Vienna

Another weekend, another pilgrimage to a famous European city.  A few weekends ago, the destination was Vienna.  MITers flew in from all over Europe and Clarke prepared himself for “a very nerdy weekend”.  

Vienna crew in front of one of the many royal palaces

Ahem Clarke we only made a few Schrödinger jokes and just thought briefly of visiting his grave several hours outside Vienna.  For my non-science loving readers, Schrödinger is a famous Austrian quantum physicist and we encounter t-shirts like this on a daily basis at MIT.  Clarke and I got in before everybody else and had a chance to explore the old town Friday evening.  What a beautiful city!  As is the family traveling tradition, we wandered around aimlessly, following both the melodious strands of street musicians and the distant glow of a palace displayed in its finest evening splendor.   

Vienna has a plethora of picturesque statues and fountains

Karla, our resident LGO tour guide, had a slew of sites for us to hit on Saturday.  We walked through Hofburg Palace, Rauthaus, St Peterskirche cathedral, Stephansdom cathedral, and the astonishing painted ceilings of Karlskirche which may have been my favorite site of the day.  The church set up scaffolding so visitors could walk up to the top of the dome to see the collages from a few feet instead of several hundred.  Since middle school art was a challenge for me, I looked at the painted ceilings with pure wonder. 

Karlskirche ceiling

My classmate Kacey brought her husband and their two year old son Nolan which certainly added a foreign element to the trip for a bunch of twenty & thirty -something unmarried people.  Nolan's a gregarious, sweet kid and Clarke and I both had fun chasing him around to tire him out and give his parents a well-deserved break.  I think Clarke made a friend for life.

Clarke and Nolan

Sunday we journeyed out to Vienna’s number one tourist attraction Schönbrunn Palace which is the former imperial summer residence of the Habsburg.  Wow beyond the impressive physical palace, the estate has a gloriette, roman runins, hedge maze, large zoo, a litany of sculptures, and the most impressive gardens I’ve visited in memory.  You could easily spend all day on the palace grounds and not see half of it.

Siblings in front of th palace

Not that we didn’t try!  I marveled at the imperial quarters, got a kick out of running around the maze trying to beat my friends (if only Donovan wasn’t 200+cm tall), trekked up the hill to the gloriette to see the palace aerially, and sipped a Viennese coffee at one of the cafes on grounds.  A fitting ending to another fun trip.

LGO ladies w/ city backdrop

I Can See France From My House (& Germany Too!)

Clarke was bemused by the fact that I can see France and Germany from my balcony.  He wanted to experience all three countries so one beautiful day in Basel, I took off work, rented Clarke a bike almost as awesome as my $100 children's mountain bike, and we pointed ourselves in the general direction of Germany.

Just like that, Germany – Clarke decided it was rather anticlimactic  

Around Basel, the Rhine River demarks the border between France and Germany and one of my co-workers mapped us a route along the river.  The river front area in Germany is industrial so we quickly decided to cross into France. 

We wound up on a long island in the middle and biked along for awhile wondering what country we were in.  The answer came in a gleeful chorus of “bonjours” from a passing group of school children.   

Check off country #3

Biking through the French countryside was a joy.  Church steeples dotted the faraway hills.  Fields of sunflowers intermixed with cornfields and both seemingly appeared around every corner.  We saw painted villages with picture perfect town squares and flower box bridges over bubbling streams.  In the spirit of France, we stopped off at a cafe for cappuccinos and croissants.         

Watch out Lance - here's your newest competition

3 countries, 70 kms, a few Lance Armstrong impersonations, and many a picture break later, we returned home sore but triumphantly as tri-country cyclists.    

The Matterhorn

The Great Wall, Machu Pichu, the Taj Mahal, the Matterhorn - Long before MIT was even a faraway dream, I’d wanted to see The Matterhorn. – Lonely Planet describes it as “defying trigonometry, photography, & many a karabiner” and “an unfathomable monolith you can’t quite stop looking at”.  Many people simply know it as the peak featured on Toblerone packaging.    

