For the past few weeks I have spent almost as much time in Switzerland as I have at home. Unfortunately with business trips you can never guarantee that you see anything more of the place than the airport, and office and a hotel¹.

Fortunately I did finish “early” a couple of days though and the weather did manage to cooperate.

My first time in the city I arrived at the office in a taxi and walked five minutes to the hotel. Dinner wasn’t far away either. I had no impression of the orientation or size of the place. Well known for being next to a lake, I couldn’t have told you which direction to find it.

It turns out that it’s a very pretty, small city. When I did figure out the lay of the land I realised that nothing was very far away even on foot.

On the last day I went to Zeughauskeller for dinner.

Perhaps not the healthiest of options but, I am told, traditionally Swiss. (The yellow stuff on the right is called Rösti, basically a potato pancake.) A pretty good way to round out my three weeks in the city.

1. Since this was a business trip I didn’t have my regular camera with me and I had to shoot with my iPhone 4. It is surprisingly good for a phone but a long way from even my old “proper” camera in terms of image quality.

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1. Travelling with work
2. Spanish Sunset
3. Vienna, Austria

Last time I went to New York I wrote a reasonable amount about it so I’m not sure that I have much to add this time. Instead I’ll mainly just let the pictures do the talking.

The hotel I was staying in was not far from Times Square, so I passed through on a number of occasions. It’s always busy, especially early evening when this image was taken¹.

I always wonder about the artists who paint pictures and caricatures of passing tourists (I saw exactly the same thing in Montmartre the previous week). On the one hand they’re making a living from their art, something that probably most artists are unable to do. Yet I’m sure it’s not what they set out to do.

The following day I decided to cross this river and head into Brooklyn. Since I’d just read about it in Wired and because it’s a “classic,” I decided to cross over the Brooklyn Bridge.

As with all American monuments and significant structures, it has a flag flapping away at the top.

Even half way across the bridge you get some great views back over Manhattan. And looking a little further left you can even catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. But whenever you stop to look or take a picture you have to be very careful that you don’t walk into someone or that a cyclist doesn’t accidentally knock you over. The footbridge was very busy.

Once on the other side I wandered around, had some excellent ice cream and considered my options for the rest of the day. While pondering I stumbled across this view of the Empire State Building through the legs of the Manhattan Bridge.

Back on the other side of the river I took a stroll near Central Park.

The following day I realised that while I’d seen the Empire State Building up close, I’d never really seen the Chrysler Building, which is nearly as famous, just as distinctive and only slightly smaller. I was looking forward to seeing the art deco interior but it was closed and I couldn’t get in. Instead I had to make do with this reflected shot of the outside.

Finally, on my final way back to the hotel with my camera, I realised that I’d seen a lot of these street vendors selling sun glasses and other “high end fashion at knock down prices”! I had to fire off a few shots.

And then it was back to the airport and home. Never a good thing but for some reason I was less affected by jet-lag than usual. In some sense, that made the weekend even better.

1. I thought that “Live View” on my DSLR was a bit of a gimmick but it does allow me to take pictures like this where I wouldn’t be able to get my eye to the view finder.

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1. Oxford
2. New York, 2006
3. Salisbury

The last time I was in Paris as a tourist I did most of the obvious stuff which meant that this time I was able to just hang out and wander around without any particular aim. That I also had great weather and some luck factored in to make a great weekend.

I started by walking by the Seine, near Îlle de la Cité, not far from where I waited for my train when I was in Paris a few weeks ago with work. While there I passed these roller-blading Policemen. Not something you see every day back at home.

My major concession to visiting the “obvious” sights was climbing the Eiffel Tower. Last time, expecting long queues, I looked around the base of the tower and went up the Arc de Triomphe instead.

Despite booking online beforehand there was still a fairly substantial queue. Still, it was a much shorter wait than for those who had not planned ahead.

Of course it’s a popular location. Even booking ahead I didn’t get my pick of time slots and ended up a little earlier than I might have chosen otherwise. No matter, the view from the top was very much worth getting even if the light wasn’t perfect.

Of course one disadvantage of the view from the tower is that the Eiffel Tower isn’t in it. I was quite pleased with myself for getting a good number of shots with the shadow across the Parc du Champs de Mars until I realised that pretty much everyone with a camera had exactly the same idea.

On the Sunday I found that the Champs-Elysees had been turned into a huge farm. On the Avenue de la Grande-Armée — on the other side of the Arc de Triomphe to the Champs-Elysees — everything looked normal. The usual Parisian chaos as traffic approached the Place Charles de Gaulle.

