Arolla, Switzerland: hike hike hike.

The lunch breaks each day were about 5 hours long, leaving plenty of time for a hike, with lunch en route and a shower afterwards, even.

First Hike

The first hike I went on happened on the first full day of conference (which was the day after I got there), that Tuesday.  My stomach wasn't agreeing with me, so I stopped a lot and finally decided to turn back around. On the upside, the pausing meant time for pictures.

The view across the valley:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

and a little to the left of that

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

and zoomed in for awesomeness

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Here was my view at one point looking up and around the bend of the trail:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

and here's a cool split rock by the trail head:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

The downside of the hike was that I mis-stepped on the way down (most of the way down, actually) and dislocated my ankle. As I fell onto that ankle, it popped back in, and I landed having only had enough time to realize what was happened and be in pain, as well as relieved I didn't have to figure out how to pop it back in. I waited for it to hurt a bit less, re-laced my boots and kept going.  [I know that 'dislocating the ankle' is ill-defined since there are so many bones. But, I also know the symptoms of having dislocated something. So, to be technically correct, I dislocated one of the bones in my ankle. The upside over a sprain being that it mostly just kind of inflames/exacerbates the region, but is 'well' faster and doesn't hurt quite so much when walking on it after. Downside is that once I do it, it has a tendency to want to happen again, so I do have to favor it until it strengthens. ]

The river we'd easily forded on the way to the trail had in the meanwhile deepened and widened (I heard later that the relevant dam had had some water let out of it), so I waited for the others to finish the hike before crossing, to get some help and other peoples' opinions on where to cross. The water was whitish and fast-flowing, so hard to tell how deep/dangerous it was.

Second Hike

Despite the ankle, I went on an 'excursion' the next day (the afternoon contained no talks at all, to allow people to go on a choice of several longer hikes). I picked the 'easy'/sedate/rolling hills hike, or so I thought (and did everyone else I went with).


Step 1 of the hike:

Narrow steps by someone's garage? Totally legit. ;)

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

a better look at the heather:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Walking up through the heather to see mountains (at least, I think it's heather. Prior to being in Europe, I hadn't seen heather, so I'm not 100% on this):

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

and looking back over the group to see an even better view of mountains+ heather:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

another nice view of Mt. Collon:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

After the initial heather-coated landscapes, we had a somewhat gentle stretch which lead to a branch in the trail. Both parts lead to our goal, which was Lac Bleu ('Blue Lake'), but the left fork was labeled 'Chemin difficile' (difficult path).  Our leaders had been instructed very clearly to take the left fork, and there was a bit of an argument (in French) about all this. We ended up taking the 'Chemin difficile'. It involved stretches where one grabbed onto a chain tacked to the mountain to walk across the narrowed path. There were also points where you had to scrabble down a rock face on your butt, where all the rock and tree roots around had been work smooth from all of the previous people having done the same. There was a lot of up and down on this hike. I really feel for the guy who had his kid strapped to his back.

Eventually, things leveled out a bit, and I took this pic looking back the way we came from: 

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Most stream crossings were bridge-less. Some had really slippery stones and a drop-off off the mountain. Here are two crossings that actually had bridges:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

The latter also had a sign explaining that it was dangerous...to not use the bridge? (I think that was the warning). The yellow diamond was our trail marker.

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Past this second bridge, I think we took breaks at higher frequency for water and grumbling about how every person who passed us (with walking sticks in hand) told us it was "only another 15 minutes" to get there. Result of this was some more pictures.

Pretty green area. There was a sub-path that led you over to look at this rock. Not sure why.

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Here's a nearby other rock, that had some interesting color to it:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

After some more hiking, we arrived at our destination: Lac Bleu! (It took us 3 hours to get there, which is 1 hr and 10 minutes in Swiss measuring (well, the sign pointing back to Arolla said 1hr 10 minutes)).

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Time for a picnic. I sat down and enjoyed letting my faintly-throbbing ankle have some rest, and ingested some calories. Huzzah. Very pretty lake, too. It's that color because its glacial melt. You shouldn't drink it. Also, judging from the people who tried to swim in it, it was too cold for swimming.

