Hiking near Lugano, Switzerland

I couldn't believe we had spent an entire year here and never actually been to Ticino - the "Italian" Canton of Switzerland!  Well, we had seen it on the train - but clearly that doesn't count - right?  So it took me a few days, but I convinced Nathan that we should do a hike here for our last weekend in Switzerland! 

I found a hike on myswitzerland.com (one of my favorite sites!) from Monte San Salvatore to Morcote and then ending with a boat trip back to Lugano.  Boat trip?  Um hello - you know I'm in!  The train ride was a little far for a one day trip - 3 hours there and back but we had a lot of stuff to do on Sunday (including pack) so we sucked it up and even convinced Sarah and Zann to come with us!

This 4 hour hike was said to have some of the best scenic views in Switzerland and it didn't disappoint!  From the very start it was beautiful!

The summit of the Monte San Salvatore

Same location but to the South

I thought we would have better views of the water during the middle part of the hike, but the trail went through the forest a lot - we even hiked through the Lugano Botanical Gardens - it was still a little early in the season but I know it will be beautiful in a few weeks when everything is in bloom!

Nathan chillin' in the botanical gardens:)

The end of the hike was so amazing - I really thought we were in Italy!

And then - the boat ride back to Lugano!

It really felt like we were in Italy - but cleaner and the public transportation ran on time - ha!:)

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

(ok.- beer the generic beer of Switzerland - ahhhhh!)

The whole time we have been here I have been trying to get a good picture of Nathan and I with the Swiss Flag and Sarah finally got it for us!  I like to call this the money shot!:)  Thanks Sarah!

We walked around the quaint little town of Lugano then had a great Italian dinner at Tango near the water- and topped it off with some gelato, of course!  Great final weekend in Switzerland!

Here's a link to the rest of the pictures it you want to see them!

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!

Ski Weekend in Gstaad

The whole month of February is basically Ski Month in Europe (the kids have vacation from school) - so if you want to rent a cute little Ski Chalet in Switzerland we found out you better do it at least a year in advance! Unfortunately, we didn't even know we were going to be living in Switzerland a year ago, so that was a bit of a challenge when we started looking for a place our ski weekend last weekend. We really wanted to go to Zermatt, but after inquiring about a place and finding out it was $65,000 for the week we decided to explore other options:). I say we, but actually our friends Sarah and Zann did all the work (thanks guys!).

They eventually found a cute place in Château-d'Oex about a 20 minute train ride outside Gstaad. The only problem was it was a 4 person condo and we had 6 people. We were desperate though as they had been searching for weeks, so we decided we would bring along sleeping bags and "figure it out" when we got there. (I did feel like a college kid trying to fit too many people at a spring break place but hey - keeps us young - right?) Anyway, when Zann first found the place he asked the owner if it could fit 6, when she said no Zann said okay - we will only have 4 then.:) I'm guessing she found this a little suspicious because Zann spent the next two weeks convincing her it was only 4 including an email the night before we got there! The owner actually lived in England though, so we thought we were safe!

Pan forward to our arrival in Château-d'Oex. (Just so it will make it easier to understand - the place we were staying was a converted hotel into individual condo units. There was a grounds keeper (for lack of a better word), Mia, who lived across the street from the building and checked in every guest.) We were supposed to meet Mia when we got there so she could show us around the place, etc. Since she knew it was only supposed to be 4 - Nathan and Sarah were to stay back at the train station until we called them. However, the process was taking FOREVER and then she decided to stay in her office located right next to the front door to "do some work". It was 9 o'clock on a Friday night - I think she knew we were up to something:) Eventually, Sarah and Nathan were freezing and sick of waiting outside so they decided to try their luck and BAM - right into Mia'a arms! "Are you checking in" "Oh no, we are just visiting friends in room 42." "We don't have a room 42. Who are you meeting?" "Zann Hawkins" "Hmmm, okay" And that was the beginning of a renegade weekend! We spent the rest of the time trying to go downstairs and leave at different times so she wouldn't see us all together!

But the view from our place made all the shenanigans worth it that next morning. This is what we woke up to - so beautiful!

Hello Chateau d'Oex!

The owner of the condo had actually sent us some pretty awesome information on where to rent skis, different places to ski, where to go, etc. And although there was a ski lift right in Château-d'Oex, after reviewing all the slopes, we decided to train to Schönried to ski "Sector 1" which had the largest number of connected slopes.

