NYC Santa madness

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/12/20/fashion/20081220-street-feature/index.html

Check out this crazy Santa convention, Dec 13, 2008 NYC, I wish I was there!

well-behaved Christmas kitty

Awww, as if he were posed, Wakefield was being his usual laid back self. Displaced by the lack of electricty at my place, Wake and I traveled to the warmth of Mike's place. He made himself at home, and got cozy under the tree. Little does he know, the place will be invaded by cookie wielding children in less than an hour.

Zealand Hut hike

late post...Zealand Hut hike, great time...except for the 30 freakin boyscouts! Oh man, it was an invasion!

Ice storm madness

Ice and rain, all night, left this place a mess....but also left some pretty views...

Visit to an alpaca farm

Took a ride today to Acorn Alpaca Ranch in Millis. OMG soooo cute! A small farm with about 100 alpacas and 3 llamas. The alpacas are kept solely for there fibers. They are sheared in May and the wool is sent to be processed and there is a small shop where they sell the yarn and some hand made items too.

Black Friday and the bulge

Well it wouldn't be Thanksgiving w/out my annual trip to the outlets where I meet up with Kelley and her mom. Oh the bargains we would find. People say we are crazy....but it's really not that bad. We aren't like those truly crazy people who are in line at at midnight at the mall. We are leisure black Friday shoppers. Got to hang out at The Dog for a while too...go there its cool. www.thespottydog.com

Oh yeah....and there is a baby on the way for Kel and Al...in case  you hadn't heard. Really, it's a baby, not a giant beer belly from owning a bar!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Home Sweet Home

Made it home safely and the luggage arrived too. My body isn't sure what time it is. Woke up at 5 AM this morning, UGH...and this is how my cat was treated while I was away! Wakefield hopes this photo doesn't make it back to the shelter. He's humiliated. ;-)
GO REDSOX!

Our last day.

Well I tried to post one more cow video but the computer I'm using just won't cut it. Anyway, I've packed my bags and I am sending them ahead on the train, with my fingers crossed that they end up in Boston tomorrow night. It's a Swiss Rail/Air transfer service. Sad to be leaving. I've had a great time, and I think this is the first day I've gotten up w/out sore muscles.

Who am I with?

A few of you have asked who I'm traveling with...my mom, though she's not a hiker, she's gotten to many of the summits by bus, train or gondola. Jerry and Beth...Jerry was in kindergarten with my Dad and they were lifelong friends. I've know them my whole life. And David...he's a man Jerry and Beth met on a walking tour of the UK about 5 years ago. He's from London and is a crack-up!
He's a retired British Airways steward...here's a tip...don't be rude to the staff at the airport, THEY TAKE NOTES! We've been staying in an 'apartment'. It's so nice, basically the 3rd floor of a house. It's very large. We are in the small town of Kandersteg, where everyone, knows everyone, and Jerry, Beth and David have been back 4x and everyone knows them!

Photo L to R: David, Beth, Jerry

One last hike!

We squeaked in one last hike today, as the weather turned out to be nice. We started out heading towards the Gasterntal (which we hiked earlier in the trip) but instead of going all the way through the valley, we turned off and went up the Gurnigel valley to Sunnbuel. Another long hike and it was steep with a few scary spots. I was hugging the wall!! Sorry, no photos of that!

up, Up, UP!

Hiked a trail to the Kliene Scheidegg today. About 3 hours of going up, and I mean up, like get on the stair climber for 3 hours and then we'll talk! We sent Mom up on the train to meet us at the top. Beautiful scenery as always. At the summit...about 500 Japanese tourists! They don't hike, they take the train to the top and run around snapping photographs, it's pretty amusing. At our lunch on the summit next to the Eiger, one of the highest peaks in the area.

Back to Speiz

We went to the Spiez wine festival today, though I don't recall seeing any wine....hmm...they also had a big parade. All the floats were pulled by cleanly polished tractors. Had an awesome sandwich...a french baguette, with the center drilled out and filled with CHEESE FONDUE! YUM!
It was good, even though I scalded my fingers with hot cheese once or twice. Check out the little kids sitting on the float! LOL

The Matterhorn

Got to see the magnificent Matterhorn. We arrived by train to the very touristy area of Zermatt. We weaved our way thru town to hop on the funicular (a tram the goes vertical INSIDE the mountain). Arrived at the Sunnegga peak at about 7000 feet. Sat and had a hot chocolate before or decent down. A steep but easy hike back to town took about 2 hours. We had the view of the Matterhorn about 3/4 of the way down.

