Liechtenstein, Mistletoe and Wine

Zurich is spleen-poppingly expensive. Everytime anyone tells you the price of something it seems like a joke; it is at least double what you thought it was going to be, based on the London equivalent. Anyone who says it's the same price as London is misguided, lying or part of the aforementioned joke.

I'd been curious about coming to Zurich ever since it came second in a "Best Cities in Europe" list. The list had it better than Rome or Paris or Berlin or Moscow. Needless to say it isn't. It's pretty but it's basically a less good Munich. It would probably represent in a "Best Cities in Europe Beginning with Z" list, but then even second might be pushing it.

Still it loves Christmas here. Little gingerbread huts selling gluwein are secreted into every available cranny. There's a Swarovski Christmas tree in the train station. There are shops dedicated to selling over priced tree decorations. Santa is cruising town in his festive tram. Well Christmas.

We took a break from the staggering costs and festive exuberance of Zurich and headed to Liechtenstein. Now there's a train ride with some half-decent views: lakes nibbling the toes of mountains - that just about ticks all my Alpine train ride boxes.

Headed straight for Vaduz, the Capital city. I say "city" - it has the National Government building, a royal residence, a cathedral, a City Hall and a seventh of the national population, so it's basically London (plus it has a massive vineyard in the centre, which London doesn't have - better than London?) - I've worked in offices where there are more people. Still it is super pretty.

Back in Zurich now. Going to try and make the forty francs I've got left last the day. Wish me luck...

Liberte Egalite Fraternite

I've had exactly the kind of week that you should have if you've got access to degenerate, Western megalopolis; chock full of that culture it was.  So much culture that I walked out of a play at the interval so that I didn't over-culture my brainspace. That wasn't the reason, unless there was a dramatic shift for the second half, said play was in no danger of over-culturing anything.  A so-called comedy where the only joke was that everyone's name began with T.

I did see actual comedy though: Nish Kumar.  His show did contain jokes, which made it far funnier than the previous night's abomination.

Went to a gig too.  I saw that John Grant, he's a charismatic chappy and proper belted out some songs. Now you can read proper reviews of this gig if you want, they are very complimentary, although they don't mention the fact that most of the latest album sounds a bit like Visage, which seemed to confuse the audience somewhat.

And I saw some art.  A double bill of A artists. Auerbach and Ai Weiwei.  In terms of what I'd most like to have on my wall Auerbach wins hands down - it seems Ai Weiwei doesn't really go for the hanging on the wall stuff - and 200 tonnes of eartquake fractured rebar would probably just get in the way. A child burst a balloon when I was in the Ai Weiwei exhibition, given the politically sensitive nature of the show and what had happened in a nearby megalopolis a few hours earlier a lot of very scared people were incredibly grateful that it was a balloon.  

And a Bottle of Brum

It's pretty poor that I've never really had the opportunity to explore Birmingham before. Whenever I have been it's always been to do something specific (like change trains) so any exploring has been somewhat time limited. Put that right this weekend. Saw me some brum.

So what did I see?

First off I saw a skyline. Naively, I wasn't really expecting a skyline. But bam there it was. Not just the Bullring.

I saw a tiny cathedral, would barely have to duck its spire to get through the doors of Norwich. 

I saw the Staffordshire Horde. I'm pretty impressed that the guy who found it realised how significant it was. If it had been me I'd have thought it was Elizabeth Duke flytipping.

I saw a length of the more-canals-than-Venice canal. There may well be more canals in Birmingham than Venice but the Venice ones are a whole heap easier to navigate. Locks ago-go in that Second City, it would take ages to get a boat through that lot.

I saw that there library. That's a mighty impressive building. And it had fennel on the roof. More public buildings should have fennel on the roof.

So yeah, Birmingham, you're alright, you are. Sorry it took me so long to get there properly.