Here's a closer view:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

A group of us decided that rather than try out the supposedly-easy path on the way back, we would hike straight down and catch the bus in. The trail that took us to catch the bus ended in a pension/hotel-and-bar-type-thing which seemed to offer some fluency in German, French, Dutch (and English?). They also proudly advertised that they sold several Belgian beers.

Google translate tells me that "Vlaamse Uitbaters" = "Flemish Owners"

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Hotel Mt. Collon and leaving Arolla

We had some really lovely dinners at the hotel, including a 'traditional Swiss food night'. I had the best fondue of my life. Maybe I should've picked raclette -- I wasn't able to find it on the menu at any restaurant I saw afterwards. Ah, well.

The women who worked there were mainly French (French French, not Swiss French, I was told), and spoke more English than the people in Luminy. I guess this was their summer job. 

The hotel had some...interesting decor. It had taxidermy scattered about. This little guy greeted you in the lobby-area that had the best internet reception: 

(Picture courtesy of Constanze.)

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

They also had a 'disco' room and ran a 'disco' for us the last night. I have no pictures, you'll just have to imagine what that was like. I went to bed early, and missed the interesting stuff, so I hear. 

Here's a view of my room (sorry it's a bit messy):

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

One of the other walls had a rather surprised looking panda on it: 

Why are you in here? Shouldn't you be out doing math? Or hiking? Or math-hiking?

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

There were two doors to adjacent rooms, one was locked and the other open. The open one was a room that had two people in it, and we shared their bathroom. 

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

I had weird dreams the first night about that wallpaper. I used it to barter for something in some weird alternate-world economy.

There was no way to take a shower without hosing the entire bathroom down in water.  I didn't feel...ah...inspired to take a bath, however.

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

I didn't touch it, so I don't know if it was spongy.

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Ok, that's the only not-positive thing I have to say. In their defense, the room on the other side was very nice and had a cute bathroom. So, maybe they're renovating one room at a time. Who knows.

On the way out of Arolla, we left on a somewhat-early-morning bus. The buses were run by the Post. Which was also a bank. In Germany, the post system is both the post and a bank, but not a bus company. I thought the combination was interesting.

The clouds were doing cool things in the mountains (much like my memories of Nordfjordeid):

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Clouds with the sun starting to poke through:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Here's a nice view of the clouds + hotel:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Some old signs on the side of the hotel. I wonder if they still accept American Express.

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

We caught the bus back down to Sion, and from then began the purely touristing part of my trip. Stay tuned for my traipsing around Sion and then Bern.

(arriving at) Arolla, Switzerland, the Alps. Yes, that's a glacier. And that. And that.

Ah, a (second) wonderful trip into the land of mountains, vineyards, and glacial lakes. Where every photo is postcard-material.

[Last year, I had an opportunity to visit Switzerland for the first time. You can read about it (and see the awesome pictures) here and here.  ]

I was in Switzerland to attend a conference a few weeks ago in the Alps, specifically in Arolla. Which is here:


Larger map view


To get there, I had to take a flight to Geneva, a train to Sion and then a bus to Arolla, since trains don't go that far. On the train this time from Geneva to Sion, I was remarking how it seems like every picture that the Swiss Tourism office uses is from the walk I took to Vevey, and the guy sitting nearby agreed.

Arolla is in the canton (think: State/Province/Bundesland) of "Valais", meaning, appropriately, "valley", as the towns are generally nestled amidst a reasonably sizable valley. Its at 2000m above sea level, which is about 1 and 1/4 miles, for the non-metric-users. That is, it's higher up than Albuquerque. This site tells me that its population is 200, it was not accessible by road until 1960, although it was already settled in the middle ages. Its main exports are...Arollans? Well, Arolla, as perhaps expected, is a place people go en route to skiing and/or hiking.

En Route to Arolla, here are my pics: 

From the bus from Sion to Arolla (too hard to take pics on the train when not sitting by the window).

