sophie in der schweiz

new zealand

sophiesaffron — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:05:57 +0000

First off, wanted to say how devastating the images and stories of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan are, I am very relieved there was no severe damage to the area where I used to live, Akita-ken on the western coast, and all my friends and former co-workers there seem to be ok. The eastern coast of course was not so lucky and my heart goes out to the people and families affected. Google has a good list of orgs doing relief work, if you are interested in donating to the efforts.

The city of Sendai, one of the areas hit worst by the tsunami, on a beautiful spring day – took my parents here when they visited

I have been very slack in my posting so back in time it is, again, to New Zealand over winter holidays…to visit Matt, go surfing and admire the beautiful sheep

Of course since I had a few hours in Hong Kong on the way I had to stop in and take a quick trip on the star ferry…impressive holiday decorations!

one of my first views of new zealand…we stayed at matt’s family friends in auckland and they brought us to this beautiful park

downtown auckland

I insisted on going to the zoo to see a kiwi (bird) but frankly was more impressed with the australians…just look at this cutie wallabee!

pit stop in paeroa to try the famous NZ soft drink….pretty good stuff

another pit stop on the way to Matt’s house, at a pretty gorge

where Matt had the bright idea to go for a walk through an abandoned, very scary railroad tunnel in pitch black darkness, we made it about 1/4 of the way before I had a little freak-out

my first gorgeous view of a NZ beach – Waihi…in love!

Was pretty hard to keep movin on from here, but we had to get to matt’s mom’s birthday party

pohutukawa tree in bloom

at the heads, whakatane

whale island

whakatane

matt n me

matt n cuz sam

ohope beach, first swim!

the bryson family farm, mount edgecumbe in the background

Farmer Matt

the, uh, grain mixer…thing…mixing up some golden grain!

matt’s family sheep, for reals

new pool with freshly distributed pumice, partially courtesy of yours truly

honey, the dog

Christmas swim in the pool, enjoying the fruits of my labor, with lucky the dog hanging out in the background, getting very very angry at water

loungin in the pool

just after our crazy fun black water rafting adventure in the glow-worm-filled waitomo caves…i mean, how often do you get to float down a river in a cave lit by glow-in-the-dark maggots? pretty freaking cool

at a kiwi(fruit) orchard

ridiculously beautiful scenery on a crazy route i picked to get to raglan

raglan beach

Matt at the weird stage-amphitheater thing at our hostel, overlooking the awesome coast

fun in the hammock on the deck

view from the deck

about to go surf on that

We had a lesson and I was able to get up on the board more than once…win!

the road trip mobile

sam and matt trying to superman…failure!

…success!

one of my fave pics of the trip, now just wish i was a real surfer

last views of the beach before heading off

raglan was a super cool little town, highly recommend a visit, and a little surfing sesh, if you’re ever in the area

back in Whakatane at a lil waterfall

Matt’s friend Dale had a pretty fresh antenna

Matt in the swiss wool hat i got him for xmas

New Year’s swim in the pool

sheepy!

Green lake, near Rotorua

some geothermic activity

plop!

The coolest place ever, hot and cold river, though it was a bit eerier at night, lit by just a few candles…this hot spring flows into a freezing cold river at this spot, creating a very interesting swimming experience

haka falls

there were some crazy kayakers going down this

Tongariro…the start of the trek

Sam at soda springs

on some kind of moon desert plateau

The peak

Matt at red crater

blue lake in the background

Green lakes

at blue lake

Lake rotoaira and lake taupo, at our final descent

Nathan at Lake Rotorua on some sulphur

sulphurous beach

boiling an egg…onsen tamago!

a giant roadside kiwi!

mount manganui from the walk down to karaite falls

Sam jumping at karaite falls

Matt takes a leap

I take a small leap

fish n chips in tauranga

also got to go to some lovely hot springs that day, almost as nice as japan

had a wonderful time, thanks to host Mattie!

at the heads, Whakatane

Matt at work

skytower in auckland

yum soba at narita on the way back

weg der schweiz

sophiesaffron — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 20:40:11 +0000

A hike I took a few weeks ago before the snow arrived, on the weg der schweiz on Lake Luzern. The last of the fall foliage! Crazy to think this crazy beautiful landscape is only about 45 min from my house.

