Reasons to love living in Switzerland 1. It's safe!

Neeedless to say, I am LONG overdue for a post, an update! I'm starting a new series, as in the title and hope to update it frequently enough. Pictured below is an assortment of pottery for sale outside the monastery in Fishingen. As you can see, OUTSIDE the monastery the vases are available to buy, not cheap and not expensive. But there's no person involved, you take the slip of paper shown in the 2nd photo and fill out your bank acct. info. and pay the monastery! Ok, yes this is a holy place, so you'd assume people will honor this system, but you never know! And I'm not exactly sure this honor system would work successfully in most parts of the U.S., sorry. Do you agree people?

We have several other examples of this which I'll show in future posts.

And the same can be done with fresh cut flowers, as shown below. If you look in the first picture on the left, 'Kasse' means cashier, it's where you deposit the money you owe for the flowers you've selected. These are located in various smaller villages outside the cities. It's small here, so it doesn't take long to get into the countryside or farming areas where you find these kinds of stands, as well as farms that have a similar set up. At the farms you can go into a small room & purchase eggs, vegetables, fresh milk, etc...and deposit your money, all without the observation or assistance of a human being! (however a lot of the farms have video surveillance!) Hopefully a farm photo will follow soon,

Switzerland excursion

A nice house in Winterthur...the architecture here is a combination of Victorian and industrial, two of my favorites! In some ways this city reminds me a bit of Kalamazoo, MI.

Peace! Not acutlaly sure what type of plant this is...

A window reflection from one of the houses in Winterthur (pronounced wintertour...there is no 'th' sound in German).
Photo taken from a hilltop in Winterthur of one of the local churches..I should find out its name!
Believe it or not, this is a hotel....I think. Interesting architecture...click on the photo and you may see the painting details on the wall.
A paraglider (hang-glider?) in the Interlaken region. They are launching just outside the restaurant at Niederhorn. We dined outside after watching them launch, I had delicious pumpkin soup and 'alpin hornli' the Swiss equivalent of mac 'n cheese....but with bacon and shallots...yummy!! Alpin, of course refers to alpine and 'hornli' means 'little horn'...horn should have 2 small dots above the O, but my keyboard doesn't have it...it makes the O pronounced more like an E, as in 'early'; anything ending with 'li' means little in Swiss German, so the Beerlis' name means 'beer=berry' + 'li=little' = little berry. Their 'little horns' are basically our elbow macaroni.

Our dinner the night before was eaten fireside near our 'camp'. I think we didn't eat much, can't remember what we had (or didn't have!) but I do know the mac 'n cheese was a well-deserved meal
The Beerlis' property in Helig Kreuz, (meaning 'helig=holy' and 'kreuz=cross') a small villiage northeast of Wil (pronounced Vil...the W is a V sound in German.)
Also at the Little Berrys', as well as the photo below. Not the sunniest day, but the property is beautiful & quiet, no traffic or trains.

The church right next to the Beerlis' home. The bells gong on every quarter, half, and full hour (the only real noise heard here....other than dogs, cows, or tractors). Anyway, I always know what time it is. Once I mentioned hearing them in the middle of the night & they said, "Lori, it wasn't the middle of the morning, it was 6 a.m." Needless to say, it's peaceful here & I sleep quite soundly.
This is a typically, ornately painted building somewhere in Luzern (or Lucerne), not to be mistaken with Lausanne, a more famous city.
A building also in Luzern.
Some bubbles reflecting in the sunshine in one of the hillside drinking "fountains"...there's good water to drink everywhere here, even in the cities.
An Alpine Ibex, we encountered a few. This photo was taken in the morning on our hike in the Interlaken region (same day as hanggliders above).

Back to Zurich, I just think this reflection is cool. The mirrored building is actually a Zurich Kanton Buro (city government office)....The church, again, I'll have to look for the name, isn't all too spectacular, but the reflections made and colors from the office building, especially if the light is right, are quite special. The buildings are located on Werdstrasse, just at the Werd stop on the #3 tram line.




