Adventures mit Grossmami

Salut tout le monde,

Over the last two days an exciting social experiment took place. Picture me, speaking almost no german and Grossmami (Erika Frei, Dan's grandmother), speaking almost no english, in a train together making our way across Switzerland...

After successfully spending a day exploring Zurich together, we set off for Rorschach, circa 530am, to visit the world famous Sandskulpturen. These massive spectacles are made each year for an international competition on the banks of the 'Bodensee', a lake bordered by Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

On the banks of the Bodensee (Lake Constance)

Big foot

Back on the train, a short journey away is St Gallen (picture below borrowed from Google images). This beautiful wee swiss city is home to the magnificent 'Kathedral St Gallen' and immediately next door the 'Stiftsbibliothek' or abbey library, home to the most extensive medieval library in the world. If only they hadn't stopped teaching us latin, I would have been able to do more than admire the over 1000 year old medical texts...

St Gallen

Cathedral of St Gallen

Inside the cathedral

Abbey library

After a quick coffee, back on the train for a sojourn to Appenzellerland, home of Appenzeller cheese, Appenzeller beer and apparently, Appenzeller in-breds. It's hard to believe that in a land with such beautiful scenery consanguinity could be so common, but there you have it.

Appenzellerland

Der Zug (the train)

Appenzeller cheese

Grossmami and I enjoyed a lovely afternoon basking in the sun, drinking ice tea and eating biberli before jumping back on the train. 3 train changes and a bus ride later we found ourselves safely back in Glaubenstrasse just in time for tea.

Experiment = successful!

Lots of love,

Chloe und Grossmami

PS. It's important to note that Daniel is also an intergral part of this trip. However due to time constraints (ie. the fact he gets up at 0500 each morning to commute to Bern, and is then too tired to do more than eat dinner and fall asleep again when he arrives home), he has not yet managed to post an update of his experience at Inselspital. But he will.

Hallo aus der Schweiz!

Hallo alle,

We have arrived in Switzerland! Had a good trip over and arrived at 8.15am Sunday morning ready to go after a 10 hour Zopiclone induced sleep. Elspeth and Grosmami were at the airport to greet us and we then took a tram home to Elspeths place to drop off our things.

Elsbeth borrowed a car for the day and we took a trip to the Rheinfalls which were spectacular, as you can see...

We then visited a medieval fortress...

Wandered through the altstadt of Schaffhausen, and finally made our way to Kurt und Doris' house on the banks of the Rhein. After a lovely lunch the sun began to peek through the trees and we decided to take a swim down the Rhein.

By this time it was about 5pm and Dan began to do his 'need to get horizontal before I lose it' routine and so we said goodbye to Kurt und Doris (who are a lovely couple) and drove home.

Daniel leaves for Bern at 5.30 each morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Unfortunately the cold Wellington Weather has followed us to Zurich and so Elspeth and I have spent our days bundled up, enjoying the efficient public transport system as we explore Zurich city.

All in all a great first impression of Switzerland.

Ciao ciao,

Chloë xx