Logistics

There was a fixed schedule to stick to: waking up at 4am, getting to sleep at 9:30pm. It was not easy to get out of warm bed (yes, August mornings are already chilly at this part of the world) at 4am and even less easy to fall asleep before 10pm. Some blogs I read claim really good quality of sleep when the exhausting day is finally over, but this doesn’t work for everyone. We were all exhausted but some could still hardly fall asleep. I tossed for half an hour on average, only followed by a full night of dreams so vivid that I could recall all details the next morning.

10 hours of meditation was scheduled everyday, either in the group mediation hall or at own room, according to instructions. Meditating outdoor was not allowed — although eventually you are supposed to be able to meditate in all circumstances, to be able to progress as a beginner, distractions are to be minimised. 6 official hours of sleep is too little for me and sitting for hours on the floor in whatever position was straining my back. Luckily no one checked when I “meditated” in room lying down

We had DELICIOUS vegetarian food!! For the 6:30am breakfast, oatmeal and date/raisin soup were served, and the 11am vegetarian lunch was absolutely delicious. I allowed myself one bowl of food at breakfast and lunch each. At the 5pm tea time, some fruits were served instead of dinner, and 1/4 of a small apple and 1/3 of a banana with some camomile tea was largely enough for me. I know some managed 3 whole fruits, which I totally could too on normal working days, but I figured early on that I wouldn’t be able to handle hourlong sitting on a full stomach.

I stayed in a room with two other girls around my age. In general the attendees’ ages range from 18 to around 70, with a significant proportion of young people — there goes my aspiration to pull down the average age. A number in their early 20s. The three-story residence is cut into male section and female section with separate entrances. Turns out K and I both stay on the middle floor in rooms with attached bathroom. We guestimated that they made the younger ones occupy the ground floor with shared bathrooms, like in youth hostels. The top floor, with one or two-bedded rooms was occupied by “old students” who have done this course before.

No sports were allowed but legs and back and shoulders did scream of pain all the time. So we took all opportunity to walk rounds and rounds and rounds in the garden like hamsters. Lovely green garden in August made it an enjoyable activity, with squirrels hugging onto their prized pine nuts, mice chewing on an apple fallen from the tree, flies stopped at the window ready to be grabbed by fingers— what Vipassana animals

I made the mistake of not bringing enough warm clothing, waterproof jacket or umbrella, which proved to be essential. Mid-August doesn’t mean anything in Belgium-Netherlands border: there was more rain than sun, more wind than warmth. Miraculously I didn’t fall sick. There were enough blankets in the meditation hall and in the room

Importantly I accepted to invest in my hard work without having to accept the theories of Karma and Past/Future lives. One does not have to alter any religious and cultural belief in order to benefit from practising dhamma. I appreciate the secular nature of this course. Indeed, there was even a Muslim lady in headdress who was there as an “old student”.

We enjoyed the course, lodging and food free of charge. The whole organisation runs purely on donations from past participants. We made donations at the end of the course to pass down the benefit to future participants.

Lessons

All lessons were conducted in audio recordings, in English and a local language, in our case Dutch. The teacher‘s name is S.N.Goenka, a successful businessman-turned-meditation master, passed away in 2013. Vipassana centres all over the world keep the exact same schedules and recordings from him. There are two local teachers who sat with us during group sittings, who teach absolutely nothing except answering students questions individually if any.

Every evening we listened to a discourse from Goenka, who explained the techniques and philosophy behind in a relaxed, storytelling way, inevitably with a heavy Indian-accent. Blessed with experiences of working with Indians, I understood well, and those who don’t would opt for local language translations. Together with Goenka’s off-tuned mesmerising chanting, this discourse constituted my only entertainment during these 10 days.

The practices were simple but not easy. An example would be to KEEP YOUR ENTIRE ATTENTION ON YOUR BREATH for the next two hours, without counting, deliberation in changing your breathing, chanting or thinking of any mantra. Just, simply, breathe naturally and focus on it! Later in the course we learnt the body scan, finding subtle sensation in each and every part of the body. I can see why people don’t get the point of doing this, but for me, it is a really effective way to train my mind so that I can gain control of it in other areas of my life.

