My Christmas Present

Tom gave me the one thing I really wanted for Christmas, tickets to the Mercedes CSI FEI World Cup in Zurich.  Yes, ladies and gentleman, that is a fancy name for a very fancy horse show, specifically show jumping.  I have been to a lot of shows over the years, but this one was by far the most elaborate, richest show I have ever seen.  What do you expect when your sponsors are Mercedes and Rolex?   Here is my latest top ten list:  how American and European horse shows differ.  Before all the men log out of my site, there were monster trucks too!

10.  Spectators - The stadium was about the size of Bobcat arena in Charlotte, and it was at least 90% full.  Not too shabby considering tickets started at $100 swiss francs each.  People came in their furs and watched 14 hours of show jumping. 

9.  Food - Not a chicken nugget, hot dog, or french fry to be found folks.  There were full service bars, and champagne corks flying first thing in the morning.  The concourse food was steaks, pasta, and waffles with fresh vanilla cream or strawberries.  One end of the arena was reserved for the guests of the sponsors.  They enjoyed a typical European three hour dinner served on crystal, silver, and fine china with white glove service.  It was pretty amusing when the horses would kick up sand on their tables.   

8.  Exposition - One of the highlights of a good show is good shopping.  I couldn't afford anything.  No t-shirts here!  "Deep discount" fleece vests started at $100.  I got my boots polished for free, I guess that is something.  There were pony rides for the kids, and they were NICE ponies, not like the ones at local carnivals that are a few days away from the glue factory (ok, that was a little harsh!) 

7.  Flowers - The back wall of the arena was covered in Gerbera Daisys, and all the jumps were surrounded by arrangements.  I counted over 200 dozen roses in the dinner area.

6.  Betting and Prizes - There was a betting program.  You could bet on the outcome of a class or the collective results of a country.  The odds were constantly put on the jumbo-tron.    For the competitors even the amateur classes were very profitable, 30k of prizes to be split among the top 10.  The winner of the preliminary FEI Rolex round split $250k and the winner got a Rolex.  The winner Sunday will get this...

5.  Awards - They received those awards with much fanfare.  There were dancers, huge flags (the horses did not appreciate them much), and check out how the awards were brought into the ring...

The minature horses in the back were smaller than Buster, and the Fresians were stunning. 

4.   Paparazzi - Yes, these riders are celebrities, and there was paparazzi everywhere.  I was getting a major case of  "lens" envy with the length of those telephoto lenses.  This guy caused the biggest stir.  He is a Swiss hero, one heck of a rider,  and he acts like he KNOWS he is hot stuff...

3.  Difficulty - The course was designed a little too well.  Only 4/40 horses went clean.  These riders really need to school some water elements.  (ok, that is the last real horse talk I will use).

2.  Pooper scoopers -  In typical Swiss fashion, the "unmentionable" horse deposits magically dissapeared.  There were men in suits and ties that rushed around like ball boys at Wimbleton.  You could have eaten off the ring floor. 

1.  The Show - There was a "Great Britain Show" in the evening, starring the Calvary of The Queen of England.  Sounds very boring, huh?  Now add in a comedy, monster trucks, and horses doing routines to Coldplay, Katy Perry, and Trans Siberean Orchestra music, and we got ourselves a real show!  There was rock music with bagpipes, a clown dancing with a truck that looked like a mouse, motorcycles and fireworks.  I have no idea what they will think of next!





Now that's not something you see everyday!

We recently headed out to the Zurich Zoo when we were caught in a crowd of people.  What is going on?

It's a penguin parade!

One of these guys nipped at Samantha, proving, yet again, that there is no such thing as OSHA in Europe.

It was positively surreal.  We had a lot of fun playing with the baby penguins too...

And check out the look on this penguins face.  I know he is thinking, "what is up with her?"

A zoo in the snow has very interesting sights.  This is not something you see everyday!

or this!

This zoo has it all, including lots of play areas for children who have had enough of sight seeing.  True to Swiss form the playground equipment is made of  natural products.  This playground is a mock-up spiderweb, and Nicole is caught in the cocoon.

They have a petting zoo too.  Momma, I can relate!

Check out the "binky tree" in this area.  These are where they display the pacifiers after the goats snatch them from unsuspecting toddlers. 

I hope we will visit again with our family and friends who come here.  Now if you will humor me for a moment, I would like to include a few of my favorite pictures from the zoo.  I really like playing with my digital SLR.  I hope you enjoy them.



And as my father would say, "that's all, folks!"

Where in the World are the Betor Girls?

Imagine a place with a towering silver geodome, surrounded by replica countries including Italy, France, England, Norway, and Germany, all ruled by a mouse.  Where are we? 

guess again!

 We went to Europa Park, Germany's largest theme park.  This park is now 35 years old, and it is a blatant copy of the Disney Parks, but some attractions they actually did nicer, with a lot of things that you would never see at Disney, mostly because it is too dangerous. 