Saus Fee

Another sightseeing day... We went to the little village of Saus Fee, perched way up on the side of a mountain. It's basically a ski town, very quaint. And there were actually people skiing already! The tram takes them way up and over to an area we couldn't see from town. Looked to be a lot of race teams there gearing up for the winter season.

Grosser Aletschgletscher

The largest glacier in Europe is called the Aletsch Glacier and it's 53 square miles. It's HUGE! We took 2 trains and one tram to get to the back side of it, then we hiked for a total of 5 hours up, over, through to follow a trail that runs along side of it. This photo doesn't even begin to show the scale of the glacier. Still to climb...a trail across from the Matterhorn in Zermatt...hopefully on Saturday, we are hoping the weather cooperates.

Oeschinensee

High above Kandersteg is a mountain lake called Oeschinensee. We took a questionable ride up there on a bus. I opted for a low level hike...the lack of sleep is catching up to me, about 20 hrs in 7 nights...do the math. Anyway, it was quite beautiful, mountains all around and the water was a beautiful blue-green.

Trip to Thun

A day of sight seeing today. Rode to Spiez, then walked south along Lake Thun to Fraulensee. Then boarded a ferry boat heading north on Lake Thun for about an hour. We passed this castle on the way. It's called Schadau Castle and it's a restaurant now. We got off the boat in Thun and walked around a bit. It was much like Boston's Downtown Crossing area, except there is a river running down the middle of it.

Allmenalp

Hiked up to Allmenalp today, about 3 hours up. Pretty steep but we got to ride down in a cable car. STRAIGHT down! Of course we enjoyed a beer at the restaurant at the top before we descended. Check out the view. The village behind me in the photo is where we are staying.

To Frutigen

An easy day today, hiked about 8-9 miles down the valley to a town called Frutigen. Down hill most of the way thru woods and farm land. We were fogged in most of the way, so I've included a photo of a friendly cow from yesterday. We are heading out to a restaurant tonight. The same place we've stopped each night for a beer on the way home from a hard days hiking. :-)

Grosse Scheidegg

After 3 trains and one crazy bus ride up a mountain road, we reached 11,300 ft at Grosse Scheidegg. It was quite chilly as it was on the north side, probably around 35 degrees. We visited a cheese festival and traversed across the mountain to the town of First. Once again the views were amazing. We met a lot of cows again today, they are everywhere. Once we reached First, we took a 3.5 mile gondola ride back down the mountain to catch the train. A long day, beautiful hike and great CHEESE!

Gasterntal Valley

Hiked 13 miles today into Gasterntal Valley. Amazing views, water falls, etc. Hiked through a 'glacial hanging valley' which is basically, flat farmland, way up in the valley between the peaks. It was just beautiful. Saw a bunch of cows up there, and walked by a few small hotels. The valley is evacuated by mid October until spring due to snow and avalanches. That's me on the bridge in the photo. Yes, the small speck of pink. The town way in the background is where we are staying. This was towards the beginning of the hike.

Sheep video

All the sheep wear bells around their necks so the farmers can keep track of them. You can hear them in the video.

sheep hearding

So how do you get your sheep herd from 1 pasture to another? Walk them down Main St of course, check out this photo. We were sitting at a restaurant having beer when the sheep showed up! Too funny. Will try to post a video, having a bit o trouble.

planes, trains and automobiles

We made it...Kandersteg, Switzerland, its BEAUTIFUL. We took every form of transportation to get here. I swear we looped around Heathrow airport 4 times and ended up at the gate we came in on...but we managed to get here. Once we got to Kandersteg, we walked thru town with our luggage to our chalet...quite a site. Check out this veiw!

I'm off

Today's the day, heading to the airport after lunch...already had a flight canceled and re-booked, though British Airways says we will miss the connecting flight.....hmmmm....you need 2 hours to get from terminal 4 to terminal 5! what kind of airport is this! I guess I'll find out soon.

JELLO CAKE

Well, I wait all year long for this and now the time has come... it's the famous Jell-o cake. 38 years and counting! Thanks, MOM!

OK, so not a lot on this blog about knitting or cooking yet...I'm working on it...but in the coming days there should be a lot about hiking and maybe some biking...

Can't wait to get to Switzerland and I've got 52 minutes left at my work desk before I'm officially outa here!!!

2 Weeks and counting...

Dug the suitcase out of the closet, trying to figure out if I'll blow up my hair dryer while I'm over there. 220, 110...whatever!

in the beginning....

So here I start with my first post, hoping to master the 'blog' life before my trip to Switzerland.