Posts tagged ‘Fireworks’

Jan 5

Seeing Out Seventeen: NYE in Zürich

Happy New Year from The Daily Norm! I know, I’m five days late in wishing you these tidings, but what are 5 mere days when you have 360 left to enjoy? Plus, it has taken me as many days to recover my stride since touching down into normal-land after a grand tour of magnificent proportions, taking festive Florence, magnificent Milan, and the stunning Swiss city of Zürich in my stride. Of course there is much to share, and while I should be methodical about it, and take you straight into the bosom of Michelangelo’s prodigious David, back in Firenze where it all began, I am throwing chronology to the wind.

I’m starting instead at the end, rewinding the clock just a few days to New Year’s Eve, to the wonderful city of Zürich. My reason for doing so is clear: Zürich is one of those places which is so idyllically Christmassy that it could appear on any Christmas card all covered in snow. Consequently, if I post my photos in three weeks time, Christmas will be as outmoded as turkey left overs, and that would do the city little favours. For as we discovered upon this first visit, Zürich is a gem of magnificent proportions. Far from being the glittering metropolitan of its banking-centre reputation, you will find a city with a true historical apotheosis at its heart: An old town emboldened with delicately gilded and modestly coppered greed spiked spires and oversized chiming clocks, characterised by twisting cobbled lanes and varnished wooden shop fronts which invite you to enter and bask in the glow of cosyness.

It is a city which knows how to do Christmas, whose streets are strung with lights not just horizontally, but vertically too, so that the result is a total immersion in the magic of the season, almost like hypnotherapy into the world of the festive fairy. Meanwhile, it’s patisseries and grand cafes are an orgy of festive abundance, with light-strung, foliage-packed decor filling every last inch to create a true winter wonderland to engorge the senses.

Zürich is a place truly deserving of this voluptuous description, but for the rest, I’ll let the photos do the talking, from the pink rosy sunset over the magnificent Swiss lake on whose banks the city was born, to the light-strewn streets and picture-perfect chocolate shops. This post ends with the stunning 20 minute firework display which entranced the whole city who hung out on its bridges to see the sky aflame with colour. It was a truly spectacular way to see out 2017, and a privileged moment in which to get to know a fine European city.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2011-2018. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Jan 2

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Happy New Year from the Daily Norm!

It’s been yet another bank holiday here in the UK, and so once again the Daily Norm has shut up shop for the festive season along with much of this strangely quiet city of London. However as the city’s working residents brush off their suits and iron their shirts in readyness for the first difficult day back to work tomorrow, the Daily Norm is firing up its production line just in time to wish you all a brief Happy New Year! 2012 – who would have thought it? The Millennium celebrations only feel like a couple of years ago to me. However this year, 2012 promises big things, for London in particular, as the Olympics hit our shores. And if the NYE fireworks in London were anything to go by, London will be a faultless and fantastic host of the big games.

I went into central London to see the fireworks live for the first time this NYE, and I have to say, while they may be stunning to watch on the TV, in person they are utterly exceptional. We had been enjoying an excellent dinner at the nearby Boyd’s Brasserie (dripping in art deco marble-clad elegance) and upon exiting found ourselves, fortuitously, in a cordoned off viewing area slap bang next to the Hungerford Bridge with a perfect view of the London Eye. This was fortuitous indeed, as the bulk of the 250,000 people crowd had arrived in the middle of the day to get a good viewing spot. But for us, only a few minutes wait were required before Big Ben started it’s notorious toll and the final countdown lead to an explosion of spectacular magnitude from both the Eye, and Big Ben itself.

What followed were 11 minutes and 15 seconds of surely unsurpassed breathtaking brilliance, a display which sent vibrations all around and quivers down my spine. What a way to start the new year! And stood amidst that crowd of similarly awed spectators, all happily revelling in the party atmosphere, I felt proud to be a Londoner, resident of a city which is not all about riots, or gang murders on Oxford Street, but which is filled with decent well-intentioned people who celebrate the good things in life. It’s a spirit which I anticipate will ride high throughout 2012, when not only the olympics come to town, but we will also celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee. Here’s for a good one! I leave you with some of my photos of the fireworks. Check back tomorrow for my look at some of the amazing art expected to come our way in 2012. Happy New Year!