Sitting for one hour without moving or opening eyes. This is also very difficult. Sometimes I succeeded and sometimes not. I learned to forgive myself when things were not working as well as I wanted them to. When my thoughts kept running away and wouldn’t focus for even a minute straight, I stayed unashamed. It is important to be able to forgive oneself before one is able to forgive others — lifelong lesson to acquire.

Noble silence was observed , meaning no talking was allowed. Of course exceptions were allowed when one has questions for the teacher or for the staff. Believe it or not the silence helps in quieting down one’s mind. Going through an entire day without talking has never been a problem for me, and I did appreciate the respect that everyone accorded to everyone else. Together we ensured the silence even though it was not easy for everyone.

When mood was right, I was able to focus on breathing for a reasonable duration and feel subtle body sensations all over. But that was NOT the objective of Vipassana. The real aim is to achieve an equanimity of mind, free from all cravings and all aversions, so as to free oneself from all sufferings. As a technique, Vipassana taught us to stop craving for desirable sensations and stop aversion of undesirable sensations, with the aim to eliminate all cravings and aversions in all aspects of life. I really agree with the theory that our sufferings come from cravings and aversions. Eliminating those will eliminate suffering and bring eternal peace of mind. At the theoretical levels, these are just words floating above our normal day to day life. But as Goenka says, without actual practice and many hours put in, we won’t be able to actually appreciate its significance. The surface of words is unable to justify the wisdom conveyed so I am at loss of words for this.

Why I liked it:

It’s been more than a month that we are back home and we haven’t stopped practicing. We made an effort to sleep from 10pm to 6pm everyday, waking up early to exercise or meditate. We try to meditate for half an hour before going to sleep as well. It really calms me down and sets me in positive light-hearted feeling to the day ahead. As an interesting side effect, we picked up jogging in the morning. For those who know us, we were famous in our youth for always being the last in the class for running. So it’s a late but welcomed change in our life!

Some are afraid that meditation is just a venue of escape from reality and the non-reaction to external stimulus makes one a passive individual, losing all motivation to thrive and to make an effort. I affirm that it can’t be further away from truth. Vipassana is realism plus workism (yes, employers have interests to encourage all employees to practice). It is about the recognition of what one is experiencing right now and the fact that the nothing is perpetual. It allows the mind to focus on working out the solution where there is a problem to be solved, without being bogged down by panic or worry. If nothing can be done about the situation, it also allows one to get passed the present sensation, excitement or sorrow, with the recognition that everything is continually moving on. There is no use in dwelling in the past.

Again these are theories that everyone knows. As we say in Chinese, I know all the theories, but I still can’t carry out my life as it should be. Well I think I have found one solution for myself: the art of living called Vipassana. I hope it continues to fill me with peace and energy that it has in the past month, so that I will be able to contribute to the society and spread the loving-kindness.

May all beings be happy.

Useful links:

To find out about courses all over the world
https://www.dhamma.org/

Courses in China are available here
http://ng.81355.net (a dubious looking site address, but a valid one^^)

The only major activity you will be hard to come by, is winter sport. Actually, it will be hard to find a worse place to live in if your big passion is snowboarding fresh powder or climb frozen waterfalls!
Only the most desperate will attempt the Singapore indoor skiing facility. Trust me – nobody can be that desperate!

Being pin point on the equator means you wont find any snow in a radius of at least 5h flying time!
No wonder I never even considered the option of snowboarding during my first few years in Singapore and only started phantasizing about it after the topic emerged with my Korean colleague, who turned out to be a very enthusiastic snowboarder.
The skiing/snowboarding experience in my office was otherwise extremely limited, but after a few rounds of happy hour we managed to extend our group of enthusiasts to five and were soon heading out to our first winter sport trip to – Japan.

Options for winter sport in Asia are very very limited. Skiing in China is still in its infancy, which leaves Korea as the closest destination with decent ski resorts. Korean resorts however seem to be suffering from overcrowding and if already flying so far, we might as well fly a bit further and enjoy Japan, home to famous ski areas like Nagano (former winter Olympics) and Hokkaido (heaven of powder snow).

