Moevenpick Hotel Zurich-Regensdorf Zürich

Here I am, sitting in my tiny little room, in a beautiful wooden chalet looking out onto a snowy landscape. Today is the second day of snow and it's only October. I have been predicting an early winter for weeks now and am rather happy that my predictions have come true.

To glad to be home I recall my recent trip to Ardeche, South of France. As customary for this time of year it was windy and cold. Non the ...

... machen sollten :))
Nach einem 1,5 Std Flug landete ich auf gutem, alten, deutschen Boden ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, jetzt musste ich nur noch die Zugfahrt von Frankfurt über mannheim, nach Waldshut überleben. Nach etlichen verspätungen und dadurch auch einige rennerei erreichte ich um 15:00 Waldshut Yeeehaaa. Ich stieg in den Bus, versifft und fertig wied ich war und fuhr nach ...

... chair where we could stop and admire the view. Catching the cable car back down to Lauterbrunnen, we saw the waterfall which plunges from the mountain to the valley in the middle of town. We walked up to the town and found a cafe which had pies soup and good coffee. It also had an English book exchange which thrilled Katelyn as it had one of the Twilight books. English books have been few & far between in Europe.
Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland kiama_on_tour

Time to get the car and drive to Buonas! We decide to drive to Lucerne before arriving in Buonas. There's this wooded bridge Andy wanted to see. What a good decision that was. Lucerne was amazingly beautiful and totally worth the extra 30 minutes in the car. We had lunch by the river, and took pics of the bridge before arriving in Buonas.

... are works of art protruding from the towers, and in front of the cathedral is a beautiful bench with fun creatures wrapping themselves around it.

When we were almost out of time on the meter we made our way back to the car and continued east through Switzerland.

... gift shop wasn't badly priced. Got a really neat Swiss t-shirt for 20 CHF and checked out the cow bells. I was tempted to get one and ring it when we got on the flight. When we arrived in London, some girl got up and started playing the bag pipes!!! How fitting it would be for little me to ring this massive cow bell!! It's definitely not one of the largest ones I've seen but for 60 CHF, you got one that was about the length of your forearm. :P

We ...

... and never took out an Swiss Francs. It was a fun game to play...trying to pay in Euro's for more expensive things to get just enough change back in Swiss Franc's to pay for our ice cream :). We tried not to go too crazy with the food since we were pretty full from our two weeks of wining and dining on the (relative) cheap in Turkey but we did end up getting a semi-light (and unfortunately not as cheap as we anticipated) lunch at ...

... Kaupungista jäi miellyttävä kuva sen ollessa täysin käveltävissä ja s-bahn -verkko toimi hyvin, vaikka Risto ja Asko saivatkin jonakin yönä odotella klo 4-5 välillä yöllä hieman junaa, mutta sekin aika kuulemma käytettiin komeasti CCR:n laulamiseen steissillä. No anyway, perjantaina otimme tuntumaa Zürichin fanzoneen, jossa pystyi seurailla kisoja yli 45.000 ihmistä vetävällä alueella ja sinne oli ilmainen sisäänpääsy. Katetut paikat olisivat maksaneet, mutta ...

... outdoor pizzeria not too far from our apartment. There was a piano player outside, playing some tunes under a little glass lamp. The temperature was in the low 70's, a light breeze gently moving the tree branches above our heads. We are in Venice, and we are as happy as spring chickens at the end of winter. Whatever that means. I'm writing this the following evening after nearly a liter of wine. Congratulations if you can understand any of this. Ciao!

Today we all went to the Zürich Zoo, where we enjoyed the daily Penguin Parade, the "Exotarium, Aquarium, Terrarium" building (houses reptiles, fish, birds, and plants), and the Masoulo Rainforest. Oh yes, despite freezing temperature and snow on the ground, the younger kids again enjoyed the spider-themed outdoor playground. For more ...