Grüezi (hello) Switzerland

The following weekend I eagerly left work early, rushed to Heathrow airport and sat in a delayed plane on the London tarmac in anticipation of a weekend with my friend Ang and her family in Switzerland.
When I arrived in Zurich, I was met by Patrick, Ang’s hubby, and we drove to their little town, Gams, which is just over an hour out of Zurich near Lichtenstein.
We had pasta for supper, and after over wine Ang and I chatted and caught up way into the night.
The next morning we went up to Wildhaus, a ski resort just behind Gams in the mountains.
We caught a ski lift up to the top of the mountain, a weird experience without snow :-)
At the top we went on a walk to the next ski lift.
The walk is called the Klangweg, it is a really interesting walk because it has little stops along the way with different things that make sound.
Ang told me there are different themed walks along this piece of mountain.
At the next ski lift we stopped and ate lunch at a restaurant frequented by cold skiers in winter for schnapps and hot chocolate.
We had salads and cold drinks, a stark contrast to our winter counterparts.
Then it was down the lift, and a pleasant walk along a river back to the car.
In the afternoon Ang and I headed off to Lichtenstein and went and looked at all the expensive shops in one of the little towns there, and then sat down for giant cups of tea (just the way Ang and I like them – lots of tea!) and a lovely creamy bowl of ice-cream each.
We’d used Patrick’s little sports car (Mazda MX5 I think) to travel there and had felt like pop stars out for a jaunt. We luckily clumsily put up the hood in the parking lot before leaving Liechtenstein as it was bucketing down with rain when we drove home. If we’d left the hood down, it might have been a case of more drowned rat rather than glamorous pop star….
That night we had the most famous of Swiss meals, the cheese fondue.
It was wonderful. I was terribly careful not to drop any bread or vegetables into the warm cheese mixture, as the forfeit was downing a tot glass of schnapps which I have about as much appreciation for as tequila!
I had a good night’s sleep - Ang and Patrick live on the side of a mountain and it’s wonderfully quiet at night compared to London where noise abounds even with the double glazed windows. The next morning we made our way to the local swimming pool.
It was a lovely sunny and hot day, and I even managed to get a little bit of a tan before jumping into the pool. The water was a little chilly, but that didn’t seem to stop the many, many people who were also at the pool enjoying the sunshine, water and playing around.
It was rather funny swimming and sun tanning when there was snow dusting the very tops of all the surrounding mountains.
Ang dropped me off at the airport on Sunday afternoon after a lovely and fun weekend, and I made my way back to rainy England.

Picture 1: The view from Ang and Patrick's house

Picture 2: One of the sound makers on the Klangweg

Picture 3: Ang, Patrick and Oliver on our walk

Picture 4: The view from the top of the mountain at Wildhaus

Picture 5: Me window shopping in Lichtenstein

Picture 6: Ang, Oliver and I at the swimming pool (see the snow on the mountains behind!)

Our little bit of summer

It’s mid July and so far the weather has chucked rain, grey skies and chilly winds at us. We’re having a truly authentic English summer.
We were momentarily fooled into thinking that it was actually going to be a dry, sunny South African type summer by having a few days of sun, muggy heat and summer in June.
On one such weekend was a weekend (in early June) I visited my cousin, Dylan, his wife Kerry and their little one, Louie.
I arrived at about lunchtime and was immediately put to work assisting Dylan put up a sort of sun tent in the garden (which looked rather like it should have people sitting on colourful cushions being fed grapes and waved with banana leaves).
We achieved this in about 10 minutes of figuring out where poles fitted together and where fabric zipped up, while a neighbour hung over the garden wall and told us that they’d taken hours to put up theirs and we would be no different.
I then ambled inside to where Kerry was making a salad for our picnic.
We took everything into the garden in our Turkish sun tent, and ate a feast of salad, olives, crusty bread, cheeses and rosé wine.
At 2pm sharp Dylan rushed off down to the local pub to watch the South Africa vs. England rugby match, while Kerry, Louie and I followed at a more leisurely pace and sat outside the pub in the early summer heat drinking beer shandies.
The next day I went for a cycle in Richmond Park on mountain bikes with a friend, Warren.
He’s a bit of a sports fanatic, and I spent most of my time trying to catch him up, and look like I wasn’t panting and sweating up a storm!
Near a little dam in Richmond Park we put out a picnic blanket, ate lunch and watched the swans parade their little babies around, while the sun beat gently down on us.
It felt like the beginning of a warm summer yet to come….


Picture 1: Dylan and Louie
Picture 2: Kerry and Louie
Picture 3: Me and Louie
Picture 4: The baby swans at Richmond park