A little more culture

After yesterday's snow, we needed little temptation to head for the station to begin today's adventure, particularly since Gluehwein might be on offer too - having a car is all very well but someone needs to drive.  Though the picture doesn't really reflect it, at 9.50am on a Sunday morning, Zurich Hauptbahnhof was buzzing.

 

Our (double decker) train arrived almost as soon as we found the right platform and left spot on 10am.  Aaaah, Switzerland!

We were headed for Thun, where we'd read there was a Fasching/Carnival event today, but when we got there, the only evidence was a slight scattering of confetti underfoot.

Oh, and possibly the odd person dressed in a somewhat ostentatious fashion...with a painted face....and most likely carrying a trumpet or wheeling a set of drums.

 

We followed our ears and there in the town square, there was a bunch of "guuggen" musicians, making their presence felt.  We got ourselves a cup of gluehwein each and joined them around the "stehtisch", curious to find out more about their fantastic costumes and their programme for 2010. They told us they were from Altstaetten and their costumes were new each year, made by a local expert.  But soon, they were off, for another drink in another bar, another impromptu "rehearsal" and probably, most likely a bit more fun before the real show began.

At 1359 (this is Switzerland, remember!) the procession was due to begin, so we took up our places on a street corner and waited for the fun to begin.

52 assorted Guuggenbands, confetti-throwing floats, submarines and tractors later, we were standing, frozen to the spot, covered in bits of paper and snowflakes but totally captivated by the enthusiasm, the spirit and sheer good humour of the crowd.  We'd sang and jumped and clapped and danced with the rest - what a great way to spend a bitterly cold and snowy Sunday.  Who should bring up the rear, coming in at #52, but the lads from Altstaetten, easily the best band of the afternoon!

 

What's more, it wasnt over yet.  The bands had processed on a circular route and having got ourselves more gluehwein to thaw ourselves out, we spotted the procession coming down the old high street.  In Thun, this is a "double decker" kind of street, with walkways on two levels and choosing the upper deck, we had a grandstand view of the whole shebang as it headed for "home" - the town square, where guuggenmusik would be going on into the wee small hours, no doubt fuelled by plenty of beer and bratwurst!  We waited for the Altstaetten "heads" and then thought we'd better head for the station and our train.

We were covered with confetti in our hair, all over our coats and shoes, in our bags and our pockets, but so was everyone else.  The streets were covered with the stuff and we wondered how on earth the town would deal with it all as the snow was falling quite quickly now.

We might have guessed!

 We caught the 4.36pm train back to Zurich together with the rosy cheeked crowd coming home from a day in the mountains and decided to go straight to the restaurant, even though our table wasn't booked for another hour yet.  But we really couldn't wait for our supper, for what's the best way to warm up after a long and chilly day in the fresh air?

 

Yum!

Tomorrow, when I'm home again, I'll upload a video to share the full "Guuggemusig" experience.

White stuff

How interesting to watch the variety of machines/methods of dealing with snow today.  A light dusting overnight in Zurich turned into a heavier fall as we drove south, towards Chur this morning.  We passed snowploughs of every shape and size: large, road-sized leviathans, operating in pairs clearing the whole width of the motorway as a  l-o-n-g  slow moving queue formed behind them.  On ordinary roads, there were smaller, tractor sized machines which held the traffic up in a similar way before turning off into a side road to return, clearing the other side.  Along the pavements were small, lawn mower ploughs with rubber squeegee type blades in front, driving a little way behind the road ploughs so they could scoop up the fallout and deposit it in a neat ridge along the roadside.  Neatest of all and the one machine which brought a glint into Mark's eye were the small, red snowblowers which people were using to clear their drives and shopfronts.

 

Let's say the Swiss are pretty good at clearing snow.  But, come on, don't tell me you're surprised!

 

It's been a good day and we don't need to do a great deal to enjoy being here.  We pottered around a little, winding up in Rapperswil late afternoon in time for a pre-concert supper.  In the short time it took us to eat a pizza, a couple of inches more snow fell and we sat listening to Raff's Winter Symphony in the church in Lachen, his birthplace, wondering how much more snow we'd find when we emerged.  We were relieved to find only another inch or two, so we declined the kind offers of after-concert drinks from generous hosts and took the direct motorway route back to Zurich.

Fortunately the snowploughs were working in the opposite direction, having cleared our side already.

Maybe we'll take a train tomorrow?

