The Swiss...

...label almost all products in at least french, german & italian
...have 2-hour lunch breaks
...allow dogs in stores
...smoke in stores
...smoke pretty much anywhere indoors
...wear real fur clothing
...have real castles
...bike all year round
...love their mopeds
...have mandatory nuclear shelters in houses
...have $200 bills
...have $5 coins
...have 20 cent coins
...don't believe much in food packing over 1.5 or 2 L
...make sure trains, trams and buses always run on time
...do the funny three-kiss greeting thing

Okay so a few of these are Europe-wide, but they're just so not Canada I thought they bear mentioning.

Skiing/boarding at Verbier

Last Saturday we finally decided to try one of the ski hills in the area. We chose Verbier, since some friends have a chalet up there and it was decided we'd try and meet them there after skiing.

It wasn't a sunny day, so our pictures aren't nearly as eye-catching as on other outings. It is sunny here more often than not... maybe that's why Geneva (#2) beat out Vancouver (#3) in the 2006 Mercer Quality of Living Survey of the world's most liveable cities. Zurich is #1, but since we haven't been there yet, we have yet to see what all the fuss is about. We'll be passing through Zurich on our way to Austria this week so perhaps we'll see what Geneva is taking a backseat to.

Getting to the base town of Verbier takes about three hours, although it's only about 90km from Geneva as the crow flies. But then, even the crow wouldn't fly too straight because of the mountains in the way. Unless of course it's the variety of crow that can drill straight through rock. But I digress. The map below shows the problem: Lake Geneva (Geneva is at its western tip) and France (you can see the snaky border running through the lake) are both in the way. Cutting straight through France isn't an option because there's not much transportation infrastructure in that remote area of France. Although not labelled, Verbier is at the green marker at the bottom right corner of the map. You may put down your pencils; geography lesson is over.



Here's um... us. If I had longer arms, I'd be able to snap a decent selves-portrait for once.


The resort of Verbier... a zillion chalets with plenty of room for more. Slopes and mountains are no obstacle for Swiss construction. Most buildings are made of exposed wood, the way one would expect chalets to look. It looks very nice, very alpine... perhaps we should have taken a close-up. Oh well.


Some scenery. The mountains opposite us looked very inviting, especially since we didn't have a whole lot of snow on ours. Many runs were covered with brown snow, from snow being mixed with dirt. Other runs were white but with patches of exposed rock or ground. Others were blue, due to some chemical meant to work some sort of weather magic. Others were terribly icy, which made my always-crowd-pleasing downhill tumbles quite painful. But we did find some that were good, with a fair bit of powder. And when there is ample snow to be found, it is a pure joy to board in (sorry, I don't speak for skiers) since it isn't wet or heavy.


These pictures were taken from the gondola that took us from the base town to the resort area. We could have taken a bus that would have had to manoeuver up the snaky road seen below, but the gondola was much faster. Plus it was paid for in our travel package.


As you can imagine, we were a little concerned about the lack of snow as we ascended. Things didn't improve until a few climbs (gondolas, chairs) further.


It was an alright day, once we found some runs with sufficient snow cover. We saw a St. Bernard or two on the mountain, possibly more for tourism than for delivering free rum to stranded mountaineers (wasn't that their specialty?).

Lift tickets are actually swipe cards that you use to go through turnstiles when accessing the areas to go on the lifts. These turnstiles occur at every lift. Perhaps the low point was around 11:55. We made our way down a run and proceeded to the turnstiles. Swipe! Hmm no luck. When neither of us managed to get through, we figured the worst. We had taken the wrong combination of runs and had ended up in a *different* resort town, whose chairs up the mountain weren't part of the Verbier system. So we went to the ticket person and asked how the system dealt with navigationally-challenged folks such as ourselves. We had the honour of buying a separate lift pass for this particular ski hill. Fortunately, Verbier clients get a major discount because they've already bought a pass, so it would only cost us 11 francs each if we would wait till noon to buy. We did so and skedaddled.

We never did meet up with the friends who had a chalet there. We had neglected to take a phone number or address, and we hadn't set up a meeting point. So home we went.

Château de Chillon

Saturday before last was a gorgeous day again, slightly cool with a very blue sky, albeit hazy in places. We decided to visit the Castle of Chillon, a 900-year-old castle on the shore of Lake Geneva. The castle has a rich history (as do most castles I suspect, with the possible exception of the Disney ones).

Chillon was made famous by the poet Lord Byron, who visited the castle in 1816 and, inspired by a true story, wrote the fictional poem The Prisoner of Chillon. The poem is about the true story of the monk Bonivard, who was chained to a pillar in the dungeon as a political prisoner for six years. We were in the dungeon for about three minutes and were rather cold; it's hard to imagine someone surviving for six years there with limited movement or clothing.

Unrelatedly, some time after his 1536 release he was given the task of compiling a history of Geneva. This manuscript went to John Calvin for correction. I suppose this just supports the theory (which we all hold dear I'm sure) that it's a small world when you know someone Reformed!

Well, we would have preferred it a little warmer but we're glad we went during off-season (less busy), and since it wasn't a weekday we didn't have the choice of a guided tour -- which is fine because exploring castles is more fun when it's self-guided. Unlike many North American historical sites, virtually all areas were accessible and all items within reach (though not always permittedly); it made for a more authentic, less modern museum-like experience.

The day would have been even better if the camera battery had gone and recharged itself during the week, but apparently that requires human intervention. One can have a whole pocketful of memory cards but without a charged battery one is just another helpless tourist relying on memories and such.

Luckily we managed a few nice shots. (Yes, I borrowed the above one for elsewhere... we never managed to get any decent exterior shots.)


We had hoped to go skiing but there just wasn't enough snow for us, after having enjoyed Mt. Baker in Washington over Christmas. But as far as photos go, a bit of white is far better than none.


This was the view from the castle. The spindly supports holding up that really long raised highway didn't look very sturdy to me, but I trust the Swiss know what they're doing.


A very quaint inner courtyard.


Another courtyard... this castle seemed to have a fair number of them.


Proof that we were both there.


This aerial view of the castle looks suspiciously like a miniature model situated somewhere in the basement. (Can castles have basements? It just doesn't sound right.)


This is where poor Bonivard had to hang out for 6 years. Lord Byron carved his name into the other side of the pillar, where it's nicely protected with a hunk of plexiglass. Camera was dying, so you simply get to imagine it.


This is a view from the top of the castle. It doesn't really look like it's that far up, but then cameras rarely get it right.


On the way home, we tried to get some shots of the scenery, but it was through the window of a speeding train, with many obstructions whizzing by, and the sky was a little hazy.

Welcome to the family Megan!

I (Andrew) wasn't going to start mentioning birthdays on this blog, because then I'd be blogging far more than I'd like to (I'm pretty sure I already do). But this one's special. A zeroeth birthday.

Just a couple of hours ago, my sister Diana brought our latest little niece into this world. Congratulations Diana, Clarence & kids!! We thank the LORD for a healthy delivery; may He give mother, child and family strength during this exciting but busy time.

Ok maybe not "little" niece. She's already 10 lbs and growing. I believe she's the 13th "reason" Carrie and I are aunt and uncle. It can be easy to lose count when you're a guy. Some facts just stick better, like DOS commands from 15 years ago or Pi to a few dozen decimal places. But not directions. Or stuff about cooking. Or how many kids my siblings have; just when I think I have it down, here comes another, at which point I try to remember whether I knew the particular sister was expecting. HAHA just kidding dears! (Or am I...?)