always during christmas time the Sulzer tower building is showing a christmas tree like this one or a champagne glass (at New Years Eve).

I like this tradition and since the weather was fine on 26. December I took my camera an shot this picture.

This one was hard to find. It was not because it wasn’t that big as Hendon or Duxford but my navi didn’t know all about the postal codes in UK. But we managed that too and when we arrived at 4.30 pm at the De Havilland museum a friendly mister explained to us why this museum is located exactly here at this place. The first prototype of the De Havilland Mosquito was built in one of this hangars!

The De Havilland Heritage Air Center has three Mosquitos in their hangar among other aircrafts (photo album). Very funny to see a Swiss Vampire here, I remember to see them flying over Nussbaumen when I was a child.

The next museum on our tour was the Royal Air Force museum at Hendon (London). Here too, an impressive list of famous and well know airplanes can be seen on display along with a lot of useful information regarding aviation. Hendon shines in this part with its „Timeline“.

Something I did realize here in the Battle of Britain expositions is the fact that Great Britain was under attack during the summer of 1940 and that the people suffered by the German bombing.
Interesting to see German airplanes that one can not see in a German museum. There are photo albums of the „Milestones“, „Bombers“ and „Battle of Britain“ halls.

Having seen many of the Air Museums in Germany and Switzerland my brothers and me decided to travel to England and see what’s on display there. Since traveling to England take quite a while we planned to visit more than one museum.
Flying to Stansted seems a good starting point for the IWM at Duxford in the north, not far from Cambridge, and the various museums located in London.

Duxford is huge! All the aircrafts are displayed in over six hangars (seeing here the Air and Space hangar). While our visit there was a Catalina and an F-86 Sabre doing test flights for the upcoming air show a week later (see the videos). There’s no surprise that we could see airplanes that one never would see in Switzerland.

When the museum did close its doors at 6 pm we weren’t through all the halls. Maybe we had to come again to see all the things. There are photo albums of the Air and Space, the Flying Aircrafts plus Battle of Britain and the American Air Museum.

From 30. July to 6. August Marianne and Nadine participate at the Swiss Orienteering Week in Flims wehreas Alain an me were visiting a few points of interest in the surroundings like the Viamala canyon or the convent (school) in Disentis (see Photos).

On day 3 the competition starts at the foot of the Vorab glacier about 2560 meters above sea level. On this particular map experimental symbols are used for the snow fields (lightblue) and for the desert like ground in front of the glacier (light brown). You can see a bigger picture of the map on the Flickr set to get a better impression.

Marianne and me spend one week in Rabland (belongs to Partschins) in the Vinschgau a valley in the western part of Südtirol (Italy). Fact is, it is not far from Switzerland and we knew from our friends that in Rabland the Hotel Rössl provides an excellent service.

Sure every day we enjoy very much the wellness part of the hotel but after some sports .
The whole region offers many bike tours well marked so we had no problem finding our way. Well, as long as we followed such a route which wasn’t always the case.
The altitude graphs of most of the tours look similar like the one shown below (green): straight up the hill and then down again. I have recorded most of our tours with my Garmin Edge and uploaded the tracks to the Internet. You may find more of them on the activity board. Sure there are a few photos on a Flickr set too.
 

This Sunday is Alain’s day, the day of his confirmation. This is not only a significant religious event but it is also an interesting period when a young is becoming an adult (sooner or later).

In a few weeks Alain will finishing his secondary school and then beginning his apprenticeship. He will get a commercial education at the municipal administration of Rickenbach.

On Sunday we travelled by car to Madrid which is about 350 kilometers further inland.

The weather was sunny and we could watch the different landscapes. Madrid was like an „old friend“, since we had Nadine with us who speaks Spanish and knew all the good places to be
There we also met the guest-family during her Au-pair stay two years ago. Monday was the final shopping trip for Nadine while Marianne and me visited the town center (Sol).

Here I saw these policemen on their horses (more photos from the Citytour).

