Flying

I must say that so far my flying experience this year wasn't too bad. I gave myself a lot of time and braced myself for crazy security lines - but in the end - I can't say I felt any extra security at all. Maybe no terrorist flies from Zürich to the US? The planes were more or less half full and all my flights had boarding completed well before take off time, came in early and not once was my hand luggage searched extra. TSA had checked my bag between Washington DC and California (leaving their usual little white notice) - but my bags usually gets searched before my domestic flights (which always makes me pack my dirty laundry really nice...).

So - so far so good... My travels 2010 has only just started and it was a good start.

3000 m or 9800 feet above the sea

As a little practice before flying high, I spent the last day of my day in Switzerland on 3000m/9800ft, on top of a glacier, overlooking the Swiss alps. It took 45 minutes and three lifts to get up there and the view was breathtaking. Not only because it was almost hard to breath with the thin air. I didn't ski during my trip to Switzerland - it was such a short stay and I usually get dizzy and really tired from jetlag - a great way to hurt yourself. And I have mountains and snow pretty close by - so I preferred to spend my free time exploring Switzerland. I did take a little walk on top of the glacier and took a walk inside a glacier cave - camera ready - but no pictures can really capture the greatness of this view...

Snow in the Swiss alps

After leaving Zürich, I spent the rest of my stay in Switzerland in Engelberg, about hour drive from Zürich. It's a small little "town" embedded in the alps. The first day when we arrived, it was over cast and hard to get a feeling that you were even close to the alps, only the narrow, steep roads gave you a hint. But the second day, the skies cleared and it was beautiful!

I spent most of my time in Engelberg in conference - but I took a few photos from when walking between the hotels:

Visiting Luzern, Switzerland

During my short stay in Switzerland, I got a chance to spend half a day in Luzern, a beautiful city, also by a lake. A cute old town, filled with - tada - watch stores... It would be interesting to know how many of the stores in the city were watch stores...

The weather was amazing - and we got a beautiful view of the alps from a distance, walking around in this very nice city. Funny enough - we stopped twice at the same Starbucks - which happened to have a great location by the old bridge - first staying in doors to heat up a bit, drinking coffee and tea, and right before going back, now sitting outside in the sun, drinking coffee and tea.

A little slide show with pictures from Luzern: 

Swiss celebration

I happened to celebrate my birthday in the middle of my Switzerland journey. Birthdays are important days for me - and I prefer to be close to family - but this time around there was no way around it - I had to be away. When the waiter in the breakfast room in the Zürich hotel learned it was my birthday he quickly got out a glass of champagne and a nice birthday cake. So cute!

And I can really recommend starting out a day with champagne - it puts you in a good mood for the rest of the day! ;-)

Zürich, Switzerland

My first air travel this year didn't take me to Sweden - but to the country Sweden always gets confused with. Switzerland. It was my first visit to Switzerland - a country in Europe I have failed to set my foot in during all my European travels. So even though it was a short trip - less than a week, with only four full days in Switzerland - I was kind of excited and packed my SLR to try to catch some photos.

I started out by spending a day in Zürich - a beautiful city, by the beautiful lake and the Swiss alps close by. It was a cold day and I went straight from the airport for sightseeing and when the day was over I have been on the go for almost 36 hours straight. By 9 pm, I was beat and off to sleep...

I've selected some of my pictures in a little slide show. The sun didn't come out until the very end of the day - so unfortunately the foggy, cloudy sky doesn't give justice to this beautiful city! Enjoy!

Busy busy bee

I'm taking a little break from blogging here - spending time on our private online diary that needs updating. And there is only so much free time you have these days. I've been writing an online diary for friends and family to follow along - a way to try to bring our daily life here close to those that are far away. The page has been up since 1999, but the diary started in 2003, on the day my daughter was born and I've been writing it ever since, sharing stories and pictures from the kids' life. That means over 2000 diary entries and over 12000 pictures over the past years - and a pretty hefty database that needed to be moved and renewed...

I'm collecting my stories for here and updates might show up a bit "huller om buller" as we would say in Swedish (and that Nordsteds dictionary translated as "higgledy-piggledy" an expression I have never heard...) until I'm back in my normal pace again.

Stay tuned.

An alien package

A dear friend that I've befriended over the fantastic internet and now known for over 5 years, sent me a Christmas gift (that became a New Year's gift), that only a fellow alien can assemble. It almost brought me to tears... I have never, ever as long as I've been an alien gotten a package like this - candy, magazines, books, Christmas stories, Bamse apparel, 2kg "smågodis".... What a fantastic way to start the new year!

Thank you so much my dear dear Lama-girl!

Happy New Year!

2010 started out with fireworks - a nice change from the normal, quiet New Year's Eves we've celebrated here (one of the days of the year when I really feel homesick for Europe). This year we moved ourselves to where the fireworks are - and stayed the night downtown for easy access to the fireworks. We think we might make this a traditions - a new year really should start with some major dynamite explosions!