AS THE BRITS LIKE TO SAY, "YOU WAIT AGES FOR A BUS, AND THEN THREE COME ALONG AT ONCE"

Excuse me, lang 'ha. Our dear old "Friends" have already replaced the former 3-province "More Fun" buses...with over 100 new ones that will run throughout London for a full year and feature a lot more destinations! Just last week, I was having a lunch meeting at a restaurant along a main street near the Embassy, and I counted no less than 12 of these beauties pass by the window where I was sat -- which means either: 1) the campaign is totally effective; 2) I took a "Mad Men" length cocktail lunch; or 3) I wasn't really paying any attention to my lunchmates  and was just staring out the window.

Or all three at once!

   

And, oh, what's that?  You're too posh to bus and only take cabs?   Here, have five...

We have lots more where that came from.  Get uber it.

But what about the Welsh football fan demographic?  Oh please won't someone think of the Welsh football fan demographic...

Posted by The Philippine Embassy, London on Thursday, March 26, 2015

Wales done!

SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON'S GALLERIA

Yeah, I know, Philippine malls have skating rinks and winter wonderlands now, and London gets feeble flurries or the wrong kind of snow from time to time.  But I wanted the LLDD-Baby to experience before I was recalled the real good stuff -- pure, uncut, deep dish i-snow. Fortunately "Sunshine" -- a close colleague from my days working in "Pardek's" office and now posted in Geneva -- had an extra room in her chalet and could put us up for a holiday weekend.  So swish over to Swisherland we go!  The LLDD-Baby was pumped!  She wouldn't stop waving her hand and singing "Let it Go"!

Geneva Cruise

But for one tiiiiiiny detail: I didn't check the global weather reports beforehand to see if Geneva did still in fact have, you know, snow.  

It didn't. 

(hey, it was February in Switzerland -- I'm from the tropics, I thought there'd be tons of it lying around!)

So, um, LLDD-Baby...this is awkward...you up for just going around Geneva on foot and by boat like Daddy did years ago?  You know, across the distinctly unfrozen and not-snowed-over lake?  You are?  Love you anak. 

 

 

 

 You've been cool about all this no snow thing.  Pag-uwi natin, Daddy will buy an Elsa gown for you (and some Prince Hans tights...for mama ; ) 

Saved by Salève

But hang on...."Sunshine" to the rescue!  She could hook us up with a nearby snowy mountaintop! Apparently, Mont Salève on the Swiss-French border is just a short local bus and cable-car ride away! Salamat Salève!

Salève, of course, is French for "kanya kanya na tayo pababa!"

What's Zermatt-er with you?

Salève was great for getting our snow on, but now we wanted even more.  "Sunshine" recommended taking a long train ride to Zermatt, the world-famous ski destination that sits in the majestic shadow of the one and only Toblerone Matterhorn.   We found the resort town itself to be quite lovely and posh (although my only point of reference is "Hot Tub Time Machine") but, unfortunately, as you headed up to the vistas there was too much snow, i.e., there were total whiteout conditions that rendered the mountain ranges near invisible and Matterhorn-framed-in-the-middle-of-hands-in-the-shape-of-a-heart tourist photos futile.                

 

On the other hand, the Battle of Hoth re-enactments were adorable

Release the Trubschachen

Looking back at it now, our whole Swiss sojourn was a series of slip-ups and saves.  Take the last things on our Swiss list: cheese and chocolate factory tours in the Gruyere region.  Once again, the LLDD-Baby was pumped for this. However, it turned out the cheese place was only worth visiting in the early hours when milk was delivered, while the chocolate factory was freakin' closed for renovation the day we planned to be there. Quick re-adjustments had to be made, so we found ourselves heading to the town of Trubschachen instead to visit the factory of a well-known brand of biscuits, and then back to Geneva for some fondue.  Not quite the same, we know, but the train ride views were pleasant enough and the biscuits were covered in a satisfactory amount of chocolate.

      And did I mention, anak, that fondue is cheese with alcohol?  Yeah, Switzerland is great.