Not as bad as it sounds. On one hand...the party IS over. I just started an intensive Deutsch Kurs (German course) on Monday - five days a week, 3 1/2 hours a day, for 4 weeks. But once I'm done with that, I figure "Switzerland will be my oyster"...walking the walk...talking the talk...step aside, Heidi!
Anyway, this post is really supposed to be a summary of all of the things I didn't cover way back at the end of 2012. The trip to India/Istanbul really put me behind...and then a little thing called "Christmas" put me behind even farther. I just wanted to capture a few of those memories before I get too far into 2013 to even remember!
1. Zwiebelmärit
The morning after we returned from Istanbul was the annual Zwiebelmärit festival in Bern. Although I was a little tired of traveling, far be if for me to miss an annual Swiss festival, so off I went to the HB for the 9 am train to Bern! The festival is all about onions, with a little garlic and confetti thrown in. There is a market with booths selling onions of all shapes and configurations. I believe the point of the festival is to stock up on your onions (and garlic) before the beginning of winter. Unfortunately it was a terribly rainy day in Bern (surprise!) and kind of difficult to see the booths through all of the umbrellas. Now about the confetti...for some reason colored confetti is part of the festival. They sell it by the bag and the school children run around throwing it at people or shooting it out of plastic confetti-shooting guns - that is when they aren't hitting people with the plastic hammers that they also sell there. What does any of this have to do with onions? Your guess is as good as mine! Once we had our fill of adorably decorated onions we slipped into a nearby restaurant and were fortunate to nab a table where we suffered through a few extra gluhweins until the weather improved.
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| Onion "hangings" for sale |
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| Little onion-head hockey players! |
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| An onion clock - Swiss-made, of course! |
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| The afore-mentioned confetti throwing, hammer bopping types... |
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| More confetti throwers...doesn't mix well with rain! |
2. Christmas Market in Colmar
Following week it was off to Colmar, France for a traditional Christmas market! The markets in Zürich aren't that great - the biggest one is in the Haupbahnhof (main train station) - not exactly the definition of quaint. Colmar is in the Alsace region of France (near the Swiss and German border) and has much better setting for a Christmas market! The American Women's Club organized a bus trip for the 1 1/2 hour drive there. The first booth we went to sold a variety of items imported from Asia. The guy running the booth was not pleased when I exclaimed to my friends, "Hey, I bought these in China!" about some beautiful lacquer ornaments. He took it as an insult..."NOTHING in this booth is from China!" I spent the next five minutes trying to explain that maybe I was mistaken and bought them in Vietnam, or Thailand, or one of the other Asian countries he DOES sell items from...wasn't going to work. Oh well...onward to some other booths!
It turned out to be a pretty nice day - got some great Christmas gifts, had a traditional Alsace style lunch, avoided additional confrontations with vendors, escaped the majority of the rain, and of course, had a gluhwein or two :)
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| Lunch! |
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| Beautiful setting - even in the rain! |
3. Klausjagen Parade in Küssnacht am Rigi
One more nighttime, candlelit parade to check off the list! Rather than try to explain it myself - here is an explanation from the Lucerne tourism website...
The Klausjagen in Küssnacht am Rigi is one of the most imposing St. Nicholas customs in Europe. The procession with around 200 Iffele (illuminated ornaments), followed by St. Nicholas and archaic noise from over 1,000 chasers is watched every year by up to 20,000 spectators.
On the evening before St. Nicholas' Day, at eight o'clock, over a thousand chasers gather in the village by Lake Lucerne. Each wears a white herdsman's shirt. At 20.15, a small cannon is fired and the street lights go out all over Küssnacht. The "Geislechlepfer" crack their whips and lead the procession. Behind them dance the Iffele carriers quietly. The Iffele are made of card and tissue paper and look like church windows. The builders can give their creativity almost free rein with the motifs and colours, and the size can also vary from half a metre to over two metres. The traditional images are the figure of St. Nicholas on the front side and a cross on the back and the letters JHS as another Christian symbol. Rosettes, ribbons and garlands complete the picture.
