Family Visits: Mom & Dad

My parents came to visit during the second half of May. They went for two weeks to Crete before their stay in Zurich, so they came to us bearing a duffel bag full of Greek cheeses, olive oil, olives and other delectable food as well as a birthday dress and sandals for Ella. They are now sadly back in Colorado, which means we’re nearly running out of feta and they need to return soon to remedy that situation. Here are some highlights (when I remembered to take a photo) of their stay:

Ella had a blast playing with both my mom and dad, but she especially found my dad’s antics (a stream of wild noises and clapping) fascinating.

The weather was gray and rainy for most of the time, but we still managed to walk all over Old Zurich.

We took the gondola up from Adliswil to Felsenegg and had lunch on the terrace. The food was “eh,” but the view was great, and we even got some sun.

Mom and Ella watching the kids playing on the playground up at Felsenegg.

Mom and Ella practicing walking.

My mom made strawberry shortcake, and Ella found her new favorite dessert.

We took the train around Zurich a lot, and one day we took the train over to a neighboring small town called Zug.

In Zug, Ella practiced her stair-climbing skills on the stairs up to one of the Zug churches.

Many other good times are not pictured here. It was a great visit altogether: great food, lots of walking, lots of relaxed time together, and great to see Ella hanging out with her grandparents. Thanks so much mom and dad for coming!

Family Visits: Carol & Paul

We have been looking forward to spring all winter, and not only because of the weather—several family members are coming to visit! The first family members we saw on European soil are Carol and Paul (Mike’s mom and her partner). Before we had even decided to come live in Switzerland, they had booked a Viking River Cruise on the Seine (in France) for this April, so once they found out that we would be moving here they added some time onto their trip. Since their cruise ended in Paris, we decided to use this opportunity (twist our arms) to visit that famous French city and meet them there for a few days.

Paris, Not Pictured Here

Sadly, our camera now resides in Paris (we think we left it in the back of a cab) along with our pictures of Paris. So, here are the highlights of our trip in narrative form:

We traveled to Paris by train (it takes about 4 hours) and enjoyed the luxury of arriving at the train station 10 minutes before our train left (instead of the necessary 2 hours before at the airport) and not having to go through airport security. So fabulous. Sadly the train ride was not the relaxing scenery watching we remember from our lives of yesteryear. For some reason 10-month-old babies do not like looking at scenery. We spent the four hours sitting on the edge of our seats while Ella crawled on our laps, stood on our knees, and wiggled out of our arms. At least we could get up and walk around—the mirror in the baby-changing room was a hit.

Once we got to Paris, much eating, wandering, and attempting to not let Ella break anything in our rented apartment ensued. We spent most mornings at the apartment having a slow breakfast and letting Ella take a morning nap before we headed out for lunch and sightseeing. Since we were only in Paris for a few days, we really didn’t even try to see all of the big attractions. We all went strolling through the Jewish quarter and down some nice shopping streets, ate great Thai, French and Israeli food. Mike, Ella and I took some long walks past Notre Dame, the Luxembourg Gardens, Jardin des Plantes, the Louvre, and along the river; and we went on the Paris Sewer tour (a pretty cool short self-guided tour underground about the history of Parisian sewers). Mike and I also got to go see the Eiffel Tower at night leaving Ella at the apartment with Carol and Paul. Paul and I also visited the Musee d’Orsay to take in some Impressionist paintings and walked around some more. It was a fun little taste of Paris.

Around Zurich

After our Paris adventure, Carol and Paul came to Zurich to see where we live. The weather was a bit gray and rainy, but we did get a chance to get out a bit, and we bought a new camera!

Here are three generations on Bahnhofstrasse (one of the main shopping streets in Zurich). We went for lunch at Jelmoli, a big fancy department store with a restaurant, and then strolled down the street to the Laderach Chocolate shop.

On the last day Carol and Paul were here, we took a drive up into the mountains about an hour out of Zurich. Of course, we stopped at a cafe for drinks and cake (it is the Swiss way)!

Sorry that the pictures are a little bit sparse! Hopefully I’ll do a little better with the next visitors (although, lost camera aside, we often seem to forget to take pictures).

Not pictured here:

A trip to the Zurich Zoo, eating much Swiss food (to not very rave reviews), a nice afternoon/evening at our house watching Ella practice walking.

All in all a fun visit! It was great to see Carol and Paul and show them a little bit of our lives here! Thanks so much for coming!