Photo of the Week - I`m Watching You!

Photo this week is from Cologne, we had been wondering around for ages and Alessio was getting to the stage of wanting to go to the hotel when I saw this fellow!

He is sitting on the ledge and below is a camera shop, we both thought it was quite cool!

I am always happy when Thursday is finished as that means I can start my weekend! Friday is a day of housework for me and every second Friday a friend of Alessio has lunch with us. Tomorrow I am finally changing my winter tyres to summer ones, I guess most people have done it already, I am a little late by who cares!

Have a great Friday!

Verdant Works

In mid April Alessio and I went back to Scotland for 5 days, the main reason was to celebrate my dad turning 70yrs old. Our days were jammed packed with activities and one of them was a visit to the Verdant Works. It is here that I finally saw The Great Tapestry of Scotland (only half of the panels though), afterwards we visited the museum.

Verdant Works is Scotland`s Jute Museum, here you learn about the rise and fall of jute, how Dundee became very important for Jute, the people who lived and worked in the mills, how jute was made and where it came from.

One of the people who work there showed myself and my father how one of the machines worked, it was so very loud, I could barely handle it. And to think women would work with about 6 of these machines for long periods of time!

It is a very good museum, well worth a visit if you are in the area!

Street art in Ljubljana

While I was in Ljubljana over Easter I saw some great street art, this is one of the many things I like about visiting cities is that you can see lots of street art.

This is another long weekend with Monday a holiday here in Switzerland, it has been raining cats and dogs since yesterday. It may clear up on Sunday and Monday, if it does then Alessio and myself will go for a hike.

Wishing you all a great weekend!

Photo of the Week - Knitted Bike!

So we are coming up to mid May already, last weekend was a long one and sadly I did not do much as I came down with a cold. This weekend there is another long weekend and hopefully I will be recovered, as I have lots of plans!

I saw this knitted bike in a shop in Cologne which I visited two weeks, it is quite cool!

Wishing you all a great weekend!




Some links from around the world!

The new Woody Allen movie! I usually like his movies and will look forward to this one!
I like this blog, she goes to lots of lovely places! Check it out!
I love the Isle of Skye, it is a great place!

Chocolate Making!

During our short break in Cologne we visited the Chocolate Museum which was situated very near to our hotel and on the Rhine.

The first part of the museum tells about the cocoa bean and in which countries it is grown. Then how the cocoa bean is harvested and about the lives of the people who depend on growing cocoa beans.

There is a greenhouse with plants that are only found in warm places in the world. Then we see the production making of chocolate, the different machines it goes in and going into moulds to make small chocolate bars. You are able to taste the chocolate on a wafer biscuit, which was very nice.

I guess the best part for Alessio was being able to create your own chocolate bar. You decide if you prefer brown, white or dark chocolate. Then you can choose 4 ingredients from the list, it cost just under 5 euros and takes about 35mins. He enjoyed watching the lady make the bars and in the last 3 photos she is making his chocolate bar!

Once it was finished he was really pleased, we brought it back to Zurich and hopefully he liked it! It is a bit funny that we had to visit a chocolate museum in Cologne, when we live next door to the Lindt factory. They used to give tours of the factory but stopped a long long time ago!

Hope everyone had a great long weekend! And Happy Mother`s Day too!

March Reading List

In April I got through 6 books, this seems to be the general number of books I can manage in a month, which is fine with me.

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian by Rick Riordan this is the last book in the series and I really enjoyed them all. I do hope that Alessio will read them one day!

Behind Closed Doors by JJ Marsh, this book is set in Zurich and is the first to feature the detective Beatrice Stubbs. I really liked this book and have another one in this series to read. I like books which move around in different places and this books does.

Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris, it took a while to get into this book and I almost decided to stop reading, but I am very glad I continued. Having read quite a few of her books years and years ago this was the first one in a long time. The ending took me quite by surprise, so I won`t say anything at all.

The Darkest Goodbye by Alex Gray, this series is always enjoyable with likeable characters such as DCI Lorimer and his team. This time they are on the clock trying to stop a person from killing people who are terminally ill who are about to die. Although I have to say that this book wasn`t as good as the other ones, but that will not stop me from reading more.

Blind Goddess by Anne Holt, this author is new to me, introduced to me by my father who has read most of her books. Set in Oslo it is the first in a series with a lady detective Hanne Wilhelmsen, so this will be another series to continue.

Finally I managed to finished in time A Cornish Stranger by Liz Fenwick, I really enjoyed this novel, It is set as you can tell from the title in Cornwall and now I really would like to visit this part of England. She has three more books set in Cornwall, so I will try to get a hold of them!


Hope you have a great start to the week!

St.Andrews West Sands

Wind blowing sand about!

Goodness how time has flied by and it is the end of April now! The last 6 weeks have been really busy what with 3 trips out of Switzerland, Alessio had his First Communion and my parents were here for too! I just got back this afternoon from a short trip to Cologne, more about that later on!

While Alessio and I were in Scotland we went to St.Andrews which we always do as this is where I go to the dentist. Once the visit was over at the dentist we went for some lunch and then into the town. We park down by the west sands and had a wonder on the beach, it was a sunny but windy day! The wind was blowing the sand which you can just about make out in the 6th photo, it looked quite cool!

My father was with us and he and Alessio went about shell collecting and Alessio found some long bits of wood too. It was just nice to see the sea for a change and see how peaceful it looked!

Then we headed off to pick up my mother who had been having lunch with some friends.

Wishing you all a great weekend!