Gstaad was so beautiful and it was great to be back on the slopes for the first time in more than 2 years! We had a lot of fun skiing "off piste" - off the groomed trail - especially Nathan. There was a few times I didn't think he was going to get back to us:)!

Chillaxin' at lunch

My question is - how the hell did he get over there?

There is nothing flattering about ski clothes so try to focus on the mountains in the back:)

The second day we decided to head up to the Glacier 3000! A completely different skiing experience. It was just blue skies and white snow for what seemed miles. The slopes were wide and smooth -amazing!

After skiing all the slopes at the top, Nathan, Zann, Jeff and I decided to take the black diamond to Reusch. Sarah and her sister decided to take the gondola down - I'm not sure which was a better choice:) It was an amazing run though! We started at the top of the Glacier and skiied all the way back onto the mountain and through the trees - one of the most breathtaking scences I have ever witnessed. I wish I could have taken a picture of the winter wonderland of snow and ice covered trees, but it was at a relatively flat place and I didn't want to lose my momentum!:)

Self portrait right before we took the plunge straight down! The end of the slope is all the way in the distance!

We did it! Yeah!!!

The only bummer part was when on the fourth very steep downhill slope I completely bit it! HARD! Thank god I was wearing a helmet! And although all four of us took a spill at one point or another during our ride down, I was so pissed at myself for this fall because I have NO IDEA how it happened! I was completely taken off guard:( Jeff was skiing right behind me and said he couldn't figure out what happened either! I was fine but I kept asking if my face was bleeding. I kept tasting blood and my face felt wet, but the guys assured me my face was fine. By the time we got to Reusch I looked like a chipmunk on the right side of my face and I finally looked INSIDE my mouth and that was where all the blood was!:( I guess I should have been happy that I still had all my teeth! My favorite "strap a set on" motto might not be such a good idea after age 30:)

The Glacier 3000 will never be the same!

I took this to try to see what I did to my face - the outside didn't look that bad and it hadn't really started swelling - yet!

Monday morning (after getting caught by Mia and Zann getting lectured - good times!) we headed to Gruyère to visit the cheese making facility of La Maison du Gruyère. Yummmmm! We now know more about the making of gruyere cheese than I think we wanted to:) We also visited the cute little town before heading home!

It wasn't so easy to get back to Zurich from their (who knows why) and with all of our stuff it made for an exhausting ride home, but an AMAZING weekend in Gstaad! I highly recommend it if you are in Switzerland!

Now we are off to the Zurich Carnival in Oerlikon - more on that tommorrow!
~Mandy

We're back in der Schweiz!

After almost 2 months in the states - I am back in Switzerland and a lady of leisure once more:) I forgot how much work it was living in the USA:) I arrived in Zurich last weekend and realized that Nathan and I only have about 3 more months left here! So we HAD to hit the ground running - right? No time like the present! (And for all of you wondering - Nathan was in the states for about 3 weeks with me, and except for almost killing himself swimming in sub zero degree water and losing his wallet on the slopes he didn't do much here while I was gone - therefore no blog:))

I arrived back in Zurich on Friday Jan 22- we chilled on Saturday - then off to Mt. Rigi near Lucerne on Sunday for a day of Sledding and Schneeschuhwandern (Snowshoeing). Side note: If you are ever in Switzerland checkout the SBB Website - you can get pretty good deals on day trips - it is also a good place to check out what Switzerland thinks is worth seeing!

Mt. Kulm was where we started the sledding!

Our death dfying group - Zann, Emily, Sarah, me and Nathan

Let's start with sledding. Very dangerous sport. VERY. DANGEROUS. Seriously - you should need a license to get on one of those things! Or at the least a lesson and a HELMET! But nope - 10 CHF will get you a sled and on your merry way..... to near death experiences! Now don't get me wrong - I love adventure, rushes in adrenaline - hell "Strap a set on" is my favorite saying - but I swear while sledding (on Mt. Rigi) I saw my life flash before my eyes!

