Bern-Thun-Bern

Another fun route, which magically in CH seems to be downhill in both directions.

I bring you: Bern-Thun-Bern. Did the southward journey in 1:15, and the return in 1:00 even. The ride back was wicked fast. I was doing 40 - 50 at times (that's kph) and the roads were nice! Very smooth, wide bike lanes, only 2 smallish hills. Lots of round-a-bouts which are confusing at times, but loads of fun when doing 40.

It looks much farther on the map. The distance is about the same as riding from our house in St. Paul to Wayzata which I used to do all the time. 60 km round trip roughly - 30 there, 30 back.

Privacy Violations!!!!

Here in CH there is much ado about personal privacy. Google is being attacked for its Streetview thinger. But me? Nah, it's all ok. As long as they credit me for my appearance, that is. On 6. June at roughly 2pm Alison and I were walking past Kleine Schanze and I saw the Google camera-car drive by. Turns out, it was on! Here we are for the world to see. I feel so violated. According to the conditions agreed to by Google and the Swiss Office of Data Protection (the office ... protects data I guess) license plates and faces must be blurred. Check. We're blurred. That's totally us though.

Oh, here's the link to our fame.

Being Outside

Here in Euro Disney there is much more closeness with the outside. Even when you are inside, you still feel like you are outside. Why? No air-conditioning. No forced air. So people open up the windows. And the windows open up ALL THE WAY. The doors open up ALL THE WAY. No screens, just huge freakin' holes to the outside. And when they're not open all the way, they can tilt open from the top. So they're really ... always open.

This works both positively and negatively. When it's hot, like it is now, well, it's hot inside. Mornings are nice (since my desk is on the west side of the building ...). And the period from about 1pm until I head home is a bit hellish. But it never seems quite as hot as back in MN though. The shot above really doesn't do it justice. If you like it cool in the mornings you can open up the windows all the way and you have a nice cool breeze flowing through the office. It's a different way to experience life. In the US, offices are completely sealed off from the outside. Here it feels like you ARE outside most of the time. My allergies took a hit at first but now I think I'm at one with the elements.

Also, being in CH there is no point of a weather forecast either - the weather changes every 4 hours or so. So the best weather forecast is opening the window. That'll tell you how to dress. Bring an umbrella no matter what.

It's all about ...

... performance

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

41 (forty-one) is the natural number following 40 and preceding 42.

Oddly, I didn't realize until just now that 41 is also the dialing country code for Switzerland. How apropos, as it were.

Today for my birthday Alison and Noah made me a cake. A Swiss cake obviously. Excellent "frosting". Which was just a hard shell of chocolate. Delicious. Can't argue that.

Woo party woo!

This Saturday, after driving to/from Lausanne N. and I went to the park to join in all the fun they were having - once a year the park rips it up and has a big shin-dig with music, "rides," food and 100% fun for the kids.

One of the "rides" that was set up was the "Rutschbahn" - a roller coaster made out of grocery store bucket rollers and ... buckets. Of course, given that there were not enough bins the kids made due with whatever they could get their hands on.

Here's what it looked like:



I have no idea what to think of this park! It's awesome fun and they think of the craziest things to do and they just get the stuff (usually donated junk) and just do it. They also managed to acquire about 100 wooden pallets and made a maze out of them.

Quick Trip to Lausanne

Drove down to Lausanne on Saturday to pick up some way way cheap baby items from someone. Due to the obviously over the top prices here in Euro Disney the used item market it booming. So we picked up a Baby Einstein Play Gym, bouncy seat, baby bath items, humidifier and a baby bjorn all for "realistic" prices.

Odd fact, Lausanne is a really large city - much larger than Bern. It also has the same population. So the town seems much more open - more parks, more grass. Just seems less stressful overall.

We also managed to spend a few hours wandering around Ouchy (the way I pronounce it it totally funnier then the way it is supposed to be pronounced). We had crêpes in a Crêperie on the lake front. Managed to do so all in French. The owner of the Crêperie kept coming over and asking if everything was ok. Don't know if he did so because we were obviously non-French speakers, or the waitress was overworked and somewhat slow. But it was very nice.

And thus, a little Sunday A. and N..

Compare and Contrast

As I was hanging up my second load of clean laundry on the drying rack sitting on the terrace, I had a flash of comparison.

St. Paul weekday:

1) Make breakfast for Noah and myself, while Noah watches "Arthur."
2) Chat with Colin before he heads to work.
2) Drop Noah off at preschool.
3) Go to the Y to workout.
4) Home to shower, get dressed and ready for the day.
5) Work at home or at the office, depending on the project or contract I'm working on.
6) Run errands.
7) Lunch with friends.
8) Work at home.
9) Pick Noah up from preschool.
10) Noah playdate.
11) Dinner at home.
12) Trip to the park, bath, and bed.

Bern weekday:

1) Check email while I have some caffeine, while Noah watches "Arthur."
2) Make breakfast for the both of us.
3) Chat with Colin before he heads to work.
4) Clean up a bit before Noah and I walk to a playdate or playgroup.
5) Walk home, make lunch, have some rest time.
6) Go to the pool or park or playdate.
7) Make dinner.
8) Clean up and put stuff away while Colin and Noah go to the park.
9) Pjs and bedtime.

Some things change. Some things remain the same.

Luxury Pool Life

We have an awesome pool just a ten minute walk from the apartment with multiple pools for kids and adults. However, for those lazy hot days when schlepping around does not seem appealing, we walked down to Migros and bought our very own pool. For a few minutes, I considered purchasing the additional foot pump to blow everything up, but the 9 swiss francs made it not as appealing. And in a surprisingly MacGyver moment, I fashioned my own attachment for Colin's bicycle pump. I had the pool and accompanying toys (ball and ring) inflated and ready for water. Fifteen trips from the bathroom later with a filled garbage can, our pool is ready to go. Our first pool party is this afternoon.

Please welcome ...

... the newest edition to our family:



purchased at half-price from a family that was moving back to the US. Little coffee pods, different colors, different flavors. Yummy deliciousness. Heading to the store tomorrow hopefully to get some more pods.

Happy 718th Birthday!!!

Essentially, you can buy WAY bigger fire works here in CH for Swiss National Day which is today, 1. August. Big stuff. The stuff that sounds like things are exploding (which I suppose they really are). Teenagers line up to buy it at the supermarket - a formula that works well no matter what country you live in. Right now I'm sitting out on the balcony listening to World War III.

And the city is completely empty. It's very weird. They're all out camping or something. Or floating down the river. We all did our shopping on Friday because EVERYTHING is closed today. The restaurants were open, but even they all closed early.

On another note, new AWESOME route:

6 or so km of climbing. AWESOME!!!! I did it twice. The climbing part only though. Coming down is a total blast. Although the second time I had to hit the brakes hard due to a tractor coming up in the opposite direction.