A Trip to the Cinema

We visited the cinema for the first time today to see "The Simpsons - the MOVIE" and thnakfully I got the right cinema as the film is being shown in its original format and a Deutsch version. If you ever go to a cinema here look for the "E/d/f" sign - meaning English with german and french subtitles.

Trip to the French Market

Finaly we got to go to the market in St Louis this morning. It's a typical French saturday market with all of the normal fruit, meat and other food stalls plus a few arts and crafts. We could have bought a vine but we've really not got the space for it. However, we did manage to stock up on some meat (at about a third of the price of Basel), veg and a little cheese of course. But my favourite stall was the bloke selling a huge variety of wild mushrooms - all very fresh and a wonderful assortment of aromas. Back home tonight to cook the steak & mushrooms. With Switzerland not being in the EU there are limitations on what you can bring back - 20kg of veg is probably sufficient but the 500g pp of fresh meat (doesn't inc sausage, paté etc) is a bind. Mind you if you're not driving you're rarely stopped.

A Good week of cycling

This week the weather cheered up and I managed to get back on a variety of bikes to wander around the countryside and climb some of the smaller (though steep!!) hills nearby. Today I yet again managed to see Germany, France and Switzerland all in one day with a trip to Lorrach, Huningue and St Louis.

Le Barrage de Kemps !

The Power of the river Rhine, as seen at the Barrage de Kemps

Drieland cycling!

Yep it's easy to do over here - cycling for just a few km/miles (well about 20km is the minimum from Kaiseraugst) and you can visit France, Germany and Switzerland. So took my passport today, visited rheinfelden (Swiss side first for Claire's noisy birthday present) then back to Basel and off to the Huningue Canal for a bit of French cycling. Back home for the end of stage 6 of the tour de france - great day but overdid the cycling after a long lay off since long day rides, now knackered.

40 deg C! You must be joking!

Apparently it can get very warm in Switzerland with temperatures in the mid to high 30s. However, this summer seems to be trying to defer any signs of global warming by continually raining and today the temperature hit a high (!!) of just 15 degs. The wet weather back in the UK seems very similar to the conditions out here in Basel. It's becoming boring and not at all conducive to cycling the country.

An Iskatel Rider On Constitution Hill

Le Tour de Londres

What a wonderful day in London on Saturday! It truly was an unmissable experience as "Le Tour" made its long awaited debut in London. Claire and I had volunteered a long time ago (actually during the Tour of Britain the previous year) to be part of the marshalling team for the prologue stage in the centre of London. It meant, of course, an early start from Windsor (our residence for the weekend - thanks Liz, Neil, Bryn & Eve) and arrival in London at 8.00am. London, like many cities, is a wonderful site in the early morning sunshine with the added advantage that the whole of the centre was traffic free in anticipation of the day's event. The day itself was great with an amazing atmosphere created from a mixture of keen cyclists, tourists and locals admiring the spectacle. The riders probably couldn't believe that their names were shouted so loudly in a supposed "anti-cycling" country like England. The cheers greeting the quick times of Karpetz & Kloden were eclipsed by the roars for Millar, Wiggins, Cavendish, Thomas & Wegelius with the loudest applause for the simply devestating time of Fabian Cancellara - our Swiss hero! (and what a week for the Swiss!). Will it change the outlook of cycling in the UK? - Maybe. Will Le Tour return? - almost certainly!

Chainsaw Required!

Today I met up with Dave the Dish (nope - he's not some male model) the local Basel Satellite installation expert. I had prepared myself for the bad news and DTD confirmed it by informing me that I could not receive the Sky Astra Satellite signal due to a rather large tree at the back of our apartment. I have been provided with various subtle methods of removing said tree but don't think I will be going down that route. It will probably have to be an alternative solution to get a bit more UK Tv than BBC Prime & BBC World - which will, of course, cost rather more!

Off to the Mountains

Today we went to one of our closest mountains, Mt Rigi, near Lake Lucerne. Using the Roche GA (Generale Abonnement - a Season Ticket for the whole of Switzerland, available for 25CHF on a Sunday - and it was First Class!) card we travelled on the train to Luzern and then took the boat across the lake to Weggis. From here there is great cable car journey up to 1450m (Rigi Kaltbad) - the walk to the top then takes a further hour. There are also cog railway lines up each side of the mountain (see photo) but we left them alone and took a long two and a half hour walk back down to the lake. On the way we listened to the sounds of clanging cow bells! Once at the lake (this time at Vitznau) we caught the boat back to Luzern, on the way catching a huge thunderstorm!