A hike by the glacier...

So here's the thing about Switzerland... This was an hour away. Amazing! I went hiking with Marco and his friend Jeff (red shirt). It was the most amazing hike (all six hours of it) I've ever done and we just stumbled across it by chance. Jeff was visiting and asked if there were any national parks in Switzerland... I said, "yeah, there's one called Switzerland..."

Barcelona

I helped out mid-week at a trade show. It was there that I learned that no one speaks English and Spain loves them some solar. I stayed through Saturday because I couldn't get enough of those tapas.

As much as I love San Francisco, Barcelona may be a cooler city.... at least in terms of the night life. Nothing like coming back to the hostel at 6am...

Edinburgh

Magnificent city... Some highlights:
- Old Town
- New Town
- Hostels
- Visiting the Highlands
- Petting a hairy cru
- Pub crawls
- 300 year old pubs
- Spending a whole day in the wrong time zone
- Not understanding something when told in English
- Visiting the castle where the filmed "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
- Edinburgh castle
- Driving by JK Rowling's house
- William Wallace
- Rob Roy
- Holyrood Palace
- Holyrood Abbey
- Abbeys in general
- Castles in general
- Lush, green hillsides
- Day hikes
- Loch Lomond
- Fish n' Chips
- The only Indian food in two months
- The term "brilliant"
- Traffic on the other side of the road
- Mary King's Close
- Learning Edinburgh's dark past
- Staying 1 minute from the gallows
- Tour of the tartan factory

Martigny

I know... I know... It's been too long since my last post. I got dumped on at work this week (Despite the picturesque backdrops, I'm spending a lot of my time in an office). Here's some pictures from last weekend. I spent Saturday running and biking and basking in the warm Genevese rays. On Sunday I headed out with a co-worker and hit up the Picasso exhibit in Martigny (Pierre Gianadda Fondation). The museum was fantastic. They had some wonderful works from Picasso. The real treat were the photographs and ink sketches. There was a collection of black and white photographs (by David Douglas Duncan) showing the man behind the man, Picasso playing with his child and talking with friends. The ink sketches were simply amazing too. They were like form studies, all his thoughts and ideas compressed into a few revealing sketches. The other exhibits held their own as well. Another photographer had cataloged the daily life of a handsome French sheep herder twenty years ago. There were pictures of the herder cooking over the campfire, teaching his wide-eyed son how to tend to the animals, flocks of sheep marching along empty dirt roads as the fog cascades down the ridge. There was also a pretty comprehensive collection of cars from 1895-1935 as well as an exhibit on Da Vinci's sketches and inventions.

Getting to the museum and back was just as much of a treat. The sky was crystal clear and we took the road through the mountains, into France, past Chamonix, and back into Switzerland. Mont Blanc is magnificent.

Gruyeres

Gruyeres is a small town with about 1000 people. But magical elves supplement the cheese-making population here in order to make the region so famous. The elves come down from the snow-covered mountains in the middle of the night. They create a elf pyramid so that the can milk the cow. It takes 10 elves to milk a single cow.

Actually, some interesting facts that I remember from yesterday:

- A cow consumes 100kg (220lbs) of grass a day
- A cow produces 25liters of milk a day
- It takes 400 liters of milk to make one 50kg cheese wheel

A velo deux...

I fixed the tire and set off for another trip on Le Skipper. Twenty minutes into the ride, I realize I'm getting another flat tire. $%#$&. I pull off by the side of the lake and patch up the inner tube (I'm prepared this time). After fixing the tire, I proceed approximately 15 feet before the chain binds in the gear. Le Skipper c'est le piece of $%@#. But through sheer stubbornness, I persevere. The rest of the day was wonderful. I visited castles along the lake and ended up enjoying a 7-hour ride in gorgeous weather. Maybe I'll give Le Skipper another chance.

A nation on holiday...

So it's a nation on holiday, which means the office is closed Friday and Monday. Easter is a pretty big deal. I've consumed way to many chocolate bunnies in the past week. The weather is wonderful and it's shaping up to be an incredible weekend.

Yesterday I bought all the necessary items to get Le Skipper back on track and back on the road. I'll probably go for another bike ride this weekend and do the lake justice. I'm also looking at another day of skiing because I'm no longer sore and I've come to miss that constant companion, the surprising ache when you you go to put on your jacket or tie your shoe.

This past week has been an interesting one in terms of work. I was more or less asked to stay on board in Europe. However, I left my heart in San Francisco. I'll be doing some soul searching because, while there is great opportunity here, there is much I miss about home.



I really wish I had a scanner here because there is the funniest ad I've seen in awhile. I don't know if it was miscommunication or a sincere effort at showing all Easter-related products, but this week's grocery ad for Aligro shows a chocolate bunny on sale for 2.55 CHF and directly adjacent shows another bunny on sale for 9 CHF. The only thing is, the other bunny is an actual rabbit. It shows the muscle and fat, even the head and feet. PETA would be appalled, I'm laughing out loud. I am in another world...

Trujillo

One stop was to visit Trujillo, a site off the beaten track but the most gorgeous little town I've seen. As you drive to Trujillo, you start to see castles on hills. Trujillo is one of those towns. We spent an hour in quiet reflection looking out over the town, the castle walls, and the landscape below. I would have never known this place existed had it not been for the solar site. Yay sun!

Sevilla

Next stop was Sevilla (Seville) to check out a few of the construction sites. Sevilla is an awesome city with as many plazas and churches as there are restaurants and bars. It's easy to get lost in the small alleyways that make up the city. The city was definitely stirring as it got ready for Easter preparations. Preparation in Geneva means chocolate bunnies in all the storefronts. Preparation in Sevilla means the sidewalks are lined with tens of thousands of chairs, the streets are washed, and walls are painted (except picture below). It would have been amazing to see this coming week.