Into 2009

15th Jan

Richard's former colleague Berni came to our apartment and we then drove north to another retired colleague Ueli. After coffee and croissants Ueli took us for a tour of the area ending at the Rhine falls. Here 600,00 litres of water fall every second - quite a lot of water! Even here some of the falls were frozen. We had a lovely lunch in a restaurant over looking the falls before continuing our tour of the area. 

In the evening we met another former colleague and went to a very Swiss bar for drinks and a Swiss snack - something like a pizza but with a very light base.

14th Jan

It looks like a bright sunny day ahead, this makes a welcome change as it has been quite grey and very cold all year so far. We decide to have an outdoors day today and after breakfast catch a tram to the Kaferberg to walk in the forest. As you can see it was lovely.

Whilst walking we heard and then found a woodpecker and further on 3 deer ran across our path. It was so tranquil and amazing to see the wildlife at such close quarters.

After lunch back at our apartment we go out again, this time down by the lake and we walked to the Zurichhorn. By this time it was getting cooler

so we caught a tram back.

13th Jan

We are up early today as we are going to drive to Thun

, an old town that we want to visit. We soon leave the cloudy skies behind and find beautiful sunshine in the mountains, although the car thermometer records temperatur

es as low as -13! Insi

de the car it is lovely and warm with heated seats! (for Rosie). There are lots of very old buildings in Thun including the castle which dates back to the 12th Century.

Unfortunately in January it is only open on Sundays so we could not look around it. 

From Thun we drive on to Spiez, a lakeside village and then on to Interlaken 

where we walked around the town before heading towards Brienz and back to Zurich.

We hope you like some of the views from our journey back to Zurich.

12th Jan

We have discovered that Mondays are reduced price days at all cinemas in Zurich. There are a few films that we would like to see and we go and watch "Australia" this afternoon. A long film but worth going to see. We go to see the early afternoon showing and by the time we come out there is some late afternoon sunshine and although still cold we walk back to the apartment.

11th Jan

We drive out to the back of the airport to go for a walk, there are so many walking paths all over Switzerland we could walk a different one each day. By the airport the cloud base is very low and so not many people are out. We head off, Richard enjoys the planes flying low overhead as they come in to land - they suddenly appear

from nowhere as the clouds are so thick! We return to the car after walking for an hour feeling very refreshed.

After lunch the sun comes out and mad as we are we go out for another walk. We never tire of the scenery here, it is like the sea the mountains can look different every day. In the evening we go to an organ recital, there has been a week of recitals and tonight is the last night. The weeks recitals have been held in a church in a suburb of Zurich. The church is very ornate inside, so much beautiful wood. The recital was excellent and two pieces was accompanied by a string orchestra, all members being young students. 

10th Jan

A day spent in and around the city, there is always something to do or see.

9th Jan

We go out to take some photo's of the frozen fountains, some of which have actually stopped flowing. Even parts of the rivers are frozen. 

8th Jan

We spend the morning reading and relaxing before going out in the afternoon. We certainly need our thick jumpers to go out but the air is so refreshing even when it is so cold.

7th Jan

A quiet day and only a short walk today before going out for dinner again! Today we went to some friends Richard met a lived near to 3 years ago. Terry is Australian and Lona from Mumbai and they have 2 lovely children (6& 8). Lona cooked a lovely fish curry. We chatted a lot about travelling - they have travelled and lived in many countries and hearing about Australia was particularly interesting as one day we would like to travel around Australia. Tonight when we get back to the city we wait in a doorway for a tram as it is still so very cold. 

6th Jan

We brave the elements and go out for a walk to the Lake and in the evening we have been invited to dinner with one of Richard's former colleagues. We had a very enjoyable evening with a lovely family and their 3 teenagers. We caught a train back to Zurich and as there was not a tram for 10 minutes we walked back to the apartment. It was so cold our faces were frozen. 

3rd - 5th Jan

It is very very cold here in Zurich and we do not venture too far, but relax and spend quite a lot of time reading. We only go out for shopping and short walks, it is really too cold to be out for very long. The day time temperature stays well below freezing and it snows again. We go out for a drive but it is cold and foggy, we see very little sun even on higher ground. We do go up the Uetliberg on the train but is is too cold to walk down so we come back on the train. There is a biting cold wind which is unusual for Zurich. We put away our Christmas decorations and wonder what 2009 will bring for us.

2nd Jan

We went to see our friends in Oberageri as Andrew had not seen them and really wanted to see Marc and Laura. All the men ended up playing indoor hockey.

We return to Zurich mid afternoon and then it is time to get a train to the airport as Andrew and David have to go back to Guernsey. We are all a bit sad - Rosie particularly - we have all had a good time.

We return to a very "quiet and empty" apartment.

1st Jan 2009

Happy New Year

A quiet start to the New Year after a late night. All boys went out for a walk in a snow covered forest and enjoyed the fresh air, leaving Rosie to rest her leg as instructed by Andrew (too much walking down steep mountains)

Dave our visitor returned to London in the evening and we had a quiet family evening.