Being the good sister that I am, I forced myself to wait for Clarke’s visit to make the pilgrimage to Zermatt to view what’s often billed as the world’s most beautiful mountain.  A family friend linked us up with an expat who has made his home in Zermatt with its Valasian chalets and quaint Alps charm.  We met Bill our first morning in Zermatt in the town plaza and went to his favorite spot for morning hot chocolate.  Bill pointed us towards a hike that would snake along the valley through the ten family village of Zmutt and up towards the Matterhorn.

Overlooking the village of Zmutt

Clarke and I set off with water, rain gear, a smorgasbord of leftovers from our hotel’s breakfast buffet, & a dream.  Though the weather was overcast, we hoped to hike hight enough to break through the clouds.  Eight hours and a vertical mile or so later, we were back in Zermatt without much more than compartmental glimpses of the elusive Matternhorn.  Regardless we enjoyed the Alps hike and the mid-mountain restaurant where we feasted on rosti (national dish of Switzerland) and befriended two very impressive 65+ German women.  After a relaxing sauna, scrumptious fondue dinner, and a good night’s sleep, we were ready to try again.

The next day was Clarke’s “best day of the summer”.  Clarke was overjoyed to throw back the curtains and see rays of sunshine peaking through the cloud covering.  We excitedly began the ride up the system of cable cars to Klein (little) Matterhorn in anticipation of its heralded rooftop view of the Alps and deep into Italy.  As we approached the second station, the cable car broke through the cloud covering and there she was – the Matterhorn looming imposingly right in front of us.   

The Matterhorn

We stood transfixed for quite a while contemplating the Matternhorn in all her perfection.  The sound of a child broke our trances and we continued up Klein Matterhorn.  Clarke and I were surprised to see such intensive summer skiing – Clarke was practically drooling at the thought of returning in December to ski.  Why we even shared a cable car on the way down with members of the Slovenian and Japanese national ski teams.

Can I move here?

We returned to Zermatt to join our friend Bill for lunch at an outdoor café with a view of the Alps.  Between bites of local meat and cheeses, we good-naturedly debated a litany of topics from health care policy to the future of energy.  Fueled-up, we rented climbing gear and set off to find the elusive Zermatt via feratta.  Clarke had trouble believing the Swiss policy of letting you rent your own gear and set off on rock climbing courses hundreds of feet in the air at your own risk.  Good thing I kind-of remembered how to put on harnesses!  The Zermatt via feratta with miniscule footholds, rickety ladders, wooden planks, and lots of scrambling, was very challenging, crazy, and a blast.  We caught one of the last trains out of town and sunk in to our seats contented and exhausted.        

Miss you already Clarke!

Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein – a country about the size of Manhattan, a population around 35,000 people, accessible solely by bus, & only a few hours from Basel.  When we learned that on Liechtenstein’s National Day, August 15^th, the Prince opens up his mountain-top palace for celebratory festivities, we had to attend.  Our group of three MIT alums, my friend Jessica, Clarke, & I stayed at the only hostel in the country. 

Mountaintop royal castle

On the bus into the capital city of Vaduz, we made our first Liechtensteiner friends.  They told us stories of banking haven scandals and the challenge of foreigners immigrating to Liechtenstein and we wound up in the town’s bar sampling the local wine.  The royal family has their own vineyards and their famed rose was mighty tasty.

Jessica, Stephanie, & I with the Royal Guards

The National Day festivities kicked off at 9AM the next morning with a mass, speech from the Prince, & traditional dancing in a field.  Since nobody in the group spoke much German, we all waited with baited breath for the processional up the hill to the castle that would signal the opening of the royal gates.

Siblings preparing to enter the royal castle

Royal band playing ceremonial music in front of the castle

The Prince sponsored a celebratory party with a band, smorgasbord of local breads, sandwiches, & fruits, and all the local beer you desired.  We enjoyed our brush with royalty, members of Parliament, and local Liechtensteiners alike.

Clarke, Zach, Jerome & I enjoying our feast on the Prince

Zurich Street Parade

My brother Clarke has been visiting for the past two weeks so I’ve been lax in blog postings and email returns between our myriad of adventures.  Sadly Clarke begins the trek back to NC tomorrow morning and is furiously packing so I can begin the updates on all that has transpired.