The park is located in the middle of a small German town called Rust, and as far as I can tell, the town exists purely to support the tourists.  Just outside the main gates are hundreds of private homes turned into miniature hotels.  The park closes the second week in January for a three month holiday.  We visited during their last week, and it was empty.  Desolate.  Quiet.  No better time to hit the roller coasters!

Our favorite exibit was the Space Mir Station.  You walk past a replica Russian Space Station and enjoy a pounding techno-beat while you board a indoor/outdoor revolving roller coaster.  Sometimes you took the hills forward, sometimes backwards, and we rode it multiple times...

There were many more large roller coasters there, but they were closed for the season.  We enjoyed the "Pirates of Bavaria" (a lot more realistic than Pirates of the Caribbean), Universe of Energy/Dinosaur ride, a haunted house, an indoor roller coaster identical to Space Mountain, and to top it all off, there was a mulled wine kiosk at every corner. Sometimes, however, you have to slow down and enjoy the important things....

This park would never survive in the States.  It was a OSHA nightmare.  Check out the heating! 

and look at what the girls did with a elephant...

There was snow tubing on ice that plowed the giggling children into a wall.  The girls spent hours on the mechanical bull.  You can take the girls out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the girl!

They even got to try out some real circus acrobatics.  They aren't going to win prizes any time soon, but they had a lot of fun!

That's a lot harder than the Wii!

I would highly reccommend this park during the winter, as long as you are prepared with umbrellas and motrin!

Happy New Year!

We have always been pretty low key when it comes to New Year's celebrations, and this year was no exception. We knew that there was a large fireworks show in downtown Zurich, expected to draw 200,000 people and start at midnight. Sorry, I turn into a pumpkin by that time.

Instead we woke to the house shaking, and lights flashing into every window. Was Switzerland suddenly in the middle of a war? Unlikely. Nope, it's just how everyone celebrates here. We lost count with 7 different groups of neighbors shooting off large fireworks. That was only one side of the house! The church bells rang for 30 minutes, people were standing on their rooftops. There we were, the dopey Americans in our jammies on the porch. Even the local Aldi sells massive four foot long fireworks. It was a pyromaniacs dream.

They have interesting New Years traditions here. New Year's Eve is known as "St. Sylvester's Day" and the last person to rise out of bed in the morning is supposed to awaken to the shouts of "Sylvester!". We did not partake in that tradition, but any tradition that includes baked products, we're in !

On January 6th, or "three kings day", you buy a "Dreikoenigskuchen" at the local grocery store, a ring of buns with a buttery sweet topping. In one of the buns is a plastic king, and whoever finds the king and does not require a trip to the local dentist is "king for the day" and everyone has to follow their command. Samantha was king, and here she is ordering her sister to bring her a napkin, with a appropriate look of disdain for all who are not royalty.

This is a lot like an Epiphany cake, except they sell these rolls with the crowns, and people wear them around. Tom got one at work too, but he already tells everyone what to do!

In Germany I saw two different sets of children dressed like the wise men, distributing gifts early in the morning January 6th. Apparently it is a two day holiday in Germany. I am willing to go along with another holiday, especially if it includes baked goods!

There are some things that don't translate well...

During our time here, we have noticed that there are some words that do not translate well from German into English. For example, here is the local lottery kiosk...

And our local hearing aid store, or is it really a store front for something else?

And you can't have this center without a little protection close at hand.

The girls kept asking, "Mommy, why are you taking a picture of that?" They will find out soon enough! On our latest pilgrimage to the geek museum, we ran across an interesting spinoff of McDonalds.

This is a glorified bathroom. It costs 2 Swiss francs to use the WC (regular toilet), or 1.50 for the "pissoir". That term needed no translation! The baby changing station is called the "wickeln". This just cracked us up!

We are finally snow-free here, unlike our family and friends back home. Earlier the girls got bored with regular snowmen in the yard, so they made a life sized "snowcat".

We had an unexpected 4 inches of snow that evening, and before bed I looked outside, and the snow cat had some real visitors!

Stay tuned for pictures of some real snow cats!

Technorama (Swiss for Nerdvana)

What does one do with two little girls who are off of school for three weeks? You go sledding, of course. Nicole was fine after this little jump, and we all warmed up with hot chocolate, thanks to our good friends in Shelby. There is actually a ski lift in our town, and most people use it for sledding.

We pulled the girls away from their kindles long enough to go to a science museum. I can hear the collective yawn across the ocean, but it was the neatest, funnest museum that we closet geeks have ever gone to. It's called "Technorama", and we only saw half of it in 4 hours. They had hands on experiments to explain basic math and science principles, things that you would never see in the States. Why, you ask, because they are too dangerous. Volunteers got shocked by a tesla coil and 1500 volts...

and we get to stand next to a 10 meter tall fire tornado...

as well as a classic tornado...

The adults enjoyed remembering the principles of angular momentum and a gyroscope, Yee Haw, Tom!

and don't forget sine waves and the changes of the nodes when you vary the frequency of movement of springs on a pendulum suspension.

You can never play with enough magnets...

and the puzzles were too much fun.

We hated to leave, and we will all return since we bought a year membership. Geeks of the world, unite!