Well, I lost my heart in Switzerland...not to any man (!), simply to the place ;) It's just magnificent! 700 years of peace have certainly shaped the surroundings; beautiful quaint little chalets are dotted all over the mountainside with villages and towns nestled in the shadows of the Alps! Not to mention the lakes of the Bernese Oberland with their pure, turquoise water, especially Thunersee and Lake Brienz! einfach wunderschön! Übrigens hatten die noch Sommer in der Schweiz! Das war ja schon lange her der Fall in Finnland!
So, as you may have guessed, I was in Switzerland for 5 days...in Thun to be precise; a town on Lake Thun in the Canton of Bern. The purpose of my trip was to attend the final NICE (european project which our cluster was a part of) meeting. It was pretty poignant being the last ever meeting with the same group of people. Since I joined Technology Centre Hermia, I started going to these meetings instead of Juha (my boss). First there was Paderborn, then Ankara, Ostrava and finally Thun. In a sense I only experienced a snapshot of the entire project (1 year from 3) but it was enough to see how the partners (from Finland, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland and Czech Rep) had bonded over that time, and to really feel that bond myself too! I can imagine that it's not with every set of project partners that you go out clubbing! sometimes drink too much...ahem, etc etc! There is/was just such a great spirit with these guys! The socialising really helps fortify the business relationships too. I truly believe that.
Well, as for business in Thun, we ran through the project results and heard interesting presentations e.g. on hypotheses of the future of ICT etc! Generally, we wrapped up the project. There was plenty of time for networking too, of course. As for the social programme, well, we had 3 amazing dinners! 2 in excellent restaurants in Thun and 1 in a chalet all for ourselves next to a real restaurant in the valley of the Jungfrau mountain and its surrounding range! Before dinner we were served canapes and serenading by a man playing Alp horn; I got to try it out myself too! We also spent 1 day visiting the Canton of Wallis (bordering the french-speaking part of Switzerland). We went to a techno park and heard some presentations before heading to a beautiful vineyard in Sierre (www.chevaliers.ch) for exquisite wine tasting and raclette! delicious! On Saturday, those of us who were left went with up the Niederhorn mountain in the funicular railway and chairlift with Christoph, our Swiss host. Unfortunately we couldn't go right up to the peak because the weather was too bad. We did, however, reach Vorsass and had a lovely lunch (I had a plate of cheese) and a great view of Lake Thun!
Coincidentally my parents were on holiday in Interlaken (20mins from Thun) the SAME week, celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. So I was lucky to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak, and got to spend Wed afternoon and Sat night and Sun morning with them. Mostly we just relaxed and wandered around the town and drank a lot of coffee or "Schale" 's as mum discovered! Wunderbar! what more can you ask for!
Switzerland: be warned. I'm coming back.
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