On the other, trees and plants, fruit and vegetables and people. Lots of people. I guess it shows the influence of the French farmers as I don’t think they’d ever manage to persuade the Mayor to give over Oxford Street for a few plants. It seems that there’s a fight just to hand over the place to pedestrians for a few weeks as Christmas approaches.

Overall it was a good weekend. Lots of walking. Lots to see and eat and do. It’s not often I get to be able to extend a work-trip to cover a weekend but it’s worth it when I do.

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1. Paris, 2006
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Dispiriting doesn’t begin to cover it.

But I wasn’t going to let something like that completely ruin my week. Limited to the UK, I decided to go to Salisbury and the near by Stone Henge, two places that I’ve not been to for a long time.

After picking up the hire car and driving out of London, I realised that I was a bit early to check into the B&B and decided to head straight to Stone Henge. Probably not the best option photographically (since the sun was almost overhead) but it worked well time-wise.

One of the bizarre things about Stone Henge is that it’s right next to the A303, a major road. (In fact last time I was here I just drove past in the car and never progressed into the visitors centre!) There have been suggestions that the road should be moved under the monument but, given the proximity, wandering around was remarkably quiet.

It’s an impressive sight. Like Giza’s pyramids, even today it would be a reasonable engineering task to build but it’s almost unimaginable how they achieved it thousands of years ago.

As has been noted many times before, the location has a certain atmosphere that’s difficult to put into words. It must have been a magical place, at least in times where people believed in magic!

After walking about the stone circle I got back in the car and heading down to Salisbury. It’s a pretty, old town.

The historic centre is the Cathedral. Again, it’s incredible to think that, in a time when most people were living in poverty, it was possible to construct a building as large and intricate as this.

Inside it was much brighter than many churches I’ve been in. Towards the centre of the nave was an unusual cross between a font and a waterfall.

Elsewhere in the Cathedral is one of four original copies of the Magna Carta. No pictures allowed in that room, but it was fascinating looking over such an important document. Since it’s all in Latin I relied in the translation on the wall. The combination of fundamental human rights and seemingly trivial details makes an interesting combination.

But the neatest thing that I could take a photograph of was this medieval clock, one of the oldest working examples in the world. Much more detailed descriptions can be found elsewhere so I won’t say much here other than note its significance.

After visiting the Cathedral I took a wander by the river, had quick drink and meandered back to the car. It was only a short trip, but it was good to get away.

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At first I thought that might happen again. Not because I’m suffering from amnesia but because when I arrived it was raining pretty heavily and, for a while, it seemed that the hotel might be a better option than trudging around in the rain.

Fortunately the next morning things looked very different. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the sun was shining but it was (relatively) warm and fine; you can’t really ask for much better around Easter¹.

I started wandering around the University Park, watching the ducks and the little kids running after them and almost falling in.

Wandering further south I stumbled across a building with the following message inscribed: “To Truth; To Liberty; To Religion.” I can’t help but think that the first two parts and the last conflict.

In a similar vein, I thought that the message that churches are open for all to worship together was at odds with the pass-coded security gate. The pictured lady tried to helpfully shift out of frame. I guess she wasn’t to know that I was trying to get her in it!

After that I wandered around the various old colleges in the centre of town.

Down the cobbled streets…

…and over Magdalen Bridge. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think in Oxford that’s pronounced “maudlin.”) Here I noticed the punts all tied up. Presumably it’s too cold or there are too few tourists to rent them out at this time of year.

Almost the last stop was for the Radcliffe Camera which, while it couldn’t help me decide which new lens to get for my Canon, was quite grand.

I’m glad I got to see more than just the hotel. I’m puzzled by how little I can remember from my previous trip which makes me happy that I have evidence of this one.

1. Well, three year ago in Knaresborough I got better but you shouldn’t expect better.

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That made last weeks trip to Paris and Frankfurt the exception. Meetings finished early in France and I couldn’t change my train reservation so I took the Metro a few stops south a hung around Notre Dame for a couple of hours.

I had a big rucksack with me so I couldn’t go too far and I only had my iPhone rather than my 50D so my photographic options were limited.

Still, I felt lucky to have a couple of hours to myself.

I took the train from Paris to Frankfurt. I had been planning on walking from the Hauptbahnhof but I was tired and I immediately took the wrong turning on exiting. I quickly reevaluated the situation and took a taxi to the hotel. It was dark when I arrived and I quickly fell asleep.

