sitting and steaming in the Bangkok airport and reflecting on my journey to Sydney, still not complete, that is taking me approximately 2/3 of the way across the globe.  I have had some interesting routings in my time but this one takes the cake for sure.  Due to an 11th hour change of venue for a big meeting, I will have gone from Boston to Sydney - the long way.  How long you ask?  Well, let's recap so far.

Thursday I dropped off my rental car after almost 3 weeks in Boston - 1 week more than planned but no complaints since that meant 1 more week to snuggle my amazing little nephews (one of whom has somehow grown fangs as his first top teeth, but that's another story).  Dropped the car off and got on a flight leaving at 2:30pm to Washington Dulles airport.  Got to Washington and waited for my flight from there to Zurich which was scheduled to leave at 5:00.  We got on the plane and waited a bit.  Pilot came on to tell us there was a fuel leak and we needed to deplane and wait for it to be fixed.  Being the optimist that I am, I figure - better to know while on the ground that you have a fuel leak, no?  After a couple hour delay, we were back on the plane and taking off.

I arrived in Zurich at 10:15 am local time (rather than 8am as planned).  Hopped on the 1hr 15 minute train journey to Luzern and arrived back at my apartment.  Got home after 12, showered, repacked, checked email, updated Facebook, watered the plant and then was off to catch the 4:10 train back to the airport.

By the way, did I mention that somehow on Thursday I managed to obtain approximately 12 (guessing here) mosquito bites on my left foot?  Precisely along where my shoe hits my foot so they are constantly being rubbed making me want to scratch myself bloody.  But I digress...

At Zurich after checking in for my flight to London I grab a beer and watch the flight screen nervously.  You see, I have about 2 hours to connect in London between terminals.  Yes, those of you who have flown through London are now shaking your heads and making little "tsk tsk" noises.  Let's just say it's a gamble at best to connect between terminals with less than 3 hours.

The flight gods continue to toy with me and my flight is delayed by 45 minutes.  We land in London at 8:30 and my flight leaves at 10 (gates close at 9:40).  Now I know I'm screwed.  I'm imaging my poor sister who has never flown internationally alone wandering around the Sydney airport tearful and clueless.  But I get incredibly lucky - bus to Terminal 3 is there and waiting, takes right off and then - get this - there is absolutely no one in security.  So I coast through that and briskly walk smugly towards my gate.  Except, it's not my gate.  I saw the routing but didn't double check the flight number.  Crap!!! I'm at the wrong gate.  Now my brisk walk becomes a kind of fast waddle/shuffle/walk/run and I arrive sweaty and panting at my correct gate just as they are boarding.  For the love of Larry, enough is enough.

My ticket says London - Sydney flight duration 23 hours.  So, I'm guessing we stop somewhere and we do - Bangkok.  We are a bit delayed out of London but here I am in Bangkok.  Looking at my blackberry, it seems to be 6am on Saturday Boston time.  So, I have now been on the road for 40 hours by my count and I still have another 12hr or so flight to Sydney.  I left Boston at 2pm on Thursday and I will arrive in Sydney at 6am on Sunday, local time.

As I feel in danger of feeling a bit sorry for myself I have to admit that I'm sitting in the British Airways Business Lounge and - wonder of wonders - they have showers here in Bangkok.  I popped out of writing this blog to take a much needed shower and now with a glass of ginger ale with ice I am feeling much more my positive self.  After all, before work starts in Australia (road trip of 5 cities in 5 days) I get a week of vacation in the South Island of New Zealand which has been at the top of my list since 2001 when I got to the North Island and kicked myself for not leaving time for the South. 

Lord of the Rings country here I come!!!  When I say I circled the globe to get there, I wasn't kidding:
Boston to Washington - 1.5 hrs
Washington to Zurich - 8 hours
Train and replacking - 6 hours
Zurich to London - 1.5 hours
London to Bangkok - 10.5 hours
Bangkok to Sydney - 13 hours
Sydney to Christchurch - 3.5 hours
38 hours in the air not including transit time or flight delays