Dan, Clarke’s college roommate, encouraged us to meet him in Zurich for the 19^th annual Street Parade.  Zurich’s Street Parade is an amalgamation of techno and house music, about ten stages, underground rising star DJs, 700,000 revelers often in costume,  innumerable “love mobile” floats, and one giant parade all co-existing along the picturesque shore of Lake Zurich.   The street parade is meant to promote love, peace and tolerance and after the physical parade the partying continues at house and techno parties taking place in various pubs, clubs and warehouses around the city. 

Aerial view of parade from organizing website

We weren’t sure what to expect but I began getting a general sense of what awaited us on our way to the train station in Basel when I began seeing group after group of creatively dressed people all heading the same direction as us.  I’d describe the costume levels on par with Halloween in Salem.  Luckily for us Dan brought over a slew of hilarious Uncle Sam costumes from the US.   

Team America

Our rag-tag group of Uncle Sams was unexpectedly popular; we made friends from all walks of life and I got asked to pose in many a picture.

Embracing the stereotype!

As the sun set and the crowds grew wilder, Clarke and I bid farewell to both Dan and Zurich to head to our next adventure - Lichtenstein Independence Day.    

The Road Less Traveled By

My girlfriends and I set off the other weekend with a vague aim of seeing St Moritz, a ritzy Swiss resort town near Italy.  The ensuing trip brought to mind my favorite poem, Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken.  We began without a GPS, automatic drive, lodging, or itinerary.  The logical choice was the highway to St Moritz, a fancy hotel, & a weekend of lounging around the lake.

The road less traveled began about thirty minutes into the trip when I saw a sign for Heididorf and begged for a detour.  The story of Heidi living in the Alps with her grandfather was one of my favorite stories growing up.  My grandmother use to act out the story with us - Naturally I was Heidi, Clarke was Peter the goatherd, and Alyson was Clara.  Sorry James – you were a goat.  In the outskirts of Heididorf, brushing the Alps they’ve created the village from the story and I was beside myself with excitement.  Here we are below with Heidi’s barn.     

Klosters, ski resort favored by European royalty, was our next haphazard stop.  Highlights included a picnic in a restaurant and a bungee swing.  From Klosters we loaded the car onto a train and barreled through and under mammoth mountains for twenty minutes in pitch dark.  None of us were sure whether we were emerging a 20 km away or being teleported to the moon.  After our suspect train ride, we wound up on a road so off the beaten path that at several points you had to avoid hitting buildings and cows with remarkably the same frequency as it wound through picturesque villages.  

   

We decided to stop for the night in a village a stone’s throw from the Swiss National Park.  I befriended the front desk clerk and we ended up bunking in the undeveloped back component of a fancy hotel complete with a sauna, nice restaurant, & delicious buffet breakfast.  Before retiring for the evening we visited the mountaintop painted village of Guarda, population 186.

Sunday we ventured into the Swiss National Park and wow what scenery.  The lower section was prime grazing land and we encountered a good number of cows.  Not a bad life these cows have ...

The view from the top was definitely worth the effort.

After we hiked down, we did eventually reach St Moritz which lived up to its beautiful & glitzy reputation.  Sitting in the patio of a nice restaurant, wrapped up in lush blankets, was the ideal spot for a post-hike celebratory drink but I was glad we chose the road less traveled by.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

FC Basel

Continuing with our newfound, World Cup induced love of futbol, the gang decided to take in the season opener of FC Basel against our arch rival FC Zurich.  FC Basel is of course sponsored by none other than Novartis – the company patron saint of seemingly all of Basel.  Novartis has infused lots of money in the team and we’ve won the Swiss futbol title five times in the past eight years. It took a herculean effort to even get tickets.  Let me tell you how challenging filling out online ticket forms in Swiss German untranslatable by even the famed Google translator was.  Nevertheless, we got decked out in the team color, red, to cheer on the team and showed up at will call the night of the game not really knowing what to expect.

Inexplicably we ended up with fantastic, front-row seats all the better to see all the action both on and off the field.  The persona of the orderly, misanthropic Swiss seemed to dissipate before our eyes the closer we got to the stadium.  For the first time since arriving in Switzerland, our group was not the most rambunctious; quite the contrary really as we gazed around the stadium at the throngs of warring Zurich and Basel fans. 

