Conveuropean

Today we felt like doing some exercise so we took our bikes and rode all the way to Augusta Raurica, a Roman archaeological site and an open-air museum, located around 17 km away from Basel. We passed by Aeschenplatz, St. Jakob, Muttenz, Pratteln and Augst where this complex is located. It is possible to visit an Amphitheatre, a forum, a Roman museum and a Roman house that displays reconstructions showing the typical life during that era.

Have you ever experienced this feeling of being on the road driving to somewhere and then having and breathtaking landscape in front of you so nice that you feel the urge to stop and take a picture?. Some weeks ago we went

to visit an interesting open air museum in the middle of Switzerland and just before we arrived to this place,we stumble onto this amazing landscape with the snowy alps in the background, reflected in the calm waters of a lake, surrounded by some green hills. Fortunately we found a place on the road to park the car and to take this picture. There is no doubt this country has some amazing landscapes!.

Last thursday I read in my tech feeds that Google had released an standalone camera app in the play store, to simulate programmatically depth-of-field lens-blur effects to the shots taken with the phone. Since I had updated my "old" galaxy nexus maguro to CM11 the night before I decided to give a go to this new app.

Every year the carnival in Basel starts exactly at 4am when all the lights in the old town of are turned off and the different "Cliques" march through it, in different parades playing some traditional marching songs using piccolos and drums. This year has been exceptionally warm so I thought I was a good opportunity to see the Morgestraich again and I was not disappointed at all.

We visited Berne yesterday with some friends that came to visit us from Catalunya. This time around we parked again next to the bear park and there were a couple of bears walking there. I brought my camera to take some pictures in the lovely Swiss capital and while I was taking some shots of the bears I learned something new: You can't run away from them climbing to the trees because they surely can do it as well. As you can see in this picture one of them climbed quite well to the top of one of the trees. All the visitors were surprised and amazed at the same time. They are very cute as you can see here, but as our friend was saying they are cute until they bite you arm off!. Anyhow, we consider ourselves very lucky to have had the chance to see such a nice spectacle.

Probably some of the most iconic art pieces in Basel are the ones created by Jean Tinguely, a Swiss artist famous for his sculptural machines. You can find samples of his work in the Tinguely museum (hosts a permanent exhibition), in the Euroairport and in this fountain located where the old city theater was once located. The artist setup these nine iron pieces in constant movement, interacting with each other. Today at lunch time I was walking in the city center and I was able to capture a nice backlight shot that demonstrates the sculptures in action splashing water.

I have to confess I love the Christmas markets in Germany and Switzerland because they gave me back the Xmas emotion and spirit I used to feel when I was a kid that were long gone. Last Friday we went to visit the market Basel located in Barfuesserplatz and on our way we found out that one of the places serving Gluehwein had on top of it one of the traditional Christmas Pyramids. As you can see in this picture this pyramid has the traditional shape with different motives in each one of the levels. I wasn't aware but this type of decoration has its roots in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) region of Germany. Anyway I already had my first cup of mulled wine this xmas and I'm ready to party on today. If I don't post anything before the 24th, merry christmas to all of you!

Last weekend a very nice colleague of mine invited us over to have dinner at her place and to “spicy it up” she proposed to go to the Bamberg Seilpark, around 10 km away from Solothurn, in the Jura mountains.. I have seen these rope parks before in Switzerland but this was the first time I attempted to get into an climbing harness, clicked my safety line and climbed on the trees overcoming a different set of obstacles. I went as far as my shoulders let me go but my colleagues were very brave and successfully attempted the black circuit, full of really high challenging obstacles. In this picture you can see my brave colleague when she was about to swing on the monkey bars some 20 meters above the ground!. Chapeau.

Last weekend we had a first glimpse of the future autumn since we climbed with a couple of friends to the peak of Rigi Kulm, also called the “Queen of the Mountains”, through some foggy weather and the temperature dropped to around 10 degrees. Unfortunately we missed the view from the top but when we were walking down the sky clear up slightly and we were able to get an idea how amazing was the view. When we were walking back to Goldau after a nice descend through the forest we were welcomed by a nice view of its twin town Arth, with the Zug lake. I’m not 100% sure but I think that is what I got in this picture. Rigi is definitively a nice walk, but prepare your calf muscles!

