Sorry for the lack of blog posts this past week…but our
first set of visitors kept me quite busy!
Connor and friends Dan, Doug and Greg arrived early afternoon on Sunday,
April 1, and the fun began…no fooling!
Despite my instructions to sleep on the plane, the lure of free movies
was too much for most of them to pass up and not much sleeping took place…except by Doug whose tv screen wasn’t
working! Nevertheless, they powered
through after a brief afternoon nap to come out with us to Zürich’s famous beer
hall, Zeughauskeller, for a hearty dinner of sausages, veal Zurich,
pay-by-the-roll breadbasket and of course, the first of many beers.
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| They're here! |
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| Chilling in the living room. |
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| Enjoying refreshments at Zeughauskeller. |
Unfortunately the weather forecast for the week was not so
good. Sunday and Monday were
forecast to be sunny, but predictions for Tuesday through Thursday were lots of
rain…not so good for touring around.
As some of the guys wanted to try out the Alps, we decided to make the
trip to the mountains on Monday while the weather was still good. They thought they wanted to go to
Interlaken, but getting up at 11 am doesn’t work too well for a 2 hour train
ride if you still want to ski before the day is over. Instead, our landlady suggested that we try out Engelberg
with its many ski areas nearby.
After a one hour train ride to Luzern, we hopped on another half hour
train to Engelberg and then set upon a series of gondolas, cable cars and the
infamous 360 degree Titlis Rotair to the top of Mt. Titlis at 10,000 ft.! Originally Greg and Doug were the ones
who intended on tackling the slopes while Dan and Connor would keep me company
in the lodge or whatever. As we
came upon the rugged snowy Alps, Doug began to realize that his one time skiing
at Tyrol Basin in flat-as-a-board Wisconsin might not quite be enough in the
way of experience. This is Switzerland,
after all – not “Little Switzerland”!
So Doug and Dan switched places and Dan and Greg, “coasties” that they
are, went on to tackle the slopes.
Although they only got to ski/board for about 2 hours before everything
closed at 6, they said it was worth every franc…and much harder in spots than
they ever imagined! Meanwhile
Connor, Doug and I enjoyed a relaxing little snack and beer in the restaurant
at the top before heading down on the “Rotair” with every Chinese tourist in
Switzerland….lucky we EVER got close to the windows!
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| Greg and Dan ready to roll. |
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| We're certainly not in Wisconsin anymore... |
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| On the gondola ride up to the top. |
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| Restaurant at the top. |
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| The sign proves it...at 10,000 feet! |
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| Dan makes it down to the "finish" |
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| Greg is the snowboarder approaching the end. |
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| Final shot from the gondola down. |
Being spring break…and in Europe…the boys were not going to
pass up the chance to go clubbing.
Every night they set out (about the same time Steve went to bed) to
check out the clubs looking for fun.
The first night was pretty much a bust – 15 franc drinks and no one out,
but the waitress gave them a list of places to go the following nights that
might be more their style. That
seemed to work out well as they stayed out till all hours enjoying Zurich’s
nightlife – it will be a few years before they are able to do that in the
states...the drinking age here is 16!
A long walk home each night (30 minutes or so), but they seemed to find
some fun and even made it onto the “.ch” network (photographer posting on the
internet from a night at Kaufleuten, one of their first stops) Despite some very late nights for dear
old mom (who refuses to go to bed until they are safely home), a good time was
had by all…what happens in Zürich stays in Zürich!
Unfortunately I have no photos to share of their night time activities! :)
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