Let's start with the "Exciting Sledge Runs" (what they call the trail - not sure where the "g" comes in but whatever). Anyway, Mt. Rigi has 3 runs with the longest being 4.0 km. But let's get back to the word "exciting" - exciting means very narrow runs with steep drop offs and no netting to keep you from going over the side - oh yeah and let's just throw in some moguls for good measure! I wish I had a video of the time Nathan hit a mogul and landed head first in the snow - 15 feet IN FRONT OF his sled!:) I, on the other hand, hit a lady (who had stopped in a very bad spot if you ask me) head on going what felt like 30 mph because I hadn't quite gotten a hang of breaking (fyi - the "snow plow" technique does NOT work:)) I mean - don't get me wrong - it is HILARIOUS to watch and we made out with only slight bruising and one sprained ankle. Soooooo - who wants to go again?:)

Nathan right after he went head first in the snow - can you see the icicles hanging from his hat?

Probably taken right before I hit someone:)

After sledding we did a little snowshoeing - I love how Swiss this picture is so I had to include it:)

The next morning we woke up (very sore) and headed to Milan, Italy. Nathan had to go for work and he asked if I wanted to tag along! Hell yeahs! The trip was from Monday morning to Wednesday evening, so I thought I would check out the sites in Milan, take a day trip to Lake Como, and then of course check out the shopping scene in Milan!

To be honest - there isn't a whole lot to do in Milan site seeing wise. On Monday, I visited the Duomo (the second largest Catholic Cathedral in the World). The Duomo was built in a Gothic style and is breath taking! If you have a chance, climb the stairs to the roof to see all the details up close! Unfortunately, it was a very overcast day so the views weren't that great though.:(

We went back to the Duomo at night with the ABB Team - good looking bunch!:)

Next I decided to just shop! Who can blame a girl - right? I had read in one of my travel books that January and July were the two months where everything was on sale - and they were right! So if you want some good shopping deals go then - you can get a Prada bag for $2500 instead of $5000:)! While shopping, I found one of my favorite ad campaigns EVER! LOVE IT! Not sure if it is in the States but look for it - they have a bunch of other signs that play off this one!

Tuesday - Lake Como! So maybe I am an idiot, not worldly, and from a small town in Georgia, but I thought Italy was supposed to be warm and sunny all the time!:) What was up with the temperature being around 1 degree Celsius the whole time I was there?! And it was a humid cold so it went right through you! BUT I wasn't about to let that ruin my time! I was on a mission to find George Clooney:)! (However, I should have checked with Hollywood b/c he was there for awards season - boooo!) Anyway, I started my day with a boat trip on Lake Como. Everyone else was sitting inside the boat, but going back to the idiot part, I decided to sit in the back - outside. My camera doesn't take very good shots through windows, so I had to take one for the team:) Don't you think my shots from OUTSIDE are great? You can see so much of the lake and scenery from my picture- right?:)

Beautiful Lake Como!:)

I also walked around the cute old town and took the funicular to the top of Brunate, a hill overlooking Como and providing a panoramic view - again probably better thing to do during the summer:)? I did see the sun trying to peak out a little! But I guess I am going to have to go back during the summer!

Dinner on Tuesday night was amazing! Fabrizio from ABB Italy took us to a great local restaurant. The staff didn't speak any English and Fabrizio didn't want to translate the whole menu so he asked us all if we liked seafood. Everyone said yes, so he told the wait staff to "bring it". And boy did the BRING IT!! Salmon, mussels, anchovies, octopus, calamari, and more-yum! And to top it all off - when we were finished and asked them to call us a taxi home the director of the restaurant said he would drive us instead! Now that is service! If only I could remember the name of the place......

Wednesday I toured around Milan again. I wanted to see the painting of The Last Supper, but when I finally found the place, viewings were closed due to some type of department meeting! Totally sucked - except that the temperature had reached 4 degrees and I saw the most delicious looking gelato so I stopped off for a little treat! If you are near this museum find "Chocolate - Milano" - the gelato was amazing! Another highlight was visiting 10 Corso Como - beautiful shop with a great little cafe! Granted I couldn't even afford a paper clip, but it was beautiful!

Where the Last Supper is located...not that I actually got to see it:(

Then the past Sunday we went Ice Skating on Lake Sihl.

Picture of the lake from the bus - it was a really big "rink"!

Nathan nor I had ever ice skated on a real frozen lake (only ice skating rinks) so we were excited! Although the scenery while skating was beautiful - do you think this was bad.....

Water in the middle of the course! Nothing to see here folks - keep moving!

Yeah we thought so too!:) But all the experienced Swiss just skated through so we did too! Don't worry Nate - they have a life preserver waiting about 5 feet from here! I'll save you!