Our first ski trip to Hokkaido in 2013 became a big success and it has since become an annual tradition for us to go Japan beginning of the year.
Hokkaido being in the very north of Japan is very snow-safe and gets loads of new powder thanks to its Siberian influence. Typical for Japan everything is very reliable and efficient, lift facilities are excellent and rental equipment is usually of good quality.
And the best of all: during the week the slopes are usually very empty!

Obviously there are neither Europeans nor Americans coming to Japan for winter sport and among Asians skiing is still quite a new thing. That means the only foreigners you will see are from Australia & New Zealand and a few exotics from Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. And as working Japanese don’t have a lot of holidays, the only Japanese you will see are school groups.

If you like Japanese food, then thats another big selling point. From Sushi to Ramen the quality at hotels is typically very good and even on the slopes you get very decent lunch food.

Fancy a hot bath after the cold and tiring day of skiing? Nothing better than a relaxing Onsen bath! Even the smallest family hotel will have hot bath facilities, usually with an indoor and an outdoor section.

In my view the only aspect where Japanese skiing is loosing out against its counterparts in the Alpes, is Apres-ski. While in Europe the first thing after a long day of skiing might be to have a pint at a bar next to the slopes, in Japan the priority is on Onsen and a lavish dinner (plus drinks). There are bars around, where you can mingle with other foreigners, but don’t expect the same standard as in the Alpes.

If you like to mix your skiing with a bit of sightseeing there are many good options, especially in Hokkaido, where most ski resorts are close to the regional capital Sapporo, famous for the best Japanese beer, and smaller gems like the coastal town Otaru, where you can indulge in delicious Sushi and Hokkaido’s famous dairy products.

So far I could never convince Yang Ke to join me for my trips, despite the numerous food photos! I was hoping to build up credibility by introducing her to the wonders of snowboarding in Chile, but (as you know) that turned out a big fiasco and since then it has been a lost case ;(

Every year we try a new ski resort and this year we opted for a less known, more local resort close to Nagano. Usually we have a stop over in Tokyo over the weekend, to do some shopping and enjoy Tokyo food, and then spend the week in the ski resort when it is most quiet.

Our ski hotel’s location was amazing, just next to the slope, it was (again) very well managed and the food was varied and very tasty.
This year was quite a bad year for winter sports, in Europe as well as Japan. But even then conditions were still pretty good with only a few icy patches during the first two days. After the second day we got lots of new snow and  fully enjoyed the rest of our stay!

We were very lucky to avoid the worst of the winter shock Asia had been suffering in the weeks leading to Chinese new year and only experienced one snowing day, before temperatures started to climb steadily, reaching a very comfortable 15 degrees.

After 10 relaxing days I said my farewells and left for Japan, where I was meeting with a few colleagues for skiing – a traditional event running in the fourth year.

After nearly eleven months traveling non-stop together, this was actually our first time “separated” for more than an hour!!

The biggest city nearby is Le Mans, which only gets busting with tourists once a year during the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans car race. During the rest of the year it is a pleasant mid-sized town with a well preserved medieval town.

Food wise, make sure you try Rillettes du Mans!  It’s kind of the local variation of the Pate, but more chunky. Best eaten with baguette and an alcoholic beverage during the compulsory daily apero

Afternoon around 4pm is the perfect time for a little break! On this both Germans and French do agree. While the Germans will go for Kaffee & Kuchen (coffee & cake), either at home or in one of the millions of Cafes, French will prepare apero (short for aperitif). This involves a large selection of alcohols, from beer and wine to strong spirits like Pastis or Schnaps, and several savory snacks, like cheese, pate, saucisson and chips.
How about your country? Any similar afternoon traditions?

We couldn’t leave the Loire region without at least seeing one of it’s many royal castles and drove to visit elegant Chateaux de Chambord (cf. title photo).