Jill with the alps

Also back in September I went back to the States for my friend Ruth’s wedding and to see my sister Natalie in her new home in Illinois, in the corn fields!

Natalie’s new house in Urbana

My friends and I made a quilt for Ruthie as a wedding gift, this is after some finishing touches, aka all-night anchor-a-thon in the hotel room

She loves it!

Ruthie getting ready for the big day

Pre-wedding. Nice view of the arch from our balcony!

Matt and Ruth getting married!

Fun pics with the chihuly’s in the botanical garden

Ruth at the reception, at the unbelievably cool City Museum

alpabzug

sophiesaffron — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 21:09:51 +0000

In Switzerland, bringing down the cows from the higher pastures to the lower ones in the fall calls for a celebration. I do like cows and all the wonderful things they produce so I thought I’d check it out. The first one I tried to go to was in Liechtenstein, the ridiculously tiny country not at all far from where I live, but we found out when we got there it had been canceled because the cows were too ill to walk all the way down the mountain, and had to be carried in trucks instead! Tragic. I did get to see the castle in Vaduz, but it wasn’t that exciting as someone (the prince!) lives there so you can’t get very close. Anyway, take two in Flims, where I would like to go on record saying that the cows were LATE to their own party. Yes, Swiss cows, with no concept of punctuality. It was a pretty cool sight to see, the long line of hundreds of cows on the path, coming down from the mountain through the mist. Also interesting to watch were the herding guys who looked big and burly to me but were no match for the cows who threw them around like rag dolls. I also learned several methods for getting cows to move, should I ever need to move a cow. Oh! Also last month I went whitewater kayaking in this gorge (known as the grand canyon of Switzerland) around the same area which was really fun in a life-threatening type of way. I didn’t get any pics on the water but here’s where it was.

Acting silly on the lakeshore in Laax

Handily a train runs in the valley so you can kayak down one way and take the train back! Special car for kayaks!

Anyway, the cows…

Alphorn players summoning the cows

Flowers to be adorned on the cows

The first of the cows!

Still more on their way

Excellent lederhosen

Fog starting to clear as the last of the cows come down

Cows in the foggy meadow

Concert for the cows

Cow herders at work

The tail-pulling method

Out-of-control cow

Very angry cow

The pull-by-the-nostrils method

Ready for adornment

Happy cows?

summer mashup

sophiesaffron — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 22:30:51 +0000

apple blossoms in wadenswil

first swim in the lake of the year

Rapperswil

View into the mountains from Rapperswil

Heart-shaped balloons from a wedding

Hiking in Arosa

The peak

The great thing about hiking in switzerland, aside from practically-perfect-in-every-way maps and signage, ridiculous the-hills-are-alive type views, are the plentiful ski lifts and cable cars you can use to save your knees on the way down. And yet another is how friendly and talkative (and funny!) Swiss people seem to be when in the mountains

Special kind of fuzzy spring flower

Snowy view from the top

Arosa village, chalets abound

Hiking Klosters to Davos

Final ascent..You can see the scary path through the snow across a basically vertical slope, towards the bottom left

Where they do those talks

New bike

With Gina in Maine

At Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport

My mom in Cape Cod

Otto and Claude

Fishing at Herring River

Chapin Beach sandbar madness

Kayaking with Otto, also got to do plenty of my all-time favorite summertime activity, swimming in a lake with a lifejacket on

Chatham Lighthouse Beach, site of shark sightings

Nat had a great idea for her last day in New York before moving to Illinois-sailing around the Harbor – wonderful

Water tower

The lady!

A hibiscus grows on the upper west side

Bye bye 103rd!

Best view ever

Ruthie’s bachelorette party, heading to the wedding in a few days, excited!

With Aunt June and Claude in our matching dresses on my final day at the beach, summer vacation

lago maggiore/biarritz

sophiesaffron — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:57:16 +0000

As a vacation within a vacation while my parents were here, I suggested we go down to (surprise!) the Italian lakes…to Stresa on Lago Maggiore, where I had been last fall but didn’t have nearly enough time to enjoy all it had to offer, especially the Borromean Islands – I had missed out on Isola Bella the first time around, but I was newly inspired to get back there by this article in W magazine.

