Cinque Terre

Just as the cold and foggy autumn time started to break in to Switzerland, we headed off for a short holiday (or a long weekend ?) to a Cinque Terre, Italy... although not too far from Zurich (about 5 hrs driving), here was still wonderful summer weather, 30+ C and lots of sunshine.

It’s easy to fall in love with Cinque Terre. It’s a line of 5 small towns that are along the eastern coast of Italy. In this area, traveling by car is the most impractical way to get around. The best way to transport yourself is by Train, or Boat, or Foot. We tried all three of them.

First day we started to explore the area by taking a boat trip along the cost, leaving from La Spezia, where our hotel was located. Truly wonderful scenery, and gorgeous villages! Will let the photos speak for themselves, as it is difficult to describe with words.

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

For the second day we had big plans. We headed out reasonably early (well, 9:30 is early enough on a holiday, isn't it?) and took the train to Monterosso al Mare, the first city if traveling from the north:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

... and started the Cinque Terre hiking tour:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

............ to Vernazza:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

........ to Corniglia:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

...... to Manarola:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

... and finally, through the Via Dell'Amore, to Riomaggiore....

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

We found Cinque Terre one of the most delightful areas we've ever been to and we can fully appreciate why this region has been listed as a World Heritage Site. Almost unbelievable what did native people build in this area. Lots of stones have been used to build the vineyards and the thousands of km-long stone structures to prevent erosion.

The third day we took a less tourist-packed hiking route from Portovenere to Riomaggiore.
In Portovenere we visited the town and castle:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

Then we began our long hike. After being lost once and climbing a few thousand steps, we had magnificent views of the Ligurian coast:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

before descending down to Riomaggiore.

All along our hiking trips we were accompanied by our friend Gulliver who got his own backpack to carry his own stuff.

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

Cinque Terre is magical! Make it a destination sometime in your life. We can highly recommend it.
See our entire photo album on Cinque Terre here .

On our last day of our mini-vacation, we visited Genoa as well, where the city is dominated by magnificent historical buildings and the omnipresent scooters:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Cinque Terre & Genoa

Via ferrata (Klettersteig) in Braunwald

sLast weekend we went rock climbing (Via ferrata) to Braunwald with some friends, namely Gabi, Salo + Ioana and us (unfortunately Gulliver was left out this time, but we are working on some climbing harness for him to be able to join us next time).
The group posing in front of the TARGET


The climb comprised 2 stages:
- An "easy" first stage to "Leiteregg" at 2310m altitude

Salo's @ss on the way to the first peak on the "easy" climb:


which was just a great warm-up for what was about to be

- Stage 2 to the "Vorder Eggstock"at 2449m


me f@rting on the way to the "Vorder Eggstock"...


completing the construction on the peak:


"highway" between two peaks:


finally taking off our helmets for a shot on said further peak "Mittler Eggstock"


after which we had to go down (the worst part, I don't like to go down!!)


all pictures on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/gulliver.gyenge/Braunwald#

Summer visit from LILI

This summer Lili was our guest for a few weeks, bringing us some moments of joy.
We don't really know how come she turned up at our place suddenly.
She quickly found herself a comfortable place on our balcony.


When the sun was shining she fully enjoyed the sunny spots:


and the food she got mornings from Zoli:

However, as suddenly as she showed up at our place, just as sudden she left us a few weeks later.

(We've been told her owners left for vacation and apparently she liked us more then her temporary caretakers).

Summer 2009

It's been a long time since we didn't post anything to our blog... and that is not because we had a very lousy summer and got bored of staying in our apartment and watching movies, but rather due to the lots of family events, visitors and weekend getaways we had during the last couple of months.

These are just a few of the events which kept us busy during the summer:

* We took a few trips around with Zoli's parents in July ...

From Luzern and surroundings

... and visited together Verdi's "Aida" at the lake stage of Bregenz:

2009 - Aida - Bregenz Seebuhne

* On my Birthday we had a great time riding all the roller coasters in EuropaPark:

EUROPE - GERMANY - Europa Park

* Then we have been invited to our friends' wedding in Cluj, Romania, where we enjoyed the time spent with our families and friends.

* In August, when my parents visited us, we made some short weekend getaways to Strasbourg:

From EUROPE - FRANCE -Strasbourg

and Germany:

From EUROPE - GERMANY - BodenSee

(we took this picture in Meersburg, a really nice, romantic little town on the northern part of the BodenSee)

... meantime some birthday celebrations and grill parties with our families in Cluj and at our place:

From Csaladi Esemenyek- Szuletesnapok

Unfortunately it seems that yesterday was the last real summer day in Zurich, so at least we are not too late with publishing this post ... and we are hoping for many nice, sunny autumn weekends when we can make some wonderful cycling & hiking tours around in Switzerland.

Is Brussels really the most boring city of Europe...? NO!!!