Designed purely for leisure, it has no proper defenses and in all aspects prioritizes the aesthetics. Looking huge from outside, the inside space is actually quite constrained (for a royal castle). The central building is symmetrical and cross-shaped with a beautiful white double-helix bridge in its center.

It has an elegant chapel and royal chambers, but somebody went totally overkill with the roof:

A few quarters are nicely decorated in their original style and you can learn how fashions of the royal court changed over time. Did you know it was a special honor to watch the king getting dressed in the morning?
This tradition also explains the funny balustrade in his bed chamber:

After five days we had to leave our peaceful country life behind as Yang Ke’s visa was running out and we headed to Paris to catch our return flight to Shanghai.
Just in time to still celebrate Chinese New Year among family and friends, but we also got a glimpse of celebrations gearing up in Paris:

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy new year of the monkey to all of you!

Being half-Dutch, I have to emphasize here on the subtle difference between The Netherlands and Holland. The latter, commonly used to describe the whole country, in reality only represents the two provinces of North- and South-Holland, covering the more famous and more prosperous coastal regions of the Netherlands.

After two freezing weeks in Germany, temperatures were finally rising again and the sun showed its face. We had a few lazy days, spending time with family, playing board games and going for little walks.

The Dutch are not famous for their culinary skills and instead focus on pragmatism when it comes to cooking. Netherlands has always been at the forefront in the innovation for pre-cooked meals and already twenty years ago the vegetable section of a supermarket would be dominated by small-sized portioned pre-cut and pre-washed vegetables in plastic bags.
Nevertheless I always crave to go back the Netherlands – not for any particular dishes but for all the snacks and sweets abound. My all-time favorite snack indeed is not the German-Turkish Kebap, but the Dutch Kroket.

This sinful delicacy is basically just a ragout with breading, deep-fried. You can use nearly everything as filling, but most commonly they are made of beef or veal. Apart from the classic one, my second favorite is the Satekroket, which includes peanut satay sauce – yummy
Most will eat their kroket together with fries, I will more often get it in a soft-bun, perfect for eating on the go!
Dutch snack cultur doesnt end here. Other classics are bitterballen (round version of kroket), Frikandel (deep-fried sausage), broodje garnalen (bun with shrimps from the North Sea), Hollands Nieuwe (raw herring).  Moving over to the sweet snacks you should not miss Pannekoeken (Dutch version of French crepe), Poffertjes (a smaller version on the go), bitterkoekjes (cookies with almand paste, best fresh from the bakery!) and Oliebollen (deep-fried dough with raisins, eat hot!).

As you can see we had a full food-agenda, but we managed to squeeze in a bit of sightseeing

Utrecht is a very charming yet lively mid-sized city. It is very typical Dutch with an old city center, loads of bicycles, loads of students and several canals, flanked by restaurants and bars.

Houses are mostly in the traditional Dutch design, narrow and low-rise, so you can always get a view on the very elegant cathedral (Domtoren).

We visited a friend of Yang Ke in a close-by city, which also gave us the opportunity to get to know a place not commonly on the tourist agenda – Delft.
Delft is known for famous painter Johannes Vermeer and for blue pottery, inspired from Chinese techniques and designs. If you like Venice, then this is the place for you. Walking through the city it felt like every second street was next to a canal.

With 100’000 population Delft is not that small, but on our Sunday morning it felt completely deserted which only got slightly better in the afternoon with a few people heading to the cafes and restaurants. We ended up in a cafe at 4:30 only to be kicked out after 30 min as the cafe was closing up.
Maybe it was the dreadful drizzling weather which made everybody want to stay in their cozy homes

I only knew Leipzig as an important historical city, being home to many famous musicians like Bach and Wagner and more recently being one of the main initiators of the massive peaceful protests in East Germany ultimately leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
I was however surprised to see that since the German reunification Leipzig has fared much better than other East German cities and turned into a very modern, vibrant and livable place.

Leipzig has a nice historic city center, most of which renovated, mixed up with a few modern touches. Unusual for Germany, the city seems to have a strong preference for malls. And not only the usual anonymous modern collections of chain stores, but also several beautiful historic covered arcades, dating back to Leipzig’s history as important trading post.

