Switzerland June 24-July 5 2010

Here it is at last, I've been home since Monday but had to do a zillion things (mainly sunbathing, reading a book, swimming and deciding which colour to paint my bathroom) and so I haven't had time to upload anything.

Switzerland was hot. That's probably the first thing that I'll remember in 1,2,3,4,5,6 etc years' time. Heat or no heat, the following things also happened, in more or less this order :).

I was there for my best friend's wedding and then, well, sort of stayed on for another ten days. But who's counting, anyway?

Quite a romantic sunset, appropriate for a wedding :)

On the first truly hot day (we didn't know that it would become worse) we visited Regensberg and its castle. We also climbed the tower and lurked behind the church door to see the bride's dress as it is one of the most popular places to get married in Switzerland. Regensberg was an übercute little village with cobbled streets and...

...loads of flowers everywhere.

Of course, if you looked carefully enough, you could also find a hen guarding a mailbox.

Not to mention the coolest tree ever ;)

Anyone for a jacuzzi? With a view!

On Sunday morning we headed for a short boat ride on lake Greifensee. At least some of us were all dolled up for the occasion, sunglasses, a smug face and everything.

Trust me, we had a bigger boat (read: ship) and fewer flowers on than this random guy.

The idea was to take a photo of the snow-capped mountains in the distance as it's not every day that I can have a swim and look at some snow all at once. Due to the fog (or whatever you call it, it was there all the time and effectively prevented me from taking any clear pics) the mountains could be seen in this photo only after some serious mojo I had to do. It was actually daytime and bright sunshine...

On Monday morning we started our hike in Winterthur. In case you had forgotten which country you were in, here are some flags to remind you.

Our twin backpacks having a lunch break :)

 If you're a true Swiss then this is what you are to eat - a sausage and a bun that is covered with flour so thick  that you'll look like a miller after having finished eating it. Or at least I did.

Just ... pretty :)

The River Töss. I loved the river because it was just so rivery :p No mud but clear water and white stones. And dead cold.

Somewhat closer to the river, or rather, in the river.

Walking on we came upon some chickens on the riverside. Shaded chickens to be more exact :)

That's what a bank looks like, at least that's what it looks like in Kollbrunn.

On Tuesday we headed for the mountains but stopped in Hergiswil on our way to go to see the glass factory there.

Päkapikkude töökoda alias men working at the factory.

That's glass, ready to be cut with scissors. That was really cool in the hottest sense.

Lunchbreak in the beautiful village of Sarnen and then...

...off we drove along the Brünig Pass. Honestly, that view was ten or eleven times more beautiful in real life.

Where we have the sky, the Swiss have the mountains. This is Meiringen, which is famous for the Reichenbach Falls that was the setting for the death of Sherlock Holmes.

Bear alert!!!

Mountains on our way up.

Some more mountains on our way up, still nice and green and covered with meadows and forests.

Still the Alps, but now covered in snow. A glacier and some glacier milk.

Susten Pass, straight from summer to winter without changing the clothes.

 Starting to descend, still in winter (at least visually, I think the temperature was close to 20 degrees).

And now back to 30 degrees in half an hour.

Just some general observations - if you have a flag, you should put it on display on your balcony. If you have two flags, you should put both of them on display. And people sure did have a lot of flags, with or without the football world cup.

In case you don't own a flag, but have a baby, you should (no, not put the baby on display) tell all your neighbours and all other people who happen to pass by (doesn't matter if they live in Estonia, Isle of Skye or Timbuktu) that you had a baby, in this case a baby boy called Leonardo on January 28, 2010.

I absolutely love their roomy green balconies! And the house also looks especially great :)

A view over Fällanden with a glimpse of lake Greifensee in the top right hand corner.

Sand sculptures in a shopping mall.

A major fangirl moment. Squeee!. Ok, I would have squeed loads more around 1997-2000 or so, give or take a few years. Now I've actually visited two of the three places which have played a major role in my obsessions over the years - Manchester and Götzis. The third one? Make a wild guess ;) I'll give you a hint - it's not in Europe and it has everything to do with my most long-lasting obsession :)

Yeees, I HAD TO post this one. Mösle stadium, sadly no decathletes...

A bit more of Austria - a view over Feldkirch Old Town from Schattenburg Museum.

 The Old Town itself, extremely pretty even though it was a teeny tiny bit too hot to actually look around.

Guess who found another river! It's the river Ill flowing through Feldkirch, by the colour of it, very cold and straight from a glacier.

I made my traditional bridges tour :)

This is Liechtenstein. Or something like half of it. The mountains in the background aren't Liechtenstein any more, at least I think so.

Vaduz Castle where the Prince of Liechtenstein lives. It's very conveniently situated quite high up on a hilltop so that the Prince can literally keep an eye on most of his subjects.

Knock, knock, anybody home?

Lake Walensee.

Not far from Fällanden walking towards Maur. I think this picture more or less sums it all up - blue sky, white fluffy clouds, fields, villages, peace and a lot of nature. A holiday :))))