Christmas Day Sledding

On Christmas Day Andrea and I went sledding at Grindelwald. It is supposed to have the longest sled run in Europe but we could only go halfway because conditions were still poor.

However, despite the shorter runs (they still took us at last half an hour to sled down) the day was fantastic! We had generally crappy weather but when it cleared! The views! This is unlike any sledding I ever did in Canada. We shared the mountain with the ski run and while our path generally followed a road, we still got up some decent scary speed. And the sleds took a bit of skill and effort to steer. On one of the first slope-y sections I couldn't steer well enough and crashed into the barrier. I slightly sprained my ankle but otherwise it was fine. I worked on improving my steering after that!

Halfway down the slope we hit a clear patch and had views of the mountains across the valley.

I never really got pictures of us sledding, we were often going too fast, or it was a bit too scary, and the entire time it was pretty cold. I wore my fleece pants and down coat and managed to be warm most of the time. Gaters were definitely necessary, and since we braked with our feet (and I did a lot of braking) I wore through the string for the bottom of the gaters.

The trails we were rode on were groomed, and if you went off trail you quickly broke through the crust. Which was a good thing, many times we were coasting along the edges of some drops and despite my efforts to steer I went over the edge a few times. Then it was bail from the sled as fast as possible and break through the crust. You didn't go very far, and the sled was leashed around your leg so it couldn't run off down the mountain without you.

On our last run we had clear views! Talk about amazing mountains! It was so amazing to be sledding past these peaks looming right over us. Andrea was cold and had to run around doing a crazy dance at the peak of the mountain.

In Luzern I saw kids playing in a band. Ah, I remember the days, only check out the cool cloud they get to play in.

Later in the week I went for my first snowshoe trip. We took this little train up a steep run and ended up in the snow. There wasn't very much snow however, but it was nice to get out.

The train needs to run on cogs in the middle of the track because it is so steep!

I took off my ugly blue hat that I wear for all my ski trips for this photo midway through the hike. The hat is so ugly, but works the best. I've bought many others since, but nothing else compares. Anyway, I put it in my pocket and when I looked for it further down the trail I couldn't find it! I had to run back to find my ugly hat. I couldn't just leave it there stranded after all these years!

Sheep!

Here is a photo of me and the sheep outside my building at EPFL. Sheep! Instead of lawnmowers!

Zermatt

On the weekend I went with some friends to ski below the Matterhorn at Zermatt. This is a resort that is higher than Whistler and has as many runs. As for my personal comparison:

1) Yup, it's higher, the scenery is more dramatic, you have views of glaciers and crevasses and the peaks soar above you. Plus we had all weekend views of the Matterhorn. Whistler is a butt ugly mountain, no question.

2) There might have been as many runs as Whistler (when you combined the Swiss and Italian sides - an extra cost we didn't bother with), but it seemed more spread out. Because of the dangerous terrain, you had to stick to the runs, unlike Whistler where you had the run of the place. So my first impression of Zermatt is it consists of widely spread out lifts (and huge Grouse mountain sized gondolas) with limited runs coming down from each lift.

So, to have a good day of skiing, I prefer Whistler, but Zermatt is definitely prettier.

I took the train to Zermatt and met up with my friends. We spent the evening in the steam room and wandering around the town including a cheese fondue dinner. Yum, cheese, the *real* reason I moved to Switzerland. We had  great view of the Matterhorn from our hotel room.

The next day was a semi-late start and we headed up to ski on the train (another cool feature lacking on Whistler). Every turn the train took revealed an even better view of the Matterhorn.

The skiing was so-so, and pretty icy towards the bottom. It seems that Zermatt has more clear days than Whistler, but that lowers you chances to ski on fresh powder.

We had our photo taken in front of the Matterhorn and while we were stopped I took a group photo of about 15 Britons. They vacation at Zermatt every year. I took a photo, then told them to do something silly. So they tried all lost their balance and toppled into a large pile of skis and people! I kept takings photos of course.