Last week K. was counting the days until the weekend because she was looking forward to do some hiking again in Wengen, a small village in the Berner Oberland mountains. Today when we are back I completely understand the reason of her excitement: It’s indeed one of the most beautiful parts of Switzerland, offering some breathtaking views of the Bernese mountains. For the first hiking trail, we parked in Lauterbrunnen, took a train to Wengen, got in the cable car to Männlichen and from there we walked all the way to Kleine Scheidegg. This trail was particularly surreal because you are walking in the rim of a mountain more than 2000 meters above the sea level, with some astonishing landscapes, but at the same time you find on your way cows pasturing, always joined by the sound of their typical Swiss bells tinkling. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me but I tried to capture one of those moments with the camera of my phone.

Today we enjoyed a lovely day visiting the Gruyere district of Switzerland, doing plenty of interesting activities and eating some really good food. We started our visit getting to the town of Gruyères. This ancient town has a couple of interesting attractions including the Castle, the Town fortifications and an unusual museum: the HR Giger, where you can visit some of the exhibitions created by this Swiss artist who won an oscar for his work in the movie Aliens. We also drove to Moléson-sur-Gruyères where you can take both a funicular and a cablecar to discover the magnificent panorama and takes pictures from the summit you can observe the Moléson mountain on this picture I took just when we arrived to Gruyères, on the left top corner.

My dad is visiting us during these couple of weeks and for a long time we wanted to visit the Qin Terracotta Warriors exhibition in Bern, so finally yesterday we thought this would be a good opportunity to do it together, so we booked a car and visited the swiss capital to watch this interesting exhibition. When we ended our visit to Bern, after getting quite a few ice creams in such a hot summer day, we decided to visit also Thun, located only 30 km south of Bern. This city has a beautiful landscape where the River Aar flows out of the Lake Thun. When we were walking towards the lake we saw some charming old wooden bridges like the ones you can observe in this picture.

Last weekend I was in Zurich enjoying the last day of the festival Zueri Faescht. I wasn't aware but my friend A. told me this festival only takes place every three years, so I'm glad I made it even if it was only for the last day. The city was absolutely packed and there was music and food all over and plenty of shows. One of the most impressive ones in my opinion was the tightrope walk between the towers of St. Peters Church and the Grossmunster cathedral, over the Limmat river by Alfons Bügler. It was really spooky to see this tighrope walker to go from one church to the other without any protection. I took this photo when he was starting the walk in St. Peters.

Today it was a sunny day in Switzerland so we used our brand new mobility card to get a Smart and we headed to Neuchatel to visit a friend of K. When we arrived there he proposed us to visit a really cool place on the top of the mountain, so we went there. I had no idea what was exactly about so when we finally arrived after circling a lot of small roads we got to a place that at first sight doesn't look too impressive: You just see some cows with their bells ringing, surrounded by some rocky fence, but once you cross the field and pass the rocks you get welcomed by a breath taking view: The Creux du Van, a natural rocky cirque that looks like a cliff in the sea. You can walk in the edge of the cliff and in some parts is scary: the abyss is just 2 steps from the road, but anyway totally recommended! Very interesting place.

The distribution of the holidays in Switzerland is particular, since most of them are clustered in May and there are not so many in the remaining months of the year. Anyway, last Monday I wanted to enjoy the last holiday this month so I head south to Zurich to meet a German friend. She proposed to go up to Uetliberg by train and it was a very good idea. This mountain offers an impressive panoramic view of Zurich and its lake as you can observe in this picture. It takes around 20 minutes to go there and the trip is totally worth it. Highly recommended if you pass by Zurich.

The Montreaux Jazz Festival take place in July every year in this Swiss city and it's probably one of the most famous ones in the world from this kind. Last year we had the opportunity to go there and when we visited the city we found out the Château de Chillon is one of the most visited places not only in this city but also in the whole country. The history of this castle is actually very interesting: It was controlled by the Counts of Savoy who used to tax most of the goods coming from Italy, given its strategic location. We were hesitant about visiting the castle but I'm glad we did it because it was worth it.

I really enjoyed visting Berne in 08. It is a really nice medieval city and to stroll around the city center in the night is a great plan. I took this picture in front of the Bundeshaus.