Tonight

we're in a chilly place

where the people, much as we love them, have an odd sense of humour at times

where some of the chocolate shops have a distinctly individual style

but where the truffles stretch as far as the eye can see

It's a great city, one of our all-time favourites (I've been coming here since I was a child) and we are happy to be here again.

Especially since one of our travelling companions has a little bedtime treat for me in his paw!

Looking for Cinderella

because the slipper doesn't fit me.

I finished the first of a pair of Cocoknits Ballet Flats last night.  I'd read they were a quick knit and even I managed to complete one in an afternoon/evening, but sadly, today it will be frogged because it's way too small.

I'm pleased with my choice of yarn, even if it did make the knitting a little more challenging than it need have been.  Or perhaps it concealed more mistakes/irregularities than a plain yarn would have done?  Anyway, it was from my stash and was ideal for the slippers, being practical dark coloured wool but with a bit of frivolity too! 

I like the way the toe is shaped and think the pleated front is worth the added hassle - it's not that difficult even if it took me a while to work it out to begin with.  The construction is clear and easy to follow and I had no problems.  I knit the middle size, supposedly for a US foot size 9.

But the decreasing cast off really put the lid on it and no way would my foot go into the slipper, let alone feel comfortable once wearing it.

I'll try again later.

Running away

On the way home from the office yesterday, I stopped at the supermarket, to pick up one or two things like milk, cardomom pods and some washing up liquid.  Oh, and a couple of sweaters. 

As you do. 

At the same time, I thought I'd look for a small memory stick on which to store a few holiday photos.  I saw the idea in the current edition of Marie-Claire Idees and as I have - ahem - a "few" holiday photos here and there (we actually have getting on for 20,000 on our online album), this idea hit the spot.

At the moment, I copy bundles of photos onto a CD-rom, having downloaded them from camera to computer, backing them up on an external hard drive.  The "everyday" photos tend to remain there on the external disk though I try to put each set of holiday photos on a CD, all together.  I used to create pretty labels for each CD but these days seem to grab a felt tip pen and scribble on the disk before putting it away. I quite liked the idea of having a memory stick for each trip, tied with a label and stored in a basket which might catch my attention now and again.  who knows, I might even look at some of them!

I thought - wrongly - that I'd be able to pick up half a dozen cheap and colourful 1Gb memory sticks and begin the process of copying photos, but as I stood there in front of a large selection of the things, I realised that things move on.  However much of a gadget girl I am, I accepted that on this occasion, I was a bit behind the times.

 

I can't remember when I last bought a memory stick - in fact, it could be that I never have.  I seem to acquire them here and there, mostly from work-related activities and though I have quite a collection of them, I don't really feel I can use any of them for my own personal stuff.  After all, I can still remember the embarrassed look on a presenter's face when she inadvertently showed the whole audience her holiday snaps taken on the beach instead of the intended powerpoint presentation!

The choice on the supermarket shelf was extraordinary considering this was a pretty average store and not a specialist computer place.  Here, the smallest memory sticks were 2Gb, priced at around the £7 mark.  4Gb seemed to cost not that much more - £9 or £10 say.  Then of course, the 8Gb were not that much more again.  I hovered for a while, mulling over whether to see what was available online and then I saw it.

Or rather, I saw an enormous box with hardly anything inside, but that little tiny thing was a jolly colour.  Yes, you see what captures my attention...

I wanted it. 

Yes, of course I bought it!

Those two square centimetres of purple plastic contain 8Gb of storage and though it wasn't quite what I was intending to buy, I could think of plenty of uses for it.  Above all, I couldn't wait to try it when I got home, for I couldn't quite believe that it would slot into a USB port as claimed.

That's when I realised that technology is moving ahead faster than I realise.  For this little bit of plastic doesn't just provide me with storage for my photos, a few tracks of music and a bit of entertainment to take on holiday with us. When I plugged it in, it opens up all kinds of possiblities because it comes with some software for saving passwords and doing other clever things.  For the first time in a while, I am a little bewildered by something new.  I find myself looking at the incredibly long list of options and so, for the time being, I'm sitting looking at it, wondering how to set it up and how it could change the way I work on baby laptop when we're away from home.  I'll admit to a slight (and surely passing) urge to stay the same, to reject the bewildering range of choices, to run away from something new. What's more, I know that before I turn around, these too will be old hat...

I very nearly said "Whatever will they think of next?"

But I didn't!