We had a crappy, expensive lunch with million-dollar views and continued skiing. We went up to the highest point you could reach, 12,700 ft. At that height I wasn't feeling too good. I've been around that height before on Mount Baker (with considerably more effort) and didn't feel the effects at all, and I was coming up from living at sea level. Maybe it was the massive cheese/wine/poor sleep the previous evening.

At the top, the conditions for skiing were much better, but damn was it cold!! Really damn cold. We headed down the mountain (you can definitely ski later here compared to Whister) and by the time we got near the bottom it was well into dusk. That doesn't happen at Whistler (no night skiing at either Zermatt or Whistler). Then it was time to catch the train and a 3 hour trip back to Lausanne.

Markets and Mountains

Montreux and Grindlewald

I went with my housemate to a Christmas market in Montreux. Holy crap was this place packed. I had some roasted chestnuts, yum!

At the Christmas market, they always have a celebrated country and this year it was Canada! They have a great love for Quebec here in the french side of Switzerland and there was maple candy for sale. There was also a fake Mountie. He had a pen in his gun holster. Everyone knows mounties carry tasers.

The next day (or was it a few days later) I headed on to Grindlewald. In the summer I had made it as far as Interlaken, but this time I went further up and further in. The scenery was fantastic but I didn't go all the way to the top. I want to try a ski trip for that (you pay extra to take the cog train up). However, I really do want to go there, it is one of the largest glaciers in the world and it has a medial moraine. Yes, I've always wanted to see a medial moraine in the flesh so to speak.

On the train ride up I had a great view of the fold mountains. I watched a show that said Africa collided with Europe and the top of the matterhorn is Africa, the middle part is the sea that was between the two (hence the folded sedimentary rock) and the bottom is Europe. However, between Africa and Europe is Italy so I'm not sure where it fits in in the squish sandwich. I also have realized how much I love the geological time scale. I'm not interested in say the reformation of Europe so much. Oh there goes Ikea. I'm writing this on the trainride to Geneve.

When I got to the village of Grindlewald, I didn't do much except wander around. It is going to cost a lot to get my boots fitted. It would probably be only a little bit more money to fly back to Canada and have them fitted for free at MEC.

I have also bought telemark skis, well, they are actually used regular skis and are completely chewed up. However, I'm sure they will work fine for me. If I knew my boots weren't going to cause problems and that I was going to be skiing my brains out this season I'd probably buy more specialized (light) telemark gear. However, I'm sure I'll survive doing this and hopefully I'll meet people and find places to ski backcountry.

Bern - this time with people

I visited Bern this summer, but today when I went it wasn't a Sunday and thus the stores were actually open. Actually, there were tons of people out because of the Christmas markets. Bern was colder than Lausanne, so that lake effect really has an uh... effect.


I wandered around town, checked out the awesome gothic cathedral and also Einstein's apartment (only the outside) where he lived with his wife while working as a patent clerk. His house was in a pretty sweet location, right downtown along one of the arcades. Bern is the place to go when it is raining as all the sidewalks downtown are covered.

Here are some photos from the train as I headed back to Lausanne.

The mountains look fantastic!


Time to buy some skis!

No shops are open in Switzerland on Sunday (unless they apply for a permit) which kinda sucks. I'll be working all week, the shops aren't open late during the week, so it will be a challenge to go grocery shopping. It looks like I'll have to carefully plan my meals for the week and do grocery shopping on a single day.

More Switzerland

Wow, if you thought Vancouver was a tough rental market, it has nothing on Lausanne. Holy crap, I'm going to take almost anything.

The city is beautiful, even in the winter it is pretty. The mountains can be seen in the distance and there is snow.

