A Weekend in Yverdon Les Bains/Grandson

The first weekend in December Alessio and I visited my friend Aimee and her family. They live just outside Yverdon les Bains in the French part of Switzerland. Alessio was really excited to have a sleeover and play with Noah with threats of staying up as late as possible.

The Saturday we arrived we visited Grandson Castle quite near to where they live. This is a medieval castle dating back between the 11th and 14th century and is the second largest castle in Switzerland. It is situated on the shore of Lake Neuchatel and it has a great view of the lake. Sadly when we visited it was not the best weather, it was interesting to walk around, it has a great collection of weapons and armour, plus a vintage car museum in the cellars. Just outside the castle was a Christmas Market which we looked around, and saw a lovely St.Bernard dog!

The next day we went briefly to the lake and saw the castle from the other side, then we went into Yverdon itself and wondered around the Christmas Market in the main square. It was a lovely day and the market was just opening and slowing getting busy. I think in general Christmas markets are not really for kids, they just get bored, want to eat and drink and run around. I only saw a bit of this town so look forward to see more of it the next time we visit!

Afterwards we hopped on the train back to Zurich, it was a lovely weekend and as usual it was great to see Aimee and the kids.

Baden Baden at Night!

Just a few photos of Baden Baden at night, it was nicely lit up as most places are in the evenings. We wondered around and at dinner at the restaurant Gasthaus Löwenbrau, typical Bavarian fare. It was very nice and of course not so expensive at all.

Turkish Goodies on Sale!

Selling IDs!

I am just back from a long weekend in Istanbul, my first time there and in Turkey too. Going to Istanbul has been a long time coming and finally I made it happen.

How to explain what this city is like, is a bit difficult! For starters it is a very busy place, the metros were always full to brimming point. The streets were full of people selling all kinds of wares and people begging for money too. Walking around restaurant areas was always interesting as they all tried to get you to eat in there place.

Talking about eating there were always stalls where you could get a bite to eat. From watermelon, corn on the cob, chestnuts, pretzels to freshly made sandwiches and all costing next to nothing. So the orange juice in the photos would have only costed less than 1ch and the watermelon was under 2.50ch for a big portion.

In the last photo the guy is making a sweet of some kind, it really was very interesting to watch how he did it.

Munich

Not often you see a piano in the street!

So a bit of time traveling for this post, back to December last year and a trip to the great city of Munich. We visited some friends and saw the Christmas markets which were lovely and enjoyed some mugs of mulled wine!

I wanted to see some new parts of Munich, having been here quite a few times already. We walked through the English Garden and visited the Christmas market there. The English gardens were really lovely and so huge, it is one of the largest public parks in the world. It is even bigger than Central Park in New York! We were super lucky with the weather, it was wonderful, a bit like the weather we have had this whole week.

To finish off the weekend we visited the Allianz Area which is home to Bayern Munich and had a tour around the stadium.

A great weekend!!

Allianz Arena - Part Home of Bayern Munich

During the trip to Munich, we decided to do a tour of the Allianz Arena which is home to Bayern Munich and TSV 1860 Munich. On first appearance we all thought it looked like a giant spaceship, it looked really impressive.

The stadium was design by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and it has a capacity of nearly 70,000 people. The tour was in English and we found out lots of facts and information about the stadium and the two teams. The stadium lights up into three different colours depending on who is playing, red for Bayern, blue for TSV and white for the German National team. Since we were there during the day we did not see it lit up, but have seen pictures and it looks amazing.

There is photo with the big green flap, apparently this stadium is the only one that has it, this is where the players come onto the pitch and leave. It was very, very expensive to be made. We went to the room where both managers talk to journalists before the match and to see where the players get ready for the match.

The tour lasts just one hour and costs only 10 euro, we all thought it was very good and our guide was good too. Everything was interesting and the sheer size of it was quite amazing and to then go and see it filled to capacity would be truly a great experince. I have never seen a football match live, but maybe when I go to Scotland we will try to go to one. Alessio loves football so he would love it.

It is definitely worth a visit, even if you are not a big fan of football. I bought Alessio a Bayern Munich football which he loves.