The most striking example of historic-modern fusion for me was the Paulinum, an university building constructed on the spot of an old church.

Not only the outside is a fusion of church and university, also the interior manages to integrate the two different worlds

Moving on to more traditional sights, Leipzig can show off two town halls, the old one “Altes Rathaus” (cf. post title) and the, only 100years old, new one “Neues Rathaus”.

The city center has two main churches both worth a look inside, in particular the gorgeous white neoclassical interior of Nikolaikirche.

Even if you can’t be tempted by religious architecture you should drop by for their historic significance.
It is at Nikolai church where the Monday prayers started which later expanded to the famous Monday demonstrations, accumulating in 100’000s of participants and the peaceful fall of the Wall. The church hosts a small exhibition on this special part of German history.

Of very different fame is the Thomas church. Host to the Thomanerchor, a boys choir founded in 1212, it is here that J.S Bach spent the main part of his career.

At the church itself you can only witness his grave and a statue, but just opposite is the Bach museum, which gives an interesting and interactive walkthrough of his life.

One more sight I can strongly recommend is the free museum Zeitgeschichtliches Forum, which has a good exhibition on the history of East Germany during the division. During our visit they also had an excellent temporary exhibition on  Germany’s history of the Gastarbeiter, guest workers from Italy, Turkey, Spain etc. who arrived in the 70’s in the 100’000s, with interesting parallels to the current refugee discussions.

Your Christ a Jew
Your car a Japanese
Your pizza Italian
Your democracy Greek
Your coffee Brazilian
Your holiday Turkish
Your numbers Arabic
Your alphabet Latin

and your neighbor only a Foreigner?

We were lucky again and a friend invited us to stay with him. Just heading out of his apartment next to Karl-Marx-Allee you could immerge quickly into Berlin history. The extremely wide, 2km long avenue is lined with monumental socialist-style buildings, representing East-Berlin’s flagship project after  World War II.

What was once East Berlin’s most famous shopping area consists now mostly of apartment blocks, but several of the iconic cultural buildings are still in original use (or at least kept in original design), like Cafe Moskau (biggest East Germany cafe) or Kino International (most famous cinema)

If you are early then have a stop at Cafe Sybille for a good German breakfast and a small exhibition on the street’s history.

The Karl-Marx-Allee ends in the Alexander Platz, another famous location with Berlin’s iconic TV tower, where you find yourself already in the heart of the city and from where you can explore most of the city highlights on foot.

While showing the must-sees to Yang Ke I never got bored myself as there were always new things to discover.
Like the red-colored town hall, which is not only a very pretty sight from outside but now also invites to explore its ground level with several restored halls and small exhibitions.

Same at Gendarmenmarkt, where I never realized that the cathedral (Deutscher Dom) actually hosts an interesting museum on the history of German democracy.

One of the biggest transformations in central Berlin is the replacement of the rather ugly Palace of the Republic (former East German “parliament”) with it’s predecessor, the Berlin City Palace. Driven by a huge lobby group, this project to reconstruct the palace in its former glory took off in 2013 and is now already far advanced. A nearby temporary building nicely shows all the work involved and gives a first view on the future exhibitions hosted in the palace, mostly centered around ethnological collections.

Berlin is The place to be in Germany for artists which you can witness at every corner with uncountable funky cafes and shops.

You will also come across lots of unusual places, conserved for cultural use or other purposes:

If you are in the Prenzlauer Berg district have a look at the Kulturbrauerei, a former brewery turned into cultural center. We spent nearly a whole afternoon in a small museum on the daily life in former East Germany.

To visit the most famous icon of former German separation, head to the East Side Gallery, where a 1.3km part of the wall has been conserved and painted by many many artists. Unfortunately many paintings are suffering from graffiti and corrosion and the remaining in good conditions are currently “protected” by metal grids.