We were seated near the main operational base of FC Zurich and my were they organized.  There was no haphazard cheering or weak wave attempts.  Thousands of them mysteriously chanted in unison.  The part I found most intriguing was the firecrackers and smoke bombs many of the fans set off.  At some points, it was challenging to see the field through the smoke - In the US, you’d have been tasered.

FC Basel overcame an early deficient to win the game 3-2.  The crowd went wild!  The players on both teams demonstrated a heartwarming show of European sportsmanship by making their way slowly around the perimeter of the field applauding their fans. 

Our group may well need a few pointers from the team.  We’ve signed up for the Novartis Cup later in the month: 5 on 5, 20 minute games, bracket-style elimination.  Team name: Nein Nein Fraulein.   

Berlin Beckons

Last weekend I journeyed to Berlin to visit my friend Adrienne.  She’s in Germany for six months as part of an international development course sponsored by my former company.  I never made it to Berlin during my light bulb stint although I did have the opportunity to sample every restaurant in St Marys, Pennsylvania at least twelve times.  Beef on wick and pierogies both really grew on me after the first year :)

It was wonderful getting to catch-up with Adrienne and she very graciously toured me around her new city.   In our old lives, we often went running during lunch with another friend.  After I arrived on Friday evening, we probably walked for miles to see Berlin in her lite-up splendor.  The picture below is of me in front of the Brandenburg Gate. 

On Saturday we hit all the Berlin highlights from the East Side Gallery to Hitler’s Bunker to the Holocaust Memorial.  The subdued feeling of Hitler’s Bunker took me by surprise.  The former bunker’s ruins have long since been demolished and in its place are innocuous looking apartment buildings.  The picture below is of Adrienne in front of the East Side Gallery which is a memorial stretch of the wall near the center of Berlin with over 100 paintings. 

My favorite tourist attraction was the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.  It’s an entire museum dedicated to stories of creative and daring escape attempts from East Germany.  The engineer in me wandered around in bewilderment at the ingenuity of some of the devices on display from the hot air balloon to the hollowed out cars to the mini-sub.  You would love this museum Dad.  See me below with the Russian and American guards in front of the checkpoint.

As with all my weekend trips, the time to return to Basel for work came all too fast.  Thanks for hosting me Adrienne!  Mary Beth - really you can't come up with any business trips to Germany?  See all the fun you're missing ...

An Outsider on the Inside

Though my blog topics may not reflect it, a fascinating component of life in Basel is going to work.  I’ll save the daily grind disparities for another post. In a marked departure from my old life where the majority of each day was spent firefighting, I don’t have any daily responsibilities in Basel.  Similar to consulting, I’m an outsider brought in to solve a specific problem.  Unlike historical consulting, I have a Novartis badge, boss, and team even though I technically work for an am ultimately responsible to MIT.  Lou Gerstner, former IBM CEO, lifted IBM from near bankruptcy to a perennial computing powerhouse by being an “outsider on the inside” which affords you a certain level of emotional detachment from the company’s challenges.  We interns clearly have big shoes to fill!

Novartis has a public, high-level strategic partnership with MIT that has bred a palpable reverence for the university amongst employees.  When my bespeckled, white-haired advisor visited earlier in the month, you would have thought the President had arrived.  Though I don’t carry Dr. Welsch’s level of clout, I’m still amazed that I get to spend my days learning through asking people of all levels intrusive questions in the name of research and sitting around brainstorming. 

However the MIT besottedness is not without its drawbacks.  I learned the hard way that people take my spoken stream of consciousness thoughts literally when they tried to immediately implement one of them.  Since then, I’ve learned to process thoughts silently and asked my team members to cease introducing me as the MIT guru. 

On a lighter note, just like work in Boston, I’ve found myself in the roles of English tutor and reigning generational explainer.  As the only native speaker on my Basel team of ten, I’m called upon to proof presentations and contracts, decipher foreign email correspondences, and explain colloquial expressions.  We had hilarious conversations last week about the difference between guinea pig and piggy bank and the real meaning of “that’s what she said”.  In addition, I’m the youngest by at least fifteen years and have tried to shed light on the differences between and uses of twitter, facebook, gchat, linkedin, etc. 

As much as things change across oceans, plenty of things remain the same J  

Where I work below ... more to come on the reason for beer and balloons