On one of my trips into town I wanted to buy a day pass. I ran to catch the bus but at the ticket machine I couldn't figure out how to buy a day pass. The bus driver opened the door (ticket machines are at the station, not on the bus) and invited me on. I told him I couldn't speak french and he gestured that I could just pay him. But I said I wanted a day ticket. So at the next bus stop he stopped the bus, got off and showed me what buttons to push to get a day ticket.

The people that I've met in Switzerland have been very helpful. When I went to the tea shop the man tried hard to help me get tea I wanted. He could have been snarky and annoyed that I was difficult, but instead he gave me a candy.

And finally, some guy tried to pick me up on the bus, at least, I think that's what it was. He came up to me, and I thought he was the conductor asking for the ticket, but when I paid attention, he was asking for something telephone, plus he wasn't dressed in a uniform. I have also learned that guys are pretty weird and desperate.

Now I have a rail pass so I intend to spend all of December travelling to every little corner of the country. Because I can.

Welcome to Switzerland

I wrote this while waiting on the airplane:

Kinda like snakes on a plane only not near as fun.

The flight to Montreal was fine but now we've been stuck on the
tarmac for one and a half hours. The pilot keeps coming over the
speaker system saying it's an electrical problem and while they don't
exactly know what's wrong, they are working on it. And Also that it's
necessary for the plane to fly. makes me wonder what was going on for
the trip to Montreal...

Anyway, my new start in Switzerland is off to a great beginning.

I'm reminded of those poor suckers in the states who were in that damn
plane on the tarmac overnight because security was gone for the day.
At that point, when they refuse to let you leave the plane, you're a
hostage. I mean, seriously, both limit your personal freedom for
financial reasons. Let's hope that the situation won't get to those
extremes.

My flight landed and I met up with the girl with whom I'm staying with for a few days until I can find a place of my own. That evening we went out to the Christmas market to hang out with other english ex-pats. Here's my first photo from living in Switzerland.

After that, it's been a crazy time, there's so much paperwork I need to get before I can rent an apartment. Including the paperwork that says I haven't accumulated any debt (in the few days I've been in the country).

New Moon

Well, on my last night in Stratford I went out to see New Moon. You may have read a previous post about how I am on Team Bella stays single and grows a personality, and so going to see the movie might be a bit frustrating.

It was.

I can't remember the book that well, but if possible, her epic sulking was even more epic. However, the one redeeming factor for me in this movie was the wolf pack. The effects were great, the transformations and chases were fantastic and the relationship between Bella and Jacob had all the warmth lacking in her relationship with Edward (which only consisted of them intensely staring at each other and blah blah blah I can't live without you blah blah blah now tell me what to think and do).

I think Bells and Bella are fantastic shortenings of her name but one would never want to name a girl that now because of the horrible legacy (who would want their daughter in such an abusive and controlling relationship).

And horray! Today I leave for Switzerland!

Yup, still dashing

Nathan Fillion on his show Castle.

Ottawa - the final chapter (and Toronto)

So the final Saturday of Ottawa was action packed. First, we headed out to Gatineau park to check out factory ruins.

There were waterfalls and tons of people.

We walked a bit further and then turned around. It was the luck of good timing, shortly after we got back to the car it started to rain. Next up was the King estate (everything was closed) and so we headed to a nearby village and drank tea, read the newspaper and watched the rain fall on the river.

Dinner was at a fantastic french restaurant in the woods (I'm currently eating all the food I will not be able to afford in Switzerland - this summer even a street-food donair was $14). Our good luck with timing continued as a table became available just when we showed up.

Back in Ottawa we went to this fantastic Karaoke (first time for me!) at this chinese restaurant hosted by a drag queen called China Doll. It was apparently this family business, parents used to run the place and when the kids took over, they made it more hip and started Karaoke night. The daughters ran the bar and the sons ran the Karaoke and one of them does the drag thing (only for Karaoke night). The place was packed and the night that I was there, the parents were sitting at the back taking it all in. It had a fantastic vibe and it was a great evening, plus with our excellent timing we got the best seat in the packed house because a table cleared just as we got in.

