Annecy Aristos

The delightfull town of Annecy nestles at the end of a lake in the Haute Savoie departement in France.  The old town surrounds the river Thiox as it drains into Lac D'Annecy, and it tis this that gives the place its charm. Some say its the Venice of France, the buildings abutt the river which looks like a canal.

We  decided to pay the town a visit last saturday, its about 40 mins away, down the A1 from Allaman to Geneva then across the border into France and down the A41, no to the one that goes to Aylesbury! but a new lump of French autoroute that sweeps its way towards Lyon, long viaducts and tunnels bypass the quaint villages and Les Ponts De Caille, interestingly old castellated bridge near Cruseilles. Its not cheap but at least you can see what you get for your money, I think it cost us €5.90 in tolls.

We decided to go because of a certain shoe shop, as it appears that a woman cant have enough shoes, and I recalled that there was a Carrefour hypermarket just outside, so a deal was struck, Carrefour first then the shoes, then lunch.  

We have seen the supermarket from the route we take into Annecy, but have never seemed to be able to hit the spot, well today we did, a  circuitous route took us to the car park and then into the store. Now I've been to big supermarkets before but this was a real biggy, the girls who were doing supermarkety stuff got around on roller blades, and it was quite busy  being a saturday morning. 

The beer section was located and several French beers on my list were purchased, two of which I note later.

Now it was off to park as near the old town as possible, we usually leave the car in Galleries Lafayette, but thats quite a walk from the action,  but we found space in the Palais de Justice car park

Shoe purchasing was not that successful as the shoes desired were not there, and unfortunately, alternatives were not available in the correct size.  I'd noticed whilst waiting outside, as one should never venture into a ladies shoe shop,  that there were knots of people agglomerating, seemingly being nucleated by something, and as we wandered disapointedly to find a restaurant for lunch we discovered why.

It seemed that we had done it again! its carnival time in Annecy, like it was a few weeks ago in Lucerne.
This time there were no marching bands and loud raucous music and incessant drumming, just these wonderfully colourfull characters  wandering sedately through the streets. The faces are like china dolls , they are solid masks and give the whole appearance a slight bit of spookyness, unless you look very carefully you don't see any eyes. What was really nice was the genteelness of the whole thing, these people would stop to allow photographs to be taken, then when you mouthed a "merci", they would  wave a hand in a most regal manner acknowledging the thanks

We found somewhere  for lunch, I had the obligatory Tartiflette Savoyard, for those not versed in the cuisine of the region, its potatoes and cheese in a creamy sauce, with some bacon bits in it.  Mine came with a green salad and charcouterie, which was raw smoke ham.. very nice too. The vegetarian significant other had a pizza.

We left the restaurant and found lots of other colourfully dressed people

yes can I help you?

black and gold beauty

I think its really great that people take the trouble to do this, The costumes must be expensive, and I'm sure the masks are also.
I looked it up and found that its seemingly  a Venetian type carnival, maybe explained by the canals of Annecy

dark pits...no eyes

So to the beers
Two I selected from my purchases were 3 Monts  from the Brasserie De Saint Sylvestrie, and the curiously named Ch'ti from Benifontaine.
CH'TY
This blonde beer, sitting at 6.4%ABV, came in an amber 75cl bottle, made by Tettauer glashuttenwerke  with a wired cork.  My book tells me that I should detect a peppery and tropical fruit nose. Well unfortunately I couldn't detect any, but it has to be said that my nasal passages are a tad challenged at the moment due to a cattarhal issue, so no nose is probably unfair.  I thought it a little on the sweet side but with quite a bitter finish, not one that I would rush back to, although singularly working your way through 75cl may have put a damper on things
 3 Monts
3 monts is a Biere de Flandres, it checks in at 8.5% ABV, and my example came in a 75cl light amber bottle by Saint Gobain from their Usine De Vauxrot.

