Bunnies and some more bunnies!

What is going on here?

Anything interesting here??

Wow!!!!

Really that is all you have got!!

One up, one down!

Can I play mum?

I want this! No I want this!!

It´s hard to believe that we are about to welcome in October, this month as just passed super fast. My parents were here at the beginning of the month, then we had the birthday shenanigans for Alessio which went on for two weeks. This week I have been planning for our trip to London next week, really looking forward to that and of course to see my parents again.

Time to stop waffling on and talk about these adorable bunnies which we saw last Thursday when we visited the Island of Ufenau. We had a great time and before we returned back to the day care we visited the bunnies. When we got there they were all lazying about, but suddenly they decided we were worth a bit of an investigation. Of my Lord, the kids were all naming them and saying just how cute they were and I have to agree with that comment.

The lady who works in the restaurant came out and gave the kids lots of leaves and the bunnies went a bit wild. She told us that the mother has 9 little ones and that´s her in the first photo sitting in the log.

Costal trip and Dolphin Spotting!

During the summer holiday we had in Portugal, we went on a boat trip. This trip was looking at the rock formations along the coastline and then hopefully seeing dolphins.

The sea was rather choppy so we had to hold, the speed boat certainly jumped around on the sea and at one point we had completely and unexpectedly soaked!

The rock formations were all really amazing and spectacular, lots of lovely secret beaches. Once we finished the coastline part of the trip we headed off to see the dolphins. We were searching and searching and for a while it looked like we might not see them. Then suddenly the boat took off like a bat out of hell, to another area and there they were! Dolphins all around, jumping out of the water and traveling in groups. Sadly the photos do not do it justice as it was really hard to take photos. It was so great to have seen them and now we had to return back to shore. Since we took a bit longer to see the dolphins it meant we were late for the next boat trip so the driver went on full gas and we were just continuously soaked all the way back. I have never been completely soaked like right down to my underwear. The whole group was just laughing so much it was complete shock, when we got off the boat, we headed to the nearest bar for drinks!

It was a great trip and would recommend it, there are many companies doing this tour. Maybe take a change of clothing though!!

View from a Plane!

This was the view from our flight from Tokyo to Zurich, at one point I thought we were seeing the Great Wall of China. I then realized that the flight only few over a little bit of China and I think this could be Mongolia. Anyway regardless of where this is, it certainly is amazing to see!

A Quick Trip to Zermatt!

Outdoor Stage

This was my second trip to Zermatt and it was only for a day! I had very luckily won in a raffle two tickets to see a play called The Matterhorn Story. This rather special play was performed in the outdoors at 2500m at the station of Riffelberg.

The reason for the production of the play is that this year is the 150 years anniversary of the first ascent of the Matterhorn which happened on 14th July 1865. Edward Whymper and a group of others including Lord Francis Douglas, his Zermatt guide Peter Taugwalder, his son plus another 4 people. There was another group trying the ascent too, the Italian party and Edward Whymper obviously wanted to beat them and be the first up. They managed to get up without too many difficulties and were able to beat the Italians. Now they prepared the descent and that is when the problems begun and unfortunately 4 men fell off the mountainside.

Whymper, his Swiss guide and the son returned with the news of the deaths, then another group set off with the grim task of recovering the bodies. The body of Lord Francis Douglas was never found!
A tragic story, but very well performed, the languages spoken were English, German and Valais German. I have to say that trying to under Valais German was quite hard to say the least!

We were also very lucky with the weather is was not so cold considering we were so high up and the sun did shine. Plus we had rain gear and blankets to keep everyone warm, but in fact it was too much.

Photo of the Week - Pretty Balcony

So I am a sucker for lovely looking balconies, especially when they are adorned with gorgeous flowers! When it comes to plants and flowers I am not that known for keeping them well alive for long periods of time. Anyway this was spotted in Zurich near to the botanical gardens, maybe that has something to do with it!!

A Visit to the Aare Gorge

While my parents were visiting we had a day trip to Meiringen to see the famous Riechenbach waterfalls. I will post that another time, along with some photos of Meiringen. Once we had visited the waterfalls we had more than enough time to see the Aare gorge, which was not that too far away.

Once you have paid entry you walk a little bit to the entrance of the gorge, the whole walk is 1.4km and there are tunnels and bridge which make is it very safe. It would have taken us 40mins to walk to the exit at Innertkirchen. Then it is possible to catch a train back to Meiringen station. Since my mother did not come with us we only walked maybe 15mins, which was a shame as it would have been a wonderful walk.

The gorge is 1m at its narrowest point and 30m at its widest, there are sheer cliffs which are about 50m high. The river Aare over many many years has eroded the limestone and made these spectacular indents into the whole gorge. It is really well worth seeing and combining with the waterfalls made by Sherlock Holmes.

Botanical Gardens in Zurich

chilies

Last week I went to the Botanical gardens in Zurich as a trip with the kids from my work. This is I think my 3rd visit to this place and this time we got to visit the giant greenhouses. The kids found them all very interesting one was very hot (which I could not wait to leave) and the other was cooler just the perfect temperature.

We stopped for lunch and then wondered around looking at the flowers and plants, there were so many and to be honest not really sure of the names. There were some really large lily pads which we all found quite interesting, there was a picture of a baby sitting in one. So whether that means they are strong enough to hold a baby, but since we had no to babies to test I cannot say!!

The day ended to a trip to a playground which I guess was the best thing about the whole day for the kids!

Happy Weekend!