Zurich, September 2 - 4

September 2 - Brunnen

Swiss Army Knife

We went to the town of Brunnen (about an hour out of Zurich), where we went to the Victorinox museum and shop. There we made a Swiss Army Knife. The Swiss Army Knife was first produced in 1891 . It is made today by a company called Victorinox and there are many different kinds of knives and its components come from Germany, France and Switzerland.

The one I made was called the Spartan and it has the following features:

1. Large blade
2. Small blade
3. Can opener
4. Small screwdriver
5. Corkscrew
6. Reamer
7. Toothpick
8. Tweezers
9. Bottle opener
10. Screwdriver
11. Wire stripper

Assembling the knife, not so easy but I got there in the end

My name engraved on it

Video of me assembling the knife

Old fold out knives on display in the museum

Awesome..one, two, three...ah too many knifes

Different kinds of knives through the years

World's largest knife

Different features of the knives

Me and my family on the Lake Luzern in Brunnen

Titlis Glacier

On September 4th we went to the Titlis Glacier which is about an hour and a half by train from Zurich. The glacier is 3238m above sea level. A glacier is a massive body of ice on land that consists of layers of ice that have accumulated over thousands of years. The origin of the word "glacier" comes from latin word "glacies" which means ice.

We took three ski lifts and a rotating gondola to the top. The rotating gondola was the first one of its kind in the world. We walked through the inside of the glacier, it was very cold, about 3 degrees. We then took an open ski lift that took us to a part of the glacier where we were able to ride down with sleds and other slides.

Riding up the first ski lift

Just getting above the clouds

Getting close to the top

View of the rotating gondola

Looking toward the highest peak in Europe, Jungfrau

Inside the glacier

An ice sculpture in the glacier

Another ice sculpture

My sister looking out towards the Alps

Way above the clouds

Looking down at the glacier, above the clouds

Me with my sisters on the glacier

Deep crevasses in the glacier...you fall in you don't come back

On the ski lift towards the glacier

A video of me falling on the glacier

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Rhodes, Greece - August 28 - September 1

Rhodes, Greece
August 28 - September 1

Right after Istanbul we headed to Rhodes which is a Greek island. Greeks call the island "Rodos". We were lucky to get upgraded to business class even though the flight was less than 2 hours, but we had the whole cabin to ourselves so it felt like we were in a private jet.

Our private business class cabin  to Rhodes

Rhodes is southeast of the coast of Turkey. It has a population of around 53,000 people. We found out when we got there that it is quite touristy and there were quite a few cruise ships in the Rhodes harbour. The Medieval Old Town of Rhodes is a World Heritage Site and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.

Rhodes is actually closer to Asia Minor (western most part of Asia, which is actually Turkey) than Greece. We didn't do much touring or sightseeing because it was very hot, we spent most of our time at the hotel pool or the beach. If you want to learn more about the history of Rhodes, click here.

One of entrance gates to Old Town of Rhodes

A nice looking cobbled alley in Old Town Rhodes

Rhodes beach pebbled floors were everywhere

Another cool example of the beach pebbles

Sea horse fountain in Old Town by the Jewish Quarter

Largest beer glass I've ever seen. Not sure if this is a Greek tradition or probably for German tourists :-)

Not to forget the food...we had roast goat one night in a small village about an hour from Old Town

My dad's dessert of yoghurt with local honey and walnuts

Chicken Gyros which I ate very often. Meat roasted on a vertical spit, then served with Tzaziki (yoghurt, garlic and cucumber dip), chips tomatoes and onions in a pita wrap. Awesome!

My daily Greek coffee...or rather, my dad's three times a day

Valley of the butterflies. 

We got there just in time because about a week after we left they were supposed to mate and fly away. We saw millions butterflies as you can see in the photo (look at the rock behind the two trees). 

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The Egyptian Spice Market

August 26, 2012

Egyptian Spice Market

On Saturday August 26th we went to the Egyptian Spice Market. It is the second largest covered market in Turkey after the Grand Bazaar. This market was a lot more fun than the Grand Bazaar because of all the different kinds of food you can buy like olives, cheese, bread, spices, tea and many other foods. One of the best parts of the market is that you can sample Turkish Delight from all the different store owners. I was quite happy to go from store to store tasting Turkish Delight as if I was about to buy a whole bunch, we did eventually buy some.

Another cool part of the market are the different spices you can buy. They have almost every spice under the sun, you can smell them from outside the market and they are very colourful. My dad bought some special Turkish spice you put on grilled meat like kebabs and some Iranian saffron which is so strong you need just a tiny piece less than 1cm long to flavour 40 servings of rice.

Hot chillies

 Henna powder. It tasted like grass.

Spices everywhere

If you like tea you love the spice market. There were a lot of different teas

And more spices

The good stuff...sweet dried fruits

My dad buying his spices, we had to guess how much each one weighed before the merchant put it on the scale.

 Massage oils. My mom asked my dad if he was buying some, I don't remember his response. :)

Smurfette with the perfume guy.

And the best of all...Turkish Delight everywhere

Newly married Turkish couple. I wasn't sure what they were doing, my dad said they came to buy food for their first meal. Not sure I believe that though.

 Entrance to the spice bazaar

The internet connection in our Zurich apartment has been up and down the past few days but very soon I'll update you on our trip to Rhodes, Greece and what we've been doing in Zurich since we got back from Greece - includes sharp objects, mountains and ice. 

On September 6th we head to Venice, Italy for 3 days. Can't wait.

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The Grand Bazaar

August 25

Grand Bazaar

On August 25th we went to the Istanbul Grand Bazaar. It is one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world. It covers around 61 streets and has about 3000 stores. When we went it was very crowded, apparently between 300,000 to 400,000 people visit the bazaar every day.

The core or inner part of the Bazaar was built in 1455. The shape of the bazaar as it is today has existed since the seventeenth century. Until about 1894 the bazaar had no real stores, merchants sat on wooden boxes in front of their shelves, today they have what look like proper stores or shops you can walk into and practice your negotiation skills.

You can get almost anything at the bazaar, we bought a backgammon set and the Turkish Okey game I mentioned in the "Other Tour" post. It was very hot and crowded when we went so after a while we decided to leave and go back to the hotel and swim.

 Me outside one of the about 50 light stores we went to, you can see I'd had enough of shopping by then

My dad with one of his many Turkish coffees during the day

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