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Here's one that's a bit darkened so it's easier to see that there's a glacier on the mountain:


From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

We passed a few intrepid motorcyclists as well:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

While riding to Arolla from Sion, besides passing through and over and into (via tunnels) these beautiful mountains, we also got to go right pass one of the main tourist things in the Valais canton, which are the ''pyramids'':


From Arolla-Switzerland 2012


From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

This is what the Swiss tourism site has to say:
"The earth cones are 10 to 15 meters high and most of them are protected by a rock lodged on the top. The cones were created in the end phase of the last Ice Age, about 80,000 to 10,000 years ago.
When the ice retreated, glacier tongues left enormous piles of debris behind, which contained boulders. Rain and meltwater gradually freed these boulders. While the water continued to erode and carve out the area surrounding the boulders, these rocks served as protective caps for the soil underneath them, enabling the formation of the well-known natural monuments. "

In Arolla itself. 

Almost all of us stayed at Hôtel Mt Collon, with a few in the nearby apartment building.
 Here's a view of the valley while taking a walk up to ''Arolla'' proper.

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

and the view of the same mountain from the town (which is a little higher up than where I was first standing):

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

The light was really nice that afternoon. Here's a view of the mountains on one side of the valley:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

and, as you've all been waiting for...the first glimpse of the town of Arolla itself. It has a shop that carves things, and a telegraph office. To the very left side of the picture you can see the sign for Arolla's tourism office. They also had a grocery store, an outdoor-gear store (which rents hiking boots for 16 CHF/day) and another sort of conveniency-kiosk store.

the building on the right says 'telegraph', although I think it's been a while since it served that function.

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

An even better view of that mountain (Mt. Collon, which is 3637m high), in which you can tell there's a glacier. People who liked running would go for a run up to the base of the glacier and back in the mornings before breakfast (it wasn't far):

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Downtown Arolla, as it were, also had a few of these cute little 'swiss chalet' birdhouses:

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

And another mountain-with-glacier!

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Leaving downtown, I saw this place, which gave me the feeling that perhaps the winters here are cold and long (looking at the wood pile):

From Arolla-Switzerland 2012

Tune in next time for hiking in the Alps (hikes I and II).  I also stayed in Sion for a day and then Bern for two and a half more, so, much more to come.

Commentary on life Germany (including some things Germans don't do, German food, and koolsla)

Well, I haven't had any exciting adventures in the last week or so, so I figured I'd offer commentary on life here, rather than a slew of pictures. You know, mixing it up a bit. I will, however, be going to a conference in the Alps next week and staying for a few days after, so there should be some epic pics from that (and from the new camera that I got myself for my impending birthday-turning the big 3-0 in slightly less than a month).

Ok, one picture. This month is "China Time" in Hamburg, which is a big China-fest. I didn't realize it had (sort of) started already when I went to register my new address. Outside of the Rathaus (Town Hall) was a 'Chinese Market':

From Germany 2012-2013

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Things Germans don't do:

Despite claiming to care about the environment (no nuclear energy, strict emissions standards), Germans individually don't do a good job of convincing me that they give a crap. Maybe it's just Hamburgers don't give a crap. 

Example 0: Pfand (Deposits on Bottles & Cans)

Lots of things have 'Pfand' (a deposit) that you pay when you buy them, but the rules on what exactly has Pfand is kind of weird. Metal cans (e.e. Red Bull), multi-use plastic bottles and beer bottles all have Pfand (wine bottles don't). The idea was to encourage people to sell things in reusable bottles and for people to return said bottles. It works to some extent. There are some sad news stories about poor old people in Berlin supplementing their meager pensions by fetching and turning in these bottles which they find the trash. 

However, a place only has to give you Pfand back if they sell the thing you're try to turn in. 

Example: Say Aldi does not sell 1 L bottles of coca cola, but do sell 1 L bottles of sprite. If you bring in one of each, you will only get Pfand back on the sprite bottle. 

So, you have to try to remember where the heck you bought everything, or you just give up on the Pfand and write it off as a lost cause. At 25 euro cents per bottle for some of these, that adds up. 

Example 1: (Non-)Recycling 

No, really. First, let's address the language. In the States "recyclables" are not a subset of "trash". The German word for recycling is "mülltrennenung" (trash separation).  As a distraction, here's a neat piece on recycling (and composting!) that was being done during the recent Olympic games. 