3 monts posing in front
 of glass art by Irja

This is another blonde beer, and at 8.5% needs some carefull drinking.
I was alarmed at the closure, a cork but locked in place by a metal clip under the lower bead on the finish.  The mode of removal was to take a pair of pliers and twist off the metal clip, making alarming scratching noises to boot. Scratching means damage...damage leads to origins and failure...Also you can see that there is a labelling issue as the neck decoration has winged.
I am supposed to be overwhelmed by this blond bombshell, well It wasn't that great an experience, I didn't finish it!
It was very pale golden brew, much in the same way as J&B whisky is pale compared to say Whyte and Mackay.  I didn't get the fruity nose, but reckoned a hoppy sweetness and an afterpunch of alcoholic warmth.  I don't think I would drink this one again either.

So thats another two down. I'm off to the North East of England next, so we will see what we can find in local Offies and Supermarkets.
971 to go...

Japan

No beers in this one, just some thoughts

Its been 10 days or so since we watched in horror the unfolding events in Japan after the huge earthquake and its Tsunami.  I don't know what the official final estimate of the severity is but some reports say 9.0 on the Richter scale. The Christchurch one was 6.3, so it was 501 times stronger! wow. The thing about it is scale, the scale of the death toll, the scale of the Tsunami damage, scale of the plight of the people in that part of Japan.

The problem I have in comprehending what is going on is the sheer size of the thing, OK Earthquakes in an Earthquake prone country are containable, and I think I know what 20,000 people look like, but the Tsunami is just something else.

Normally you look out on a harbour view, the sea is the backdrop, the canvas on which the picture is painted, but its background belies an awesomely large lump of mass, and once set in motion is effectively unstoppable, its momentum carrying it and anything before it to just where it wants to go.

Pictures on the news broadcasts of ships being plucked from their moorings and dashed to destruction under bridges, cars and vans being collected and bundled together like leaves swept together in the autumn. Cargo containers spread in a tangle like tipped over lego bricks. A 10m high wall of water is an immense thing containing millions of tons of water and whatever else it has picked up on the way, be they houses or large merchant vessels, scouring anything ahead of it. Mass destruction on a biblical scale at 60mph.

Its a sign of just how fragile our existence is on this planet, forces of nature can never be contained, especially that of a moving mass of water, even when its calm its inexorable progress  shapes continents, just look at the Grand Canyon.

I look out of my terrace window across the lake to the French Alps, and see the results of previous tectonic movement, the forces are immense, whipping rocks into stiff peaks and setting them like an earthen meringue.

My thoughts were  for the people I know in Japan, they are in the south, Miyazaki,  but  one of my work contacts Takeshi, worked in Osaka, I think he's OK too, hope so!

But what of the countless thousands of homeless, of all those  poor souls killed by the Tsunami, a most frightening way to go. 

Now we have  the battle of the brave few trying to contain the problems with the Fukushima power plant, and  all of a sudden other nations round the world are looking closely at the safety aspects of their own nuclear installations. We have a couple here in Switzerland, and we are at the moment looking to replace one ...not anymore!

My thoughts and sympathies go out to all those who have lost loved ones, homes businesses indeed whose lives and livelyhoods have been plucked from them that Fatefull Friday 11th March, so take a moment and reflect a little on the plight of these peoples, and admire their courage.

I can say I hope that thats the biggest that we will ever see, but I don't think it is, however thats what makes us who we are, we face these disasters and pick up the pieces and carry on.

Cracker from Clackmannanshire

Clackmannanshire is a Scottish county bordering Fife  and Kinross shire on the east, Stirlingshire to the west and Perthshire to the north. Its a microcosm of Scotland, with lowland plains of the River Forth, The magnificent Ochils, and some stunning views from the top of Dumyat just behind Menstrie.

There is more whisky stored here than any one could ever drink, warehouse upon warehouse of stored sprit awaiting the call to be blended let down and bottled as the legends of John Walker's colourful tipples, red, black, green, gold and blue, at the moment, when I can afford it, JW Green Label is just the bees knees

Stirling is the gateway to the highlands, and there is a monument to the admirable William Wallace, well worth the 246 step climb to the top, you can see, on a clear day, as far as the Pentland Hills and the Forth road bridge towers, in another direction the Trossachs, and indeed if I'm not mistaken, Ben Lomond. 

You can also see the Hillfoots road that runs from Stirling along the foothills of the Ochils along through Alva, Tillabody, Tillicoultry, Dollar, Crook of Devon and the wonderfully named Yetts O' Muchart, and on to Falkland Kinross and Loch Leven where Mary queen of Scots was once "housed". 