As an xmas gift I was invited to a city trip to Valencia and Madrid. From Friday 14. January until Sunday we visited Valencia. This beautiful city is situated on the Mediterranean coast. There is an interesting mix of the old and the new. Especially notable is the „The city of Arts and Sciences“ (Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias) in the old riverbed Turia.

We have also visited the new harbor that was built for the 32. America’s cup in 2007 (see the photos on Flickr).

It is some kind of tradition now that my brothers and me are visiting any kind of museums between Xmas and New Year as long as there is anything to see that flies.

This year we went to see the „International Luftfahrt-Museum“ at Villingen-Schwenningen, a private exibition with most of the aircrafts displayed outdoors.

This year over Christmas time we saw a beautiful snow-covered landscape.
During about two weeks we had a „real winter“ with snow and temperatures below -10° C. This was also the case on Stefan’s day (Boxing Day) when we went out for a walk near the Rossbuck (more photos).

Having finally the right colors on my GPS map I immediately would like to test its efficiency. That’s why I’ve planned a bike trip (course in the language of GPS) in the Randen region.

Together with Alain we’ve started at Hemmental to our trip to the three observation towers Hagenturm, Schleitheimer Randenturm and Siblinger Randentrum (photo album). Now there is only one tower missing, the Beringer Randenturm. Maybe we will visiting it next year

Kitzbühel - the Legend, that’s what the slogan of this city is. We have won one week holiday in a hotel only four kilometers away from Kitzbühel at a contest. So we decide to go and see what’s all about that slogan.

Kitzbühel is a nice little city comparable to St. Moritz (maybe) and like many other winter sport places Kitzbühel is famous regarding downhill skiing. One day Alain and me were hiking part of the „Streif“ up to the Hahenkamm while Marianne was running up the mountain.
We did also a couple of bike trips in the surrounding region (see photos).

This year my dad celebrates his 80ies birthday. Time for a birthday celebration with friends and relatives. That’s what Regina, Hannes, Sam and me thought.

And so we start our preparation for this family party. We remember that our parents have invited all their friends already some time ago and everyone was excited about that - they were talking about it whenever they met again. But finding all the addresses after all this years took us some time.

during July we spent a few days in St. Moritz. The Youth Hostel there is currently in renovation.

hiking to Pontresina
From here we visited the National Park near Zernez and of course we were hiking to Pontresina because of the fine cakes in the cafe Puntschella (photo album).

On this Saturday my brothers Sam and Hannes had the chance to fly in a Junkers Ju 52. The JuAir is operating four Ju 52 airplanes in Dübendorf. But these flight are fully booked for a long time ahead (usually more than one year).

When Sam an me were searching for a gift to Hannes 50th birthday we discussed such a flight. But it took us quite a while to finally get in the air. Both Sam and me took some photos and put them on Flickr (Sam’s album, Ueli’s album).

today Nadine’s time as Au-pair in Madrid is ending. She comes back home by airplane. Together with her friends we receive her at the airport.

They were invited to a little welcome party at our home. Nadine advised us what to prepare in advance.

on Saturday we travelled to Thann near Mulhouse in the Alsace. There we met Anne and Michèle the daughters of Charlie and Collette, friends of our parents over the years. This time it was Hannes who searched the Internet and found the address of Michèle. But it took a couple of month to fix a date for this reunion (more photos by Sam)

In the afternoon we walked up the hill to the Croix du Rangen. From there we had a beautiful sight to Thann and its surroundings.

this year we see a very harsh winter. Over and over it starts snowing again as soon as the ‚old‘ snow has been cleared away.

footprints in the snow
This happened from mid december until now. I am wondering how long this will go on.

for the second time MegaJoule was leading their running weeks in Peguera (Mallorca).

After last years success they offered two courses now and therefore Marianne was working from 21. February to 6. March down in Spain. There are a lot of photos from this events on Flickr now (choose your album from the set).

between christmas and new year I have visited the Dornier museum at Friedrichshafen together with my two brothers.

The Dornier museum just opened last summer and the latest state of technology is incorporated to this exhibition. It was a pleasure to visit it and it is even close to Winterthur (see the photos).

during the last day (and night of course) the temperature here in Winterthur has changed from around 5° Celsius to -14°C due to an arctic wind. Beside this it was also snowing a little bit.

