Euro 2008

"THE" event of the year in Switzerland - the EURO 2008 football championship. 16 countries qualified for this tournament hosted by Switzerland and Austria. Here in Switzerland, much was done to welcome the players and the fans.

In Geneva, a football was floating on top of our big fountain. A sign that everybody can play football.

And our famous flower watch was decorated using the participating countries' colours.

In Zurich, huge players filled the train station. Let me not talk about the games and the players, since I did not have the chance to get a ticket - who got one by the way...? But I can mention the fans. And there the title goes to the Dutch supporters. There was an orange wave that took over Berne. I have never seen anything like that. They came by car, by train, by 50 extra plane and swamped the city. Fantastic and festive atmosphere.

Need I say a word about the performance of our team? Probably not. But again the swiss supporters were creative and welcoming. There were "fanzones" all around the country. Funny to see how the Portuguese dominated in Geneva, the Dutch in Berne, the Germans in Zurich and the Swiss in Basel. People put flags on their balcony and on their car. They celebrated by hooting until late at night.

Tomorrow it is the final game: VAMOS ESPANA !

Roland Garros

As every year, the end of May is pilgrimage time for me. And as every year, it is a great pleasure for me to be at Roland Garros. What a fantastic tournament!

For once, we managed to get tickets through the Internet. We were on the Susanne Lenglen court, where Serena Williams got soundly beaten. Certainly because she does not know how to play on clay. And nobody does better than Rafael Nadal. What an impression he gave during his 6-1 6-1 6-1 demolition of Jaarko Nieminen. He was even more impressive than the previous year. His vision of the game, his movements - including sliding on clay, his tactics, his forehand and most improved, his backhand. After seeing his performance, I predicted he would win the tournament. And surely he did.

One of his main competitor would be Novak Djokovic. I had enough time to take a picture of him bouncing the ball before serving. He does that at least 25 times before each service. I guess even champions have strange habits.

I also had the chance to go back down the memory lane, with the last game of Gustavo Kuerten. He won the tournament three times with his brilliance. But his back is giving his trouble. The spectators could not stop with their Mexican Wave during his double game.

I must also mention the Swiss players. I was happy to wave my flag during Patty Schnyder's game. She played well and on the same day the Swiss electorate, in a populare vote, showed tolerance and openess towards foreigners. Quite a few of my friends saw me on TV - did you as well?