We stayed for a little while in Dollar, famous for its Academy, and at one time, but not now, the Fawlty Towers of Scotland, the Castle Campbell Hotel.  The Significant Other , at that time, was posted to the Alloa factory as QA manager, and later as Production Manager, before the fly fishing corporate rod whisked her back south of the border. Sometimes she would return south for the weekend and I would accompany her to Heathrow on a Sunday evening, dropping off the hire car, and I would train back to St Albans. The weird thing was that if you got a return it was around half the price of a single, so I would dutifully tell the ticket guy yes I was coming straight back....

 I think the UK rail ticketing has taken on an existence of its own, Its so difficult to work out whats the best deal, some say that its so complex that not even the  Yottateraexaflop machine of Matebile9, whose computing power is such that if all the current earthbound systems were harnessed in parallel, would represent the computing power of a fried green tomato in comparison, could unravel, and indeed purchase, a ticket for the best price from East Boldon to Saltburn.

Its cheaper to travel from London to Horley, the next station past Gatwick airport than to travel to the airport, but woe betide he who purchases a ticket to Horley and gets off at Gatwick, Mr Ticket Inspector will give one a right good seeing to, and a hefty fine into the bargain... 

This is what happens when a public service become a run for profit at all costs organisation. This is what will happen to the UK Health service, you go in for an appendectomy only to find its actually wind so you get "fined"

We must not let this venerable organisation fall foul of the profit makers!!

Something has to give! maybe its me being Bitter and Twisted... but I do think we in the UK have an overly complicated way of doing things, you cant even simply purchase a ticked for the Olympic Event of your choice, has to go into a ballot or something... still Bitter and Twisted takes me to my next ale!

Bitter and Twisted (B&T)

When in Dollar our local was the delightful Strathallan Hotel, cosy lunches and Chess evenings from the Acadamy over the road.  It was also the occasional haunt of one Ken Brooker  who founded the Harviestoun brewery.  Its now in Alva down the road a piece, but I recall Ken would provide a special strong ale for new year. Bitter and Twisted is possibly his best known beer all though there are others, one apparently using Highland Park whisky barrels, called Ola Dubh. Must hunt that one out next time I'm in Scotland. Ken Brooker has retired now and the brewery after a spell under the Caledonian Brewing Company is now back  as an independant. 

I recall purchasing small plastic kegs of the beer directly from the brewery, we would take them back to Middlesbrough for J's dad. The beer? well  its 4.2% abv, very refreshing and a jolly good quaff. I think its better draught than from the bottle, but its been a while!  The Strathallan Hotel is no more, its a house or even two.  The Glassworks still produces extraordinary numbers of whisky bottles though, all with the letters E08  near the heel or in the base.   Oh! and in case you wonder, a Yett is a gate, or so I am reliably informed.

973 to go!

Four-Two

Two simple numbers, one twice the other, or half if you are that way inclined' join them together with a ty for the answer. 

Smart have a Four-Two, one of the oddest motoring experiences I ever had, A Hertz one out of Edinburgh  to Alloa. I'd seen them in the car hire return on one of my  many many visits to that fair Scottish town.  Manoeuver (that doesn't look right!) it around the car park, then onto the dual carriageway out to the Newbridge roundabout, foot on the gas and something very odd happens, its like a small explosion occurs seemingly under your seat and you leap forward accompanied by a raucously curious engine sound... great fun! I hope to own one one of these days.

4-2, inevitably, I hear you say, was the score when England beat Germany in the 1966 footie world cup. 

1966 was the year that our current prime Minister, and general taker to bits of the national health service, was brought into the world. It was also the year that the Wilson government swept to power, bringing with it all those hopes and aspirations, after his 1963 white heat of technology speech.

As far as I can see the health service in UK is over bureauocratised, there are layer upon layer of manager, administrator, director, and at the bottom of the pile are the Patients, the Doctors, and the Nurses. What happens if we take out a couple of layers of administration? can we use the money to pay for drugs that are not post code dependent? can we use the savings to fund better scanners, screen tests? Why are these  diagnostic machines, an MRI scanner for example at around one million pounds, so expensive? I used NMR back in the '70's , but now I have more computational power than what put the man on the moon  under this keyboard at hardly any cost at all. Is it because we have cosy little deals between purchasing officers, or what ever they are called, and the big equipment manufacturers? 

