Back in Zurich - Part 2

5.30am.

The sun was up real early for daytime hours are longer during spring/summer time. After a not too good sleep the night before (partly also because we slept at around 7.30pm when the restaurants around the hotel were filled diners), we woke up early to begin our first trip to St Gallen. As it was still way before breakfast time, we took a walk around Zurich Old Town which is near our hotel.

The quiet street was a contrast to the night's crowd.

My favourite hobby in Switzerland....duck feeding :)

Taking a shot in front of our hotel, Platzhirsch. A small boutique hotel which just started its operations 2 months ago. Staff were very friendly & have allowed us to deposit our luggage while we walk around town before the check-in time. It has a reasonably-sized room with LCD-screen TV with cable channels. Bathroom is a little small but is common in Europe hotels. Toilet is shared by about 4 other rooms & is located outside. Not much inconveniences since we woke up quite early. But if you're a light sleeper, hotels in Old Town may not be suitable as it can get quite 'happening' at night.

Yup, I didn't know Zurich has such an exciting night life. I thought it's all peaceful & quiet by night time since shops close early :)

Drinking the cold spring water from the fountain. Ahhh....so refreshing :)

No matter which angle you take, the photos somehow turn out to be postcard perfect.

I somehow always look weird in most of Uncle Tan's candid shots so this is a decent 'candid shot' of me :p

The weather was terribly dry. Fortunately, Uncle Tan brought a lip balm over. It tasted good - olive & lemon. But it resembled more like the green tea biscuit Mr Bean used to sell.

Time to go back for breakfast @ 7am.

Breakfast was reasonably good. There were 3-4 choices of bread. Croissant is good!! Ultra crispy & light unlike the ones I've tasted which sometimes tends to be a little oily. Eat it with the jam & butter or ham & salami or Brie or Raclette cheese (this cheese is a bit too overpowering for me). The usual coffee/tea, fruit juices and must try their yogurt & muesli. Absolutely refreshingly delicious and not to mention, healthy too =)

Back in Zurich - Part 1

After 2 years of yearning...we're finally back in Zurich!

The familiar crisp cool air, the sound of cow bells, church chimes, passing trains & the smell of alpine trees & blooms. The thought of visiting old friends excites us too =)

The familiar alps view from the plane.

Uncle Tan and I smiled uncontrollably in unison as we stepped out of the plane, taking our first breath of cool crisp air. Almost like how it was 2 years ago. But...well, less cold this time......

Looks like we've brought the S'pore sun here.

Apparently Spring this year happens to be surprisingly warmer than expected. But somehow the Swiss love it and said it's hard to get such good weather. A year ago, it was raining throughout May and just a week ago, it had rained too. Hmm....not exactly what we'd have expected. We're here to escape from the heat wave in Sg afterall.......

Went to visit Uncle Tan's colleagues (and to shop there @ the same time). Spent quite a bit of time there as they treated us to coffee at the cafe there.

Seems that there are more people now @ Sihlcity.

They also gave us a tour round the office and guess what we saw......

Shiokadoodoo!!!

They have all the popular soccer teams & the players' faces are attached to each figurine! So cool!!

Took a stroll @ one of Uncle Tan's favourite site near his office. Didn't manage to walk any further due to the hot weather. So......off to Bahnhof Strasse to shop for a while before we went back to our former residence to reminisce the good old times.

Oooh....H&M!!! But was a little disappointed with this season's selection. Had to buy some basic pieces due to the warmer weather... ;p

For the purpose of remembering the dates for the vacation, I've adjusted the post date to coincide with the actual dates of the various trips made.

It's Spring again...

Tomorrow is the Spring Festival for Zurich. Time flies...it's already been a year.

Ironically, I've been missing the weather there. Ok, I used to whine at the cold weather and trying to convince everyone, including myself, that I'm a tropical gal who prefers the tropical climate. But with the temperature climbing from 27°C to 30°C, I'm truly beginning to miss the "cold and gloomy weather" quite a lot. Talking about the grass is always greener on the other side :>

I guess Uncle Tan and myself, including my friends who had been there, would continue to miss the place and relish the memorable times there. And to share and "view" our fond memories, Uncle Tan is currently working on a project to make a coffee table book, or rather, a few coffee books that compiles some of the pictures we've taken.

Uncle Tan's colleague from Zurich came to Singapore a couple of weeks back. Well, he sort of brought some "Siwss air" here with the chocolates and the well wishes from the rest in Zurich. We played host for a day before he went off to Hong Kong meeting his friends.

He likes our weather, our food, especially seafood, and......the shopping. These are the general things they like about Singapore. I even heard that one of the colleagues who was posted here to work was so awed by the city sights and lights that he could just sit and view the city sights the whole night, with beer of course :)

They love the city buzz while we love their tranquil hush;
They admired our city sights while we desire their green lush;
They see the vigour of city life yet we perceive it as the hustle and rush.
We are indeed, ironic creatures of such.

Some of the photos we took of Urs :)

Kunsthaus (Art Museum)

Finally managed to get these pics uploaded from my mobile if not because I was down with flu and had to take a break.

Sorting out these pics, this season's Amazing Race which had shown parts of Switzerland....arghh!!! It's calling me back!!!

