The Alps and Zurich

Posted on 2009/03/22 09:17:09 (March 2009).

[Friday 20th March]
Spent the daytime enjoying some fabulous Alpine scenery in the Flumserberg ski resort. Having never skied before I hadn't signed up for any of those activities, and decided I'd just have a wander round in the daytime and take in the scenery. A couple of other people had done the same thing. I was keen not to just hang around the hotel though, so wandered out in the morning to see if there was any way of getting up the mountain for people not equipped to ski back down again. Fortunately there was - a gondola (what I would call a cable car, or Chie would call a ropeway) up the side of the mountain to an obervation point called Maschgenkamm at 2020M, which had a restaurant and some rather fabulous views. There we parked ourselves for the bulk of the daytime, and had a very nice time taking in the scenery, accompanied by a Swiss beer or two, and assorted snacks from the restaurant.

Various people from the company stopped by at the restaurant for a break from skiing at various points in the day, so it turned out to be a very sociable activity - I met lots of people from the company who I'd never spoken to before, which I assume is exactly what this sort of team building exercise is supposed to be all about.

Took lots of pictures whilst at the observation point which hopefully give an idea of what a fabulous spot this is.

In the evening we headed back to Zurich, most of the group got the flight back to London, but a few of us had decided to stay on another night (for the two of us who'd come by train it hadn't really been possible to make it all the way back in the evening) and sample Zurich's nightlfe.

We had to go by way of the airport first, as that was where the coach was taking everyone else, so there was a lot of faffing about to get into the city centre and check in at all our various hotels before we were ready to commence the evening's proceedings in earnest.

Fortunately one of my colleagues who was hanging around for the evening had arranged us a local guide - a friend of a friend who was Swiss and lived in Zurich.

He took us by a taxi to a district of Zurich somewhere out of the centre, to a place which looked like an abandoned industrial estate. It turned out there was actually quite a nice restaurant there, where I enjoyed some very good gnocchi/spatzli. After dinner, we went to one of the other buildings on the former industrial estate, wherein some friends of our guide were holding a sort of party.

The theme of the party was a mixture of circuit bending and pecha kucha. I have to admit I was sceptical about the idea at first, imagining it was going to be something like a LAN party, but when we got there it was a very mixed crowd of young, fashionably dressed Swiss people, the drinks were free flowing, and there didn't seem to be any conflict in anyone's mind about a party which involved a projector and a soldering iron. It was like glimpsing the future, and I really enjoyed it.

We didn't stay too late though, again it had been a long day, and after an hour or two got a taxi back into the centre, had one last drink at a bar before we all headed back to our respective hotels.

That circuit bending party sounds interesting, did you take any pictures?

Posted by Simon W at 2009/03/23 13:51:38.

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