One thing for sure, we cannot let the Health service in the UK get surgically dissected and passed on to organisations that health care is not their primary objective, but profit! We all get sick from time to time, boy thats a winner! the board room rubs its hands with mammonian pleasure as the next wave of 'flu hits the  nation, more profit for the drug companies, more profit for the health care companies, more cost to the patient in increased insurance premiums.

Four two also refers to my next six beers, four from the UK and two from Germany... so to the Beers

Germany: Gutmann Hefeweizen and Maisels Weisse

From the Family owned Brewery, Gutmann's Hefeweizen golden white brew enters the field at 5.2%, My notes say the nose was reminiscent of bacon, it had a medicinal taste and a very vinegary finish, I wasn't too keen.  My book suggests banana nose and pronounced phenolic flavours, ah! that will be the carbolic then! It was in a glass bottle made by Oberland I think

Maisels Weisse is also a 5.2%ABV puppy, and its as the name suggests a white beer. The brewery is in Beyreuth, home to the Wagnerian Ring cycle. I didn't get much in the way of a malty nose, but its colour was darker and orangier than Gutmann's.  I thought it tasted pretty similar, so again wasn't too keen.  This also was in an amber glass bottle, it's returnable. I reckognise the punt mark but cannot place it...yes its Glaswerke Essen-Karnap in Essen, thanks Emhart!

England: Samuels Smiths Imperial Stout, Samuel Smiths oatmeal stout, Batemans triple XB and Hall and Woodhouse's Tangle Foot

At 5% ABV Tangle Foot is not bad for a couple.  Its a fairly recent ale, first brewed in 1985, its a nice amber liquid with a snowy white head. Brewed in the Badger brewery in Blandford St Mary, its light fruitiness belies the  warming alcoholic finish. This one somewhat ashamedly, was in a tin.....but an OK beer

Batemans Triple X  a classic pale ale, as it says on the label, I didn't get much of a nose, but what I did get was a very distinctive and  bitter finish. Its not a beer I would rush back to, but at 4.8% its quaffable.

Samuel Smiths Imperial Stout, is an impressive name for an impressively chewy intense dark stout, indeed probably chewier than Tadcaster Albion's clubhouse.  It was brewed for the court of Katherine the Great, don't think of her as a beer person, good job she never visited the Red Rose in Linthorpe... nae beor nor even a broon ale!, 

This stout is prodigious, at 7%ABV it needs careful handling. It's a black as a black hole with the same gravity, you are drawn inexorably into the mists of  dark dark chocolate, strong coffee and a hint of King Alfred and his cakes. The robustness carries into a slightly viscous feel in the mouth, reminiscent of Samichlaus Bier.  The serving suggestions are intriguing, and I quote from the label, "...caviar, rich apricot glazed bread and coffee trifle with roasted almonds..." ah well ... It was in an amber glass bottle made by Quinn in the north west of England

Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout  This stout is from the same  stable as the previous but its not quite so impressive. At 5%ABV its not as strong, but strong enough, It poured with a scrappy  light brown head, and had a marmitey nose, not to everyone's taste I guess.  The Beer itself was as darkly intriguing as its Imperial master, I wasn't to happy with the slightly sour and bitter finish. Its serving suggestions include "...pizza...Lobster with drawn butter...British and French cheeses"  wonder what happens if I try it with Gruyere....The container was glass, and the manufacturer was Quinn again in the north west of England

So there you have it I think overall the score line stands: England 4 Germany 2, and in the immortal words of Ken Wolstenholm on that historic Saturday 30th July  from the Wembley BBC commentary box. "...they think its all over,  it is now ...thats four"

lets hope its not all over for the  UK National Health Service!

now by my reckoning that leaves  974 to go...by the time I get to zero, I think I will be in need of the health service!

