Our Bags are Packed

This weeks Photohunt Theme Bags

Go to Tnchick.com to participate

This is a perfect day for the theme - Our bags are packed and we are moving shop, but just within town.. Hopefully internet is up and running too! We shall see.

(Another shot of my bag before it went into the Smart Car.)

Although I do have a few more photos of luggage and bags, this photo by far cracks me up the most. These were my bags during March 2008 trip back to Switzerland. I still need to work on packing less clothing! Yet I'm so amazed at what you can fit into a Smart for 2!

Happy Hunting! Be sure to check out my post below. I saw the Olympic Torch being past along in our city, exciting! More to come once the dust settles with our move.

Photo Hunt - Garbage

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Garbage

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I'm not a fan of taking photos of Garbage of any sort, so this hunt was harder considering that I did not go out to take any photos. I recycled this one from last years trip to Switzerland.

Definitely a garbage can or any of the names you see on the photo.

Road Stripes

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Stripes

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Seeing my mini camera is out commission, I'm going into archives.

Lots of stripes in this photo along the road, cross walk and side of the road.
Photo is from the town of Vitznau, canton Lucern Switzerland.

My friend was visiting from the US and this is one of the spots we went to visit some time in August of 2003.

A Milestone Day

Today I hit the 1800 days mark since I moved back from Switzerland.

I moved from this incredible view.


To a view more like this.

It's been hard adjusting back into life as a North American Expat, but I'm finally taking a liking to Victoria which is such a beautiful city.

Photo Hunt - Four

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Four

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4 of my favorite photos and places of Switzerland

Amazing Views of Montreux and Les Dents Du Midi
(literally meaning the Teeth of Noon).

Higher above from a park bench in Montreux.

Sailing and Sunsets in Lausanne- Beautiful anywhere in the world.

High Above Interlaken and so beautiful!

Happy Hunting.

Motivation is Catchy

Grindelwald 056
Originally uploaded by mightymarce

I've been reading a few blogs from my fellow readers and have found they are just as motivated as I am at this point to get a lot accomplished and stick to motivating themselves into doing new or goal oriented things...




Here's a bit more - Hexe is excited with her New Attitude.

Mighty Marcy - is getting a lot done and is very motivated, not to mention a great photographer. She has two of her Swiss Photos in Explore, one from Grindelwald and a great flowers photo in the Grindelwald region.

Swiss Story - Motivates me to post more photos because she is that super poster, even when she is on vacation. Read about her last trip to Italy.

As for me, I'm working on training for a triathlon as well as continuing to train for swimming. It makes for very hectic days and nights, but that's okay with me. My main motivation for this is to loose some extra lbs.

I'd really like to accomplish this because it's something I've never done and I'm hoping that with a bit of motivation from the Tri-Club I joined and the Beginner Tri Website I found.

Here's to passing on this motivation to a few more people.

Photo Hunt - Breakfast

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Breakfast

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This was breakfast one morning in March while on vacation in Switzerland, Interlaken.

home made biscuits.
The first photo however shows yogurt and juice.

Happy Hunting!

2009 Tour Route Announced

I'm so excited to see the new 2009 Tour De France route, which was announced yesterday. The route heads through Switzerland, Spain, and Andorra this year also! My immediate thought was how do I get there to watch the race! One can dream right?

The 2009 Route

Two exciting stages for me are stages 17 and 18 of the 2009 tour which take place on Friday and Saturday July 17, 18th. The two routes do not show enough details yet, but it appears to go through the Haute Rhine of Colmar and onto Switzerland in such cantons as Fribourg and Vaud before entering the Valais.

One interesting past note of Stage 17 is a 6 time stage for the tour. The stage leading to Besançon during the 1905 Tour gave cycling a new boost. Armstrong was the last rider to win the stage and the tour, in the 2004 Tour’s final time-trial.

The Swiss ski resort of Verbier is a new stop over on the Tour de France and has already played host to a number of decisive stages on the Tour de Suisse. The final climb, more than 9 kilometres long, provides the possibility for riders in top form to forge gaps, or at least triggers head on confrontation.

Km 135,0 - Col des Mosses - 13,8 km climb to 4 %

Verbier is proud to announce that the Tour de France 2009 will stop in Verbier on Sunday July 19th followed by a day of rest. On Thursday 21, Martigny will be the starting point of the stage going over the passes of the Grand Saint Bernard (top of the tour 2009) and the Petit Saint Bernard, arriving finally in Le Grand Bornand.

I am very excited to see the Tour come back into Switzerland to place close to where I used to live and bike myself.

Hanging Flowers

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Hanging

I did not have much time to think of the photo hunt but came up with something always dear to my heart. I had some good ideas, like watching a person hanging or a hanging animal from a tree, but I can't think of any recent photos which I took with something so interesting.

This photo was taken in Interlaken in August 2005 when P and I first visited Switzerland together. These flowers I adored and walked past them several times because they were all so beautiful and so unusual, hanging down even..

Happy Hunting!

What is That?

This weeks Photohunt Theme is What is that?

At first I did not have a clue which photo would make you think, but I found one. And of course it just so happened to be in my set of Switzerland photos.

So here it goes.

What is that exactly? You either know it or you don't. (Chris answered correctly first, Zhu you were correct too!)

One big hint. The company's headquarters in on the shores of Lac Leman.

Answer: Nestle, Nespresso cartridges for Coffee. They are very popular in Switzerland and as I've found out from many of your comments, not popular at all in North America. You can read about the cartridges too.

I hope I didn't spoil it for those who just visited. Happy Hunting!

