Photo blog: Zurich

We went to Zurich in early December (the coldest month of the year) to check out the Christmas markets. There are more exciting well known places to go for Christmas markets (e.g. Cologne) but given that I've been to Germany twice this year already (Berlin with the fam then Munich for Oktoberfest) I wasn't feeling the need to go back. So we ended up going to the German part of Switzerland instead :P



The most exciting part of the trip was when I failed to notice that the train timetable at Rhine Falls (1 hour from Zurich city) is different in winter from summer, so yes we missed the last train. Add to it being Sunday, there was no bus anywhere either. The sun had gone down, our flight was in 3 hours and I felt the panic slowly set in as it dawned on me there was no way we would be able to get a cab either in such an obscure location. Fortunately, mid-sigh, a nice man pointed us in the direction of the next train station which was 15min walk away (in the snow of course) and we made our flight back to London.



Apart from that, it wasn't a terribly exciting city although the Christmas lights were pretty (even a rubbish bin outside a shop was lit up) and I'm glad to have seen mountains and water. Does that sound strange? I guess there's neither of those in London and I occasionally feel quite claustrophobic at always looking at buildings which seem to occupy the narrow twisted streets. To be fair, there are a number of squares and parks which are great for green space - it just so happens that they aren't anywhere convenient to me so its my own fault really.

 

 

 

Other things that stand out for me (in no particular order):

• The massive Christmas tree inside the indoor Christmas markets covered in what looked like crystals (it was sponsored by Swarovski)


• The awesome accordian player who sounded like a whole orchestra


• Climbing the stairs to the top of the Grossmunster


• The Santas singing carols outside a shop in the old town


• Eating chocolate


• The welcome to Switzerland in the airport shuttle which came complete with a guy belting out a tune on the bugle and a cow bells ringing

Here are some of my photo highlights - note these might not scream out Zurich (more things that I found interesting).

Indoor Christmas Markets




    

In and around Zurich

   

Photo blog: Lake Windermere and Beatrix Potter

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing and today I'm reminiscing over one of my favourite places in the UK - Lake Windermere. Over the Jubilee weekend back in June, Mr T and I had 4 days off and we went up to Cumbria to see Hadrian's Wall, and then drove down to the Lake District - also home of Beatrix Potter and my childhood (and adulthood) friends Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, Benjamin Bunny, Squirrel Nutkin....there's nothing like animal characters and gardens to make me smile! Here are some of my highlights.

Lake Windermere

Picturesque, calming, gorgeous ... think of all the cliched superlatives you possibly can and you have Lake Windermere. The couple of days we spent here was basically a photography excursion. You could walk down to the water from our hotel and despite the inclement weather, we spent an afternoon here with the shutter clicking away. I loved how the water was so calm it looked like silk. Note to self next time - bring a tripod and don't leave photos down to chance!



On another night we had gone to dinner during a downpour, but by the time we finished eating it had stopped and there was a pretty good opportunity to capture some of the greys and blues. I was quite pleased that I managed to sneak a photo of a man fishing off the pier as well.



 

Beatrix Potter

The other main attraction of the Lake District is of course Beatrix Potter. Its such a beautiful location that its really no wonder that Beatrix Potter owned numerous farms up there - I vaguely recall the figure being around 15, give or take - and I think honestly the world is better with her legacy, as she was someone who championed conservation and bequeathed all her property to the National Trust. There are three main Beatrix things to see and of course I made us go to all of them (these are nowhere near each other by the way; if you do take a trip to the Lake District a car and a GPS is highly recommended)!

1) Hilltop Farm is a National Trust property and still open to the public today. It still looks the same as it did 100 years ago, as you can see if you compare to the famous photo of Beatrix which appears in the dust jacket of some of her books (just ignore the bit where I look silly standing in front of the door; its the only photo I have with a comparable angle!) . The garden was lovely, the house was lovely and it was just wonderful to see one of the places where she drew her inspiration from (no photos allowed inside).



 *Beatrix Potter image from www.lakedistrictwalks.net



 

2) Beatrix Potter World (the URL is hop-skip-jump.com - isn't that so cute?) This is a bit more of a commercial thing in the middle of Lake Windermere and definitely aimed at tourists, but I think it was still well worth going. The best part for me was the garden, which was designed to have the Victorian plant species that were discussed and drawn in Beatrix's books. I loved the Peter Rabbit patch and the overall masses of colour that was in the garden. There were also hidden ceramic animals and other objects to find in the garden which added to the quaintness of it all.





3) Beatrix Potter Gallery. Another National Trust property (no photos allowed), I think this was also well worth seeing. This houses a collection of Beatrix drawings and watercolours, many of which didn't make it into a final book.

And with that, I think its time for me to plan another trip to the Lake District. What places do you feel nostalgic about?

Beary best friends

Its been so grey this last week that  its time for remembering sunshine and smiles. On a rare sunshiny day in summer I took Dougal bear and Penny bear to one of the squares down the road from my place to practise full sun photography (Aussie friends, you might have a flicker of recognition as you look at these - Dougal is a daffodil day bear and Penny is a pink ribbon bear), rather than the usual weekend of eat and drink.

Here are some of the snaps from the afternoon of Dougal and Penny picnicing, telling stories and even going for a walk. I think they look super sweet and I hope they make you smile too.