... Miller Original draught ...

(Swiss, as some FlyerTalkers from D.C. don't drink lite ...)

[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 11-29-2001).]

I don't think the word "lite" is in Rudi's vocabulary.

I'm still trying to work off the weight gained in his presence...over a year and a half ago! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

When not skiing, I can also be found near Bahnhofstrasse and Paradeplatz.

Are you still in Zürich?

Sorry, but there's no corporate sponsorship on the chexmobile... yet!

magic111- I think if I said it sounded like you had a "fun time", it would be a gross understatement!

Unfortunately no I am home and slowly trying to finish this trip report. My only consolation is that I know I will for sure finish my report before KoKonutz finishes his trip report on Sea-Doo III http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
I guess that the Bahnhofstrasse is the main street (5th Avenue) but what is the Paradeplatz?

Back to the report----------
We have finished our dining of the Italian meal but are deep in discussion of the "past-present-and future" of FT and FTers (after all I am here to collect my prize for the Know FlyerTalk/FlyerTalkers Contest and after all since Rudi is the conducter of the contest he does know quite a bit of the pioneer days and what newbies sometimes refer to as lore or is it hardcore FTers.
We (maybe me) decide that we will go to the Terraces at the FIFA house complex. FIFA is the governing body of Soccer (as it is called here in the states) and has more member countries than the UN. But first Rudi has to test me that I am deserving of such an honor and puts me through a "You make the call" contest of obscure events that could possibly happen in a match but ususally never do.
begin omni example Here is one for you Rudi - Player is taking a penalty kick and passes the ball back to a team mate who runs in from outside the penalty area/arc and kicks at goal. The goalie makes a gallant effort and gets a hand on the ball but the ball continues into the goal. Whats the restart? Why? end omni exampel
Off to the complex which is located on the Sonnenberg (Sun Mountain) side of Zürich - opposite of the mountain that Rudi & Gisela reside on. But first we detour (maybe it is the only way) through the red light district eventually all cities in the world end up looking alike. Shopping street - financial street - nightclub street - cultural steet - old town street -redlight street- you name it and it's probably there http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
Finally reach the FIFA house (large chalet) and since it is 10pm it is closed but the restaurant and clup are open. Turns out that sometime ago FIFA bought out an ajacent hotel and restaurant and then upgraded the properties to the demise of the residents (had promise that the character of the places would not change) Previous to the conversion one could go in for just a coffee or a bratwurst and now it is a according to the Maestro a 2-star michelin. Further info http://www.fifa.com/fifa/handbook/ar96/ar.6.html
Anyway the Sonnenberg Resaurant Club • Garten and he finds the executive chef (who obviously has been enjoying the delights of his restaurant over the years) and gains us admission to the private club above the restaurant - normally costs about 2k swiss francs per year membership plus cost of food and drinks. We continue our discussion of FT & FTers I get a photo with the real, nee 2nd, Jules Rimet Cup - which is displayed under 1/2 inch plexiglass. After all the first led a hazardous life.
Anyway after Rudi secures me a box of matches that are 4 and 1/2 inches long (will I be able to take them as carry-on - looking at box now) we decide to call it an evening.

mañana - Kronenhalle A billonaire - A columnist - an airline Owner/operator http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
the shakers and makers of Zürich hoi polloi

more to come-------------

[This message has been edited by magic111 (edited 11-30-2001).]

begin omni example Here is one for you Rudi - Player is taking a penalty kick and passes the ball back to a team mate who runs in from outside the penalty area/arc and kicks at goal. The goalie makes a gallant effort and gets a hand on the ball but the ball continues into the goal. Whats the restart? Why? end omni exampel

my answers:

referee action asked for: free kick for the defensing team from the penalty zone,

arguments: penalty kicks must be kicked forward not backwards, indirect penalties would be allowed, but the first kick must be (may be slightly) towards the goal.

What prize do I get?

Hey! What does this have to do with food? Let's get back to talking food. I'm dining vicariously through this report, and you're interupting my meal.

Go take your silly rubber ball games outside! No playing at the table!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Correct answer is retake the penalty kick as the ball was never propererly put into play.
This is a question on the beginning referee test although I have ever seen it happen.
I will present you with an authentic San Francisco Soccer Referee Association flipping coin as a consolation anyway for your prompt effort - after all we have to make our judgements during the game very quickly too.
From the Laws of the game 2001 edition
LAW 14 – The Penalty Kick
 the player taking the penalty [b]kicks the ball forward[b]
 he does not play the ball a second time until it has touched another player
 the ball is in play when it is kicked and moves forward

Hey we had to burn off some of those calories after all those of us who are psuedo-athletes do not want to be eyeing a waistline that just will not shrink http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by magic111 (edited 11-30-2001).]