We traveled down by car, along some fun narrow lakeside roads through lots of lovely little villages.

In Stresa

Abandoned mansion

On the boat to the islands

Isola Bella

Close up of the tiered gardens

Another abandoned

Isola Superiore dei Pescatori

Inside the palazzo (pictures were technically illegal but you can see more in the W article). It was way cool.

The island’s special thing was silver peacocks, everywhere

And a giant unicorn

Next stop: Fishermen’s Island

silver olive tree leaves

Wisteria!

View from our lunch spot

trees growing just off the edge of isola bella

Isola Bella palazzo

Arrivederci, isola bella!

Yet another lovely stay in the Italian lakes, I highly recommend Stresa as a place to stay while exploring the Borromean islands.

A couple weeks after that, I met my parents in Biarritz for a long weekend. From the airport we went straight to the beach! Biarritz is my absolute favorite place to visit, of course for the family but also the beaches!

Here you can see the head of my cousin Eric, the only one brave enough to swim at Ilbarritz, where by my estimate someone drowns every summer, as the waves are so huge

Dad at the beach in Tarnos with an old bunker the next evening

My uncle Bernard’s choir performance

Bernard’s the one with the white hair, second to farthest right

A gray day at la Grande Plage

but there’s always good surf watching!

gaining some courage to go in…

Sainte Eugenie in the background of some tidepools

eventually went in…it was cold but also awesome! I love swimming here because you have to keep up with the constant waves

Some sun came out!

Me and my aunt Cecile on the beach

I was able to convince the fam (here-uncle Bernard, aunt Marie-Joseph, my mom and Dad, cousin Eric, and aunt Cecile) to do one of my favorite things…go down to San Sebastian in Spain (only about 40 min away) for a night of pintxos. My mom and her sisters apparently used to do this all the time as crazy teenagers.

Pintxos!

Basque!

Sunset in San Sebastian

The next morning at Rocher de la Vierge, Biarritz

My moncle (monk-uncle) Dominique came down from the monastery for a nice Sunday lunch

And before I left, I managed to get some new glasses from my cousin Marie-Dominique – totally sweet danish ones at that. Though I only need them for driving really, I have also found another good use for them..hiking! Have been doing quite a bit of that around here…for my next post!

Officially on vacation now…heading back to the States on Sunday!

Oh and, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dad!!

otto and claude visit part one

sophiesaffron — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:50:52 +0000

Back in May my parents came to visit and a post about that is long overdue!

We had a great time visiting relatives and doing some sightseeing, despite terrible weather (except of course when we went down to Italy). I also learned an important thing – I am not, at least directly through my grandma, as I thought before, in any way Swiss. I guess this is one of those things like the various people who I thought were my cousins my entire life and referred to them as such, only finding out relatively recently that I am in no way related to them, they’re just family friends or what not. Anyway, always fun to learn about one’s heritage and get those little myths debunked. In the case of my lovely grandma Ida, RIP, she was German, as was my grandfather, and they came over to America to start a family and the American dream and all that. One of my (real) cousins even made a video at one time interviewing my grandma about that experience, coming to America, she has a very interesting and brave story. Before they came over though, they lived just over the Swiss border and apparently would often come into Switzerland for work. One of my grandma’s sisters eventually married a guy from Appenzell (Switzerland) and moved there, and procreated so well that we now have tons of family in that area, my Dad’s (real) cousins. This part of the family kept in touch a lot and there have been lots of visits from various Danners over the years so maybe you could see how I thought I might have some Swiss blood, but actually no. The cousin we stayed with, is called, surprise! Ida and my favorite part of the visit was when we drove around the Altstatten area just stopping in to what seemed like every 3rd house, to visit relatives as it seems we’re related to the whole town!

You can see my Dad’s pictures of the trip here.

I had seen this ad for Appenzeller cheese and knew I had to get a pic of my dad next to it when he came (his name is Ottmar, and it says “we’ll pay for your secret recipe” or something like that). How serendipitous!

