Zurich Film Festival

The Zurich film festival finished on Sunday 6th October, I managed to see two films this time, the first one was called Filth by the director Jon S Baird. The film is from the book by the Scottish writer Irvine Welch, who also wrote Trainspotting. Luckliy for everyone at the premiere, we all got a chance to see the Scottish actor James Mcavoy and the director Jon S Baird.

Excitment abound while waiting outside the cinema for the black car to drive up and finally it happened all, his fans started screaming. I must say he really did spend a lot of time signing autographs and getting his photo snapped with fans. We took our seats and before the film started both guests came onto the stage for a short interview. I took loads of photos, but suffice to say will not be having a job as a paparazzi as most of the photos came out all blurred but some were decent enough to use!

The film is very good and would recommend it to everyone! For myself I liked hearing the Scottish accent, hearing Scottish words that I have not heard for ages and seeing parts of Edinburgh was great too.

The last film I saw was called Only Lovers  Left Alive, it was quite a strange film and not too sure I liked it. I thought it would be good as it starred Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton, but not really my cup of tea.

Trümmelbach Waterfalls

While my parents were visiting we had a weekend in Wengen, one of the day trips we did was to the Trümmelbach waterfalls. We took the train down to Lauterbrunnen and started the 1hour walk or maybe a bit more to the waterfalls.

It was a pleasant walk and we passed the Staubbach waterfall also very impressive, eventually the sign said 10 mins to go and still no sight or sound of these waterfalls. And the reason for that is, that they are inside the mountain valley, all in all there are 10 glacier waterfalls.

There is a lift that takes you to level 6 and from there you walk up the rest of the way, and it really is very spectacular indeed. It is also quite slippery so you do have to be careful, it is also very busy to at times so the going was at times slow. Not that, that stopped Alessio who raced up these steps!

These waterfalls drain the mighty glacier defiles of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. It is also the only glacier waterfalls in Europe inside a mountain and it is on the UNESCO world natural heritage list. It was a times quite scary to see that amount of water falling down and the speed of it too. It is quite tiring walking up of the steps and at times my legs nearly turned to jelly!

There are lots of vantage points where you can look and get close ups of the falling water from different angles. It is definitely worth a trip to see these waterfalls, they are only open from april to november, so not much time left for a visit.

Afternoon Tea in Zurich

What can be better than spending a Saturday afternoon in a posh hotel with 4 lovely friends and having afternoon tea! Well not much, and that is what I did about 3 weeks ago with Hannah, Riikka, Joanna and Albita!

This thing about having afternoon tea started (thanks to Hannah) at her hen`s weekend in Dublin and continued in Hong Kong and Edinburgh. Now in Zurich, at the hotel Eden du Lac which is very lovely and right on Lake Zurich, the lounge area was just what you would expect in a hotel of that caliber, posh!

The sandwiches were very yummy and all the sweet delights were delicious, we had a glass of prosecco to accompany it as well as the tea. The only thing I thought was that the scones were just too small, they looked like mini bread rolls.

The price is quite reasonable at 39ch which includes a glass of prosecco, and a small tip do not order another as it cost 18ch, which is rather expensive I think!

It was a great afternoon with friends, catching up on news and just relaxing! I think I will have to see if another place does afternoon tea too, just to compare it!

Danish Open Air Farm

One of the many different things we did while we were in Denmark, was to visit the open air museum in Copenhagen. The first thing we did was go on a horse drawn carridge which give us an overall view of the whole farm.

We then walked around visiting the different houses and buildings, Alessio really liked to explore all the rooms in each building. The buildings in the farm are from all over Scandinavia during the time period from 1650 -1950. The buildings are all originals which were moved piece by piece to this museum. We did not see all the buildings as were are so many, we picked the ones that sounded interesting to us. There were buildings from the Faroe Islands which I wanted to see, and there were a few buildings with grass growing from the roofs!

It was really very interesting to see and we had a great morning there, this is not the first open air museum we have visited. There is one in Switzerland called Ballenberg, which I went to years and years ago. definitely worth another visit. These places are usually open only from April to October so, just under a month to go to visit, if you fancy a visit.

Glass Works in Hergiswil

For a day trip with the kids in my class we went to the glass factory and museum in Hergiswil, very near to Lucerne.

Once we arrived the first thing we did was to go into the glass Labyrinth (the only one in Switzerland), but first we all had to put on gloves and slippers. No easy task with 16 kids, once that was done we split into groups and the three of us had a bunch of kids. For most of the children it was a bit scary, being in the dark and having the possibility of walking into a glass wall. I was the last to go in so had a bit of knowledge about the whole thing and we walked very slowly indeed. In fact at some points even I wondered how the hell we would get of there.

Anyway all ended well and everyone got out fine and we continued on, we came to the part that allows people to experiment with the world of glass.
More than likely the best part of the whole day was the playground, it had a brilliant slide, a large sand pit, a dragon to climb and a few other things.

One of the lovely things about the place is that they are situation right on the shores of Lake Lucerne which is amazing and we were very lucky with the weather.
Finally we went to see the glassblowers at work, you can see them making different glass ornaments. The ones we saw were making Christmas decorations and if you really fancy trying it yourself you are able blow your own glass balls for 20ch.

It is a great place for kids and adults alike, so if you have not been there it is worth the trip.

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!