Enough to have covered the landscape in white as you can see on this photo (photo taken at around 5 pm).

It is now about two month since Nadine started her au-pair job in Madrid, time to see if she is going well. Marianne invited me for that weekend to Madrid. We arrived on Friday evening by airplane and met Nadine for dinner.

On Saturday we went to the city (SOL) to see a few famous places (you can’t see every place in one weekend, this city is too big) and of course we were also shopping. On the next morning we were walking in the Retiro park and enjoying the beautiful autumn here in the south of Europe.

One of our family friends, Sepp Reichlin is celebrating his 60 birthday. We were invited to that special event too.

With a special train from the 30ies called Churchill-Pfeil we enjoyed a trip to Andelfingen - Rheinfall - Stein am Rhein - Kreuzlingen -Weinfelden - back to Winterthur. Its named after Sir Winston Churchill who visited Switzerland short after the 2nd WW. Then he did use this train to travel through Switzerland.

On that sunny autumn day during school holidays we went for a bicycle ride to the „Zürcher Unterland. First we stopped at the Tössegg where the two rivers Töss and Rhein merge.

At Eglisau we had break for lunch before we were continuing our trip to Rüdlingen - Flaach - Volken - Henggart and back to Winterthur.

having a Matura diplom also means that it is time for a new era. Nadine decides to start their studies at the University next year and first will improve her skills in Spanish. Therefore she leaves to Madrid to work as an au pair girl for the next nine month (or so).

Here she has packed all her luggage and is ready to leave. We accompany her to the airport in Zurich.

Today Marianne and me are celebrating our 25th wedding day. Time moves on really fast!


Taking a look into our album brings back a lot of memories

today we were invited by the Kantonschule Rychenberg to be part of the maturity celebration. This - I would say - ceremonial act was held at the Stadthaus in Winterthur.

class by class every single student gets his result and certificate from the prorector of the Gymnasium Rychenberg Mister Jürgen Thon Benz.

This years summer vacation we (Alain and me) travelled to northeastern Germany to a part called Ostvorpommern. There we had rented bicycles. We then were biking from town to town. Our journey starts at Stralsund. On the following days we stayed at Greifswald, Wolgast, Zinnowitz and Usedom.

Alain in front of the Hotel Preussenhof at Zinnowitz
At Usedom we left our bikes and took a bus to Anklam from where the train leaves back to Switzerland. As selection of the huge amount of photos is on my Ostsee 2009 Flickr ablum.

From Zinnowitz we went to a roundtrip on 22. July to Peenmünde. I have read a lot about German aircraft history and visiting the exhibition at Peenmünde was almost a "must have" to me.

The "Historical Technical Information Center" (HTI) is located mainly at the former power station. Today it focuses on rocket science. But during the period from 1936 to 1945 it was also a test site for the German air force (Luftwaffe). Btw the rocket testing and development was under contol of the army (Heer) then.
Pictures from the HTI are on my Flickr photoset Ostsee 2009.

on Good Friday 10. April 2009 Alain and me were going on a bike trip (around 20km) to Moorwilen, Klingenzell and Freudenfels whereras Nadine and Marianne were staying in a training camp in Ravensburg (Germany). But on Easter Monday we met at the Weinfelder OL in Thundorf.

Here Alain is passing the control number 97 near the end of his course on H14.

Another member in our 50's club! Hannes my younger (but not the youngest) brother celebrates his "special" birthday today. All of our family met at the castle of Hohenklingen above Stein am Rhein for dinner.

The castle Hohenklingen has been reopened as a restaurant last summer after rennovation. The castle is open to the public. From the main tower you have an excellent view to the west (seen here), the south and the east.

on this Saturday Nadine has given a presentation of her examination work. During the last couple of months she worked continously on her thesis. In her dissertation she did some research of how sport could have an influence in your daily life.

NVG stands for Nordvestgaloppen an orienteering event in the Vestland district of Norway. Nordvestgaloppen is held every second year. This years event center was located in Voss.