Vancouver is #4 in 2008

The world's best places to live 2008 rankings have come out. And again, Vancouver is in the top 5 places to live. But there are 3 cities in Switzerland which are in the top 10 also, all of which seem to have a large number of expats.

The Rationale behind the ranking.

Consultants rated each city on a variety of factors including the level of traffic congestion, air quality and personal safety reported by expatriates living in more than 600 cities worldwide. Cities with a high quality of life are not necessarily the most exciting. "There are a lot of 'sleepy' towns that got high ratings."

Cities are compared to New York as the base city, with an index score of 100. The quality-of-living survey covers 215 cities and is conducted to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments. The survey also identifies those cities with the highest personal safety ranking based on internal stability, crime, effectiveness of law enforcement and relationships with other countries.

Here's the list. It seems that many cities always tie.

No. 1: Zurich, Switzerland (#1 in 2007)
No. 2 (tie): Vienna, Austria (#3 in 2007)
No. 2 (tie): Geneva, Switzerland (#2 in 2007)
No. 4: Vancouver, Canada (#3 in 2007)
No. 5: Auckland, New Zealand (#5 in 2007)
No. 6: Dusseldorf, Germany (#6 in 2007)
No. 7 (tie): Munich, Germany (#8 in 2007)
No. 7 (tie): Frankfurt, Germany (#7 in 2007)

No. 9: Bern, Switzerland (#9 in 2007)

No. 10: Sydney, Australia (#9 in 2007)

Emotions - Photo Hunt

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Emotions.

This weeks Photo Hunt I had to find a photo I had not used yet. I decided to post a few really cool creations which are made by Montreux Gardeners every year. Their work is simply incredible.

Now how cool is that?

If you are ever in Montreux from the winter to spring season, you might come across these Ice Age characters. Montreux makes these emotional characters with a different theme every year.

Ah Spring

A few images from the last couple of weeks.

North Vancouver - Deep Cove Cherry blossoms

Sunset in West Vancouver - Ambleside

Walking the streets of Zurich

And thinking too much about what I miss most.
Switzerland

Time - Photo Hunt

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Time.

I had enough time on my hands while I was on vacation in Switzerland to photograph the time. This week, I'm not spending that much time on the computer.
I'm sure you can find the Time in the photos below.

Looking for the precise time in Lausanne.

Aarau old town.
Go here for more photos.

Unique Signs Photo Hunt

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Unique or Funny Signs.

I think this image could fall into both.

Have you ever seen a trash bin with more than 13 different language translations on it? I found this sign while on my trip to Switzerland this past March, talk about unique and a bit funny.

It was a first to me, talk about unique!

Flashback - Switzerland Vacation

I've been back in Canada safe and sound for 20 days now. After getting back, I've had to go back to the real world the next day, jet lagged, hungry and definitely missing Switzerland's tastes and treats. Factor in doing two sets of my own taxes, a few chores to catch up on, and we've got a very tired ET.

I still have to go through many of my photos, which at least have been uploaded, and send out a few Cd's to a select few who deserve one. I was out with my camera practically every day which is very good for me. The first place where I landed is where I will start, in Zurich where Easter holiday travels were in full swing.

My trip officially began after work on P's birthday on March 19th and ended upon return the evening of March 31st, a very short trip in all!

I started off with a near full moon and a beautiful window view.

You know you are back in Switzerland
when you drive through a tunnel.
I actually missed them a bit.

Back to the comforts of What Switzerland looks like.

Finally seeing what I missed so much:
Comforts of Swiss Buildings and Pastures

A few short cuts through town while dealing
with Easter travels and delays.

After a wonderful ride back "home" to Lenzburg, I was greeted and offered a homemade tarte flambee, which I graciously ate without hesitation. (Now I wish I had taken a photo to show how delicious it was, but a bit of fatigue took over and that never happened.)

We also knew we were waking up very early the next morning to pick up my dear friend Sylvie from her journey to Switzerland. I had arrived 12 hours earlier than her.

We woke up to a surprising dumping of snow,
which I was shocked at (but I think most everyone was too.)

PFlight and the beautiful Hybrid Honda Civic.



After picking up Sylvie from the Zurich airport, we mutually decided the only reasonable place to hang out was at the Zurach thermal bath.


And what a wonderful way to start our vacation off, pampering and relaxing!

So off we go to Zurzach bad

Sorry I don't have any water photos during our stay,
but I can show you what the weather was like outside.

After a much needed nap, dinner was ready and it was incredible!

Compliments of Pflight Tuscany Tuna

Sylvie and I were quite content with our first full day in Switzerland.

And My Heart Melts

This is probably why I love Switzerland so much and I know at least one other person enjoys this photo and watching this site as much as me.

Tax Deadlines

It's the ever dreaded tax season and I have a total of 2 sets to complete. The good news is that the first set is already mailed off and now the second set needs to be finished. But I think it can wait until the weekend. Or at least another day.

In the mean time. Enjoy from Interlaken.

parting shots from my snowshoeing trip.

Twisted Photo Hunt

This weeks Photohunt Theme is Twisted

Seeing that I haven't said much about my wonderful trip to Switzerland, I figured I would at least have to show off some of the photos from the trip within the Photo Hunt.

Twists in a design from Aarau, Switzerland

When you visit this city, you must always look up. All of the overhangs are painted with beautiful designs, some twisted of course. I knew this already so of course I really kept a close eye on all of the beautiful designs from above.

These were two of my random favorites.

Impressions from Switzerland

A collection of a few photos from the trip

Spring in Lenzburg

Dried Fruit - Zurich

Vevey Flowers

Interlaken area

Montreux - 7 year old style

My old view back