German discussion using Google translater

Well, it was fun and heroic.

I don't know any German. And this girl I had to speak to over telephone knew no English. Now, since I had to talk to her to get the right information out, I had to do something, and there came in Google Language tools -> Translater.

I had to type in the English in the translater and then ask it to give me the equivalent german, and then I tried to pronounce those words as good i could. It was tedious, frustrating, but I have to praise the girl, Lischer, she didn't put the phone down. I tried and she allowed the time to do that.

Eventually, we managed to converse (badly though), but the experience was just great. Trying to convey something to someone who knows nothing of ur language and vice versa.

Great.

Its snowing again

Hi..

Its snowing again since today morning. Not the heavy kind of snow, rather rain that converted itself to snow later in the day.

Its getting colder by the minute. And slowly but steadily, the snow deposits on top of bushes by the pedestrian areas, or gardens and car-tops etc are getting snow covered white.

The weather was supposed to get colder and rainy but as much as this.

This looks wonderful and beautiful too...

In Winterthur Again

Hi.....

I am in Winterthur again, perhaps for a longer term this time.

Arrived yesterday afternoon, I had to face a little problem due to a incorrect (possibly) train suggestion from an official at the office (train office). Carrying about 40Kg of luggage, I was made to switch trains in between a trip that normally takes about 15 minutes. Poor me.. Used all my energy in carrying that load of luggage from platform x to enquiry and then to platform y.

Other than that, life is good. Here, things are much better in terms of weather this time. Its pretty sunny, and not COLD at all. Its very much like Feb/March of Delhi/India, where you can roam around in a shirt and a simple sweater if you wish to have one.

Joined office, still to get in the mould though. Still managing infrastucture stuff in and around the place. Currently staying with a friend, but plan to rent an apartment myself. With a view to bring family along.

Well, let's see how it goes.

Pictures from First Trip to Switzerland..

EMR Software

River Limmet and two landmark churches of Zurich

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A Pigeon

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A white pigeon holding fort against the snowfall on shores of River Limmet in Zurich

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Me, on the boat with backdrop of Zurichzee (Zurich Lake) during my boat trip

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A fantastic looking home on banks of Zurichzee (Zurich Lake)

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View of the city from the top of GrossMunster

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Row of pigeons after feeding

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More pigeons on banks of Zurichzee (Zurich Lake)

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The Last Day in Switzerland...

December 24 2005

The day when I am finishing my winterthur trip. Interesting thoughts though.

The flight connection to India is through Austrian Airlines and we have to change at Vienna. The first part is from Zurich to Vienna starting at about 7:30. For this we had to be in airport at about 5:30. we woke up at about 3:30 in the morning. The train tickets had already been bought the last night only and therefore we had no problems with respect to that.

The journey to Zurich airport was uneventful. Though we saw lot of snow still occupying the roadsides. I had to get a little rebooking done on my ticket and that ended up being the small event on the check in counter. Once that adjustment was done, the check in went fine.

The flight from Zurich to Vienna was very nice. Lot of nice views of mountain tops from the plane windows… Lots of photos again J

It seemed that it has been snowing in the high hills of Switzerland the previous days since everything was snow covered. Or perhaps we could only see the higher parts (from the plane) and obviously they were snow covered. I took many photos but I still wanted one more photograph.. one of some little village in the lap of the mountains. Like cradled in the lap of mother earth. I could see that a few times, but couldn't’t capture in my camera. L

We landed in Vienna at about 8:40 in the morning. And there was this news waiting for us. The flight to Delhi was delayed and would now leave at 1600 hrs instead of 1040 hrs. That meant a lot of wait for us.. lot.. actually about 5+ hrs.

I wondered whether we could go out in the city and have a look at Vienna. It would have been an additional feather in the trip since I have never been to Vienna myself. Though I have heard a few nice things about the country, I was never enchanted enough to plan a trip exclusively for Vienna.

However, my request was denied since I do not possess an Austrian visa. The Swiss visa that I have already does not entitle me to enter Vienna. So, I was forced to spend my time inside the airport only. Then I thought, “may be I would spend time looking at the duty free shops”, but no, not that also. Since we were secluded in a very small transit area within the airport. Unfortunately, this area has only a few common shops and nothing worth interesting (for me).

So, here we are, killing our time by doing all sorts of things, except flying home. Right now, writing for the blog.

Shall update later.

The time did not go by easily. I guess usual stuff for me. However, I managed some pages from Time’s Eye (one by Arthur C Clarke …). Felt like sleeping and therefore had to stretch over on the benches. Didn't’t like the experience.. huh.. J

Then there was this special lunch provided by the airline. It was my first experience with such a delayed flight and therefore being provided with this sort of lunch. It was not quite a lunch I liked or for that matter one of my vegetarian colleagues liked. It was probably the last thing we would have chosen had we had any option. And, to add to that, the desert was actually sour not sweet, for a change … !!!

