Whitney's in der Schweiz

Wednesday night we headed back from Paris to Zurich so the Whitney's could get a feel for Switzerland!

On Thursday, Kate and I toured around downtown Zurich, shopped, ate lunch on the Lake , then drank beer on the river. She wanted to see all the places that I have been hanging out and what my life was like here in Switzerland. I even took her to the grocey store and she said "No wonder you almost ate horse!":) It was such a great day!

The boys were supposed to go sledding on Mt. Rigi, but something about the train and them getting there too late to really have fun, that they decided to ride bikes around Zurich all day. They were in all the same spots that we were, but unfortunately, since I don't have a cell phone - they couldn't reach us.:( But they had an awesome day too and I know Nathan enjoyed having someone to ride bikes with (that wasn't going to bitch about the hill back up from Zurich to Oerlikon:))!

That night we had surprise dinner rervations for us all at the Blindekuh (Blind Cow) Restaurant in Zurich. We didn't tell Kate and Tim where we were going until we were standing outside! I think it made the experience even that much cooler and possibly stopped some anxiety about us not being able to see anything we were eating! The Blindekuh is a restaurant where you sit in complete darkness (and I mean it is DARK - no light what so ever) and all the servers are blind (the kitchen staff can see though). The concept of the restaurant is to experience what it is like to be blind. I can't even describe the experience. My grandmother was blind, so the whole time I thought about her and how it was to function as a blind person every day. It was a very humbling experience. But we did really well - we even passed food to each other and poured our own wine glasses! Our waiter's name was Mauritz and he was great! Every time he came to our table he said "Um hello - it's Mauritz here" - since obviously we couldn't see him he had to announce himeself! He told us his story and that he wasn't born blind, but became blind at a young age almost over night. Wow - I can't even imagine. If you have a restaurant like this in your city (or one you are traveling to), I would really encourage you to go - we all LOVED IT!

Honey - not everyone is blind and I'm sure some of the other patrons can see you mounting the cow:)

Friday we woke up really early to head to Andermatt to ski the Swiss Alps. Knowing what I know now - this was a mistake:) I've decided that Andermatt is cursed! This is where we were supposed to go with Miriam on our second day of skiing and a HUGE blizzard came out of no where and covered Switzerland! Fortnately we were warned in advance and didn't go when Miriam was here - but this time we weren't so lucky! On the 2 hour train from Zurich it looked beautiful outside and was around 60 degrees. As soon as we hit Andermatt they closed the glacier runs and sent us another 30 minutes further on the train to Dieni (due to the upcoming weather).

When we arrived at our final destination it was raining - which means it was warm enough to be RAINING! Kate hadn't skiied since she was like 7, so raining wasn't ideal but was better than snowing because we could still see a pretty good distance in front of us. After the first run (where Kate did REALLY well by the way!) it started sleeting, and then snowing, and then blizzarding! Holy Crap! Nathan and I had taken the gondola to the top run to see what it was like up there and as soon as we got off the lift we couldn't see a thing! We basically had to ski from one orange marker to the next - not fun:( I was hoping Kate and Tim were having better luck but they even closed the "bunny hill" due to the weather! We all ended up meeting in the lodge for lunch then skiing down to return our stuff:( Totally sucked that our big Swiss Alp Skiing day ended like this, but hey - we had AMAZING weather the rest of the time so it was really hard to complain (at least that is what I'm trying to tell myself)! I don't think I've ever been that cold and wet in my life! Thank goodness it was ONLY a 3 hour ride home:)!

"I like the beach!"

"Um hello - Maurtiz here"
(Kate was having a hard time seeing down the last run and Tim kept coming up next to her saying this so she could "see" where he was:) )


3 hour train ride, 3 ski runs, then 3 hours back in a white out! Good times!!

We ended the night with Cheese Fondue (of course) and then took the Whitneys to the airport on Saturday morning:( We had so much fun but it seemed ridiculously short! Thanks for coming to hang out with us Time and Kate- we love you guys!