If you have a bit more time, make a one-day trip to nearby Potsdam. Former residency of the German (Prussian) kings it boosts several huge castles of incredible wealth, the most famous being Castle Sanssouci (“without sorrow”). We had a tour through another castle, which “only” served as residency for guests, but nevertheless had amazing rooms, one more crazy than the other. Just a shame that our last king Wilhelm II was allowed to take a train with 40 wagons full of treasures with him to his exile in the Netherlands after loosing World War I.

My favorite was the Grotto Hall, a room completely covered by marble and all kind of precious stones.

A completely different sight is the Dutch quarter, a small district completely built in typical Dutch red brick stones.

The weather was still pleasantly warm and we had long walks, explored the christmas market (with its numerous food options) and experimented with christmas cookies.

Having my 5y old nephew and 3y old niece around made gift exchange so much more exciting – and a nice excuse for the older kids to “help” with all the Lego constructions

For New Year celebrations we gathered with a few good old friends (and their five children) in a small city in the Ruhr Area (“Ruhrgebiet”).
This massive historic coal mining area was once an important pillar of the German “Wirtschaftswunder” after World War 2 and the population in the area exploded to 5 million, blurring all city lines and creating one big connected urban area.

Staying in Herne and going to a zoo in Gelsenkirchen while planning dinner in Bochum sounded like a crazy lot of travelling but turned out to be just a change of neighborhood.

German coal ultimately lost its competitiveness in the 60’s, but the government decided to subsidize coal mining and allow a gradual phase out of the industry. The second last German coal mine had just been closed a month ago and the last one is scheduled for 2018.
Even though this was a quite expensive endeavor it avoided mass unemployment and ghost towns in the whole area and seemed to have worked out pretty well.
We visited one of the older mines, now Unesco world heritage and large museum plus culture site, and had a great guided tour through the refurbished coal extraction facilities.

We continued north to visit my brother with his family in Hamburg. Within the short train ride the temperature dropped remarkably from +10 to -5 and weather remained very chilly for the next days combined with typical coastal winds.
We limited our city explorations therefore to short trips and spent more time with my nephew and niece.
Hamburg is a wealthy trading town which despite being the second largest city of Germany never feels crowded and has a relaxed pace.
A lot of its history relates to trading and it’s big port, still second biggest in Europe. Many sightseeing highlights are therefore related to the water, from a boat tour of the harbor over Fischbrötchen (fish sandwich) at Hamburg’s fish market to a visit of the Speicherstadt (revibed historic warehouse district) and adjacent modern Hafencity with the infamous new philharmonic hall, Hamburg’s new 800million Euro city symbol.

The warehouse district continues to be used with traditional lift mechanisms:

The area is filled with many other new wannabe attractions of which only the Miniaturland stands out. The model railways has become the biggest in the world (as well as tripadvisor’s number 1) and impresses with incredible level of  details. They had a small exhibition on the history of Germany, which alone kept us two busy for an hour!

If you are at the harbor anyway also have a look at the old Elbe tunnel! Built in 1911 it is accessed by four big lifts. It’s purpose has been taken over by bridges and a new, more convenient tunnel, however it continues to be used by pedestrian, cyclists and even cars. You need to be a good driver though as the single lane road is so narrow it only leaves a few centimeters of space for modern sized cars.

In difference to the top of the Eiffel tower, where the large crowds will give you little time to enjoy the beautiful scenery, the Montparnasse tower sees usually only few guests and we spend easily an hour, learning about the various sights with the help of several media terminals.
Another advantage of the Montparnasse view is that you also get a good look at the Eiffel tower

Over the next days we continued with short trips, focusing on one area at a time, giving us enough time to wander around and explore Paris’ many beautiful neighborhoods.

Montmartre, former artistic heart of Paris, now has a quite touristy reputation, but that shouldn’t discourage you from visiting it with beautiful white Sacre Coeur.

During the week of our visit was the big Climate Conference, which as we know now became an unexpected big success, and the conference was supported by several activities across town.

Of course we also explored the French cuisine, integral part of the French culture.

And for any Asian visitor, who can’t survive on French food alone, don’t be afraid. Paris has a big Chinatown with authentic Chinese and SE-Asian food!