So, that’s about the stay. That expenditure of time brought about 3 pm in the day and then we headed to the boarding area. As we expected, after the long wait, everybody for the flight was in a big-big hurry. All rushed up, a colleague suggested that we better get in early in the plain to reserve some nice space for ourselves on the cabin luggage area. His advice proved very useful. Actually, we found people who had trouble finding their way past the already crowded cabin luggage area.

Finally, it took off, and we were airborne.

After a movie and a quarter and not finding enough space for my legs, so as to be able to relax enough for a sleep, here I am, adding to the blog again… J

With all the news about fog in Delhi (the original reason our flight couldn't take off in time) we were concerned as to what would happen at the time of landing in Delhi. The landing was expected at about 3 in the morning, and lot of fog was expected at that time.

Luckily, the flight and the landing all went uneventful, and we landed in Delhi at 3:15 in the morning hours of Sunday 25th December.

Here comes a conclusion to my Winterthur trip account. I guess no more text will be added, but photos will be.. sure..

Snowy second week

Hey..
that's good life.

Snow all around you, while you are wrapped in all kinds of warm clothing... the wind hitting your face.. chilling whatever part of your body is exposed.... :) Its fun.





Then there were these small little trips through the market place..all covered with snow. Everything was white. Literally everything.

To add amazement to fun, there was a meeting planned in a meeting room on fifth floor. And, the room had big windows facing the market area. When someone looks out from that window, there is still the same old city, but all the colors are gone. Its just one universal color all over the place. ALL WHITE.

I love that.

I took many photos. Some with my SLR, some with my phone.. Can't upload them now, but yeah, they will show up.. for sure.

We went to one of the indian restaurants which Manoj had be-friended on his last trip here. The walk to the place was fabulous. The footpath was full of snow, like a blanket. The little gardenetts/bushes along the footpaths were all topped by snow. About two-three inches of that.

Some of these places turned out the be pretty dangerous. Snow had been crushed by walking people and some of it had become ice. A thin layer, but very slipperty to step on. If you are unlucky and step onto one of these patches, be very careful. I just about fell into one of these traps.

On another day, we went walking through the city center to the other part of the town. That part is rather sparsely populated and therefore, its more parks, open areas, greenery etc. And, to watch it in snow was just amazing. Lots of photos again.

Later in the week, the snow fall stoppd, but the snow on the streets remained still. Its still there (its the third day since snow-fall stopped). Temperature is not going up and therefore, the snow is not going away so fast. Though its reducing...

On the friday today, streets are more or less clean of snow, howeverm some plants, treetops, and standing cars in parking still have inches of snow on them. the temperatures are not going up more than a degree or two. Lately I found that we experienced things in the range of -5 to -6 degrees celcius.

Rest later...

Zurich Trip

Oh...wow... that's a city.. Believe me, you need truck loads of money to live there.. And enjoy its markets.

It was a Saturday. 17th Dec 2005 when I went to Zurich for a day trip. Left Winterthur at about 10 in the morning with a day pass and reached there by 10:30 or so. The forecast was for snowfall and that was my biggest expectation, apart from the city...

When I left Winterthur, it had already started snowing. And I felt very good within. I like going out in snow... and taking photos... and playing with snow balls. Unfortunately my wife is not with me, so I couldn't expect playing snowball, but I still wanted to go out in snow and enjoy.

The train station at Zurich is big. And has a complete shopping complex within it. I mean, if you are not careful enough, you might as well lose yourself. On top of that, all the Christmas shopping rush (both of people and makeshift shops) gets you even more confused.

I got out of the place to meet a very sullen lady at the tourist counter. She helped (?) me with a city map and started doing whatever she was doing. So, with that map in hand, I was on my own.

I had already bought a rucksack in the day (35 SF) . The BahnhoffStrasse is probably the biggest fashion street in the world. I could name any fashion brand out of my mind, only to find the shop somewhere around me.

A colleague told me earlier that since Switzerland has very lower taxes (about 7.5% as against about 35-40% in rest of European countries), I expected that the routine items would be cheaper. I have love for wrist watches and cameras, So I looked for a Tissot shop to start with. I was amazed to find that the prices were not so interestingly low. Rather, they were on the higher side. Perhaps the collection I was looking at was actually more costly. But, I got a shock of my life to see a 23000 SF wrist watch from Rolex. NEVER imagined something so costly. Never. Perhaps one could buy a Mercedes for that kind of money....

So I went on. The idea to convey is, every brand worth something was present there on the shopping street. Having one (or more) showroom in the kilometre or so long shopping street. All this while it was snowing slowly... making it even more "experience of life" situation for me.

Then I left the main shopping street and went looking for the river Limmet. Sounds like a Jewish name to me, but can't say. I found that it’s a very shallow river. A few feets only. Actually while photographing the ducks in the river, I could spot the riverbed. And that's how I figured that out. There were two - three high rising churches... Gross Munster, Frah Munster and one more.. Later I learned that "Munster" means church or ministry in german.