With 'only' about 1000 participants NVG is a small event compared to O-ringen but we enjoyed the ambience even more. Visit the album on my Flickr account to see more photos of our vacation.

in the following days Alain and me were travelling and hiking in Norway. Driving from Stöten (se) to Lom (no) and hiking in Jotunheimen one day.

We enjoyed this area because of the mountains. In Lom we could also visit the Fjellmuseum that provides interesting informations about the mountains in Norway.

this year we have spent our summer vacation in Scandinavia. First we were doing orienteering at the "worlds greatest orienteering event" O-ringen in Sälen (Dalarna) from 21. to 25. july.

We were staying at Stöten which is close to the Norwegian boarder (about 2km). This five day orienteering event is really big, around 23000 competitors in more than 120 classes had registered.

Every year the young gymnasts of the cantone Zurich met for a competition. This year the "Jugendriege Tag" was held in Dinhard which is only 8 kilometers outside of Winterthur. But Alain had to get up early at 5.30 this morning to go the the railway station.

In the afternoon I went for a short bicycle tour and visited them in Dinhard. Driving with a bicycle is now possible again after my surgical operation at my right knee almost four weeks ago.

on this Saturday I need a break and Alain agreed to go for a short hiking. Only half an hour outside of Winterthur you can walk to the Schauenberg. It is a hill only 890m above sea level but you have an excellent sight from the alps in the south to the Randen which is north of the river Rhein.

Alain sitting on the wall of the former tower on the Schauenberg
In the back you may see the villages of Eschlikon and Aadorf.

Soon this year is ending, time to go out in the forest and meet Santa Claus!
This year he stopped near a hut on the orienteering map Hummbelberg a few kilometers south west of Wilen. Alain and me had no problem to find the forest but finding Santa Claus was difficult because of the o-course. But we managed that again and Alain could tell his "Värsli" (peom).



It is amazing how much Santa Claus knows about all the orienteers from our region More photos of Santa and "Schmutzli" on Flickr.
 

no sports , no family just Marianne an me. After intensive weeks with the NWK-NOS and and even tougher competitions during the last months is was time do "something else".
Since we enjoied our summer vacation in Halden and Göteborg very much we decided to go once again to Scandinavia and booked a short trip to Stockholm.


underground station Hötorget, the blue T stands for Tunnelbana

Similar weather as in Winterthur but a little more windy and still the beautiful colours of autumn in the parks and streets. And to no suprise the shopping streets are still crowded with people
_

during school vacation this autumn Alain stays for one week at the Sportzentrum Kerenzerberg in Filzbach. This is one of the biggest sport centers in the north east part of Switzerland. The gymnasts of TV Veltheim are celebrating their 100th anniversary and they organized this camp for their young gymnasts.


Visitors day

On Wednesday there was the official visiting day. Marianne and Nadine went to Filzbach and enjoyed a sunny day together with Alain and the other children.
  

this years summer vacation from 14. July to 1. August brought us to Halden (Norway) and Lerum (Sweden). Alain and me were traveling by car to Halden where we met the athletes of NWK-NOS for two weeks of orienteering training.


traveling routes in southern Scandinavia, up to Halden (1), next to Lerum (2) near Göteborg and to Billund (3)

At both locations we stayed in a club "Hytte" somewhere out in the nature. I rareley could take pictures because most of the time I was takeing videos. There are only a handful of photos on a flickr set.

We left three days earlier to visit Legoland in Billund (Denmark).
 

I had to postpone this trip by one year because of my injury last october but this year we start to this tour. It is a day trip starting from Winterthur at 8.00 in the morning and returning home at 6 pm in the evening.


this picture was taken from the "Öhrlisattel" about one and a half kilometer away from the Säntis

On this day we found excellent wheather conditions (good sight) that made the trip a real pleasure. Ok, at the end it gets tough because of the climbing and of course we get tired after almost 4 hours of walking.


the red cirle markes the point from where the first photo was taken

I had done this tour already with Nadine when she was 10 but we didn't had such a beautiful sight then.