Riverside Museum Glasgow

Glasgow Tower in the distance

While we were in Scotland in October we spent the day in Glasgow. We visited the Riverside Museum which is situated on the river Clyde. The museum is full of different types of transport from trams, trains, cars, bikes and many others. It also informs the public a bit about Glasgow from the past. It has a cobbled street, some of the old shops which you can go in and a screen that gives information about the place.

Alessio enjoyed himself a lot, outside there is a tall ship which you can go on and see below the deck. There are also great views, you can see the Glasgow tower which we then went on to visit afterwards. The museum last year (2013) had the accolade of being the winner of the European Museum of the year. Also which can be important when visiting a museum it is free to get in, as some museum charge quite a lot for an entrance fee!

The actual building was designed by Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-British architect, she has also designed the BMW Building in Leipzig, the Guangzhou Opera House and Sheikh Zayed Bridge in Abu Dhabi among the many.

Photo of the week - Bicycle Parking!

On Monday morning while Alessio was at school I went to Zurich to do some shopping, then once I had got all my bits and pieces, needed to get back home for him. While waiting my bus to arrive I sat at Bürliplatz reading a book. Then I noticed this bike and how it was positioned and thought to myself what the hell? Really did the owner put it like that or did someone else decide to steel it and did not manage? In all honesty there are lots of bikes in Zurich, but have not seen one parked like this here or anyway else!

A Trip to the Brienzer Rothorn

This has been a very busy summer for me, Alessio had to be kept busy for 5 weeks. He spent nearly 2 weeks in Italy, then my sister and family came for one week and finally he went to Denmark with me.

While my sister was here I planned a day trip for everyone and we went to Lake Brienz and took the steam railway train up to the Brienzer Rothorn. Just to get to Lake Brienz was an effort in itself, took more than 2 hours,  the journey up takes one hour, though it is only 7.6km ride.

The Brienzer Rothorn is 2,350m above sea level and is on the border of 3 Kantons Berne, Lucerne and Obwalden. At the other end of Lake Brienz is Interlaken which you could just see in the distance, once at the top it was quite chilly, the boys liked seeing the snow.

The journey up was very amazing, we go through 12 tunnels and coming out of them is great as the smell from the steam is horrible. It chugs up slowly, there is always great views of the lake and the mountains. From the top you have an panoramic view of the Bernese and Central Swiss Alps, there are hikes to do, but we did not have much time. After a snack in the restaurant, we walked a little higher up to the summit and then we caught the train back down.

Back at Lake Brienz the boys got to refresh their feet in the lake and the adults had a cool beer. It was a great trip but with public transport it is really quite long and tiring to do, plus it was a really hot day.

In and around Hong Kong

Traveling around Hong Kong is very easy and simple, the best way is to buy an Octopus card which costs 50HK as a deposit. It is very similar to the Oyster card used in London, I found it a great way to travel around. You can use it on most types of transport even on, The Peak tram which takes you up to the highest point in Hong Kong, Victoria Peak.

The double decker trams looked very cool, we never actually used then, the metro system is good and easy to understand. The Star Ferry which goes back and forth between HK island and Kowloon is one of the best ways to go as you have the best views of Victoria harbour, and of course the night views are amazing.

The main thing is that all the transport is quite cheap, especially if you come from Switzerland! Even the taxis were good value and using the card saves you with fumbling around trying to get small change.