Weihnachten

The snow has arrived in Zürich and that means it's time for the Christmas markets!

 This is 'fondue-to-go', cheese in a hot dog roll!

 The Christmas tree in the main station, decorated entirely with Swarovski crystal ornaments.

 Deliciousness is sliced apples, dipped in batter and smothered in sugar and vanilla sauce.

In and around Bahnhofstrasse...

It's been great fun enjoying the festivities of a 'real' Christmas here in Switzerland. Next stop though, a Summer Christmas in New Zealand!

The Alp decent

The weather here is cooling down now, and a couple of weeks ago it was time for the farmers to bring the cows down from their lush Summer pastures in the Alps. This journey of cows and farmers is celebrated with processions and festivals around Switzerland. The cows and farmers dress up and there are games, stalls, dancing and food.

So two weekends ago we went to one festival a couple of hours out of Zürich and enjoyed a lovely day in the countryside. The weather was beautiful, the food was beautiful and of course the cows were beautiful, so beautiful there was even a cow beauty contest!

We took an early train from Zürich and a couple of hours later arrived here.

 Since we now have a small person to consider, we decided to stop for lunch straight away. Lunch was a buffet of local meats, cheeses, breads and jams, and was served in a community hall, complete with entertainment of a traditionally dressed choir and band.

 

After lunch we wandered around the stalls that were selling all sorts of lovely things, sampled the cheeses, and bought a jar of one of the tasty jams that had been on offer at lunch.

 

This type of bell is given as a prize to the loveliest of cows but it wasn't all about the cows, the sheep had a good group representing them too, although I'm not sure how they felt about having their wool coats removed this time of year!

I rather liked this guy's hat, the other side of it had sheep on it.

After we had checked out the stalls we wandered through the village and back down to where the cows were.

 

 How cute are these girls?

 Apparently not as cute as this one...

 or this one.

After a lovely day out enjoying the sunshine, I can easily see why everyone escapes Zürich during the Winter weekends and heads to the mountains. I'm no skier but I do like blue sky and sunshine and am quite OK with heading out every now and then to get a good dose of vitamin D!

A busy September

September has been and gone already and I didn't manage to put up a post, however, I have an excuse...I was busy having a baby! Our little boy was born early on in the month and has been keeping me busy ever since.

Even though he was born here in Switzerland, he can only apply for citizenship after he has lived here for 12 years, so as soon as we receive his birth certificate we will register his birth in New Zealand and the U.S. We then need to apply for a passport for him as we are heading back to New Zealand for one month over Christmas and New Year (I promise to deliver on the photos this time!). I must admit I won't be sorry to miss a whole month of Winter but I'm also glad to be able to have time enough to soak up all the Christmas markets, in fact who am I kidding, I'm absolutely ecstatic about it!

Meanwhile, Fall is slowly making its way to Zürich and I have to admit that I love this time of year. I think it started in Japan when we got to see the Momiji in the beautiful temples and parks, and continued over to the States where the beautiful weather was accompanied by fun things like Halloween and Thanksgiving. I'm not sure what there is to see and do in Switzerland this time of year but we'll get to share it with our new family member, which will make it special enough. 

Japan 2008

Fall colours in Kyoto

U.S.A 2009

Preparing for Halloween in Atlanta with the buying of pumpkins and a visit to the Oakland Cemetery.

http://www.oaklandcemetery.com/capturingHalloween.html

 Switzerland 2010

These fields and forest are in our neighbourhood and make for a lovely walk on a nice Autumn day, and the beer garden at the half way mark makes for a nice resting point!

 

Verona

From Florence (see last blog) we took a morning train up to Verona, home of Romeo and Juliet, and a friend of ours whom we used to live with in Japan. We used www.apartmentsinverona.com website to find accommodation this time as there was nothing available on airbnb. We had a choice of two apartments and settled on this one as the other had too many stairs for me!

We were right in the heart of the old city, just 5 minutes away from the Arena. Once we were settled we decided to go and have a walk around while we waited for our friend. We came across Juliet and her balcony, and a million other tourists. Somehow I managed to get both these photos without anyone in them.

We decided to move on from here and leave the crowds to it. We continued wandering and came into a main square filled with stalls. We stopped for a delicious cup of fruit (for only 2 Euros!) and to take some photos.

Later, we met up with our friend and went to this lovely restaurant for dinner, which was recommended by both the apartment people and our friend. My husband had both horse and donkey (he especially liked the donkey) while I stuck with the veges and had a tasty eggplant & cheese stack.

The next day we had a little sleep in and decided to take it easy and visit the arena. The nice thing about the Verona Arena is that it is still used today, for less bloody shows, such as musicals. Unfortunately they were in the middle of changing shows while we were there but we decided it would definitely be worth our while coming back for one sometime. We still got to see some of the stage set up and it was quite fun just to wander around and to imagine the gladiators fighting it out long ago.

After the arena, we decided to take lunch directly across from it and soak up our surroundings. Pizza was on the cards and although we didn't need a pizza each, they were very tasty.

Once we had had all the pizza we could handle, we met up with our friend again and she took us up this hill to get a view of the city.

Even with some haze, it was a wonderful view.

Our friend then suggested we go to a nearby lake (Lake Garda) and I suggested that a gelato would be a great addition to that thought. With that settled, we headed off.

This English couple were clearly as impressed with the place as we were. What a wonderful location to get married!

The beginning of a very short thunder storm told us it was time to head back to Verona. Once back we took another lazy stroll around as the sun set and then headed off for some dinner.

Cute little treats in a bakery

The next morning unfortunately it was time to say goodbye to our friend and goodbye to Italy. We got on a (very) early train back to Zürich and made the not so long trip home. 

Goodbye for now Italia, we will definitely be back to see more of you!