My mom Claude at the Lindenhof in Zurich

On the ferry back home from Zurich

The next day we headed over to Appenzell and had some rosti for lunch

In Appenzell

We were actually looking to get the same view as in this famous pic below, but didn’t get the right building

Of my Dad’s cousins, the Goldeners, (yep one family, 12 girls and one brother, Johann! My dad has 12 brothers and sisters too, coincidentally) at their vegetable stand at the farmer’s market in Appenzell maybe in the 70s?

Another old pic of the Goldener family in their younger days

And another!

At cousin Ida (far left)’s house, with her daughters Esther and Alice

This old farm building was in the background of many of the old family pics, in Luchingen, I think

So we took yet another one!

It as great to see/ meet a lot of the family, also at a party they threw the next day at a cousin’s bar, which turned out to be a very cool lounge-y type place in the middle of the some fields/industrial park, especially to meet some of the relatives closer to my age. Was also nice to use some German, although it didn’t get me very far with the dialect, and somehow the Swiss school system mandatory English courses seemed to have escaped/been forgotten by even the younger generation (with a few exceptions, though, thank God, particularly those close to one cousin -Ida’s son, who moved out to California and is apparently bff with Schwarzenegger) I also got to learn some fun new card games from the kiddies, though I was really bad at them. I didn’t get any pics at the party but my Dad did, so you can see them there if you want. Thanks to the (extended) Goldener family for their kind hospitality!

After that little side trip I decided since we were in Switzerland we should go to the top of a mountain, even if the best weather we got was overcast, so we headed over to the Rigi. Here’s mom at a bocce/petanque/boules court at the halfway point up the mountain. Look, snow!

View from the top

Me at the very top which as a little scary cause icicles kept falling off the cell tower

View down to the Vierwaldstattersee

Train on the way down

On the cable car on the way down

Cows hanging out

In front of a hotel in Brunnen on the Vierwaldstaatersee that my parents stayed at years before

Up next Italy and France!

istanbul

sophiesaffron — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:33:58 +0000

Back in time! To a long weekend back in late April when I met Edel in Istanbul….the first thing that struck me after arriving at an insane flight-time (it seems the only affordable flights to and from Istanbul are from 2-5am) was the lovely cobblestone streets and outdoor cafe-neighbourhood-y -ness of the area of our hostel, Sultanahmet. Of course it was pretty touristy but that didn’t mean it wasn’t nice, and perfectly located within walking distance of pretty much everything you would want to see or do. Istanbul is perfectly laid out for visitors, I must say. The other thing was of course the call to prayer that can be heard throughout the city from loudspeakers, five times a day, that certainly had an eerie quality in the early morning. Our first order of business was to meet up with a friend of a friend and go on a Bosphorous cruise, to a town with some castle ruins at Anadolukavagi.

View of Istanbul from the fortress ruins

Me! at the ruins

Edel and I

The black sea looking ominous

at the ruins

View from our lunch spot

The riverfront houses in the village

Edel on the boat!

Appropriately named tanker

The ruins and village from the water

More riverfront houses in the villages

Another fortress

Me on the boat!

The bridge from Europe to Asia, Bogazici

Me and the bridge

Dolmabahce Sarayi Palace

Galata Bridge, Istanbul

The ferryboat landing and the ‘new mosque’

Market and the Blue Mosque

Haghia Sophia

Me and Edel at the Haghia Sophia

Yummm lamb

Blue Mosque at night

Across the river to Asia from the rooftop of the hostel

Explosion of wisteria in the neigborhood

One of my fave pics from the trip. Edel at breakfast on the rooftop with the Haghia Sophia in the background

Edel at the Blue Mosque

Pretty tulips in the garden

Inside the blue mosque courtyard – the place was huge it can hold something like 10,000 people

The blue tiles, hence the blue mosque

and then it was down into the yerebatan cisterns, that were discovered by james bond, or something like that

creepy fish in the cistern

creepy medusa head

and on to the Haghia Sophia

some lovely apple tea

The next day we went to the Topkapi Palace…

more pretty tulips

at the palace harem

the harem hamam, just a little nicer than the one we visited

a room in the harem

Edel at the palace gates

All in all it was a great weekend!

