Around and around...

My October was full of trips and travels. In 4 weeks I managed to squeeze in 10 flights and 4 countries.
However, it was not just all work but included a lovely wedding in Sweden! Old friend from Uni got married and all of us 8 girls that stuck together through Uni (and afterwards!) got reunited. Lovely lovely.
2 extra days were taken off, and some relaxing times were spent visiting the Volvo museum (with a virtual driving range!), visiting some small Swedish towns and enduring the rain.

Those relaxing days were much needed, as after early the next morning followed a marathon of Geneva -> Rome -> Geneva -> Milan -> London -> Geneva -> Rome -> Geneva.

Rome was very warm and nice, 27C, in October! Food as always was nice. Even got to see Colosseum as the taxi swooshed by on the way to the hotel. Had forgotten how incredibly beautiful Rome is. Colosseum, Forum Romanum, and every here and there you see ancient ruins. People have built a town in the midst of it, amazing to see how they are living neighbours with history.

Went to a Sicilian resto one night in Rome, first Sicilian food experience. And not really what I expected. Mainly fish and sea food was expected yes. However that immenseness of frying was unexpected. They put breadcrumbs and deep-fry almost everything! But of course, very tasty it was...

Milan was as usual, so as usual that I realised I managed to find my way through centre Milan between train station, hotel, work place, without map. Obviously done that walk too many times! Discovered some new sides of Milan this time, learnt some about the immense fort/castle in the centre. Now really want to visit it!

In London I took the opportunity and stayed over the weekend to visit my lovely friend Sandra from Brussels (Swedish, but we lived there during same time period). Had a lovely weekend with probably the best weather I've ever had in UK (including summer months!)! Shining sun, 20C, clear blue skies. This results in a weekend spent at terraces drinking wine, in beer gardens eating pub food, dancing at the local pub, and of course some shopping when in London!

Soaking in the sun in Covent Garden

Sunday afternoon spent in a sunny beer garden in Balham

Mmm...Megève

Bienvenue l'automne

Goodbye 25C and warm winds. 

Finally the autumn has come to Switzerland like most other European countries.

Autumn is one of my favourite seasons, more so than spring. If it's a good one.

Having lived for a year in a southern place where the leaves never turn yellow, orange and red, made me realise I can't live without autumn. Without it it just doesn't feel complete. 

 The chilly winds came into Switzerland on Wednesday, but the sunshine has be-stood. Stunning.

(As usual, just click on pictures to enlarge.)

Food bonanza!

Lobster with almonds and saffron, with spicy coco nut pannacotta and crunchy lobster claw. Was EXACTLY as great as it sounds!

Herbcrusted lamb with lamb & lime samosa...melting in mouth....

Some lovely desserts finishing off one of the most amazing meals ever - what a perfect harmony of unexpected flavours!

Smoked cardamom ice cream

Chocolate, noisette & cumin mousse

Coco nut basundi

@ Rasoi (Europe's only Michelin starred Indian resto!), Mandarin Oriental

Fresh Italian figs, baked with lemon, rosemary and acacia honey, served with fresh Swiss goats cheese and balsamico reduction. Sundays just don't get any better than this!

Lac Leman by foot and tent

Switzerland is truly truly beautiful. Almost from every angle, at every place, the view is in one way or another breathtaking and surreal. Like it is a movie back drop digitally put there. You can see the beautiful lake Léman with the the Alps in the back drop when travelling with the train between Geneva and Lausanne, and driving north of Lausanne towards Fribourg, passing the Gruyere lake. This is where you find one of the world's most beautiful pit/road stops. Another way to enjoy the beauty of Switzerland is by foot. And since everywhere in Switzerland is beautiful, you don't have to go far! We chose to pack down the tent and sleeping bags and leave work a bit early on a Friday...and ended up here!

Beautiful camping site (tiny!) located on a small narrow strip of grass just by the lake, close to Burier. Basic facilities, and a wooden hut and terrace, and the most amazing view. "Luckily" the night we were there so was the caravan of tractor drivers filling the parking and wooden terrace with oumpa oumpa music, beers, laughter and fires.

View from bed (tent)

Dinner time

The next morning we packed up the things and got ready to take the lake side way back towards Geneva, discovering the little villages on the way.

walk walk walk

Low clouds

I see something...

It's a fork...!

Haha, gotcha!

Stopped at the village Vevy, where they just happened to have Caves Ouvertes (wine tasting of local wine cellars), BIG market, and lots of music, and even more people! A real carnival feeling! 

Traditional alp horn blowers, sounds very different from what you think...!

They are HUGE

After some music, tartes flambées and wine of all kinds we continued along the lake. Walked along the beautiful wine hill sides producing the lovely Swiss wines such as Chasselas, Gamay, Pinot Noir, etc

Our last stop before Geneva was the village Nyon which we discovered in the delight company of gelato before the rain came and we jumped on the train back to Geneva.

Nyon

Thumbs up for Nyon!

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More Tokyo!

Of course. When in Japan.

Dog menu and wifi control over dog. Perfectly normal. Gotta take care of your dinner and know where it is! 

Shibuya, the world's most trafficked pedestrian crossing. The scramble crossing sees up to 15'000 people crossing during a green light period at rush hour, and additionally here you quite logically also find one of the world's busiest Starbucks.

My saviours.

Lovely, QUIET, A380 waiting to take me back home to Europe. What kept me wondering thought was how I, seated on the 2nd (upper) floor would exit in case of emergency. No wings to walk out on...?!

Harujaku Girls

Tokyo Girl

Famous Harujaku area 

Some event or activity where they throw water on the street. None of our Japanese colleges had ever heard about this or could explain what it might be. 

Hai, let's move on to Tokyo!

After a week in Osaka/Kobe we took the Shinkansen (the super fast) train to Tokyo. Leaving behind us the rain and Typhoon weather heading for the big city blizz.

The Shinkansen!

Big traditional Kobe Dinner

One night in Kobe we were taken to a very traditional restaurant and served a big traditional meal.
There were no menus but they only explained the food as it came. Each company at the restaurant had their own room and own waitress, and we never ever saw (or heard) any of the other guests.

Dish 1: Plum wine & Appetizer

Dish 2: sashimi

Note that leaf on the ice, is called something like meat leaf, and is extremely tasty and has a kind of spicy flavour perfectly fitting the raw fish and wasabi!  

The food was definitely interesting, some better tasting than other. But I tried everything, and was a good sports! Not only did we get to try foods, but also drinks. The sake I did not like at all, tasted way too much rice (which I prefer to chew rather than drink)! However, we were also served plum wine with the first dish and all of us foreigners fell handlessly in love with it! Tastes like freshly made grape juice, like just when the grapes for wine are pressed...and then a love round after-taste of plum.

Dish 3: soup with dumplings

Dish 4: tofu, beans in peanut paste (amazing!!), fried sweetcorn ball, fried potato ball (hidden in the flower),... 

Dish 5: grilled fishes, served on a ceramic square pot with a small coal fire in 

You are supposed to all of the fish. I tried. Fins were ok. Head I only got half way and stopped after 1.5 head. There was something extremely bitter just by the neck. But at least I tried. Apparently much more then what foreigners normally do. 

Dish 6: boiled melon and other veggies. Very interesting. Unusual. Not amazing. Nor bad. 

Dish 7: fried eal in pickle. 

Our own kimono woman came in to serve the rice for the 8th dish. 

The rest of the 8th dish: soup and pickled things. 

9th dish and we had finally reached the dessert. I was way beyond full by now.

Later I found out that this plum wine is actually sake, made with plums, and having a lower alcohol content.