Back to the beginning....This is Raphael's apartment in Zurich, on Kurfirstenstrasse near Museum Rietberg. This was my/our home for about 4 months. Raphael is a sweetheart and was very generous in letting us stay so long!
Cathedral in St. Gallen....name....ok, so I have some research to do!!!
A riverside home in Shaffausen. The river is the famous Rhine. Shaffausen is a short train ride from where we live, in the north of Switzerland, close to the German border.
A nice country home in......Zurich!! I love that in Swiss cities you don't have to go too far to get that country, nature feel. This house is actually near Zollikon on the Gold Coast side of Zurichsee (Lake of Zurich...'See' means lake in German).
Holly grows wild in many places, this is in the park/grounds of Museum Rietberg, Zurich.
This is a hillside view from a walking path near Helig Kreuz. A typical view from the hills in this part of Switzerland.
This was our lunch stop, after the Ibex and the bubbles, before the hanggliders...Our view was down to the valley where we were heading.
This was taken on a walk through the hills around St. Gallen in the Appenzell area...where my FAVORITE cheese comes from!! Here I am, look at me now!!!
Another typical hillside view.
Oh....where are we now?

Arriving in Europe

A bit out of order, but these are my very first photos of Switzerland. Starting left, this is actually outside the train station in Munich as I was getting ready to board the train to Zurich. This is El Lokal (lokal means bar in German)...the first place we stopped upon my arrival to Zurich. Yummy, European beer, not Asian!! Next is the Limmat River in Zurich and then Coop, on of the largest supermarket chains in Switzerland. Imagine me, coming from Asia, my first day in Switzerland, jetlagged & a bit buzzed from some white wine, visiting the supermarket!! Quite exciting for me to see all the cheese, chocolate, and high prices!! And finally, Roman : )

Recent Changes

Hi All,
Hopefully you're still viewing, I know I've been slacking, but now there are changes!! The title is no longer 'Lori's travel blog 2006' as it's now 2008. There's a funny photo at the top taken at the campsite in Del Valle Lake-Livermore, CA. (Sara!) AND...there are links, some quite helpful, important for sure. Since I'm away and in written communication most, I'm trying to be more "interactive" with you all, so play my games, there will be more!! I suppose you're responses could just come in the form of comments?.....And finally, it's not all going to be about the past year's travels in Asia, however there are still more photos from then that I want to (will) post eventually.

Happy Easter, Passover, Spring.....

And photos of Switzerland to come soon too : )

A bit off topic, but.....

This is a fairly good, close up shot of Robert Smith, of The Cure...shame on you if you didn't already know!! The time/place was Spain, Benicassim Festival, 2005, on Mediterranean, just north of Valencia, with my dear friend Belinda (Bobo). I was in the VERY front, against the barrier & having a super time!! Europeans are much more passionate at their konzerts. There's no limited beer/drink area...you don't have to miss the show if you have a drink, unlike Coachella in Indio, California (near Palm Springs). See links to both shows if interested...Coachella, usually around now, acutally, or in April. Benicassim in August normally.

Of course, this is Skritch, who now lives w/Alex. Won't write too much about him, you know why. He's in Chicago if you want to visit!!


And now we're back to Spain! This is a pool at a campground, believe it or not. I spent my birthday here, it's on Menorca, I'm going to have to research the name, it's not coming to me : (

The typical architectural style of Tana Toraja, near Rantepao, Sulawesi, Indonesia. This is the same location of the "pig slaughter" video.

Momma Macaque and her baby. Photo taken in Monkey Forest, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.

A bar boy in a breakdancing challenge, he's quite good, energetic... you know, he has youth on his side. Photo taken on Gili Trawangan, between Bali and Lombok, Indonesia.

As Iit o grow older, I have congestion problems, sinus difficulties, etc... wait, you didn't visit my blog to hear of my ailments. Anyway, here I am in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, having my ears "candled". The woman has inserted a paper "straw" into my ear and lit it on fire. It creates a vacuum which pulls out the excess wax. It doesn't hurt, in fact you can't feel anything, but I could hear the paper sizzling. In the end, she removes the paper and opens it to reveal a LARGE amount of wax!! I chose to do this because I was diving a lot and having difficulties equalizing/unplugging my ears after being below sea level.

Sunset at Gili Trawangan.

Local children hanging out near the cock fight, Bali, Indonesia.

A typical Indonesian market.

Burial caves (also below), also in Tana Toraja, Sulawesi, Indonesia.