Early Summer III

In May I moved my room from upstairs to downstairs. But my new room needed a better interior. So I got a bigger bed and moved some furniture around. But something was still missing. I wanted to have a small table in the centre and a cushy couch to chill. On friday I took the car and drove out to Dietlikon to IKEA. There you can spend a whole day if you want to. It's just huge! Their vision is as follows:

"The IKEA business idea is to offer a wide range of home furnishings with good design and function at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them."

They indeed do! They even sell plants, swedish food and you can have a rest in the foodzone. No wonder I spent more than 4 hours in there!

I bought a small table, a couch, 2 lamps and a new pillow.

The Rhine in the evening sun... Beautiful...

Early Summer II

On tuesday I had a fotoshooting with a professional photographer! It's an easy job but you have to smile, look and move exactly how he tells you. I wonder when I get the pics... Right, maybe I have to say I didn't make the fotos for my proper use, but for the agency I'm working at. We need them for the homepage as well as for CVs.

Last friday I had an excursion from uni to the Greifensee, which is a lake not far away from Zurich. The focus was on biology in general and botany in special. Actually I'm interested in botany as far as trees are concerned but during this trip we only saw grasses (the pictures in this post shows a flower of a tulip tree [Liriodendron]). I and my friends were quite bored until we got some handmade yogurts from a local farm!
When I bought a mango in a supermarket I met a friend from high school. We talked about girls, sports and nutrition... So I decided to go home to eat my mango and go running. What I did...

By the way: Everybody is watching soccer these days! On monday Switzerland played against Togo. We won 2:0...

Early Summer I

Last weekend I and a friend from uni made a Ice Cream Tour from Schaffhausen to Berne via Zurich. In every city we bought some Ice Cream and checked the water in the Rhine, in the Aare and in the Lake of Zurich. In Berne I went swimming for the first time this summer! Okey, I admit the Aare was still too cold, so we went to the Marzili swimming pool...

Something about the Ice Cream: The cheapest one was in Schaffhausen (this one is even handmade)! The most expensive one was Häagen-Dazs in Zurich and Berne had most different kinds...

On the evening of the same day I went to a BBQ on the shores of the Rhine. When we left at 11pm it was still dusk! I love the summer!

On sunday Perrine and I went to the Rhine which is a great place to bask in the sun! We almost spent the whole day down there before we went to the brand new italian restaurant Santa Lucia to eat pizza! The pizza "Quattro Stagioni" tasted excellent!

Picture: Platanus occidentalis and blue sky

Ticino IV

No wonder the Ticino is pretty famous for good food: Italy is not far away. During the bus ride from Bellinzona to Mesocco we saw many small grottos, so called family-run restaurants. They serv wine and authentic food often made from own cultivated products.

Our budget was rather small so we bought some Gnocchi and a tomato/pesto-sauce as well as salad in a large supermarket. Mmmh...

Ticino III

The next day we had to clean the house and then take the train back to Schaffhausen. Of course we first had a long breakfast with coffee.
The journey back is quite long, it takes more than 4 hours. Moreover the highway leading to the Ticino was closed so there were hundreds of people waiting for the trains. At 7pm we were back. Tired but more than satisfied.

Ticino II

On sunday we slept late and then went to a Pasticceria in Mesocco to buy some fresh bread. After breakfast and coffee we took the bus to Bellinzona and from there the next train to Locarno. This city is located directly at the shores of Lago Maggiore. I’ve been there several times, always in a training camp in spring. So I knew the way to the best ice cream shops and places to see.


We then took a bus to Ascona on the other side of the river Maggia. Many famous people have lived or been attracted by this city: Hermann Hesse, Carl Jung, Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Klee, Rudolf Steiner, Gustav Stresemann and many others.
We walked through the old town and went to a place directly at the waterfront to relax. I felt so free...

Ticino I

As you can see, the last post was about the kiwifruit I eat in Bellinzona. Now you might wonder why I was in Bellinzona. There is a simple reason: The weather there is often inverse to that north of the Alps. This, and a warmer climate in general, as well as the lakes together with the sunshine make the Ticino pretty attractive.



As my grandparents both are from Mesocco, which lies in the Mesolcina Valley, and we still own a house up there we spontaneously decided to take the 8:09 Cisalpino Canaletto to Bellinzona. We bought some freshly-baked bread that tasted absolutely awesome and climbed up to castelgrande, the first of the three castles in Bellinzona which all belong to the UNESCO world heritage!



Although it was very windy, we enjoyed the superb weather and the mediterranean climate with its palm and fig trees.

Daily Life II

When I was in New Zealand I always had a Golden Kiwi for breakfast. The kiwifruit got its name from a marketing strategy, naming it after the kiwi, the national bird of New Zealand. Unlike the green fruit, it is less hairy, with yellow flesh and sweeter, less acidic and more tropical flavour than the green kiwifruit.