The next morning I walked to the office, through a couple of parks. It was a hard day and I spent most of it on my feet, but luckily I still managed to leave on time.

It was still light when I got back to the hotel so took a few shots of the rush-hour traffic. Afterwards I took a wander down one of the main pedestrian streets. True to form I found the Apple Store.

I also found some interesting patterns in the hotel. This is a picture of the steps, from reception looking up. When I was last in Frankfurt I took a similar picture but from the top looking down. The desk in the middle at the bottom bugged me; I prefer this, cleaner image.

I hope I manage to get a little sight-seeing in next time I go away with work, too. I may even bring my DSLR.

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Having dropped my bags off at the hotel, I decided to just get the metro to the centre of town and see how things panned out. Public transport was pretty swift and efficient as far as I could tell.

That strategy, as basic as it was, worked out rather well. I had picked Stephansplatz as it was pretty much right in the middle of Innere Stadt but had no real idea what I would find when I exited the U-Bahn.

Stephansplatz features the huge and very grand Stephansdom. The roof has very detailed green and yellow tiles which looked bright and cheerful during the day and a little sinister at night, especially when foggy.

(These last two were both taken on a recent acquisition: a 50mm Canon prime lens.)

Going in late November there was also the lure of the odd Christmas Market. What I hadn’t counted on was seeing one on pretty much every street corner.

The biggest was in front of the Radhaus (townhall). It was huge and very well attended, with everyone taking their share of punsch, kartoffelpuffers and wursts (sausages). There were also huge numbers of gingerbread and chocolate and kitsch Christmas tree decorations.

One of the nice things was that, for the first couple of nights at least, mine was about the only English voice in the crowd. This caused a few minor problems ordering food — I didn’t recognise the word for garlic (knoblauch?) — but it’s nice that locals visit these things as well as tourists.

Later in the week I got as far as Schloss Belvedere where there was another reasonably sized market. Many of the others were much smaller.

I can’t say that I was very tempted by any of the baubles, but the glühwein was most welcome in the Autumn chill.

During the day I did a lot of walking around, checking out the many and various grand, old buildings.

Karlskirche looks impressive from the outside.

But the inside is in the process of being renovated. They’re making good use of the scaffolding by allowing tourists to climb up to the roof too. It’s really neat to see the artwork so close.

And then when you get to the top the view is pretty spectacular, albeit obscured slightly by the grill on the window. I have to say that the window looked more secure than the platform felt. With all the people climbing up and down it was wobbling quite alarmingly.

Other than the public transport and the ability to climb towers, another way to get around would be the horses and carriages. There was no shortage around the Hofburg and Stephansplatz, though they all looked miserable in the cold and fog.

Perhaps the most grand building, certainly the one with the best lighting after dark, is the Radhaus. The parliament building, which is next door, looks quite ordinary by comparison.

My flight back to London was pretty late and, having seen many of the obvious sights and getting weary of the cold, I ducked into the Natural History Museum. I’d avoided it on the previous days as there’s a similar-seeming one in London, but, well, it was cold outside. Luckily I was wrong: it was well worth visiting in its own right. As with the one in Kensington, the building was impressive.

There was a nice Darwin exhibition that managed to explain some pretty sophisticated concepts. And they also had a primate wearing glasses, which I thought was funny. It was designed to make a point about how active evolution is when we’re altering the kinds of things that nature typically selects against.

Continuing the theme of how easily amused I am, there was also an infrared camera. My camera looks really big from that angle!

Overall Vienna was a great place to spend a long weekend and it’s relatively small which makes it very walkable. There’s lots of stuff to see both inside and out. If there’s one down-side it’s that they seem to hide their best food. My success rate at just stumbling across restaurants was not high, and getting anything more than a (very good) cake after lunch was more miss than hit. Not since Copenhagen has a dinner been so lame. Next time I guess I should pay more attention to the guide book.

If you have not had your fill of pictures, take a look at the full Vienna set on Flickr.

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2. Spanish Sunset
3. Paris (Part Deux)

Two things, however, had escaped my attention. Firstly, Granada is about two hours by taxi from Canillas de Albaida, which meant getting up at an unsociable hour¹.

Secondly, I hadn’t thought to print a map and the guide book that I’d brought didn’t have a map. This was unfortunate as I missed the path down from the Alhambra down to the town centre and ended up in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.

By this point I was getting thirsty and hungry and so nipped into a promising looking cafe for a coffee and croissant. As luck would have it they also had free WiFi and I was able to find a map on my iPhone.

