King & Emperor Swatch The Club Xmas Event
Budapest, Hungary, 30-NOV to 2-DEC-2007


This year, the theme of the traditional Swatch The Club Xmas event was King & Emperor.  Apparently, the title refers to a scrapped Xmas special which was replaced at a late point in time by the specials in the Xmas collection 2007:  Christmas Charms (YUS113G, a new product line: Irony Square lady! numbered and limited to 4999 pcs in a very interesting special packaging), Winter Day (SUJW100S, Jelly In Jelly, limited to 9999 pcs), and the ultra rare Irony Medium special called Diamonds In The Sky (YLZ401S, limited and numbered 499 pcs, retail 950 EUR, containing 80 little real diamonds, total 0.4ct). 

Anyway, the event took place in the nice capital of Hungary:   Budapest.  122 collectors from 16 different countries (as far as Malaysia, South Korea, USA) participated at the event.  In the early afternoon of 30-NOV, we gathered in the lobby of our hotel, the ****-hotel Gellert, located in a picturesque environment at the foot of Gellert Hill, on the bank of the Danube.


Very interesting to see:  The statues at the upper right and the upper left were tied together with thick orange straps so that they don't fall apart :-)


This was the nice view from our hotel room:

In the afternoon, it was time for a welcome drink at the lobby, and time for registration for the event.


We all received a unique bathrobe, especially made for this event, see the logo on the robe:


The first activity on the agenda was a river cruise on the danube.  We started near the famous Chain Bridge (Széchenyi lánchíd), the first connection between the two cities of Buda and Pest.


Skander gave a short welcome speech

The cruise took about 90 minutes and we had dinner in the Labyrinth of Buda Castle (Budavári Labirintus) afterwards.  This labyrinth is really unique and it served many different purposes during history, eg. a secret military installation during the Cold War.


The team of Swatch The Club is arriving


Sascha is a very very late guest: 
Direct flight from work in Germany into the labyrinth


After dinner, we had a walk through the labyrinth.  In reality, the labyrinth was much much darker than shown on the pictures (taken with flash) below.


In reality, it looked more like in this little video:


One spectacular location in the labyrinth was the Renaissance Hall of Rocks with Wine Fountains of Mathias:  About 30 litres of red wine are circulating in the fountain...


...but as you can see on Semras face:  Apparently, it is not too good.  The fountains are not made for tasting anyway.


During the walk in the labyrinth, we also saw a glimpse of the Xmas special Winter Day (SUJW100S)...


...and at the end, a very nice attraction:


Click here to read all about day 2 of the Xmas event 2007:  City Tour Game, Store Opening, and more...

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