We finished our Paris visit with a trip to Disneyland, as celebration of our wedding anniversary

Staying at Disney’s own hotels is outrageously expensive, but luckily there are several excellent and cheaper hotels in vicinity of the resort with free shuttle service to train station and resort.

We had bought our tickets online in advance (much cheaper and faster than at the park entrance!) and ventured into the park at opening time. Not a lot had changed since my first visit more than 15 years ago, bringing back lots of memories.
Of course we visited all the big rides but also did a lot of smaller attractions – usually in company of hundreds of kids

As you know, we are more the spontaneous type and usually don’t plan much in advance of a visit. However after reading about waiting times of one to two hours for many of Disneyland’s attractions, Yang Ke did a thorough research on how to optimize our visit and experience the most within our one day-only visit.

Well, turns out the researching was a total waste of time! The longest wait we had was 15min and mostly it was less than 5min. We could do all the rides available and did some several times. I even got convinced by Yang Ke to make time for the “charming” Frozen show

As part of Disney’s huge marketing campaign for the new Star Wars movie, they also had several Star Wars activities for kids. During our lunch break we got to see the “Star Wars Academy”, where kids could play a role in a battle with Darth Vader. Must have been pretty impressive for the kids!

In the late afternoon some rides turned totally empty and by 5pm we went home as we didn’t know what else to do (and it was getting cold)

If you are planning a visit to Disneyland however don’t expect the same level of emptiness. I think we were just lucky as several factors played together. Winter is generally low-season, we visited on a weekday (avoid Wednesdays as schools are off in the afternoon!), the weather was quite grey and cold and many tourists cancelled their trips after the Paris terror attacks.

It didn’t start too well as our arrival in Bern in the early evening was greeted with a little snow storm.

Luckily we didn’t get discouraged and braved the cold weather to have a first view of the city center.
It was getting colder by the minute and we were about to return to our cozy hotel room when we spotted a group of people gathering on one of the central squares with, most importantly, a little hot wine stall next door. Turns out we were just 15 minutes away from a light and sound show, to be projected on the Parliament Building. It was an impressive light spectacle, telling a local story of the Matterhorn.

[See image gallery at 2young2simple.debraaf.eu]

Bern has a large homogeneous old town, which you can nicely observe from the cathedral.

The main street is especially inviting with its wide, car-free cobbled street, little fountains and view on the “Zytglogge”, a medieval tower.

Bern is however less known for its history, than for its most famous citizen, Albert Einstein. It is in Bern where he was born and where he started his career. The city has a modern and interesting museum on Einstein, whose only negative point is the early closure at 5pm, which was imposed with Swiss like perfection and prevented us from finishing our tour.

We continued our journey with a very scenic ride through the countryside, sitting in the comfortable (but expensive!) Swiss train and admiring the now snow-white landscapes.

Next stop was Lucerne, the quintessential little Swiss mountain village, perfecting the postcard view of old-town plus lake plus mountain. We didn’t know about its fame before arriving, but it became soon obvious when we arrived in town and came across more Chinese tourists than locals!

We had read about a pretty castle cum not-too-expensive-hotel and treated ourselves to a room with gorgeous view on the town (cf. title photo).

Apart from its spectacular view, Lucerne has several unique features, from a well preserved city wall over antique wooden covered bridges (with beautiful decorations) to the “Lion of Lucerne”

We continued to our main destination Zurich, visiting friends, and the chance for me to introduce Yang Ke to another insurance metropolis (and therefore a potential job location).

We took the compulsory tour via famous Bahnhofstrasse and explored the old town, but also got inspired to some culture. Zurich’s museums do not have the fame of Paris, but thanks to a lot of local money Zurich often has good exhibitions without the crowds of the larger cities. Our choice fell on a Miro exhibition in the “Kunsthaus”, which was a tad too modern for our taste, but also had lots of nice pieces.

We continued our journey across the Zurich lake with a super modern ferry boat and got introduced to the local life in a small city.

We braved the deep snow and explored the surrounding boundless nature, where first people were doing cross-country skiing and villages seemed deep asleep like in hibernation.