I had a little extra time after Edel left so I decided to venture over to the “newer” part of the city, Galata and up to Taksim Square

Galata Bridge

Man with rabbits

from Galata tower

Topkapi Palace

Galata Tower

The pedestrian-only shopping street Istikal, with a cool old tram

Last view of the Blue Mosque

lakes

sophiesaffron — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:52:28 +0000

Since I’m still super-behind I’ll start with something a bit more recent – a couple of weekends ago it was beautiful and sunny after a long spell of cold raininess (which it’s now back to) so people flocked outside and went crazy in the sunshine, including me, and various pirates that overtook our boat.

Paddleboating from Rapperswil!

with Kris

swimming!

Rapperswil castle

View from the castle

Heart-shaped balloons from a wedding

Here’s a video Kris shot that shows some of our pirates and the nice panorama

And now back to the rest of spring break… the last of the trip was to my favorite and yours, Lake Como.

Italian lakes, let me count the ways I love you.

Sunrise over Lake Zurich on our way out

At a market in Como…it was near Easter, hence the marzipan lambs

possibly Villa Oleandra?

I love the revelation that in about 3 hours and for $30 I can be out on a boat (ferry) on Lake Como

Green Villa Oleandra

One thing I love about going down to Italy, it seems to be always sunny there, especially if it’s yuck weather in the schweiz

Villa Balbianello, popular movie set, which we visited the next day

Back to Bellagio!

ducks!

Laura in tropical Bellagio

magnolias

more Bellagio

more magnolias

a good napping spot

food

Italy is olive and cypress trees

Me and a giant aloe plant

Ferry captain disagreement

We were staying in Menaggio when a supercreepy crime happened near George’s villa, and cops showed up at the place we were staying with a pic of a blue-faced girl a la Twin Peaks

The loggia of the Villa Balbianello, a pretty awesome house with an interesting history of owners who required secret entrances and staircases – my favorite owner was Guido Monzino, who left behind his dogsled and polar bear pelt. Despite living in the 1970s, he somehow earned the title “explorer”.

serious centuries-old vine training

Villa gardens

Italian feast

and some easter cookies I made

dogsledding

sophiesaffron — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:39:36 +0000

Again, I’m a bit behind here but here’s the next part of my spring break with Laura. The only part of the trip I planned beforehand, we headed to Adelboden, a little mountain village that no one seemed to have heard of, famous mainly for slalom races. It was a supercute little village, though, I recommend it! but sadly it isn’t train accessible (there’s a bus). First, we tried skiing at Engstligenalp but were thwarted by crazy lifts and zero visibility. We recovered in suprise, an igloo.

But first, lunch! A cheese and pickle sandwich with a carrot-rabbit garnish!

We had a great view from the little cafe though it didn’t really come out in this picture.

Waterfall in the snow!

Laura at the top station of the cable car, Engstligenalp

First part of crazy lifts…this one went flat across the plateau and you just had to grab on to the hose thing and hope it didn’t rip your arms out of their sockets

Yet another lovely mountain restaurant

Second crazy lift, steepest and scariest t-bar I ever went on. I closed my eyes and whimpered most of the time, Laura made it up almost a 1/4 of the way, which was quite impressive for her first time on a t-bar!

So anyway, we decided to go tubing with the kiddies instead! Fun!

And then for a drink at the local igloo!

with the necessary ice bar

Me and Laura at the igloo

Animal skins!

Iron animals!

About to get on the cable car

Adelboden from Engstligenalp

The waterfall from the bottom of the hill, where we stayed in a little bed and breakfast

Very cute and with very nice owners – also recommended

with a weird individual sauna

No old house is complete without creepy dolls!

Nice wanderweg sign

And on to the dogsledding the next day!

