Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Back to Bern

Monday, August 28th, 2006

147We returned to Bern yesterday and, making the most of a UK public holiday, whiled away a few hours wandering around the old town. As is traditional when visiting any city, we included a trip to the botanic gardens which, although providing a pleasant green space for lunch, were a little past their best. More colourful was the rose garden which, if I was ever more than half awake at the time, I would have realised were on my bus route to and from the customer each day. They also offered good view across the city although, as often seems to be my want, somewhat marred by scaffolding on the cathedral and parliament buildings.

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Clouds, sun and … more rain

Sunday, August 27th, 2006

144It was overcast again this morning but at least dry. Having negotiated the hordes of girl guides at the local shop, we set off up to Kaiseregg (2185m) via Salzmatt The top was in cloud but it broke briefly to allow us to see down to the valley floor. Unfortunately there was still no chance of being able to see across to the Alps.

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Wet Schwarzsee

Saturday, August 26th, 2006

141As the weather forecast didn’t look too good for the weekend we abandoned our plans for going to Grindelwald and headed out to Schwarzsee in the Pre-Alps instead, just an hour’s bus ride from Fribourg.

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Fribourg Festival

Saturday, August 26th, 2006

135I haven’t seen much of Fribourg the past week other than the walk from the station to the hotel which includes a section through the pedestrianised medieval high street. The Hotel de la Rose is also quite nice: the 17th century exterior houses some modern looking rooms complete with free wireless access.

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Selling out to Robbie Williams

Friday, August 18th, 2006

I’ve spent three days this week in Berne, Switzerland, and I’m due to return there next week. Trying to book accommodation has proved a nightmare though. Apparently Robbie Williams is in town on Wednesday and Thursday which means the place is booked out. Looks like I’m going to end up in the nearby town of Fribourg.

All quiet at Terminal 4

Tuesday, August 15th, 2006

Work is taking me to Switzerland this week, flying to Zurich from Terminal 4 at Heathrow. Remarkably it took me just an hour and fifteen minutes to make it from home to past airport security – an hour sweeping up an empty M3, 5 minutes (if that) at self-service check-in and then 10 minutes for security, most of which was spent waiting for them to open the departure area.
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Travel chaos?

Friday, August 11th, 2006

On Thursday morning I was driving to the customer site with the radio burbling away in Danish when I heard the words “John Reid”. There then followed a statement by the man himself (interesting that the Danes don’t feel the need to translate), detailing the foiled terrorist attacks and the consequent restrictions on hand luggage. Myself and a colleague, working at the same customer, spent much of the next 24 hours pondering how this would impact our journey home today.
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Rude awakening

Thursday, August 10th, 2006

Back in Denmark again this week but in yet another hotel: Comwell Holte. This proved to be a fairly standard conference venue but has the twin benefits of a) being just 15 minutes drive from the customer and b) having a large forested area known as Rude Skov just over the road.
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