Hamburg: 

• Previous apartment building: We had two bins, one for trash (Restmüll) and one for paper and cardboard(Altpapier).  
• If you wanted to recycle anything else, you had to walk ~8 blocks with your stuff.  And I was lucky, since that location actually had plastic, metal, paper & glass recycling all in one place. 
• Current building, we only have a trash bin associated to my apartment building. The closest 3 recycling collection spots have only paper collection or only paper & glass.  
• I am under the impression that some amount of post-processing happens, before they burn the trash (much like Copenhagen, it fuels the ''Fernwärme''(centralized city heating system, which it really seems like not many people use). 

Berlin: my friend's apartment complex has the following ''mülltrennung" bins (color-coded, even): 

1. Biomüll (compostable stuff),
2. Leicht verpackung (packaging -- this includes stuff like plastic bags, yogurt containers, tin cans, and that annoying heat-sealed stuff that your new headphones came in.
3. (Alt)Papier (paper/cardboard) and 
4.  ''Wertstoff" (I have no idea what goes in here). 

There's also "Problemstoff" like paint, batteries, whatnot but that's usually done at a central location or periodically throughout the year. You have to walk some distance to find glass recycling, and you have to separate these into colors. 

Example 2: (Lack of) Reusable cups/mugs

I have not seen a single coffee shop here* which has a ''refill'' price for coffee. That is, if you bring in your own reusable cup, they don't give you a discount on the coffee. As a result, people go through a lot of plastic cups that they then don't recycle since, well. They don't recycle. 

 *(haven't checked at Starbucks, but I imagine US rules apply)

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German Foods (some surprisingly tasty)

Liverwurst ("Leberwurst") is surprisingly delicious. 

Specifically,  the cart at the farmer's market nearby sells handmade liverwurst of three varieties (so far, I've only tried the liverwurst with little bits of liver, which was yummy). 

Wurst in general is a toss up. 

• "Kabanos" are the generic dried sausage, and they're ok in soup. 
• "Kohlwurst" is sort of what I'd call "sausage" or maybe polish-style sausage. 
• "Katzenwurst" (not made of cats) is dried, tiny, maybe the size of an average person's pinky finger, and sold in strings (or packages) of four or so. Doesn't agree with me, too greasy (at least the ones I had). Heartburn. :P
• This weak I bought some "Geflügel Jagdwurst" (bird hunter-sausage), which has chunks of meat in it, but is more of a coldcut and a squishy paste like liverwurst. It's ok. 

Other German meat products: 

• "Bayerisches Leberkäse", which is neither liver(Leber) nor cheese(Käse). It smells, looks, and has the consistency of….bologna. That was disappointing. Also, that seems to suggest that we have Germany to blame for bologna, not Italians. 
• Schnitzel, pretty delicious. Whether it's ''standard'' (with pommes, which is pronounced "pom-mus" (rhymes with "hummus") here) or ''adulterated'' (Omas Apotheke makes bacon-covered Schnitzel which I have yet to try). 

Other German food I like: 

• Apfelrotkohl. (Here's a recipe)Take red cabbage and cook it down with, I think, red wine and apple cider vinegar and some sugar. Delicious. Good with a big slab of meat and some potatoes. 
• Quark. Specifically, with Rote Grütze (red gruel, literally, but it's basically a bunch of berries, mostly currants, mixed together with some amount kind of mashed into a pulp.). Quark is, by the way, actually a cheese. But it has the consistency of super-strained yogurt. 

Things I never cooked with before moving here:

Celery root ("Selerie" in German). The flavor of celery with the consistency of, well, a root vegetable (being a root). Great in soup. Standard soup veggies here are celery root, carrot and leek (a bit different from the US onion, celer (non-root) and carrot). 

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Recent thoughts on Language oddities:

There's nothing quite like learning a foreign language to point out the oddities of your own, and just of language in general.


Present Tense vs Present Progressive
For instance, we seem to never use the present tense in English, unless we mean something that we do habitually. Instead, we use a tense that German doesn't have, which is the ''Present Progressive."