The Lion of Lucerne

Lucerne is a very nice swiss german city sitting at the end of the lake that shares its name. The river Reuss splits the old and new, draining the lake system. The famous, some say most photographed object in Switzerland, Chapel Bridge links to the old town. We booked to go there last Saturday, there is a nice quiet, unless there is a party, Indian restaurant called the Kanchi in Lowenplatz.  This year from the 3rd to the 8th March ( the day before Ash Wednesday) is Fasnacht, a carnival not to be missed!. The whole place morphs into a  chaos of weirdness, loud raucous music and incessant drumming erupts from almost any small square that can hold more than 20 people.  Its a fancy dress makers heaven.  The festival directs the outgoing winter season and heralds the appearance of Spring. 

Before our Indian we had a beer, as you do, in the Mr Pickwick on the side of the Reuss river, we drank with a Smurf, several Pirates and a Parrot complete with its own parrot on its shoulder. Earlier we spied a strange bird family making its way along Hertensteinstrasse towards the maze of little streets alleyways and small squares that typify he old town

Almost everywhere you go there is a marching band millipedeing the small streets, narrowly missing others doing the same thing, here is a very odd vegitatively themed band approaching me down the side of Weinmarkt.

Lucerne was one of the early joiners to the confederation, back in 1332.  and its  possible, but not on August 1, to take a boat from the quay in Lucerne to the Rutli meadow where the three wise men of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwald  formed the allegance of the valleys, protecting the trade routes into northern Europe from the Hapsburgs, as these "Three Swiss" had a deal with the Holy Roman Empire, so in 1291 it all started. 

Leaping forward a few hundred years, at the time of the French Revolution the Swiss were keen supporters of the French nobility, sending a special Swiss guard to look after Louis XVI and his wife, Marie "let them eat cake" Antoinette. Well we all know what happened there, the Swiss lost some 760 lads during that little bit of unpleasantness.

There is a memorial to the event, just off Denkmalstrasse near the bus station. Its a remarkably peaceful thing set into a sheer cliff face, with a  tranquil pond at its base. Mark Twain said it was "the saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world", and one has to say there is a certain something there.

The story goes, according to  Wikipedia, that the designer Bertel Thorvaldsen when told that he wouldn't be paid the agreed amount for his work, left a lasting legacy in the porcine shape of the carved niche....well whilst walking back to the hotel before going out for the evening we found another Lion in Lucern:

glass art by Irja!

so to the beer

Lion Stout

This is a mighty brew, at 8.8% it's a strong one. It's malty smokey nose doesn't prepare one for the  incredible hit of liquorice and dark chocolate, the finish is oddly flat. Its as black as Guinness, its head from the bottle was dark brown with many frogs eyes. My book tells me it used to be available in draught format in the township of Nuwara Eliya where it was brewed but now its down in Columbo, I cant believe what it might have been like out of the pump, anyway its a great beer and totally unexpected find!  The brewery also does a lager, but I didn't purchase it, maybe next time.

Its interesting that the label for the beer tells me its brewed in Ceylon,  the crown also says the Lion Brewery (Ceylon) PLC,  to recall Ceylon became Sri Lanka in 1972

As we returned to our hotel after our jolly nice Indian, we were accompanied by a Pharaoh, resplendent in a headdress of purple and gold stripes, two streetlamps (Illuminated) complete with hanging cobwebs and spiders, and a Blues Brother, the singularity of which added a certain poignancy to the evening. Drumming went on to the wee small hours and possibly beyond... 

So thats 980 to go!

Singapore Slurpage

When we were in the UK we used to meet up with the significant other's sister and sometimes Her significant other, in London for a friday evening meal and catch up.  We used to frequent Bertorelli's behind the Opera House in Covent Garden, Floral street I think,  but for some reason we went off that and started to frequent Sapori near Dury Lane. This was a very friendly and very casual dining experience, we had some nice evenings in that  little bistro, I think it was run by some super Spanish ladies, dark eyes and sparkly personalities.
It was there that it was announced that a short sojurn was to be undertaken in Singapore, by J's sister, she works for a project management consortium in the quality area.  Well this was interesting, what were we to do about our Friday evenings? Only one thing to do really, so for the first or second Friday of her visit we popped across on the Thursday evening, got a flight from Heathrow landed Singapore some 12- 13 hours and 10500 miles later, she met us at the airport, we had a quick shower and then some drinkies in the bar of the excellent Marina Mandarin Hotel, near the City Mall. We arranged to meet after her work in an Italian restaurant in Chijmes, a sort of ex-catholic churchy area with stuff, all very nice.
Any visit to Singapore must include a drink in the Long Bar of Raffles Hotel, crunching on the discarded peanut shells to get to a table.  I cannot remember what I had to drink, hope it wasn't the pink singapore sling, but you never know!  I do recall, however, it was in a clear film labelled bottle that was made in our glassworks in Harlow UK!!.  I obviously didn't get out much then!
We also had drinkies and a watch of the UK Footie late at night in Doug's Bar up Cuppage terrace off Orchard road, and also often ending the evening on Clarke Quay at the Crazy Elephant.  I cant find my pictures of the Crazy Elephant so a picture of the Tee Shirt will have to do!