It turns out that I wasn’t too far from the centre after all and it only took ten minutes to get to the Cathedral. This immediately seemed more like it, with crowds of tourists trying to get in to see… something.

After staying in Canillas de Albaida, a town of only seven hundred people, the crowds came as a bit of shock² and I wasn’t quite prepared to fight my way to the front to get in or even find out what the queue was for. Instead I went around the Cathedral, noting that there ware various shopping streets fanning out and, generally, lots of activity for a Wednesday.

Around one side of the Cathedral was a busker, at the back was another entrance to the church and service going on. I snuck around the side and surreptitiously took a few pictures, slightly embarrassed by the volume of the thunk as I released the shutter. A few minutes later another tourist burst in with a video camera and stood right in the middle taping the whole service.

I spent the next hour wandering around the town, down the shady shopping streets, by the river and, finally, into a cafe for a quick sandwich.

The walk back to the Alhambra in the afternoon was rather less confusing than the journey down into the town. I expected to see a large, obvious sign pointing downhill at the junction I missed but apparently the turn is so obvious that even tourists couldn’t possibly miss it and it therefore remains unlabelled.

The Alhambra is every bit as spectacular as you’ve probably heard. The scale is incredible. If the engravings had been only in one room it would have been impressive and you would have admired the workmanship. But these intricate designs are in pretty much every room over the whole complex.

It took all afternoon to wander around and as 6pm approached, the agreed taxi pick-up time, it became clear that there were likely bits that I’d missed but that I was too tired to try to find in any kind of hurry.

Overall, it was a long, tiring, fun day. I slept on my way back to Canillas de Albaida, please with what I’d seen.

1. Why is it that I often end up setting my alarm earlier when on holiday that on a normal working week?
2. Just imagine the culture shock when I got back to London less than a week later.

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On that front there were absolutely no complaints. I was there for a week and went on four walks. They were fun and varied, passing through tiny, white-washed villages and abandoned inns.

It’s been a while since I’ve done any walking and so was wondering about my fitness levels before I set off but I didn’t have too much trouble — I got a little bit out of breath on some of the steeper uphill sections and my knees groaned when going downhill. The worst bits were the steep downhill on lose rocks and scree. Fortunately I stayed mostly upright with just a few minor scuffs to show for it.

Some of the hardest parts of the trekking were down to the weather. It had been an incredibly hot summer, even by the standards of southern Spain. Fortunately there was only one day where, shortly after lunch, I was wilting under the direct sun with little shade and a dwindling supply of water. A few weeks earlier and I would have had difficulties on most of the walks, even with factor fifty sun cream and more water than I would have been comfortable carrying!

On the plus side, the streams were almost dry which made the many crossings significantly easier; staying dry would have been much harder back in April or May.

Despite having enjoyed the walking, I did chicken out of the last day — an ascent of Cerro Lucero — in favour of a more thorough look around Competa and some well-deserved relaxation. This was, after all, a holiday!

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Things quickly improved, though. As the bus headed east from Malaga and the roads got smaller and more hilly, the scenery also improved. Fewer Ikea’s and mobile phone stores and fast food restaurants, more white-wash and shady squares and hazy views back to the Mediterranean.

The bus dumped me near a building site — apparently the sewers were being replaced — but a few minutes uphill took me to a pleasant square and the hotel were I would be staying for the next week.

Canillas de Albaida has a population of only about seven hundred people and has the laid-back feel and community that you’d expect given that size. It’s nice to have total strangers say “Hola” as you pass; people actively avoid any eye contact in London.

It’s sat on the very edge of the Sierras De Tejeda Natural Park. The “natural” in Natural Park, incidentally, is not a typo. This region of Spain has decided to designate the area to be a park but this appellation is not recognised by the Spanish government and so cannot be called a National Park.

It didn’t take long to explore it fairly thoroughly. There’s the main square with the hotel and one of the three restaurants. Looking down over the town is the church of Santa Ana. To one side is the cemetery. And that’s about all. There are a couple of super-markets that are occasionally open, a pharmacy and hardware store that I didn’t visit but reportedly sells pretty much everything you can’t get at the other shops.

A thirty minute walk down a pleasant path was the “big” town, Competa. It’s all relative of course, as Competa only has a population of about four thousand.

The main feature of Competa is its square and church with a bell tower that at various points in its history has also been a minaret¹. I was lucky to experience a couple of great sunsets over the church and an enormous ice-cream in a cafe in the square.

It’s a hard job but someone has to do it.

1. Though perhaps not in its current form. It has fallen down and has been rebuilt a number of times over the centuries.

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