I miss some more details of the rules - sorry.

I agree with the rules posted above (but not sure about the conclusion: replay).

The detailed rules (in german, traduction by Rudi) go on, that the ball is only 'free' when having rolled at least the length of its radius.

I learned to toss your coin in your favour from you whan you used that 'trick' to get to the italian Restaurant instead climbing mountains ...

Your guess is correct. Paradeplatz is the square next to the main Sprüngli café where you had an F-S-F. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

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Please reply to [email protected] if you feel this message to be in error.

From: Rudi Martel <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2001 17:37:39 +0100
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: FW: Mail System Error - Returned Mail

From the San Jose Mercury News:

"More than 760,000 AT&T customers were left without high-speed Internet connections after At Home shut off service to AT&T -- its controlling shareholder and largest customer -- early Saturday. AT&T, which relied on At Home's network to provide cable-modem service to about 850,000 customers, has been rushing to build its own network and has vowed to restore service to all customers within 10 days."

I'm sure Magic111 will find a workaround (dial up maybe?) and be back in a day or two.

"ATT Internet has been taken over by Argenbright" 2 hour + wait on the speaker phone listening to muzak and message saying they are sorry that they are busy. 1 hour + discussion with helpful soul in Winnepeg, Manitoba (that's somewhere in Canada) finally reestablished my high-speed internet access.
Local newspaper this morning announced that all customers in Portland Area were back on line within 6.5 hours. Rest of the country could be up to 14 days. Must have been a lie since the above occurred after receiving said newspaper.
Note: New e-mail is now @attbi.com rather than @home.com. User names remain the same. Please see updated profile.
Understand that they have something like 3.5 million people to reconnect. BTW, if you are not reconnected, you do not get e-mail.