The Grossmunster is perhaps the tallest of the three and has two towers. One of them is open for public to go up and enjoy the city sight from that point. As I always like, I went up there. And I liked what I saw. It was a fabulous view of the city bathing in light snowfall. On one hand I saw the city buildings, houses, streets, the river and on the other hand I saw the monstrous Zurich Lake. It was snowing so I could not spot the other shore of the lake, but I guess, it would have taken some effort for me anyways, once I realized how big the lake was.

From that point I realized that the Zurich city is actually in a sort of valley. On both sides of river Limmet I saw high rise mountains, almost white by now. Perhaps the lake was also part of the valley only. Having said that, the realization brought even closer the sense of being in Switzerland, country of mountains…

I took a few photographs, covering almost all the directions. I am not sure I covered it good enough or not, but there was a certain view , where the sun rays were pouring out from behind of the clouds and were falling down on the lake. I hope the photo comes good. J

After Grossmunster, I continued my walk towards the lake head. The point where the lake cruises start. My day-pass included the boat trip price as well. While crossing one bridge en route to the place, I saw a lady feeding pigeons and ducks. The birds were thronging the place like anything. It was having about 80-100 birds at that place at once. I took some more photos there. For feeding there, the pigeons flew to the fence and stood there in a queue like formation. More photos there.

Then I took the boat cruise through the Zurichzee (Zurich See) as they call it. Funny thing is the imagination of scale of these people. A lake as big is that, and they call it a see, go to other places of world and you would see lakes times as big as that. I would say, that this scale problem exists with the complete Europe as a culture. The people here really lack that vision that there could be something as different or big from their own country. E.g. in Brussels, I spoke to a colleague who was amazed to know that the complete country of Belgium can be fit in one of the larger cities of India or a larger city of Delhi.

The trip thorough the lake was made even better by the snowfall. There were moments when the snow fall was so thick that vision was impared to a few meters and then it was better to a few kilometres. Amazing for me to see that kind of weather change in a matter of minutes. It was a ride worth taking while it took about two hours or so.. I actually took a little nap while on board.

I can’t ignore to mention the family I saw. There was this elderly man, a young boy in his teens, and two little girls (about 6-10) and a lady good enough to be their mother. The girls were frolicking like it was their home. Father was admonishing the younger one and the mother was saving her.. it was fun to watch. J

When we got back to the shore, the snowfall had stopped momentarily. The place was full of snow cover, everything was white. Just like that. Fun to watch.

Then I started my walk again. This time I took the little trip through the shopping street again.. on the other side of road. I found a camera shop… and it was a very expensive one. No discounts in the name of Christmas period etc. EOS 350D was still 1398 SF as advertised from Canon. Further on the walk I found rare presence on super market Co-op and Inter Discount. Both of them are big discount shop chains across Switzerland (so I have learned in the previous week). I went inside Inter discount one, looking for… nothing.. basically. Electronics being my craze. I looked around for USB storage sticks. Found some very interesting ones there. Swissbit, 2 GB was about 220+ SF while Sony were selling their 512 Mb (with password protection) at about 100SF. Then there were local ones as well.

I looked around the camera section, and found EOS 350D priced at 1200 SF. Suddenly, it was interesting for me. Then I asked and found out the actually it was a catch, since there was no standard packages along with it. And the standard deal from Canon (the photo printer, priced at 150 SF) was not with the deal. And I dropped it… J Anyways I was only looking for stuff.

Then I went back to look at the Framunster. This church boasts stained glass windows by Marc Chagall. Having heard the name a lot, I was curious. I went in and found it a bit anti-climex. Nothing special for me.

Further, I walked through the other famous shopping streets. Renwegge and another one (name.. missing). Interesting walk though. Since I didn’t had to buy anything , it was just casual walk for me. On the way I encountered the Lindenplatz ( a high point facing the river). Good for views and more photos followed.. J

That quite summed up usage of my leg strength. So I headed back to bahnhof for going back to hotel. I took a tram (they are pretty old trams here, from the look, but are well maintained). When I got down, it was all illuminated and snowing very heavily. Then I realized that on the main shopping street, they have this lighting system installed. It was such a magnificent view that I was just dumb stuck.

On the main street, there were cylindrical lights installed vertically. And, they were not standard tube lights. They were actually synchronized lights, with patterns flowing along the street. So, if you watch it for a few seconds, you would realize that a pattern is flowing from one point to other of the street. Each of the tube light was working in the combination. Marvellous.

Then I went inside and took the train to Winterthur. It took me about 30 minutes to reach Winterthur station. There had been heavy snowing in winterthur city. Till the next day morning, an inch of snow is still remaining.

I hope to go out again in the day and shoot some of Winterthur as well. J