Then I was on my way to Toronto. That Sunday evening I stayed with Carey and watched her band The Liquidaires play at "Mitzi’s Sister, which is on Queen St. In Parkdale just past Landsdown"

Yeah, the picture is really fuzzy. I will claim a) dark room and b) captures the energy of the style of music anyway and claim artsy.

Anyway, if you are in Toronto I highly recommend checking them out, I had a lot of fun listening. Plus, the show at Mitzi's Sister was from 5-7pm. Now that's my kind of show time! They have a band webpage that is down, and I can't play samples from their cbc page but apparently they have a mailing list.

Then it was the train ride home to Stratford. Wildlife sighting - a hawk flying over the train carrying some poor struggling rodent in its claws. I don't know what the rodent was, it had a bit of a fuzzy pom-pom on the end of its tail (spelling mistake still works, the end of its tale).

Next on the agenda - wild packing and crazy paperwork and then.... homeless!!!

Ottawa - more days

So on Emily's second day off, we went all around town. First off was the Scone Witch for breakfast, a futile trip to MEC and then along the Ottawa River,

past the Rideau canal and on to the Byward market.

After that, we headed on to the National Art Gallery. It is no longer free like I remember it. However, it was huge and had some interesting pieces. One was this art installation which consisted of dioramas where projected onto glass pieces in the diorama was a video. It created the illusion of people walking around inside the dioramas and it was very creative. There was also considerably less Jesus in this art gallery compared to Europe. My favorite piece was of these naked sea ladies in the surf and there was a misty rainbow and it was this large mish mash painting. Too bad we weren't allowed to take any photos. Darn, I don't know the title or who painted it so I'll never be able to find it.

Anyway, after all the art, we went out for an early Mexican food dinner. Man, I am just eating and eating on this trip! Finally I have someone to go out to weird restaurants with (not that the food we are eating is all that weird, but Stratford is rather limiting). And I won't be able to afford eating out in Switzerland!

Speaking of which Horray! My contract came in, I now feel confident to say I am officially employed by EPFL!

Anyway, after the art, since it was Thursday, we had free entry to other museums so we went to the museum of civilisation. I haven't been to this museum in probably 10 years. We rushed through it which is probably the right pace for it. It is an immersive museum where they recreate different scenes in the history of Canada. I hadn't seen a lot of the later ones which included a Chinese laundromat and they even had one of the terminals from the Vancouver airport in the 60's. They also had a whole section on native Canadians including the very impressive grand room set up to look like the ocean and west coast native dwellings on the shore.

What was also very fantastic is we were able to see artefacts that were rescued from Afghanistan before the Taliban could destroy them. There was a lot of gold and I was surprised about how many of the older pottery pieces were related to greek myth.

Then it was a walk home in the dark along the river on the Quebec side.

And here's a view looking back at the gallery (the red lights).


The next day I went on my own to the museum of Science and Technology. I'll really need to remember in the future that Science and Tech museums usually means tons of small children running around banging on all the exhibits. I learned later there is a reason for this, the science museums in Ottawa and Toronto were initially started during the space race to encourage young people to take an interest in science.

One of the neat things they had on display was an electronic Sackbut. I read in the wikipedia article that none were ever produced commercially which explains the state of the museum piece!

I looked for the dial marked 11 but couldn't find one.

There weren't too many children running around screaming around the Sackbut. Also not surrounded by many children was the first Canadian and worlds oldest remaining (non-working) nuclear reactor. It can produce enough power to light a lightbulb and was used for research purposes. You can see in the picture here the mirror at the top of the display showing where the fuel rods would be put in.

On the other side of the display was Canada's fusion reactor where they made plasma and tried out nuclear fusion. I found a guide and asked if it really was the original nuclear reactor, we got to talking and I asked if there was a way to find an adult tour of the facility and he said he trains the guides and would show me around.

