Month: June 2017

Ali- Uncle Eddie, Aunt Beth and Cousin Jack came to visit us on Friday. Kinder people would have given them a day to get over the jet lag but we decided to drag them on Saturday to Zermatt because…well…it wasn’t really about them. We still hadn’t made it to Zermatt and they were our excuse to finally go. 

Saturday morning we cruelly dragged them out of bed, poured coffee into them to counter the benedryl/melatonin hangover and herded them to the Hauptbahnhof to make our 8am train. Then we sat on our butts for 3.5 hours until we reached Zermatt. Our vague plan was based on a random website click where an activity called ‘dirt scootering‘ was offered. You can check it out here to see why I was intrigued. 

When we arrived, Joe marched us through the cute and carless (that’s right! Only solar-charged electric cars allowed in the streets!!) town of Zermatt to our hotel– the Jagerhof – where we dropped bags and then headed to the Matterhorn glacier paradise valley station, which was supposedly where we ‘collect’ these magical dirt scooters. But first, hunger won out over dirt scooter excitement (never face danger on an empty stomach!….or without first having a beer…) and we plunked down at a restaurant terrace with the Matterhorn staring us in the face. I mention this stop only because Joe had an unfortunate spastic arm gesticulation here, which occurred right as the waitress was bringing all our beers. I didn’t capture the destruction in a photo but it was an impressive display of Swiss reserve, as the beer drenched server refrained from telling the loud American spaz where he could shove his beer. Joe, on the other hand, got to practice grovelling in German, which could come in handy again at some point. 

We overpaid our bill and slunk out of the restaurant to the dirt scooter rental place where we grabbed 5 scooters on steroids (Aunt Beth opted to hike….something about liking her current front teeth alignment). We took our dirt scooters over to the cable car station and the staff loaded them in and sent us up to the base of the Matterhorn. 

Once at the top we paused to take in the scenery and get some family photos at the base of the Toblerone Mountain- would you believe it’s not made of chocolate???? Then, with a bit of trepidation, we launched our high-center-of-gravity scooters down the mountain biking trail.  For those who aren’t mountain bikers, there is a reason why mountain bikes come with shocks. Our dirt scooters didn’t come with shocks. We came with varying degrees of knee joint health and attempted to absorb the jolts as we launched over rocks in the path. There was also the very real possibility of locking up the breaks and over-ending, to be followed by high speed sliding down the trail with the scooter riding you. 

After about an hour of harrowing rocky trail, we took a break at a mountain stübli for refreshments and cow watching- the primary local entertainment. At last we rolled back into the rental place and congratulated ourselves on survival. We celebrated with beer and ice cream and more Matterhorn viewing.Then we checked into our hotel and you are never going to guess what we did. Yea! Shirtless Matterhorn viewing from the balcony!Along with the 83 photos of the Matterhorn, we did also take a few photos of ourselves…..with the Matterhorn in the background of course.

Well all good accident insurance- requiring activities must come to an end and the next morning we said goodbye to Zermatt. I had gotten a tip that Jodlerfest – the annual celebration of yodeling, alpenhorning and all other highly Swiss activities – was nearby in Brig. Our Swiss friend, Manuela, grew up in Valais and still had a hundred Swiss cousins in the area and was going to meet us there.

It was clear something unique was going on from the train ride to Brig. While it’s not totally unheard of to see some traditional flavor on the train, large numbers of folk on the train were uber-Swissed out and getting their drink on. 

Once in Brig we wandered around following the sounds of yodeling. What we learned is that yodeling is a skill born of hard training and alcohol. The yodeling clubs would huddle in circles while singing, the close configuration helping to support those too drunk to stand by themselves. ​​​

I was on a quest for alpenhorn, as it’s about the coolest sound I have ever heard ….well aside from the sweet sweet sound of my husband saying,”You’re right dear!” Manuela led us to a nice beer stand next to a traditional clothing vendor and two alpenhorns parked at a tree. While Joe and Maya invested in Swiss traditional farmer shirts, Manuela sweet talked the alpenhorners …errr….alpenhorn blowhards? alpentooters?….. in the local dialect and got them to put on a private concert for us. ​​

After that our alpen lives were complete. We headed to the train, passing by the parade which featured Swiss flag throwing and men with chainsaws cutting wood on floats. But even the Swiss climber ascending a fake mountain mounted on a tractor couldn’t beat the alpenhorns.

Ali– ok. I know we’ve gotten in a rut here. So feel free to skip over this one. I just feel the need to provide information for the one poor soul who chooses our blog as a source for information on Swiss adventures and to satisfy my obsessive compulsive disorder, which requires that I record all events during our year. 