The other thing is - you never know what the weather is going to do in Switzerland. Here are two pictures taken from the exact same place. The first in the morning when we got there and the second around 1 pm... so much for the beautiful scenery:) At least that meant it was time for gluhwein!

around 11 am...

at 1 pm!

So I have finally caught up on our "what we've been doing". The next post will be shorter - I promise!

xoxo,
Mandy

Links to all the photo albums:
Mt. Rigi Pics , Milan & Lake Como Pics, and Ice Skating on Lake Sihl Pics

Alpabfahrt Mels - Let's Party till the Cows come Home!

I know. I know. The German word "fahrt" still makes me laugh. You can take the girl out of America but you can't take America out of the girl:)! Anyway, the word "fahrt" means journey or trip. So Alpabfahrt (which we were pronouncing "Applefart"..... close - I'm sure:)) is a journey of the cows coming back down from the Alps.

If you are in Switzerland during the middle to later part of September you simply MUST go to an Alpabfahrt! I think there are several, but we went to the one in Mels - I found it on http://www.myswitzerland.com/). The reason we went to that one was b/c it was the closest (only 1 1/2 hours) from Zurich. My parents had arrived from the States at 8 am so I didn't want to go too far b/c I knew they would be tired.

So the Swiss Alp herders bring the cows back down from their summer home in the Alps to their rightful owners during the Alpabfahrt. The cows have beautiful headdresses on and the herders wear traditional garb.

The first animals that came by were sheep - how cute is this!

My mom was a little concerned with the "droppings" they left in the middle of the road b/c people didn't seem to care if they stepped in it. Little did she know that this sheep poop was nothing! You'll see what I mean in a second:).

About 10 minutes later we started to hear lots of cow bell and the parade began! How cool is this!

Now that looks like a heavy necklace!

Here is a video:





So after the parade of cows was over (at least we thought it was over) we saw most of the crowd turn around and run towards this water fountain in the center of town - so hey since we didn't know what was going on we all followed! Boy was this a good/bad thing:) The cows continued their parade through the little town of Mels and then once they get to the water fountain they all started drinking out of it. Hundreds of cows in this one little area! Then the massive chaos began!

The first couple of cows to reach the fountain!

Serious chaos! The herders couldn't keep the cows together! Nathan almost got trampled!

True love:) And yes that is what you think it is on the ground - eeewwwwww!

Smile!

People were just walking through the cow poop - seriously disgusting!

My mom tried to tip toe over to the cows so as to not step in the poop! However, you saw the picture above - I don't think that was possible!

We didn't know why they were letting all the cows stop at the fountain causing all the chaos, but we found out later that the water fountain is where the cows get transfered from the Alp herders to their "rightful" owners.

A "rightful" owner!)

We met a nice Swiss gentleman waiting for the bus home and he gave us the history and run down of the Alpabfahrt - so here it is (of course he could have been making it up and we wouldn't know the difference:)):


During the spring the cow farmers bring some of their cows to Mels and then the Alp herders/farmers come take them up into the alps (this is not a big production with the headdresses and everything). During this time the Alp herders keep the cows to make Alp cheese and stuff (we aren't 100% sure about the business relationship here so if anyone knows please tell us - Nathan was VERY concerned about the money aspect:)). Then when it starts to get cold (mid September) the Alp herder's bring the cows back down the mountain and there are big festivals and the cows get "dressed up". The cows and herders walk for about 5 hours out of the alps to reach the town of Mels. We were told that 5 different sets of cows would parade through the town - (I think it is b/c they were from 5 different alp communities?). Then when the cows get into town they parade through and then stop at the water fountain where the cow farmers come get their cows. That explains why we saw several people with only two or three cows leaving the town center - duh! Such a cute Swiss tradition - we loved it!


While we were waiting for the bus a farmer came by us with his two cows and I asked to take a picture since we didn't get a good one in town (too much chaos!). After they left we all started laughing b/c this is what the cows in the field across from us looked like as the farmer and his cows were walking by! Too funny!

I'm pretty sure they were thinking "Wow - isn't she beautiful with that flower tiara. I wonder what her number is":)

Anyway, such a cool experience! One of the coolest things we have done in Switzerland (it doesn't take much to impress us:))! I'm so glad my parents were here for it!
Mandy
Here are the rest of the pics!