Schnee, Schnee and more Schnee!

I'm not gonna lie, I totally dig the snow.  Annnd it's really pretty on the fall trees!

A few "before" photos taken on Sat morning and a few "after" photos taken on Sunday:

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

 Sophie likes the snow!

checking out the view

dodging the snowball Andre threw at her

 And a few pretty shots of our neighborhood walk this afternoon:

Today we went on our train ride.  We had a nice English breakfast while riding around the country in an old train that's been refurbished.  We brought the average age of the attendees on the train down by at least 20 years.  :)  The train is called the "Churchhill".  It was built in 1939 and was used to transport Mr. Winston Churchhill himself around Switzerland.  It was a nice ride and we sat next to a Swiss couple who we enjoyed talking to and getting good insider information about the Christmas markets!  A few shots from the train ride:

the "Churchhill" - photo borrowed from the sbb website

I'm ready!

and so is Andre!

they let us come up front and hang out with the conductor!

uhhhh - shouldn't his hands be on the wheel?

That's it from Switzerland.  Unfortunately for us, even with the snow, we'll still be going to work tomorrow.  Dang.

so much for the Swiss fall.....

Swiss Fall!

Given that on Monday, the high temperature was 46F, we thought that we should take full advantage of the gorgeous weather this weekend.  Who knows when winter will hit permanently around here??

We walked ("hiked") from Uetilberg over to Felsenberg on a trail called the Panorama Trail.  It was beautiful.  A few shots:

So glad the leaves change colors here!

one minute, you are in the woods . . .

and the next, you are walking by some cows.

Sophie doing her best interpretation of a cow

A Swiss farm on top of the mountain

Old graveyard & wild looking tree

Yay for fall!

Sophie & Andre

Next week, we are going on a breakfast train ride for our anniversary!

United States, Spiders and Guests, Oh My!

United States

It's been a week since we returned from our trip home and I think we have, maybe, just maybe recovered!  Our trip home was great.  We didn't get to see everybody but we did get to see lots of people which we enjoyed!

To summarize:

Things we missed about the US
1.  Family and Friends (awwwww - aren't we sweet)
2.  FOOD!  Mexican food, home cooked food, gluten free pizza, etc
3.  Cheap stuff

Things we did not miss about the US
1.  People who touch our dog.  She bites, people, she bites.
2.  The Humidity - ew, ew and ew
3.  Stores being open on Sunday - It took us a while to adjust to the stores being closed on Sunday here but now we love it!  Sunday = Funday in Switzerland!

Spiders

In other news, here is a recreation of a conversation between us today:

Andre:  Hey, by the way, there was a HUGE HUGE spider in the guest room this morning.
Melanie:  Ew.  Did you kill it?
Andre:  No.
Melanie: What?!?!  Why not!??!!
Andre:  It was so big it could have carried Sophie away.
Melanie:  So I have a giant spider just walking around my apartment right now.
Andre:  Yup.
Melanie:  Sigh.

On the bright side, Andre got industrious this evening and vacuumed the sucker up!  Apparently, our friend crawled up the wall during the day and was at eye level and bigger (riiight) when Andre got home.  My first question was:  What if he crawls out?!  Andre's response:  Go look at the vacuum.

Works for me!

Guests

We have guests coming in January!  Hooray!  Who else is coming to visit!?

Bellinzona - Castles, Castles & More Castles!

Last weekend, we checked the forecast and saw that rain covered 75% of Switzerland so we abandoned our original plan and headed to Bellinzona instead!  Our friend Rachel is working in Basel for a couple of months so she joined us for our day adventure.

There are three castles in Bellinzona.  According to Wikipedia, the site of the Castelgrande has been fortified since at least the 1st century BC.  The current visible parts of the castle dates from 1250 - 1500.

We really enjoyed the castles.  We were able to walk around, check things out and have some drinks overlooking the city below.  Two thumbs up!

Castelgrande:

the view from Castle Montebello

that would be Andre & Sophie napping (bottom center) while Rachel and I climbed the tower

Montebello

Montebello in the foreground and Sasso Corbaro in the very back

Sophie likes castles!

Other Pictures:

Bellinzona - Sept 22 2012

Sunflowers!

I think after our first 8 months, the excitement level has died down a bit.  Here are the exciting things going on in our lives over the last few weeks:

1.  Yesterday, Andre and I spent more money at the Lindt Factory store buying chocolate for our trip home than we spent at the grocery store for food for the next two weeks.  :)

2.  I was helpful this week!  I've been stopped a few times by people asking for directions and have never been able to assist before.  It's always nice to be stopped though because at least that means I at least look sort of like I belong and not like a total tourist.  But anyway, this week, someone asked me for directions (in English) and I was actually able to help!  Wooooo!

3.  I paid off my student loans.  Wooooox2!

4.  As we were walking Sophie yesterday, we passed a field of sunflowers where you could cut your own.  Today I bought a vase and Sophie and I walked back down to cut our own flowers.  Fun fun!

That's all folks.  America watch out - we invade Sept 29 - Oct 9!

Catching Up #3 - Weltklasse and Wiener Schnitzel!

Who knew Zurich was a top spot for track & field events?!  Apparently, Zurich is one of 14 of the best invitational track and field meetings in the world and is part of the Samsung Diamond League.

As luck would have it, we had a team outing and I got to go this year!  A bunch of the big names from the Olympics were there:  Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, David Rudisha, Sonya Richards-Ross, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, etc.

The weather was crap but the Letzigrund has an overhang so we stayed nice and dry.

Pics from the event:

Tyson Gay

Usain & Kuhli
It cracks me up that the Swiss mascot is a cow.

I saw lots of US flags there!

Jesse Williams doing a little high jump. 

Usain won!

I think this is the men's 100m relay.  The US won!

They handed out little flashlights when we entered.
At the end, they cut the lights and everyone turned on the flashlights.

And of course, the best part of the week - I found a restaurant that serves gluten free food!  I had my first weiner schnitzel finally.  It was delicious!

Yum!

That's it from us this weekend.  Have a great week!