Kyburg Castle

Alessio having fun with building blocks!

This day trip was done ages ago, in fact during the Easter weekend and for some reason is has taken me this long to post about it.

Anyway Kyburg Castle is an interesting place to visit, we both enjoyed ourselves, and I really like to visit castles and palaces anyhow.

It is quite easy to reach by public transport, we took the train to Effretikon and then bus 655 to Kyburg village and then a short walk to the castle. It is perched high above the river Töss and is the most important feudal castle in Eastern Switzerland.

There are some lovely views of the surrounding area and a picnic area too. The village is quite cute with some places for a drink, as the castle has no cafe. No doubt you can do some walks around the area as well.

All Things Scottish! - Exhibition in Winterthur

January 25th 1759, was when Robert Burns was born in Alloway, he is our national poet and on this day, many people host a Burns night supper, to celebrate his life and work.

Some of his poems include: Address to a Haggis, A Winter Night, A Red, Red Rose,  Auld Lang Syne and Ae Fond Kiss.

 Ae Fond Kiss

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever; 
Ae fareweel, and then for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee, 
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee. 
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him, 
While the star of hope she leaves him? 
Me, nae cheerful twinkle lights me; 
Dark despair around benights me. 

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy, 
Naething could resist my Nancy: 
But to see her was to love her; 
Love but her, and love for ever. 
Had we never lov'd sae kindly, 
Had we never lov'd sae blindly, 
Never met-or never parted, 
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest! 
Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest! 
Thine be ilka joy and treasure, 
Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure! 
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever! 
Ae fareweel alas, for ever! 
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee, 
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.

On Friday 25th January is the opening evening of the Scottish artist Andrew Thompson at the Knoerle & Baettig Gallery, in Winterthur.

The exhibition carries on until the 8th March, check their website for additional information.

Happy Burns Night!

An Afternoon in Winterthur

Park in Winterthur

Hidden window

Nature Museum

Nature Museum

Nature Museum

Nature Museum

Grand entrance of Museum

Our afternoon in Winterthur took place on the 1st May as it was a holiday, I had been looking on the net for ideas to do with Alessio and somehow got on to a site about Winterthur and the museums. There are lots of museum in Winterthur, the only one I have been to is the Photography Museum which I enjoyed a lot.

I decided to visit the Nature Museum, it is housed in the same building as the Winterthur Museum of Art. We both enjoyed seeing all the exhibits, but espcially liked the one where you had to guess what spice or herb you were smelling, Alessio liked pressing the buttons.

There is also a children`s part called Keralas Kindermuseum which Alessio did not want to go in, children can climb, draw and do other things.

Afterwards we walked around the city for a short while and found a place to eat. Then as always we ended our afternoon at the a park which you can see from the first photo has some lovely statues. The playground was really good and Alessio had a great time for ages.

Technorama

The first outing of the year with the children from work was to Technorama in Winterthur, easily reachable by public transport. The children all had great fun exploring the experiments on offer, they just went from one to the next one. It is great in that children can press buttons, move levers or pick things up. There are helpers around to explain and show how they work. It is also written in English the explaination of the experiment. It is well worth a visit, maybe not the children under 4 I think.