Example:
I am writing. (Present progressive)
(vs.)
I write. (Present)

When vs when vs when 
In English, we use "when" for things that really have little to do with time.
In German, there are three words for the English "when", separated into use. These are

1. "Wann" (Usually only a question word, the "when" from "When would you like to go?")
2. "Wenn" (Conditional, either formal (an 'If...then' statement) or something that always happens. Examples: "When I push this button, it summons the elevator" or "Always when I go to the store, I buy more than what I intended")
3. "Als" (Sort of a one-time conditional; "When I went to the store today, I saw so-and-so" or "When I lived in New Mexico, I went to the Balloon Fiesta"). 

Sarcasm

...is such an inherent part of my sense of humor.  I finally learned the word for "Supposedly" 

e.g. "Well supposedly it will happen" (it's "angeblich").

Dutch is a lot like German:

My officemate is Dutch (and has been learning German while here and is ~fluent), so we talk about Dutch and German and English and their (dis)similarities.

Here's an example of a text in German, Dutch and English (taken from a tweet during the Olympics. A spectator threw a glass bottle at Bolt, the Dutch bronze medalist in (women's?) Judo was sitting nearby and went over and got the spectator and waited for the authorities to come and deal with him).

German:"Ein betrunkener Zuschauer hat eine Flasche auf die Strecke geworfen. Ich habe ihn geschlagen...unglaublich"

Dutch: "Een dronken gast voor mij gooit een flesje op de baan!! IK HEB HEM GESLAGEN.... Ongelofelijk!!"

English: A drunken spectator threw a bottle onto the track. I beat him (up). Unbelievable. 

Clearly, 

voor mij = vor mir = before me (i.e in front of me)

Ik = ich = I

gast= Gast = guest 

Flasche = flesje=flask, 

schlagen (schlug, geschlagen) = slagen= to slug (someone)

Some weird words in English and where they come from

Humor me, and click on the little play button here for this Dutch word.
Figure out which (American) English thing this turned into. Hint. (turns out this is the actual etymology)

Related: cauliflower, originally "cole florya", cole from "kool"(Dutch) and the "florye" was borrowed from Italian, meaning "flowering". So, flowering cabbage. In German, it's "Blümenkohl" (blooming/flowering cabbage).

Also: English and Spanish seem to be the only languages that call pineapple pineapple.  

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Canal Tour of Hamburg 

You made it this far? Well, I went on a canal tour of Hamburg a while back and forgot to post about it. So, here are some pictures from that :). 

En route to the Alster to go on said tour, I looked up and saw a statue reading a book. I think it's nice and kind of cute when people put details in/on buildings that you'd have to be observant to notice.

From Germany 2012-2013

I snapped a picture of this restaurant, on a beached/no longer functioning boat, with a stage or building or something made from half of another boat's hull. 

I heard you liked boats, so I put a boat on the boat...

From Germany 2012-2013

Canoe/kayak rental is super popular in Hamburg on the few nice, sunny, summery days that we get:

From Germany 2012-2013

and we witnessed a rainbow on the fountain in the middle of the Binnenalster (inner Alster lake)

From Germany 2012-2013

Life in Hamburg + Miniatur Wunderland

To start, here's a nice picture of the stuff near Hamburg, from the air:

part of Hamburg from the air

From Germany 2012-2013

Here's someone else's pic, including a nice view of the Elbe. It really does sprawl all over the southern end of town.

I moved out of my old apartment and into a new one. The new one is pretty sweet. I'm on the water and in a cute and trendy part of town that still happens to be a comfortable biking distance from the university. Sadly, only good for a year because it's a sabbatical rental, but still. Pretty awesome.

The view

From Germany 2012-2013

It does come with its fair share of beggars. By which I mean these guys:

From Germany 2012-2013

And I live next to a ''farmer's market'' of sorts that runs the distance between two train stops. I was recently talked into buying a kilo (~ 2lbs) of strawberries (2euro for 2 500g things and 1,5 euro for 1 500 g thing). I also found the weirdest tomatoes, which look like a lot of little cherry tomatoes had all fused together (damage due to my mishandling en route home):

From Germany 2012-2013

A few weeks ago, I was met with noise and bustle and what looked like someone assembling cabinets in the entryway to my apartment building. Later on, this replaced it. I guess someone got a new kitchen delivered (if you buy it complete as a set, it tends to include installation):

It had a sign stating it would only stay there 'til Thursday, then be removed

From Germany 2012-2013

Now on to the exciting part. Several friends of mine visited Minitaur Wunderland last August while we were all in Hamburg for a conference and couldn't believe that I, living in Hamburg, had not yet been. So, I talked a few friends into going with me.

