Category: Personal

I’ve been in NYC for a couple of days now but didn’t have time to update. I’m basically hanging out with two good friends. Before I left Tucson, a colleague of ours took me and my boss bicycle riding in the desert among the cacti, which I really enjoyed. I also fell off my bicycle and left some skin in the desert :)

In NYC I went with one of my friends to a Broadway musical called American Idiot, which is based on Green Day’s music. The show was a lot of fun. Other than that we’re just walking around the more and the less toured streets of NYC (Times Square, East Village, Little Italy, …) The sun is shining this weekend (in November!) and it’s a great urban experience.

Today I’m going to Central Park to walk around and tonight we’ll go to a comedy club I visited on my trip last year, The Comedy Cellar. I’m looking forward to it… last year I enjoyed it a lot.

I don’t have many pictures and videos from this trip, so I’ll just post everything together at the end of it.

I arrived to Tucson, Arizona today after over 16 hours of flight (with an additional few hours of waiting, trains, trams and taxis.) My hotel “room” is bigger than my apartment. I went straight to the nearby Target store to get my usual cereal and yogurt. Then, at around 4pm and after eating, I was ready to go to bed. So I did the only logical thing – I went to do my workout in the hotel’s gym – 11km (or 7 miles) in one hour. Nothing like doing your morning workout to let your body know it needs to wake up.

Now I’m waiting for my boss, who’s also here, to go to dinner with him. Unfortunately I won’t be here over the weekend so I won’t be able to hike in the nearby Saguaro National park or even check out the hotel’s pool (my only chance was today, but I missed it.) The jacuzzi is still an option, though :)

(This is a delayed post for October 30)

Before we left Vals on the 4-hour drive back to the Geneva area, we walked around the streets of Vals, with its typical old Swiss houses, one more time. On the way to Geneva we stopped in Berne, a city with an amazingly beautiful and well-preserved old center and also a few bears right in the middle of the city – a big attraction for visitors.

Later in the evening we had a very delicious homemade dinner and walked the streets of Nyon, which is located on Lake Geneva’s shores. These were the last hours of our trip in Switzerland.

Until next time :)

We decided to stay one more day in Vals and went on a hike in one of the local trails, this time almost 800 meters up to Leisalp. We didn’t get all the way to the top of the trail, but we were pretty close. On the way we encountered a playful dogs and some goats resting on a rock hanging over the beautiful valley, and on the way back we encountered hungry goats who went after our food. All this made the hike, which was already a good one on a sunny day, even better.

Today was both about hiking and relaxing. We drove to Laax and started with a scenic hike around Laax, of which you can see pictures below. Later we drove to the nearby town of Vals and went into its famous spa, which has a heated pool that is facing the Swiss alps. It’s quite a site to see when you’re laying back in the hot water.

(This is a delayed post for October 27)

We hiked for nearly 7 hours today. Starting from Grindelwald at 1034 meters we walked up to First, which is at 2168 meters. A height difference of more than a kilometer (!), which means the hike was very steep. The more we went up the trail, the more we could see the beauty that is the Eiger glacier. The glacier is huge and on a clear day you can go up the cable car and see why it’s called “sea of ice” and “wall of ice.” We decided not to stick around in Grindelwald for better weather conditions just to maybe get a chance to see the glacier and continued towards our next destination – Laax and Vals.

We stopped at a hotel in a small town because we were both extremely tired. Hopefully none of the roads on our way are closed, like 2 days ago when we had to detour for several hours.

Notes:

• In the pictures below the glacier is the white blue-ish colored, snow-covered stuff in the mountains’ saddles.
• There are many pictures of the glacier. It was too hard to pick the best.

Today we drove on a sunny day to Grindelwald, where we were supposed to go hike on the north wall of the Eiger glacier. However, due to a navigation mistake, our drive took much longer than expected. Also, when we arrived to Grindelwald, it turned out that the trail is closed ahead of time because of the heavy snow of the last few days. So this turned out to be a driving day mostly, but with great scenery on the way and also a lovely time in beautiful Grindelwald.

Tomorrow we will try to do a different hike at lower heights, where trails are still open.

It was snowing when we got up this morning in Saas Fee. J stayed at the hotel to telecommute while I tried my luck going on the trail we wanted to do. As the cable car which was supposed to take me to the trail’s starting point wasn’t operating (ski season is coming), I tried to walk up to the place myself (on a well-marked trail.) The hike up was challenging but also beautiful – going through a snow-covered forest. But as I got closer to the cable car station the wind became stronger and the temperatures dropped. I then decided to head back to the hotel.

For lunch time we went up the cable car that skiers use and got up to 3500 meters, where we got to go into the nearby glacier. It was a very beautiful first experience for me – being 10 meters deep inside ice.

Tomorrow we’re going to Grindelwald to walk on the trail of the Eiger glacier.

(delayed post for October 24)

We started a hike in Zermatt, which is near the famous Matterhorn peak. Visibility wasn’t good in the Matterhorn, so we skipped the cable car ride up. The hike is one of the top 32 hikes in Switzerland, and for a good reason – it combines beautiful mountain scenery, forest trails and lakes, all at over 2km high. You can see it in the pictures and videos.

We are already in our next ski resort, Saas Fee, where I will go on a hike alone tomorrow as J has to telecommute.

Today we went to Chamonix (in France), a ski resort from which we wanted to get on the cable car to go up to Mont Blanc. But not only was there no visibility, the place was already closed when we got there. So we continued driving to our next destination – Zermatt, another ski resort which will be our base for a hike.

Today I only have pictures from the road to Zermatt. The road had some very beautiful scenery.