The rain in Switzerland stays everywhere all the time!

As we left the Channel coast behind us and drove across Belgium so we drove into cloudier conditions. For our two days in Germany it was cloudy - no rain, no sun, just cloud. Then we moved into Switzerland and it rained and rained and rained and the clouds never lifted - until the day we drove home 12 days later!

We were limited to shopping centres for photo outlets. This one is Sihl City in Zurich and architecturally I like it.

One day, umbrellas in the car, we headed East and into the cantons Appenzell. When we arrived at Schwagalp, it looked as though the cloud was clearing and so I took a picture to demonstrate the before and after:

We went into the hotel for a coffee and 30 minutes later the weather had changed...

... it was not the after I had been anticipating! And that was the end of that. Cloud and drizzle for the rest of the day - and every day after that.

We got so fed up that we decided to head South into the canton of Ticino - the Italian speaking part of Switzerland South of the Alps. As we entered the Gotthard Tunnel it was 15 degrees and very cloudy. As we emerged almost half an hour later on the other side it was a wall-to-wall sunshine, 28 degrees and everything summer should be! We headed down to Locarno:

and enjoyed a walk along the lake-side promenade:

We then took the 'Feniculare' up the hillside for lunch on a terrace over-looking Locarno and Lago Maggiore. Magnificent:

After lunch we explored Val Verzasca and arrived at the wonderful village of Lavertezzo

with it's wonderful double-arched bridge over the river:

And yes, the water really is that colour!

If you need a guide to Switzerland in the rain, hire me - I've done it.

We only had a holiday inconvenienced. The weather system dumping rain on Switzerland was the same one that brought catastrophic flooding to the South of France. There people died and lost homes and livelihoods.

Next year, I will be able to visit Switzerland again.

BP, pollution and greed

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is without doubt a major catastrophe which ever way you choose to analyse it. It has been established that oil companies have been cutting the margin for error to such an extent that any disaster was likely to be on a mega scale rather than a local spill (which is bad enough). This is bad news for everyone - for all stake-holders involved:

• Those who lost a loved one in the original explosion
• The residents of the Gulf coast
• The fishermen and tourism people whose livelihoods are threatened
• BP share holders
• BP
• Tony Hayward - BP CEO
• Barack Obama
• You and me

This spill has been, and still is, out of control. The best minds in the business have been applying themselves to finding a solution and they're still working on it. This is clearly a complex situation with complex outcomes in a host of arenas.

Amidst the uncertainty, there are some things we can say and ask for sure:

• We can ask is it purely profitability that pushes oil companies to tender for bids with low production costs or do the developers drive these prices down too?
• Who is demanding cheaper oil? You and me - the consumers.
• In a global business, do you hire a CEO with a track record and potential to deliver sustained growth and development for your company or, on the off-chance that something catastrophic goes wrong, someone who is media savvy and will present well?
• Obama can sack Generals, but he can't stop a natural resource from flowing. How powerful is the President of the USA? No amount of rhetoric or Congressional hearings can stop one drop of oil from bursting into the sea.
• BP might be a British company, but weren't they using local sub-contractors?
• Does anyone really think BP wants this to continue?

There are undoubtedly technical reasons for this mess. Someone made a wrong judgement on safety margins, there may even have been incompetence. That does not change the fact that these processes are governed by the mantra - maximum exploitation of natural resources at the lowest cost. However, what the media have failed to report is that that mantra is being chanted by you and me - every hour of every day.