So for the next hour I got a personal tour of the museum and all kinds of stories about different artefacts, it was all very interesting. He took me through the space section and about how some were engineering models to test features, or that the design of early soviet rockets was to stick a bunch of old V-2 engines together because when the scientists at the end of the war surrendered they didn't want to go to the Soviets who were harsher than the Americans. So the soviets had people who were experience putting the stuff together, but not the scientists who invented rockets so they didn't have revolutionary adaptations that the Americans had until later.

I also learned about the sting operations to recover moon rocks and that all the heavy water in the displays is only borrowed from atomic energy Canada and it will need to be returned.

Finally, here is Canada's moon rock:

And then it was back to Emily's for even more food (Sri Lanka this time).

Ottawa - the beginning

I took the Via rail to Ottawa. First off, Canadian rail is unimpressive compared to what I travelled on in Europe. It was late (ok, I am spoiled by Switzerland) and slow and expensive.

Anyway, from the train I saw one paper bee/wasp nest, two beaver lodges, two hunters sitting in a blind and a whole bunch of hawks. The train past Toronto goes through a lot brush.

Anyway, the weather in Ottawa is quite lovely but a little cold.

On my second day in Ottawa I went to the war museum. It was better than expected and I really enjoyed reading the displays. I spent about 6 hours in the museum and left with a headache and I kinda glossed over the later wars. However, I was glad to spend time on the world wars and the wars leading up to 1812.

However, one of the really cool things they had in the display was an E-meter. The description is fantastic:

Home Front Paranoia

Security officials used this device, the electropsycometer or E-meter), in the 1950's and 1960's to help ascertain people's sexual orientation, assuming that homosexuality made individuals more susceptible to blackmail by enemy agents. Data from the so-called 'fruit machine' cost more than 100 civil servants their jobs. The Church of Scientology still uses such machines to assess the mental state of its parishioners.

On Remembrance Day, I attended the official ceremony. It started out not too cold but by the end I was *freezing*! And apparently this year the weather was really nice!

Anyway, when it started, we had gotten there early enough that we had a decent view of the grounds. It was going to be pretty exciting because Harper and the Prince (Charles) were going to be there.


However, when all the parading was done, the cadets(?) in the big hats were standing in front of us and we could see nothing of the ceremony, we could only observe on the jumbotron, which you could watch from home and it would have been a lot warmer!


You can see in our view of the ceremony that there are some St. John's Ambulance people in the scene. The big hatted cadets were dropping like flies, and another (there were two in front of us) had passed out and had to be carried/escorted from the ceremony.

Later, when the crowds had thinned out after a few hours (we went home for lunch), I went back and placed Emily's poppy on the grave of the unknown soldier. I couldn't put my poppy on because I had already placed it on the grave of the unknown sidewalk block somewhere in downtown Ottawa (as had many other people like myself).


I checked out the wreaths. Man, amongst all the wreaths with the elaborate (and standard) gold letters on purple, there was Stephen Harper's (Prime Minister), his was printed on a piece of paper and stapled to the wreath.


Well, you can't blame the man, maybe they needed more time as they were too busy handing out large novelty checks or something.

Anyway, that was the remembrance day ceremony. They had a large gun salute (a piece of artillery) and a 'missing man formation' flyby of 4 fighter jets. And the trumpeter kacked on the the Last Post. Then we bicycled along the canal to the research farm.

Apparently at this farm, they no longer do research but they have educational school programs and a museum etc. It was free since it was winter and we checked out the animal barns. They had stallions and a large bull which I haven't seen too often. And they had a fully operational dairy barn where they milked about 40 cows and owned quota and everything. I was amazed at how close we could get, we just couldn't walk between the milking stalls, but you could walk along the fronts of the animals as they were in their pens. I learned that the bull stud book was referred to as the "Whose Your Daddy" book.

All in all, it has been an eventful week so far!