The bar lists visits form some legends of blues and rock and roll, Eric Burdon the Geordy lad from the Animals to mention but one. As you can see the beer of choice was Tiger!
We also had some interesting eating experiences in a food court, I don't remember its name, but it was off Anson road,  off the MRT at Tanjong Pagar, and a short walk.. much Tiger was consumed there!

We left  the Sunday night, so a shortish stay but really great. We have had many visits since, extending our stop overs on long haul holidays down under, for a few days just to savour the uniqueness of the mixture of cultures, the strange, for an Aberdonian anyway, climate of mid 20's to low 30'sC and 12hrs of daylight all the year round...
We remember fondly the anticipatory queues of Brides to Be on the tip of Sentosa, the Christmas displays in the Department stores on Orchard road like CK Tangs showing snow scenes, The Indian district just like India...and J, a previous visitor, recalls the wonderfully dismissive phrase:

"The Ability to walk on water is worth only the price of the ferry" she heard on the local radio,  says it all really!

Oh dear I think its time to go back!  Tiger from the fridge in St Prex  just isn't the same as from a jug on Clarke key watching the humorous ticker display outside the Crazy Elephant.
So to the beer, only one really

Tiger
This is an interesting brew, certainly better freshly drawn, a jug however needs to be consumed before it gets too warm!  so you need friends.  It sits at %5 ABV so isn't a huge challenge.  Its refreshingly tasty with a distinctive a nose; some say is malty biscuity with citrous and melon notes, well I reckon it smells of Tiger Beer... Its a truely international brew,  yeast from Netherlands, Aussie and European malted barley, hopped with American  flowers.  However different todays is from the original 30's brew I know not, Its just a great beer.
One other to find when I'm next there is ABC Extra stout, be on the look out for that then. Now... flights from Zurich....
I reckon thats 981 to go...

Zuricher Zeitgeist

It was a good weekend...mostly! Up early saturday mornng, took the rubbish to the Decheterie then back for coffee and off to Zurich for an overnighter. The prospect of an Indian in Kahns in Marktgasse tantalizing the taste buds, even compensating for the inevitable amble up Bahnhoffstrasse. We elected for the 10:45 train from Lausanne, going via Yverdon les Bains, but on arrival at the station I'd made a mistake, the direct trains around Lac Neuchatel are on the odd hour, so we had time for a coffee and a read of the paper until the 11:20 via Bern.

Swiss trains run on time, well mostly, and its easy to sort out your ticket, unlike the UK where I recall recently a Which? report where they had sked trainline peoiple to ge the best price for a journey, they failed.  Here there are deals, but they are obvious, standard fare is second class, you have a half price card? then its half the standard.  First class is twice second so you can go 1st for a second class fare if you have a half fare card. simple...You can do all this from a tri-language little touch screen,  sometimes if its a city destination then they suggest and offer you an all day local travel pass for local busses, trams or trolly busses. great stuff.  I can even buy my Geneva Motor Show ticket from the machine whilst I top up my Swisscom mobile.
SBB, the swissrail company has an excellent web site where I can look for train or bus times from my local bus stop to say Middlesborough...well it says I get the 6:35 bus from the end of the road to Morges, Lausanne, TGV to Paris, Eurostar to London then a "fast train" from Kings Cross to Darlington and thence to Middlesbrough arriving at 17:23.  I think thats pretty neat, if not a little optomistic