The art museum in Zurich is one of the places I'd recommend to visit if you love arts. You'll be happy to be able to see the works of world renowned artists such as Monet and Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Piccaso, Claude Monet and Marc Chagall (the guy who did the stained glass for the Fraumünster Church in Zurich.
It was only towards the end of my stay in Zurich that I finally managed to step out to explore a little bit more without Uncle Tan around (other than the shopping trips in town ;p)

Located at Helmplatz 1, you can take Tram 3, 5, 8, 9 or Bus 31 and stop at "Kunsthaus" stop.

Opening hours:
Sat, Sun, Tues: 10 am - 6 pm
Wed to Fri: 10 am - 8 pm
Usually the museums here are closed on Mondays.
Fee: CHF 12 for adults and CHF 8 for students (for permanent exhibitions).
Fees for temporary exhibits cost about CHF 18.

Try to give the place about 3-4 hrs as it houses quite a huge collection of works ranging from the Old Masters to Impressionism and Post-Nordic Expressionism to Swiss Painting to Modern Classical. I had to finish my visit a little early because of an over-friendly tourist from Brasil who had helped to guide me to the right building. I guess I'm not used to the ang moh friendliess yet :>

As the pics were taken with my mobile, so the quality will be somewhat affected. Still, hope this could give you a glimpse of some of the charming works displayed and hope it'll entice you to visit this museum when you're there. Enjoy :)

I'm always very amazed and struck with how life-like such portraits are. Some looked as if they are like photo-quality.

These 2 pics are a little blur due to the lighting. But imagine the minutest details such as the rocks, the leaves, the various shades due to the lighting......it's awesome.

I admired this artist who can paint such a picture. This is the actual size of the painting. The one above is the zoom-in version.

This place looks familiar...Venice

Contemporary art

This is done by Mark Rothko(1903-1970) in 1963, using white, blacks, called "Grays on Marooni". Contemporary arts really need a lot of your imagination :)

Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973

Tete, buste de femme, 1940

Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973
Tete, 1913

Claude Monet, 1840-1926
Le bassin aux nympheas avec iris, um1914/22

Claude Monet, 1840-1926
Der Seerosenteich am Abend um 1916-1922

Claude Monet, 1840-1926
Le phare a Honfleur, 1864

Claude Monet
La Falaise a Dieppe, 1882

Auguste Rodin, 1840-1917

Das eherne Zeitalter, 1876/77

Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890
Chaumieres a Auvers, 1890

Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890
Cabanes blaunches aux
Saintes-Maries , 1888

Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890

Travali des chanps, 1885

Friends from Zurich

Uncle Tan's colleague, Harry and his wife, Bridget, came to Singapore for a short stay a couples of weeks back. It was an "on-route" stay as they went to Australia to visit their daughter who's studying there.

Kinda excited at their arrival for we were keen to play host to them who had never been to Singapore. And also because we miss the Swiss people :)

However it was a mere 2-day stay so we couldn't bring them around much. Generally, the Swiss are very good at exploring around. Within a day, they had been to Little India and Chinatown on their own and from the conversations with them, our local taxi drivers have been very good ambassadors introducing them places of interests as well as providing some interesting "insights" of Singapore :) Our cabbies have indeed an important role to play to foreign friends.

Together with Uncle Tan's colleagues, we took them for dinner at the rotating restaurant Prima Tower for dinner. They were fascinated with the 360 degrees view and so were we, except that I was a little worried if I'd get motion sickness since I'm quite sensitive to even little movements.

It's a chinese restaurant and the food was good. A pity that I had to control the amount I take just in case :p The dishes were light yet yummy and not to mention, healthy too. Of course, it also comes with an exquisite price :> If the restaurant stop rotating one day, I wouldn't mind going again.

They enjoyed the dinner although it must have been an eye-opening experience for them to see how much we eat for dinner since the Swiss usually eat simple meals. They were pretty full by the 5th dish.

As Bridget doesn't take meat items, we ordered one extra veg meal for her in addition to the set dinner. Harry shared with us that his wife adopted a vegetarian when she saw them being cramped up in cranes whilst they were being transported on a truck. I remember seeing a picture of that in the papers recently and I felt bad for the poor chickens. They really have no life as they are bred to be fed...to humans. I bet they must have envied their ancestors, the kampong chickens, who had the freedom to run around before they ended up on the dinner table. At least they had lived a life.

I would like to be a vegetarian too...if not for my weak constitution. Er...maybe not totally abstained from some seafood thou I can make do without shark's fins. I just hope we can be as humane as we can, and perhaps, be appreciative of the food we eat since so many lives have been sacrificed...to satisfy our cravings..yeah, am not even talking about meeting our basic needs.

It was an enjoyable dinner (minus the rotating thingy) and the company was great.

Taking a group photo at the end of the dinner.

We didn't join them at Jewel Box as I had a roadshow the following day to attend. But before they flew back to Zurich, we got them the packaged durian cake from Bee Chin Hiang since they looked keen when we mentioned the pungent fruit to them. Thou we know we won't do any justice to the King of fruits by getting those processed ones but we wouldn't want them to get detained at the airport either :p

They like our Mr Bean biscuits thou and found them similar to their Christmas cookies. Aww...if only we were there to taste it :)

A few days later, they emailed to agree that the durian thingy indeed requires an acquired taste. They tried eating that by spreading them (like jam) on their bread ;p