It's located in the warehouse district of Hamburg (die Speicherstadt), which looked quite lovely:

From Germany 2012-2013

It's a two-story and several-room series of exhibits of miniatures, including a large one representing the alps, one which is an airport (including a plane that lands periodically), one of Hamburg itself, and various American landmarks.


Each room would cycle through day-dusk-''night''-dawn-day periodically, so you could take pictures at various light levels, which was nice for, say, the miniature of Vegas. 

Here's some believable tunnel traffic at ''night'':

From Germany 2012-2013

I liked these caverns, which were just hanging out behind glass in one of the walls, at about torso-level, because I think my pictures from the trip to Carlsbad Caverns look roughly like this, and those were actual caverns: 

From Germany 2012-2013

From Germany 2012-2013

The level of detail was amazing.  There was a Milka (brand of chocolate) cow mixed amidst the ''normal'' ones:

From Germany 2012-2013

This is some kind of rural fair 

From Germany 2012-2013

and an antique or fleamarket thing:

From Germany 2012-2013

Passed by a mini U-Bahn (train) station, similarly underground/easy to miss like the cavern: 

From Germany 2012-2013

Here is a video I took of their ''hot air balloons'' during the nighttime cycle.

This palace reminded me of Sans Souci (in Potsdam):

From Germany 2012-2013

Here's the actual Sans Souci:

with people, not miniatures

From Germany 2012-2013

The miniatures were a weird mix of old and new. Mini ads from the 30s. Futuristic ice cream stands. Velociraptors chasing a guy up to a haunted house. This castle thing, with a minivan on the bridge leading out.

From Germany 2012-2013

There were buttons everywhere (at about throat-level for the swarms of children milling about, who would eagerly press them as soon as they turned green (green meant they were ready to go, otherwise the button would be lit green & red). They made people move, or cars/rides/whatnot move.  The UFO would only move at nighttime. Here's a video, in case the image below doesn't link you to the video:

From Germany 2012-2013

The night cycle was also nice for this little amusement park (again a video, so here's a link in case the image doesn't link you there). :

From Germany 2012-2013

Towards the end came miniature Hamburg.
Our best guess was that this was supposed to be the Elbphilharmonie (which has been under construction for ages, is projected to be under construction for ages, and is waaaaaay over budget):

From Germany 2012-2013

Here's my own picture of it from later that evening; we went to dinner on a restaurant-ship nearby:

From Germany 2012-2013

Here's a miniature of the Hauptbahnhof, with the roof removed so that one can look inside: 

From Germany 2012-2013

which I liked much better at night:

From Germany 2012-2013

And a miniature Landungsbrücken (old? dock area):

From Germany 2012-2013

I think the mini Las Vegas was very photogenic, so here are my attempts to capture that:

From Germany 2012-2013

From Germany 2012-2013

From Germany 2012-2013

Nearby was the Grand Canyon etc.

From Germany 2012-2013

The Native American village has a totem pole (note: not something that people of that region made, totem poles are Pacific Northwest), which is hard to see in this pic:

From Germany 2012-2013

and a blurry (my fault, not theirs) Rushmore:

From Germany 2012-2013

Following the Hamburg and USA displays were some on Scandinavia. I have no idea what this has to do with Scandinavia:

From Germany 2012-2013

Or the following (but it has a bunch of different flags out front, so I'm guessing it's a notable building?):

From Germany 2012-2013

The resolution is terrible, but apparently in Scandinavia, there are scuba diving cows:

From Germany 2012-2013

More Scandinavia. I was impressed by how water-like it was, until I realized that in this exhibit they had actually used water (unlike previous ones, which were all resin): 

From Germany 2012-2013

And here is an obligatory video of a miniature train going through ''Sweden''. 

Hope you all enjoyed.