The other thing thats a tad neat about Swiss trains is the variety and the means by which they flex to account for variable demand.  The hourly shuttle from Lausanne to Geneva, for example, is normally one Loco and six carriages, it  doesnt turn round so in the direction of Lausanne its engine at the front and back the other way its a pusher with a control cab built into the last or first carriage.  At times of increased demand like early mornings or evenings, they simply tag an extra 4 carriages on the loco end with a control unit so the loco is now within the train.  I dont see that happening on the BedPan line.... Another usefull way of increasing capacity is to double deck.  The train we got to Zurich was just one of these, main seating is upstairs with extra seating downstairs, its an interesting experience.  This wont work in UK as our bridges are too low. I also think, looking at the frequency of the trains between Lausanne and Geneva that they operate on either smaller sections, the distance between signal lights, or how many empty sections are needed between trains

We arrived in Zurich in time to check into our hotel,  we try to use the Central Plaza, simply because we like it, its handy for just about everywhere, it does a nice breakfast and has a piano bar that stays open till late. Its not cheap so we tend to limit our visits to when there are room deals.
Wandering around Zurich you begin to see where all the money is, the number of Porches, Ferraris, Bentleys and the odd Lambo cruse around the square near the little munster with the Chagal windows and the Zunfthaus zur Waag restaurant, the square that is not the little munster,  looking for parking, raspy v8's melodious V10's echo off the old buildings where Churchill did something in 1946 trying to form an United States of Europe.
As we were walking back to the hotel after "Shopping" we came accross a few hundred people marching shouting about "Gadaffi out". It was a very good natured affair, I felt like joining in, but I was dissuaded.  At the back of the demo were the families, little voices piping "Gadaffi out" carrying plackards as big as themselves, what will they remember of this Saturday afternoon I wonder.

 I dont know whats really happening in Libya, but I know that the once Freedom Fighter gained much riches at the expense of his people. The trouble a few years ago when his son Hannibal, of whom you dont hear much, had a go at one of his domestics in the ever so expensive President Wilson hotel in Geneva, seems to typify the flagrant disregard of the human right to express their views without getting lamped.  He also had a go at his wife in London staying in a £4000 a night (!!) suite in Claridges, bet dinner is extra!   What on earth do you get for £4000 a night?  a 5 night stay, there you go 20 grand, or the price of a Top Gear reasonably priced car and he did a similar thing in Paris. Smoke and Fire spring to mind

Its wrong that the people should be on subsistance earnings whilst the presidential progeny  can do as he pleases wherever he pleases and expects to be immune from all prosecution. The sooner that regieme topples the better, however we need to make sure whats next won't end up the same way, somehow I think things will be OK, but where next? Saudi? Qatar? or UAE? we wait and see.

Dinner was great, excellent crushed potatoes in a tomato, red onion, corriander and ginger marsala, Chicken Tikka to die for,  but our predinner drinkies in the Oliver Twist were somewhat swamped by the England France rugby match, never seen so many people in such a small pub, they have something called "London Pride" but its not.

After dinner, and a little nightcap in the piano bar we had a restful night, breakfasted and then made our way to, yes you guessed it, Beers of the World in Zurich Hauptbahnhoff, its an under.   Here I purchased a goodly supply of beers in "The Book"  so will cover them over the next few blogs.

We got back in time to watch the England India world cup cricket, amazing result and very exciting.  In the Pundit Pen was Mikey Holding and I'm reminded of that Brian Johnson classic where England were playing the Windies, in 1976, Peter Willy was on strike against Holding when Jonners said The bowlers Holding, the Batsmans Willy.....
Then we watched the second half of the Carling cup final... enough said

So to the beers
I homed in on some German ones. The first is
Kostritzer Schwartbier
4.8% ABV, a very dark beer, I got no real nose nor did it taste as dark as I was expecting, it had a loose dark head, not that impressed.  It was brewed near Wiemar in the former , mind thats going back a bit now, East Germany.
the next is also a Dunkel beer;
Konig Ludwig Dunkel
An impressively  becrested label announces  a 5.1%ABV hitter, from the disneyesque Kaltenburgh Brewery, or so i'm told.  My tasting notes are very simple, it didnt taste of anything... maybe I should try again. The colour is a very attractive ruby amber., but again I was dissappointed.
So thats now 982 left to find...and drink....