The streets echo with the ringing of heavy bells, carried by hand by strong men, the sound of horns and above all by strange triad rhythms of the brass music, to which the words "Mänz, Mänz, Mänz, Bodefridimänz" are sung. In the twenties, Clemenz (Mänz) Ulrich tried in vain to turn the custom of his times, which consisted of a wild chase after St. Nicholas by the village's young people, into something more civilised. Success was only achieved, however, by those who came after him, who in 1928 founded a society for the fostering and preservation of the Nicholas Chase. In its earlier and also present form, the custom gives signs of pagan origins, which are only just disguised by the inclusion of the holy St. Nicholas in the form of a bishop.
So, there you have it...Klausjagen in a nutshell. We originally assumed that it was in Küsnacht in suburban Zürich (aka home of Tina Turner!)...but then came to find out it was actually in Küssnacht am Rigi - an hour train ride to Lucerne and another half hour bus ride...but, Klausjagen only comes once a year! Although it was quite cold, and we were actually a block away from the perfect parade-watching position, and we didn't stay long enough for the parade to actually pass us by, what we saw was still amazing. Will I go again for a better view??? Stay tuned!!
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| "Strong men" with bells in a pre-parade performance |
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| One of the "Geislechlepfer" practicing...stay back!!! |
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| One of the hundreds of Iffele. |
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| Having fun despite the cold! |
4. Christmas Party
Although not a Swiss festival, this could become an annual event. Steve decided we needed to have a holiday party for all of the people at work in our apartment. Why not, we've done it before at our house in New Jersey? Of course there we already have Christmas decorations...a big refrigerator and freezer...lots of garbage cans that don't require Zürisacks...and stores that stay open 'til all hours of the night for those last minute items - and that actually sell vanilla and brown sugar!!! Yikes! What have we gotten ourselves into?? Although the guest list included 75 people - plus guests (!) - only about 50 people in total were able to come. We booked a terrific American caterer who provided some of the food, while I did a few of my standards (as well as some new ones) and the desserts. Although we ran out of beer and it was too snowy to hang out on the rooftop, the party seemed to be a success. I "buttered" all of our neighbors up with a "sorry for the inconvenience" notes and tins of Christmas cookies in anticipation of the noise. Although many of the guests stayed past the traditional 10 pm party cut-off time...(some even past midnight!)...the police weren't called. A successful party indeed!
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| Traditional sugar cookies |
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When in Switzerland, got to add the "mushroom" cookie cutter
to your collection! |
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| Pile of shoes outside the door |
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| Some of the empties off to the recycling station on Saturday morning! |
5. Make New Friends, but Keep the Old!
No need to get into the details of our Christmas holidays back in the USA, but just a little about some of the fun we had with people we don't see very often! Of course we spent time with our kids, relatives, and some of our friends in Summit. We also managed to squeeze in a quick Starbucks coffee in Appleton with Bill and Sheila, an always fun dinner in Brookfield with the Bahrs and Schroeders, and I even had lunch in NYC with one of my college housemates, Terri, who I haven't seen since her wedding 17 years ago. Add another "work" dinner with PwC Milwaukee partners Scheid and VanDrisse (and their wives, of course...and KathieAnn from NJ!) and last weekend's trip to Paris to meet up with the Bushnells - our good friends from Tokyo that we haven't seen since they left TEN years ago! Can it really be that long already??
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| Dinner with Bahrs and Schroeders in Wisconsin. |
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| Lunch with Terri in NYC. |
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| Dinner with Bushnells in Paris! |
6. Back to Switzerland...
Last week a group of us made a day trip to Engelberg to go snowshoeing and for fondue in an igloo! Once we got to Engelberg and Mt. Titlis, we decided just to hike - snowshoes weren't really necessary. The area we were in was at about 1800 meters - the top of Mt. Titlis is about 3000, so a little over half way. We decided the altitude clearly must have been the reason we were huffing and puffing in parts of the hike. But, no matter - we would get to the IgluDorf and have our fondue and gluhwein - it would all be worth it! Much to our surprise, the IgluDorf wasn't open. Seems the weather wasn't good enough...and it was a weekday...etc, etc. Fortunately the guys let us in to take a quick self-guided tour. Quite the place - you can just have a quick drink or fondue...or stay overnight in one of the rooms! Tough to regulate the temperature in those rooms!!
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| Stunning! |
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| The IgluDorf "dining" room |
If you are still reading - don't worry, it's over! I think I can safely turn the calendar over and feel like I've captured 2012 (and early 2013) for all posterity.
