Alpine Houses

During a weekend in the Alps we saw lots of very interesting typical Swiss houses, the first 3 are in Wengen and the rest in Lauterbrunnen.

Even if most of these houses have the same dark wood, they all have their own individual still, either by using lots of flowers, shutters that are bright colours, balconies or the actually shape and size are different.

From all the photos the first one is my favorite, is quite simple compared to the others with only a touch of colour from the flowers. Which one do you like the most?

Walk Around Lake Pfäffikon

Mountains in the distance

Roman Ruins

Jucker Farm

Church at Seegräben

Looking at Pfäffikon

On the last weekend that my parents were visiting we decided to go for a walk and combine a visit to Jucker farm since my parents had never been there yet. I drove to Pfäffikon and parked at the train station and we wondered down to the lake to begin our walk. It is about 10km to walk around the whole lake and should take about 2.5 hours but we of course stopped for a while in the farm.

It was quite busy by the lake with lots of people enjoying the sun and some were renting the rowing boats. I remember that I did that with Alessio went he was a quite small on this lake. The walk goes inland after 20mins or so and you pass a roman ruin which was once a fortress, in a place called Irgenhausen.

Passing lots of fields, a small stream and a badi we finally see in the distance Jucker farm and you can tell that it is the right place as you can see the pumpkin exhibits. We stopped there for 1.5 hours and continued on our walk, while at the farm we bought two small bottles of pumpkin secco and after leaving we found a place to stop and have a drink. It tasted very nice and if I go back will buy another bottle.

We saw a few jetties where there were people lying enjoying the sun and having maybe a lazy day, this part of the lake seemed to be covered in lily pads.

Finally back in Pfäffikon again Alessio played at a playground for a bit, it is hard to pass a playground and not let him play for a while. My parents wondered up the road to look at the church where lo and behold there was a wedding apero going on.

I will post the photos of Jucker farm on another post, it is always lovely to see this place.

Photo of the Week - Grass Roof!

The weekend I spent in the Bernese Alps with Alessio and my parents was very enjoyable, we did three different trips. One of them was to see the Lauterbrunnen waterfalls, on the way we passed numerous lovely houses and this one caught our eye. It is not everyday you see grass growing on a roof, or am I wrong to think this?

A Girls Weekend in Lugano

In the middle of July I had a girl`s weekend in Lugano with Riikka, Hannah and Linda. The girls stocked up on food and drink and then we set off. We decided to go via the Gottard Pass which is 2106m above sea level, to avoid any queues in the tunnel. When we got to the top we stopped for 10mins and it was certainly chilly up there!

The flat which belongs to Riikka`s husbands family is just outside Lugano, once we arrived and unloaded the car, settled into the flat, we had a drink or two! In the evening we had dinner in the flat and enjoyed ourselves until late into the night.

The next day after breakfast we headed off to the lake for an afternoon of sun-bathing, swimming and reading. We got a few more supplies and then went back to the flat and got ready for an evening in Lugano. We had a really lovely meal and then sat in an outside bar drinking lethal moijtos for the rest of the evening, enjoying the lovely view of the lake and hills.

The next day, we packed up and before we left to return to Zurich we headed to Monte Brè which is 933m above seal level. We drove nearly to the top and we stopped for awhile to enjoy the amazing view it afforded us, then it was time to head back to Zurich.

We went this time through the San Bernadino Pass which is just a little lower than the Gotthard Pass at 2066m. We stopped at the Kiosk and had our sandwiches and drinks while enjoying another great view.

It was a really great weekend and it was also great to spend time with the girls, and look forward to next year. We got to see lots of beautiful places all over Switzerland and amazing views too!

Eiger North Wall

One of the weekends my parents were here we went to Wengen for 3 days. We did 3 different trips on each day, these photos are from the last day and waiting at Kleine Schiedegg for the train down to Wengen.

The Eiger north wall is one of the six great north faces of the Alps and towers at 1800m over Grindelwand. In German it is called Nordwand, but it has a nickname of "Mordwand" which means Murder(ous) wall, as so many climbers have gone to their graves.

Ueli Stecks climbed the Eiger north face in 2 hours 47mins, setting a new speed solo record, watching the video of it just makes you feel nervous! It is so amazing to see and to see this spectalcular mountain was just brilliant, it makes everything seem to small and tiny.

The Eiger is 3,970m above sea level and is in a trio alongside the Mönch 4,107m and finally Jungfrau 4,158m. It was a great weekend and still a few more posts about what we saw and did to come!

Arth- Goldau Animal Park

During the summer holidays we went with the children from my work for a day to the animal part in Arth-Goldau. This was the second time I have been here, again it was with work but the weather was not on our side and it was cold and rainy. This time however is was very hot, there are lots of deers and you are able to feed them, of course sometimes they come up to you and take the food away from you. Some of the children were rather sacred of the deers and screamed a lot, while others loved to feed them.

For the lunch we were able to grill, which is always lots of fun, afterwards we carried on looking at the animals. There were also buffalos, birds of prey, bears, goats and lynx, there are also plenty of places for a picnic and for children to play.

It is in a lovely setting surrounded by mountains, quite easy to get to by train and not far to walk from the train station. So it is worth a visit if you have not been there!