So I’ll be brief. Last weekend we wanted to get in yet another hike. Joe and Maya were at T minus 2 weeks until they headed back to the US and thus it is Swiss-experiences-binge-time for us. Our friends from the Bellinzona post were actually willing to hike with us again as long as I swore that it would be flat and short. So I went to my favorite Momstotszurich blog and found the Küsnacht Ravine Walk, which was advertised as stroller friendly and was only a half hour away on the train. The best thing about this 2 hour hike was that it ended with a ferry ride on lake Zurich. Now I could tell you about the wheat fields, dragon cave, wurst grilling or beer drinking on the ferry but I think I’ll just let the pictures tell the story. Here they are: 

We also visited friends in Zug that weekend and I got this fantastic shot of Maya jumping into the Badi, which I might as well include for full documentation purposes. Now that wasn’t so bad was it? 

Ali– As I’ve mentioned before, one of the best lessons we have learned from traveling is: Plan A rarely works out. It started on day 1 of our year abroad when our budget airline, Condor Air, cancelled our flight into Zurich, leaving us stranded in Frankfurt hauling a year’s worth of underwear around the airport. These misadventures always remind me of the days before Mays’s birth, when my obstetrician told me while chuckling  that I was free to write out a birth plan with my preferences.

So last weekend we had a plan to go hiking and see some castles. It was a good plan. It was World Heritage Day and the national treasures were open for free viewing. The three castles of Bellinzona in the Italian part of Switzerland were on the list. I found a nice 2.5 hour downhill hike in the hills right above the city that started with a cable car ride up to a cute stone village, went by an 11th century church with frescos, crossed a Tibetan suspension bridge, and then meandered through vineyards back to town. Perfect! I even invited another family, promising them easy hiking and castle viewing. 

We started out on the train at 8 am with pastries in hand for the 2 hour trip to Bellinzona. First task was to solve the mystery of the missing jelly in the jelly donut. Arriving in Bellinzona we made our way by bus to the cable car station in Monte Carasso. Here is where Plan A goes awry. The tiny cable car is booked out until noon. No problem! We’ll just reverse the plan: hike up and cable car down! Plan B here we come!

We found the trail head- which is always the first challenge with any hike – and headed up. Five minutes in the complaining begins. To be honest it was a bloody hot day and the girls had been lied to: this was not downhill. Things were made worse when I followed trail signs and missed the leisurely road that meandered through vineyards, instead heading us up the ‘bergweg’, which translates to oh-god-just-let-me-slip-into-a-coma-this-is-so-bloody-steep. So we spent a lot of time ‘resting’ on the way up with a couple of near pukes. We were now on Plan C.

After about an hour of steady uphill climbing we join back up with the leisurely road through the vineyards and everything flattens out. A couple more minutes and we reached the spectacular Tibetan bridge…which was only spectacular for the 1 out of 6 of us that doesn’t suffer from height discomfort. Turns out I had taken 5 people with moderate to severe dislike of high insecure places onto a 179 meter long bridge over a canyon. 

After a brief stop for lunch and discrete change of soiled drawers we continued on to San Barnárd, a Romanesque mountain church with frescos from the 14 and 15 centuries including one of the last supper. 

There was also some pretty awesome 18th century graffiti on the outside. Maya and Sara were slightly less impressed and chose to squat outside the church doing their best impression of exhausted hikers seeking salvation from a fate of more hiking. 

Onward we went despite their appeals to a higher power. Soon we reached the cute town of Curzútte, and the secret was out on this place. We managed to find patio seating at an upscale looking eatery and proceeded to sweat all over their nice outdoor furniture while slurping beers and ice cream.  We also noted the cable car going overhead about every 20 minutes, which was our plan for getting back to town. 

Beers emptied we headed for the cable car platform where a line had formed that looked to be about 2 cars worth of people or about a 40 minute wait. A guy in the line told us it was about a 40 minute hike down. Given the joint swelling and general fatigue we were in favor of waiting….then the cable car broke down. On to Plan D. 

By the time we stumbled back into town the crew barely had the stomach for trudging up to one castle. We all looked around blearily at the usual castle accessories- large stone walls. Check. Turrets. Check. – and then headed to the train station for the ride home. I’m sure the other castles were awesome but unless they had a shower and ibuprofen, they would have to wait for another day. 

Ali – Our friend, Laurel, had been threatening to organize a trip to Europa Park and managed to make good on her threat this past Saturday. Saturday morning at 7:30 am, Maya piled into our rented Land Rover with her two buddies, Sarah and Lil, for the two hour trip to Rust,  Germany. 

Laurel (Lil’s mom) and Rick and Manuela (Sarah’s parents) were meeting us somewhere on the road for the caravan to the park. 

Now I don’t know how you feel about amusement parks but I have a soft spot for them….as long as I am not forced into any line longer than 30 minutes. Mostly I love the roller coasters; don’t ask me why, just have always loved them. 

I have yet to look up the history of Europa Park and Disneyland but someone definitely copied. The place is divided into several different ‘lands’ – sound familiar??? In this case it’s actual country names : Russia, Greece, Iceland, etc. And then there are themed rides within each land. However, certain rides like the Eurosat: a trip through space, and the Geisterschloss: a haunted mansion, are ridiculously similar to the Disney versions: Space Mountain and Haunted Mansion.  