At the beginning of July I've been working our company's headquarter in Brussels, where Zoli joined me for the weekend as well, so we spent some time together with my team.
Although the EU capital has recently been awarded by a survey of international travellers with "the most boring city of Europe" title (just beating out Zurich who came second in the race), there were a few things we found nice about the city:

The Grand Place in the heart of Brussels, one of the nicest town squares we have seen in Europe:

From EUROPE - BELGIUM - Brussels

Plenty of restaurants - bars - caffes all over with lost of people enjoying the evening near a drink in the crowded terraces of the city (just like we did):

From EUROPE - BELGIUM - Brussels

A huge variety of chocolate and waffles, which may not be a lot better than Swiss chocolate fondue, but Belgians certainly know how to 'serve' them:

From EUROPE - BELGIUM - Brussels

The European Union buildings however seemed to be less impressive than we have expected them to be in the "capital of EU", which doesn't mean though that Brussels is not worth paying a visit ... it will probably never take the place of London or Bangkok, neither of Vienna or Barcelona on the list of our favorites, but calling it the most boring city of Europe...? well, that must have been said by people who didn't like beer and good food...

London, one of our favorite cities...

The news were full of "London hit by 48-hour tube strike", "Travel chaos in London" and similar headlines just before we left from Zurich ... so we decided to rent some bikes to travel around in London with. Our plan however proved to be a little too optimistic, we found out when the guy from the rental agency said that he would surely not attempt to cross the city to deliver out bikes (at least not for the first day of our stay). So the first day we took some comfortable shoes and headed towards the river Thames ... walking on the streets of London, along with cars, motorbikes, horses and of course THE big red double-deckers:

From EUROPE - UK - London

The weather was so nice and sunny when we arrived to the south bank of the Thames, that we decided right away to start exploring the city by taking a ride on the London Eye, Europe's biggest giant wheel (and not risk to miss one of the city's musts in case the weather turns to rainy for the rest of our stay- after all, we were in the UK, we thought...)

From EUROPE - UK - London

After a nice ride with amazing views we crossed the Westminster bridge and continued our way towards the Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (we also went inside the Parliament to watch debates and committee hearings, although there were barely a few Members of The House of Commons debating that day):

From EUROPE - UK - London

It's hard to describe all the amazing sights and places we have visited during our 4-day-stay in London, but we surely had a great time as we have been walking / riding (on the second and third day) around the city (see below the picture gallery of our favorite sights):

1 The changing of the guards at the Buckingham Palace:

From EUROPE - UK - London

2 The Trafalgar square, London's most famous public square:

From EUROPE - UK - London

3 Picadilly Circus and the Regent Street, one of the major shopping areas in London's West End, where you can find also find the World's biggest toy shop:

From EUROPE - UK - London

4 SOHO and the colorful Carnaby Street, a place to enjoy the crowd, vibrant street life and live music...

From EUROPE - UK - London

5 St Paul's Cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of London and a major London landmark (on the picture below: Millenium Bridge with St Paul's in the background):

From EUROPE - UK - London

6 The Tower of London, where we have been welcomed by the Beefeater who told us tales of the Tower and who himself admitted he doesn't know why he is called a 'Beefeater' ;-)

From EUROPE - UK - London

7 And last but not least, the Tower Bridge, one of the best-known landmarks of the city:

From EUROPE - UK - London

All in all, we had a really great time in London and found that the city has a special atmosphere which makes it different from any other European city.
You can check out our entire Photo Album on London here:

EUROPE - UK - London

Frankfurt, Mainz and the Rhine valley

We have spent the last weekend in Germany, visiting our friends in Mainz...
As I had a business trip to Frankfurt last week, Zoli decided to pick me up on Friday from Frankfurt:

From EUROPE - GERMANY - Frankfurt, Mainz & the Rhine Valley

After a short stroll in Frankfurt city, along the banks of the Main,

From EUROPE - GERMANY - Frankfurt, Mainz & the Rhine Valley

we visited our friends in Mainz and spent together the weekend by walking around in the city,

From EUROPE - GERMANY - Frankfurt, Mainz & the Rhine Valley

visiting the Gutenberg Museum and taking a boat trip along the Rhine valley (despite of the cool, rainy weather, we still enjoyed it):

From EUROPE - GERMANY - Frankfurt, Mainz & the Rhine Valley

You can see some more photos of Frankfurt, Mainz and the Rhine valley here .

Cycling along the Limmat: from Zurich to Baden

Yesterday we tried out the bike trail from Zurich to Baden - a very pleasant, about 30-km-ride along the Limmat:

From Hiking_Cycling_Fun

(at least it was supposed to be a nice, easy ride if we would have followed the cycling trails instead of choosing the narrow hiking trails uphill in the forest nearby the river valley... ;-)

From Hiking_Cycling_Fun

When we reached Baden, we found that the entire Altstadt was full of huge hearts everywhere, painted in bright colors as part of the recently launched "Baden zeigt Herz" (Baden has Heart) campaign:

From Hiking_Cycling_Fun

You can see some more photos of our trip and a small collection of the painted hearts in Baden here.