Appenzell

Day 2 of our summer holiday in Switzerland:

Our second day in Switzerland was spent at Appenzell, a small village about 100km east of Zurich. Our agenda for day was to check out the richly decorated facade of the buildings in Appenzell, have some Appenzeller beer and to do some easy hiking around Ebenalp.

Our main modes of transport in Switzerland are the train and our feet. We bought the a pair of Swiss Passes and my son was given a free pass (Free Family Pass). On the hindsight, we should have planned our trip more carefully to maximize our return on the passes. The Swiss Pass is available for 4, 8, 15 or 22 days. And we were in Switzerland for 11 days. We should have gone for 8 or 15 days.

The famous Lowen Pharmacy that I always see on webpages when I google 'Appenzell'.
Finally I am here and standing in front of it! =)
There are paintings of different herbs on the panels.

The village is a small. Other than the beautiful, fariy tale-like facades, also look for the shops selling cheese and the Appenzeller Brewery.

I went in here with then intention of buying some cheese.
But, oh man! I don't think I can work here, the smell was too over-whelming for me.
Smell from a slice of cheese vs smell from a whole shop-full of Appenzeller cheese is very different.

Cloudy Appenzeller Bier for lunch

Inside the Appenzeller Brewery.
There are audio tours in various European languages and a short video.
The actual brewery that brews the beer is off limits.

Till my next blog post, have some cheese! =) 

Rhine Falls

My first tourist attraction in Switzerland, Rhine Falls. Europe's largest plain waterfall. It is easily accessible from Zurich via the train. It is super crowded but it is very spectacular and standing at the platform right next to the mighty torrent of water is worth the visit. =)

I will keep this post short and let the pictures speak for themelves.

Till my next blog post, take a swim! =)

Summer in Switzerland

I spent 10 beautiful summer days with my family in Switzerland last month! It was one of my best holidays so far. I did not checked my work email and my colleagues were very co-operative and did not call me at all! I did not think about work, I just took it very easy, relaxed and enjoyed. It's so liberating!! =)

Sharing with you my itinerary for my 10 amazing summer days in Switzerland:

• Day 1: arrived Zurich in the early morning, checked into hotel, visited the Rhine Falls and did the Zurich Walk from the Zurich HB (train station) to Lake Zurich
• Day 2: took a short hike around Ebenalp and explored Appenzell
• Day 3: travelled from Zurich to Interlaken in the morning, visited the Swiss Open-Air Folk Museum at Ballenberg in afternoon and went on a boat cruise from Brienz to Interlaken
• Day 4: went to Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe)
• Day 5: travelled from Interlaken to Zermatt in the morning and did a short hike from Zermatt to Gorner Gorge and back in the afternoon
• Day 6: took the underground furnicular, gondola and cable car to Rothorn and hiked downhill from Rothorn to Sunnegga
• Day 7: Took the train up to Gornergrat and hiked from Riffelalp to Zermatt
• Day 8: travelled from Zermatt to Bern, waited for the rain to stop and explored the city of Bern
• Day 9: travelled from Bern to Luzern and did the self-guided walk around Reuss River
• Day 10: travelled from Bern to Lausanne and explored the Old Town and Ouchy
• Day 11: Home sweet home

In my next few blog posts, I will be sharing more about my holiday with you.

Till my next blog post, take a holiday! =)

Making your own rubber stamps and loving it!

When I am stressed, I find working with my hands to be very therapeutic and relaxing. It takes my mind off my stress and I just concentrate on getting my piece of craft done. I get a sense of happiness and achievement when my craft piece is done. My latest craft / hobby is making my own rubber stamps. 

I started off with craving on soft rubber blocks or erasers with a regular pen knife but that did not turn out well. I can only do straight lines and that is quite limiting. So, I ordered the Speedball Linoleum Cutter from Amazon and now I am really enjoying the craving! =)

My first home-made rubber stamp!

There are numerous blogs and youtube videos online that can show you how to make your own rubber stamps. And I am going to add to it by sharing my easy steps:

1. Have an idea of what you want to make. I am starting off with simple words like 'hello', 'OMG!'and 'xoxo'. I have also made a checklist stamp to stamp on every page of my notebook and that would be my checklist of things to do / buy, summary points of my meeting, etc.
2. Draw your idea out onto a piece of tracing paper with a 4B pencil.
3. Stain your rubber block with an ink pad. This will make carving much easier because you can see that areas that you have craved out. Allow time for the ink to dry or you can stamp the stained rubber block on a piece of paper a few times to fast track the drying.
4. Transfer your image from the tracing paper to the rubber block. You do this by laying the tracing paper faced down onto the rubber block and rub the back of the paper with your finger tip.
5. When you have the whole image traced onto the rubber block, start craving with the linoleum cutter. Start with the #1 cutter (the thinnest cutter) first to carve out the lines of your image. Follow with the thicker cutters to complete the rest of the carving / stamp.
6. Ink your completed rubber stamp and start stamping! =)

My rubber stamping equipment. I bought everything locally in Bangkok except for the linoleum cutter.

I love rubber stamping!

I have my very own checklist stamp now! =)

See more of my rubber stamps here!

Till my next blog post, do some stamping! =)

Coke and its sharing can

I love this! Can't wait for it to come to Bangkok! Must try when I get back to Singapore next. Hope they have it in my favorite Diet Coke and it is here to stay, not just a fad!! =)

Check out their video here and my visit to the World of Coca-Cola here.

Till my next blog post, have a Coke!!