What makes this totally ok (I’m assuming Europark knocked off Disney) is the price: 40 Euros for a ticket instead of whatever ungodly and greedy sum Disney is charging nowadays. Plus there are huge beers in actual glasses and good German food to be had.

We focused on roller coasters and water rides, spending most of the day with wet underwear. The Europa Park app helped us find the short lines so we didn’t spend more than 30 minutes in a line until the end of the day. On the way out we thought we would try for the new attraction: an experience called Voletarium that had opened that day. The wait time was posted as 40 minutes and so, hoping that was an overestimate, we plunged in. Well a better name for this ride would have been the Waitatarium. You can just hear the sound of souls being crushed from the picture below of folk in the line after about 50 minutes.A hour later we made it through the line to what turned out to be a flying simulator, like at Epcott. Maya declared it totally worth the wait. I disagree. But that hour of my life is gone forever so I won’t look back. I still love amusement parks but perhaps will steer clear of rides on the opening day from now on.

Ali- Thursday/Friday before last weekend marked the second to last school holiday of the year:  Auffahrt. Now for those with no German skills this sounds like a holiday for flatulence but actually translates to Ascension, when Jesus went back up to Heaven to hang out with dad after a rather rough time on Earth. The Abrahams decided to ausfahrt Switzerland for Auffahrt and head to Austria, which we had yet to tour despite it being right next door.

Thursday morning we headed out in our rented Mercedes. Just over the Austrian border, we picked up a Swiss kid- Eileen- who is the daughter of our friends from the AirBnB boat rental back in one of our September posts. On the road again we headed over the mountains to the Tyrol region, which is well known for its skiing, hiking and river sports. We had rented a little AirBnB in Haiming, a sleepy little town with nothing to offer but it’s proximity to everything. 

After settling in I rousted the troops for an evening hike around Piburger See, which apparently is well known as the warmest lake in Tirol, or at least that’s what everyone said to us when we told them we hiked there. It’s a popular swimming spot so hard to say if it’s warmed by sun or urine. There was a nice 2 mile loop around the lake and a restaurant on the water’s edge where we could reward ourselves with beer and hot chocolate. 

Besides the beautiful view, the restaurant also served a pretty good Gulaschsuppe, which is a popular soup in both Austria and Switzerland. I was pretty excited to see that the serving bowls had the recipe printed on them (special translation note: mohre is the Austrian term for carrot.) 

The big event of the weekend was a rafting trip that I had booked for us through Area 47, this crazy outdoor aventure park that I had read about in the region. So Friday morning we show up at Area 47 and make our way to the gathering point, ogling all the crazy adrenaline junkie activities going on. In case you are wondering, the pictures below are indeed of an obstacle ropes course under a bridge, a giant rope swing, and a huge climbing wall

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the rafting trip, which was labeled ‘kiddie rafting’, because water and phone cameras don’t mix. But despite the ‘kiddie’ label, we were all fully outfitted in wet suites and there were enough rapids on the Inn River to make it fun. The tour was well done, with two boats and lots of games, water fights and kidnapping of passengers to keep us busy. The water was far from warm – 4C – and the kids were all blue and freezing by the time we got out. Here are the kids sucking down hot chocolates after the trip.We got entry to the water park with our rafting tickets and spent the rest of the afternoon playing on water slides and slack lines. The place has some amazing stuff for thrill seekers age 16 or so and older. You can see the sled and ski launches and this giant airbag thingy as well as the water slides in the back of the picture above. There was less for 11 year olds unfortunately but still well worth the visit. 

Saturday morning I once again force marched the kids to a hike. This time my destination was the Stuibenfall, the tallest waterfall in Tyrol at 159 meters. The supercool thing here was the Stuibenfall Erlebnis hike or adventure hike, which is a big suspension bridge and crazy staircase that follows the waterfall up to the top. It’s only about 3 miles of hiking but a lot of climbing. Of course, as is typical around here, there was a restaurant or Stübli at the top. We rewarded ourselves again with beer and ice cream.

The descent was quick and scenic and a good test of one’s comfort with heights.

Back at the car we headed back to Eileen’s house on the border where Gary and Miriam were cooking up a BBQ feast for us. They had just moved from Switzerland to a beautiful spot in Austria looking out at the mountains. 

They also have a new AirBnB venture: the Bubble. This is a big ….well….bubble that sits on their roof and you can rent it to sleep out in the stars. Joe, Maya and Eileen took it for a test drive Saturday night. I opted for a mattress inside the house. Don’t get me wrong; I would love sleeping in the bubble…I just wasn’t sure I wanted to sleep in a bubble with 3 other people after a full day of hiking. The bubble doesn’t come with a shower 😉