I an back to finish my report after being caught up in the latest dot.bomb fiasco.
When we last left you Rudi had just dropped us off at our hotel. Promptly fell asleep and woke up 3 hours later for 3 hours and then fell asleep again and woke up in time for lunch. One of the reasons when traveling to Europe I do not like the b&b route is that I never seem to get to the second b. even though paid for. We are staying at the Hilton though and they do offer all day snacks so I trek down to see what the offerings might be. Espy a coffee machine and guess that the little cup just might be espresso and so press the button three times to fill a big cup. Grab a few other calories and it is time to head into a day of merchandising with Jerrie.
Just the highlights though. The Teuscher candy and pastry store. I still have not heard/know if results were kept of the chocolate tasting at the very first PiP in Hawaii but if there is a chocolate that measures up to Sprungli or Teuscher F-S-F will someone please inform me. We end up buying six boxes of Teuscher chocolates for friends and family at home after sampling some.
Find another coffee/pastry shop and since I am having a senior moment can not recall the name but for sure can recall what I had to devour. A plum tart. The place had about 20 different types of tarts and for some reason the plum one drew me to it and whoosh down the hatch along with the chocolates from before.
Rudi had sent me an email prior to our leaving for Zürich suggesting that I would be more comfortable wearing a coat at the Kronenhalle so I threw a blazer into my luggage and found out that I would have been just as comfortable wearing just about anything except summer clothes. Rudi arrives with a plaid jacket, a different colored checked shirt and a 49er tie to offset everything. He also arrives with the owner/operator of Airoli Airlines. http://www.olimade.com/airoli none other than FlyerTalks own airoli.
Notes about the Kronenhalle as observed and relayed to me by Rudi. When you first arrive their is only nondescript blue sign outside that surely does not signify in any way what is to come. We arrive before Rudi and the head waiter guy confronts us and asks us our business. We tell him that we are with the Rudi party of 3 (little do we know that it has become four [see above]) and he informs us that Rudi is not there and neither is our table. I would guess and later Rudi confirms that one only wants a table in the main dining area and not one of the other rooms. We are shown where the bar is to wait and shortly Rudi arrives and immediately is confronted by someone who recognizes him from his playing days of 30 years ago and insists that his appearance hasn't changed one bit. I can not confirm because I have only know Rudi for about one year and he has not changed in that time so I will go along with the other gentleman's assessment. Along with Rudi is another FTer whom was invited to join us that day. Seems Rudi has been grumbling (just a little) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif that Jerrie and I are not going to be able to reach his goal of spending what he had budgeted for the prize of dinner for two at the Kronenhalle and related activities to the event. Life is sure tough http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
Airoli it turns out it another one of the intelligent teenagers whom frequents flyertalk. As a class project (?) he developed the Airoli Airline web-site and with the demise of SwissAir he even has some specials for those who belong to Qualiflyer the plan http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif Sorry airoli if I gave away your age but I will be posting a photo of you anyway if my photo assistant (I mean Jerrie ever gets them developed)
Later during the evening I will complement airoli for talking english the whole night so that Jerrie and I can follow and it turns out that he was only using us (can you imagine) to study for an upcoming exam.
Eventually our table is ready and we head back out into the main dining room. What a room - the walls are covered with paintings - turns out that some of the painters had not had enough funds to pay their tabs so the original owner took their painting as payment. Turns out quite well for the owner and some of the artist eventually make it and become famous.
Above the paintings all the way around the wall are the crests representing all the guilds of Zürich and the tables are packed in like crazy.
Now the first time that I had dinner with Rudi, a goose dinner, we almost had a fight over the seat that I had chosen. He was insistent that I move but I was even more insistent that the seat I was in was the one I wanted - that is the one where one can look out over everyone else in the place. But I choose to be a polite guest and bite my lip and allow Rudi to have the seat that will look out over the assembled diners and Jerrie can not believe it as she has seen me never once take a seat where I am unable to watch everyone else in the dining room, the door, and everyone sitting at our table. Well eventually I will have to go to a chriopracter when I get home to get the crick out of my neck from constantly turning around.
First it is a painting of the original owner who may have been (the rumors are unclear) an employee of the red-light district or maybe justed lived in the neighborhood. I see another painting of her across the room and Rudi says no that is her daughter and eventually I see her walking around and talking to the customers and eventually she comes over to are table and it turns out that she is the granddaughter.
Okay premex if you are still here (and I know that you ate at this restaurant also) on to the food.
For the starter we have dried veal which is sort of like proscuitto but more lean. Rudi assures us that it is almost zero calories and I believe it is if you eat one slice. But it was so delicious that I ate all of mine and half of Jerries about 30 slices can't wonder about the calories at a time like this. The meat is only cured in one area of Switzerland and I guess not much of it goes for export.
Continuing on in the veal mode Jerrie and I are recommended to a dish that is sauted veal with a sauce sort of like a stroganoff or cream sauce. This is served with a potato cake which is sort of like crispy hash browns (reminds me of the way my mother [scandanavian] use to make them.) Now already during the few hours that we have spent with Rudi he has taught me so many table mannners that I can fully comprehend why those who can afford it send their daughters to Swiss Finishing School http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif I learn for the first time in my life that by placing your fork and knife in a certain way on your plate at any(?) international restaurant and you will be rewarded with second helpings. I tried it at my local burrito place this weekend and they just picked up my place setting http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif
Anyway back to the Kronenhalle. Rudi and airoli had this huge type of sausage, either one of you can name it, that comes from the area of Switzerland that they grew up in. (Weisslingen?) Looks so good that I am debating whether it would be impolite to order another dish when Rudi begins to tell us the one dish in the place that is a world-reknown dish. In fact it had been rated as one of the two best chocolate mousses in the world by none other than Playboy© magazine. And here you thought that readers only looked at the pictures.
begin omni I use to have a friend who was blind and use to get a free braille subscription of Playboy© every month. But eventually someone complained that government funds were being used to translate the magazine and ...............you know the rest end omni
The waiter brings out this huge tub of chocolate and by using two spoons with the deftness of a native born asian with chop sticks creats a serving that reminds me of a pair of Mr.(?) from southpark laying on the plate. The waiter pours some heavy cream over the creation and voila. Playboy© is correct. Perhaps it is the swiss chocolate but this is some of the best chocolate mousse I have ever had. The only bad thing is that even though the waiter did not use the entire tub he returned it to the kitchen and since we only had a spoon with the dessert I was unable to use my secret knife and fork signal to signify that I wanted seconds. Oh yeah F-S-F rating = best chocolate mousse I have ever had.
Before we leave let me mention a couple of things.
First airoli brought us another box of something from Sprungli. They appeared to be minature hamburgers but were some sort of light light light cookies (2) with a cream filling (chocolate & other flavors) that were simply delicious.
Second, the billionaire. Sitting across the aisle from me was this guy wearing a matching bracelet of diamonds (about 30 carats) and necklace (about 100) WE did not want to stare at the fellow but Rudi assured us that he was almost always in the place and the only reason he was there was for people to admire him. Of course Jerrie only admired his jewelry.
And so ends are visit to the Kronenhalle.
Tommorrow the missing meal by the 2star chef.


[This message has been edited by magic111 (edited 12-06-2001).]

magic111 writes: Are you kidding? Look at the date and time of my post. I've been hovering around here for days waiting for the meal to commence!

Oooh (slobber). Ahhh (drool).

Thank you all. But see that next time you don't hold up my dining pleasure this long! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif