Cirque du Soleil

On Thursday, we went to a Cirque du Soleil performance at PNC Arena of Crystal. It was pricey at $96 per person plus TicketMaster fees and taxes on top of that. Cirque advertised it as being different because it had ice skating. But, we remember the last touring Cirque show we saw at PNC Arena having a section of ice skating so it wasn't that unexpected, or new seeming to us. What I found striking was that it was in English! I don't ever remember understanding the words in a Cirque show before. (Excepting One and Love, of course!)

So, I am posting about this because usually a trip to the other side of town for a Cirque show feels like a quick trip to a foreign land because you can't understand the WORDS. Not so with Crystal. In English, it felt like what it was, a trip through a red-haired girl's adolescence.

Add to that the fact that at least 4, and maybe 6 different, women played the part of Crystal. In addition, I felt cheated that there was no live singer for Crystal. There were 4 musicians that at least some of the time were live performing, but all the singing was pre-recorded. It was oddly unfulfilling and not because it was mostly performed on ice. I was not expecting English and I was expecting live vocal performances based on past experiences. It was unexpected. I find it strange that what Cirque is promoting about Crystal is the ice and not the change of language when that incomprehensible language has been a trademark feature.

So, on Thursday we stayed in town. We took a very expensive trip across town, but we didn't leave the country for even a moment.

Gornergrat - Riffelsee at sunrise

I recently found Clay's Gornergrat cog rail ticket. It has the most extraordinary photo printed on it. Since we hadn't seen the sun rise on the Matterhorn or the reflection of the Matterhorn in Riffelsee, I know I didn't recognize the photo on the day we carried the tickets. It's a funny thing, you don't see a thing unless you are looking for it!

On the day, we rode the train back down to Zermatt we were looking for marmots. There was a small red deer within feet of Mom's window and we both almost didn't see it because it wasn't a marmot!

That is how I reconcile not appreciating the photo on the ticket until seeing it in hindsight. It raises another issue I have, this with Google/the Internet. You can find almost anything online if you already know about it. But it is very hard to learn about something that you know nothing about. Now when I Google Riffelsee, I see a lot of images similar to the ticket. But, when I started researching the best views of the Matterhorn from Zermatt, I know I don't remember anything about catching sunrise or any images of it. Now it is what I notice first. Is it just me?

Next question, since the train started running at 7am and sunrise was at 6:01am when we were there, how did someone get this photo at Riffelsee? I know you could possibly hike up or maybe spend the night up there, but still. Someone got up early in the morning for this and then also got lucky.