Pearl Jam!

I've wanted to see Pearl Jam live for a long time. I have a few of their bootlegs and always thought they put on a great show. So last week I played one of their CDs and it reminded me that I wanted to see them. I checked their tour dates and was blown away to discover that they'd be in Switzerland in just a week. Even more surprising that tickets were still available! I bought a pair and the other day I saw them live in Bern.

The show was nothing less than incredible. My only criticisms are the poor acoustics of the Bern arena and the stiff atmosphere of the crowd. People loosened up near the end, but for a good part of the show people stood around and looked bored: The pot and beer may have helped. Pearl Jam offers bootlegs from their website and I'll be downloading the Bern concert once it becomes available. I couldn't think of a better souvenir of this great night.

Landscape Panorama Photos

I've put together a new 'Landscape' photo album on schwiiz.org. This album will contain my favourite panorama and landscape photos that I've made over the years. I hope you like them. Many of these photos are stitched together from a series of photos using PTGui. I highly recommend this software for anyone getting into panorama photography. The same software can also be used for making QuickTime Virtual Reality images, as found on my QTVR page.

Perfect Weekend in the Alpstein

My aunt and uncle visited from South Africa this weekend and we had perfect weather for a hike. On Saturday morning we started in Wildhaus and hiked over the Alpstein to Bruelisau with an overnight stay in the Rheintaler Sämtis. Enroute were a few SAC Berghuetten where we could stop for a soup or hot drink. The scenery was spectacular and the little haze was perfect for some panorama photographs.

Enroute I saw a number of signs marking snowshoe trails. This area must be gorgeous under snow and so I can't wait to return with my snowshoes this winter.