This experience definitely exceeded my expectations. We got to feed the dogs, harness them up, and then go off with our very own dogs with 4 dogs each! The guide, Markus, who was about as socially ept as someone who lives in an igloo with 16 dogs can be, was out in front with his own sled during the run, so the rest of the dogs just followed him, so it wasn’t too hard to steer, etc. though we did have a few mishaps…like a harness on Laura’s sled getting stuck on that crazy hose-lift, and my dogs who kept trying to pass Laura’s even though the path was only wide enough for one sleigh, and one of my dogs getting partially detached from his harness. In the end, we really did only need Markus’s directions of ‘this is how you stop’. After a long run all around the plateau, we unharnessed and fed the dogs and then we had designated playtime with them, where my Deutsch abilities were tested to their limits with translating Laura’s (dog-expert) many questions about the doggies. My favorite was getting to use Hitler’s moniker when asking which one the leader of the pack was. Should you wish to dogsled here’s the site. The doggies were supercute and very friendly, though Markus said they are ‘not always’ so friendly. It really was fun, and I was even inspired enough to consider the Iditarod afterwards (too much work).

Doggies!

Yeti, the Fuhrer

Laura with Alaska, a naughty dog

Then back to the igloo for Laura’s first fondue!

Leaving Engstligenalp…the considerably more snowy landscape after a blizzard the night before

We then headed back into Adelboden village for some therapeutic “solebad”ing – at this pool with a lovely view before the trip home

spring breakout part one

sophiesaffron — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:19:50 +0000

A couple of weeks ago was spring break, and I had an old friend visiting and we had some pretty epic adventures. Unfortunately these involved me taking about 200 photos so I’m going to have to talk about that in parts. But first, I went on a lovely walk today (another sunday spazieren gehen!), despite the volcano-ash cloud skies. Check it out!

This is a for real wanderweg in my town (doesn’t it look like too perfect, like that park they stroll in mary poppins?) and this was right after a 3-year-old on a shetland pony rode by (with her mom).

Some pretty flowers on the side of the wanderweg

Some local cows. The two in the back were totally making out right before I took this.

Anyway, back to the beginning. Laura arrived early on a Monday and we relaxed for a bit and then I showed her around Zurich…we hit my usual faves…Niederdorf and Lindenhof and Chagall’s windows at the Fraumunster. We also made it to a few places I hadn’t been before, like inside the Grossmunster and up its tower…and over to Freitag and up its (slightly more hipster) tower. We ended up having an early dinner al fresco at Hiltl, having accidentally stumbled upon it – I didn’t figure out it was the famous ancient vegetarian place I had been hearing about till we were nearly finished. Verdict: pretty good buffet, mostly Indian.

Zurich from the top of the Grossmunster

The “gold coast” of the lake with the lovely mountains in the background. Looks like it was sunny in the mountains!

More Zurich, including the Rathaus (on the right)

Some pretty blue flowers in Platz Promenade, another one of my favorite Zurich spots – it was actually a place I accidentally wandered to on my first trip here for my interview back last May – crazy to think it’s been almost a year since then!

Laura! Laura and I have been friends since elementary school but went to different high schools (eventually) so grew apart…but we were re-connected through the magic of facebook and hung out over the summer while I was in NY. She lives not far from where we grew up and is now a high school english teacher.

Zurich train station from the top of the Freitag tower

I’m truckspotting!

Go on geniuses making stuff out of shipping containers

Then it was off to a day of ski/boarding at Flims-Laax a place I had never been, a bit farther out than the places I usually go, which boasted higher elevations, where I hoped there’d be more snow than slush soup. Can’t say I was too impressed with it – although big it was pretty weirdly laid out (and didn’t have an easy train connection) and the conditions happened to be pretty bad the day we went, and some of the lifts in the higher elevation areas (where the snow was better) were closed for no apparent reason. Oh well, at least we got some good beer-and-chaise-lounging in (as I’ve said, an integral part of the ski experience over here

passing the Walensee on the train

I was impressed with the luxury (faux) leather seating in the gondolas though

View from the chaise lounge

Me and Laura at Flims-Laax!

Pretty sweet mountain hut with excellent alpkase

On the way back we scored an awesome sleeper cabin on the train, great for apres-ski napping

I can’t believe ski season is over! Although I suppose this country has a few glaciers left.

Next up – Adelboden and Engstligenalp – dogsledding! and then Lake Como