Anyway, so I couldn't believe that my older sister, Marla, came to visit last week - seriously I had put her on the "it's never gonna happen list" - something about a full time job, expired passport and 3 kids under 4:)! But her job sent her to London (thank you Bank of America!) so she got to visit with us in Zurich last weekend!
Marla arrived on Wednesday night. After picking her up at the airport (which I was late to - damn on time Zurich train system - can't you ever be a few minutes late!) we headed out for a few drinks at Hiltl with Miriam. This a great Restaurant/Bar-Lounge/Club off Sihlstrasse. Very cool lounge area with couches and a dance floor that people were Tangoing on while we were there.:)
For the record - I am leaning in - my butt is NOT that big!
The one thing I can say about Marla is she is awesome to shop with! She even has more shopping stamina than me (and that is saying a lot)! We hit the Bahnhofstrasse and I took her to a few of my favorite places including Globus and Sprungli (of course!).
That night I "made" (bought at the store) Cheese Fondue! We had Miriam and James over (seriously I think they had enough of us by the end of the weekend:)) and had a great night! Although Marla didn't like the Fondue - what's up with that? She said it tasted too much like Liquor (Kirsch)- um...duh - that's the point isn't it:) I'm so pissed I didn't take a picture b/c this was the first "party" in our flat!
Next day more....SHOPPING! I took her to the grocery store (I know it doesn't sound exciting, but they really are different than in the States - you have to "pay" for your shopping cart, the eggs and milk are in the middle of the floor, and people have no respect for your personal space - it was an experience for sure), the Niederdorff/Old Town, and finally down to Zurich Lake and to see a few sites. We headed back early to take naps before the Glocals Black & White Party that night!
View from Limmat River to Grossmunster (Great Church)
View of Lake Zurich
Glocals is an expat community that we are members of here in Zurich. It is a great group of people that organize events so you can go out and meet people! We've done everything from hiking, to cricket, to bbqs with them - I highly recommend joining some type of expat community if you move over seas! Anyway, so on Friday night, Glocals rented out the the 2B Lounge for a Black & White themed party. We haven't been "out" dancing, drinking, and carrying on in a long time so it was a lot of fun:) Maybe too much fun as I was worried we wouldn't be feeling so well for our Liechtenstein Hike on Saturday!:)
I love public transportation - you can legally drink a "40" while in transit! (Okay well not a 40, because they don't do ounces but still pretty BIG BEERS!)
Group Photo! (Marla, James, Miriam, Me and Nathan)
I had to put this photo in to prove I'm not as fat as I look in the previous photo!:)
Seriously Girls, the line isn't THAT long! And yes those are taps at our TABLE - well not OUR table, but somebody's table!
Liechtenstein is a 160 square kilometer Principality (very small if you can't do the conversion i your head:)) located between Switzerland and Austria. The Liechtenstein website says they are "the last German-speaking monarchy comprised of 11 municipalities with 35, 000 inhabitants". To get there from Zurich you take a train to Sargan then a bus to Liechtenstein - we headed to the capital, Vaduz. I'll be honest here - the city wasn't all that - but THEY sure think it is! Apparently the Liechtensteiners (whatever you call them) are very proud people! You should have heard the lady going on about all the "sites" in Vaduz!:) We did look at everything she pointed out (except the stamp museum - I didn't think Nathan could handle it) which took about 45 minutes. The vineyard was beautiful though so I'm glad we checked that out!
So thankful we were planning on hiking though or the trip would have been a bust (at least in my humble opinion). We hiked from Vaduz to Triesenberg. Nathan's boss recommended the "Three Sisters" hike, but when we asked the lady at the tourist info center about it, she looked me up and down then said "You can't do that". Not sure what THAT meant, but Miriam tried to convince me that it was because we didn't have the proper "snow hiking" equipment as that hike is very high up. Sure, whatever. That lady is just lucky I didn't show her what I CAN do.:)
The hike was only about 2 hours and it was a beautiful 60 degree day! I loved this photo of Marla and I near the top of the hike.
When we got to Triesenberg we went for a beer (little hair of the dog if you know what I mean). Marla said her view consisted of "The Alps and cute little Swiss Chalets". It doesn't get much better than that!:) And the Liechenstein beer wasn't half bad!
On the hike back down to Vaduz I saw this in someone's yard.
I promise right here and now that when I get back to the States I am going to start a garden so I can build this in my backyard! Priceless. Maybe I should start collecting gnomes now......hmmmmmm. But I'll probably have to charge admission because you guys are going to want to come over and hang out around it all the time!!!!:)
Great Krati (plural for Kratus in Latin - oh never mind) Weekend! Love you Marla! Now we just have to get Courtney and Missy over here!
xoxo, Mandy
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment