Zurich, Paris & New York

View from Zurich Hotel

Countries 4 & 5 were pretty uneventful, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Our suitcases were flown into Zurich airport the next day so we only had one day wearing the same clothes and they were waiting for us at the airport ready to come with us to Paris. Late flights into Zurich and Paris along with early starts the next day means no time for exploring, just views from hotels and taxi's. Food highlights, had some great french bread and mini Pain-o-chocolat (not sure of the spelling, I find it hard enough in English let alone French) for breaky in Paris, yum.

I've decided from the last two visits to Paris that Parisian men are very gentlemanly, of course the sample size is quite low (n=2) and both have been work collegues so it may not be representative. On this latest visit, I even managed to let the sales rep open doors for me and lift my bags into the car - yes Andrew it's true I'm letting go of my stubborn ways. They tend to feel very uncomfortable if you don't let them do these things, so its best to let them feel useful.

Sarah was very kind to remind me that today is Friday the 13th, which was great given that we were flying from Paris to New York via London. On the bright side leaving the EU meant we had access again to the Airport lounges and business class seats, which is great for a 6 hr stop over at Heathrow. We also got to experience the new Heathrow Terminal 5 - its big and new and they're still having some teething problems, including not detecting a bottle of water in Sarah's carry on luggage. We also became involved in a game of human domino's after riding on an escaltor spanning 3 floors - when arriving at the top there was no room for us to get off and the people behind us panicked, rushing and pushing through the crowd of people waiting to go through security. Mind you the staff stood there watching and were pretty slow to react. After mechanical problems delayed our flight, we finally took off for New York. Arrived safely with bags, getting into our hotel at 2am. Looking forward to spending the weekend in New York before starting another hectic week of work.

Milano

So we arrived by plane to Milano from Stockholm at around 11 pm and then caught a cab to our hotel, which had been arranged by the local sales rep. Along the way we came to a stop at some lights and there were 2 "ladies" having a chat on the street corner. Their chat was getting a bit heated and the one wearing short red shorts and stiletto heels went stomping back over to the other side of the street. The other one then turned around and we caught sight of her butt cheeks hanging out of the bottom of her black and white striped skirt (belt?) - obviously showing off her wears. Sarah and I had a bit of a chuckle to ourselves until we realised our hotel was just around the corner - we were obviously staying in a classy part of town.

The view from my hotel room was spectacular (not)

A good work day, a Milanoese speciality for lunch, which looked and tasted a lot like veal schnitzel and french fries, topped off with a gelato at the airport - what could be better? Now it's been mentioned before that all I do is talk about food on the blog, so to shut those people up I thought I'd give you an idea of what the rest of a work trip can be like.........

Catching up on a bit of work at Milano Airport

Our plane from Milano to Zurich was cancelled due to a broken part, ok no problem, I'd rather find that out before taking off. Lovely lady at the counter annouces this and that we need to proceed back to the check in counters to get a seat on another plane, result? Mass panic as people try to get ahead of everyone, however to get to the check in counters we need to clear Passport Control. No worries for Sarah who has an EU passport, not quite so easy for me. So I tell Sarah to go ahead to get a good place in the queue and I'll join her when I get through. When I finally get through I noticed a few people from our cancelled flight standing at one of the luggage carosels, which is extremely fortunate as our suitcases pass in front of me. So I grab the bags and head back up to the check in counter where Sarah has been waiting for me at the front of the queue. Get a boarding pass for the next flight (which actually was the same flight number and boarding time as the cancelled flight), go back through security and passport control and head back to our gate where we are faced with an extremely rude Swiss Air attendant that would only say "Wait". Is there a plane? "Wait". Are we going to get to Zurich tonight? "Wait". Eventually she points at the doors and says "Bus" and we all get on the bus, bound for the plane. All this for a 35 min flight, we should have caught the train. And the icing on the cake - our luggage didn't turn up in Zurich . . . . . so much for my new, never-get-lost, lucky suitcase. The guy at the Swiss Air "Lost and Found" did give us a survival pack consisting of a one-size-fits-all T-shirt and undies, which fit perfectly of course, toothbrush and some basic toiletries. He also mentioned that our hotel was in a great part of town, right in the middle where all the shops are, and yes it did turn out to be as he said, however all the shops were shut as it was late and the Euro 2008 Swiss game had just finished as I hoped into bed so was kept awake by screaming fans (not sure if they won?).

So in tomorrow's blog post I'll be talking about how great the food is in Zurich, and hopefully that my suitcase arrived.......

Stockholm

The flight from Copenhagen to Stockholm was short (~1 hr) and had great views of the Danish and Swedish coastlines which are dotted with flat green islands that look as though the've been cut out of paper and placed, floating on the water. Stockholm itself is an impressive city, particularly the old part of town. Sarah and I had a couple of hours to wander around and was guided by our noses to a courtyard full of small cafes selling hot chocolate and cakes, which we couldn't resist.......

While the hot chocolate was so-so, the chocolate cake was fantastic, though it was so rich, even I had trouble finishing it.

Next stop, Milano

Melbourne - Sydney - Bangkok - London - Copenhagen

Another work trip, this time, round the world in 21 flights - that could be a record. This was my first visit to Northern Europe and I was looking forward to seeing what it had to offer.

Interesting facts about Copenhagen:

• Sweden is extremely flat, mainly farmland and lots of wind mills - the tall, white, power generating kind
• Instead of getting peanuts with your drink on Skandinavian Airlines you get Flavoured Broadbeans; they're not bad actually, think flattened broad beans, fried and tossed in BBQ flavouring
• The city is dead on Sundays, there doesn't appear to be any locals around (just tourists) and all the shops are closed except icecream and hotdog stands
• Copenhagen has canals
• The majority of tourist Copenhagen can be seen on foot, unfortunately there isn't really a lot to see. My top 2 sites were this canal and The Little Mermaid statue

Overall, not really impressed with Copenhagen, tomorrow off to Stockholm so we'll see how that goes, though there may not be time for exploring.

Seed update

After a nice bit of rain and a few sunny days my seeds have sprouted. So I'm looking forward to some fresh vegies this year, though the true test will be while I'm away and getting Warwick to take care of them for me

Keeping warm

The weather turned colder this week with a few 4oC starts in the morning (yes that is cold) and we were all trying to keep warm

Foo loves sitting in front of the heater, but when its not on she resorts to sitting on top of the amp.

Winters coming

How do you know Winter's coming? The cats have been sneaking under the covers and you wake up in the middle of the night with cold little furry paws on your belly. We've been preparing for going into hybernation mode by spending up big.......

The cats have a new jumbo multilevel scratching post, which you'd think they could share but no, all they do is fight over who should sit on the top level

Warwick bought a PS3 and discovered on-line gaming with his friends, so the current tv just wasn't cutting it so now we have a new flat screen LCD tv.

And I've begun planting seeds for Winter vegies (beans, snow peas and broccoli), my first attempt so we'll see how it goes