Just a little off the top please...

Haircuts, like everything else in Switzerland, are really expensive. But we finally found someone with reasonable rates:

Mt. Rigi hiking & wurst roast

Finally some nice weather last weekend! We eagerly headed out on Sunday to get back in the mountains & do some hiking. We picked a trail on Mt. Rigi which overlooks Lake Lucerne. First up a little "farmers" gondola where you just hop on & then ring them from inside the gondola to start it up. The view was spectacular at the top!

We hiked for about an hour & then stopped for lunch - wurst, of course! In Switzerland, you can build a fire ANYWHERE to grill your wurst: parks, trails, side of road, etc. This has taken us some getting used to compared to CA where you need a fire permit, designated firepit, etc. Anyways, we picked a beautiful spot & Lukas had fun helping find rocks to make a fire ring and wood for the fire. Plain wurst & bread tastes so good when eating it while enjoying the sun, fresh air & gorgeous view.

Building the fire

Grilling our wurst

Yum!

After refueling we hiked for another 2 hours, had an icecream break at an Alpenhütte and then took a cogwheel train back down to our starting point. Perfect Sunday outing -----we'll really miss Switzerland.

Slacker parents

Lukas is nearly 3.5 years old & is still wearing diapers. I am about 90% responsible for this since I have never pushed the whole potty training thing. The thought of having to constantly and urgently find a public toilet every time while we're travelling has pushed potty training pretty low on my priorities. Plus, we can only do laundry once a week on our "scheduled" laundry day in our apartment building. Diapers are so much easier.

I thought that I would finally put some effort into this a few weeks ago and bought some Thomas the Train underwear. When I showed them to Lukas he was very excited.... until I suggested he try them on. No way. I thought all kids were suppose to be excited about big-boy underwear?! And Thomas the Train too!

While on a trip to Prague last week (post to follow soon) I told Lukas that when we got back to Zurich he was going to need to start wearing underwear. Fast forward a few days. We are at the Zurich airport collecting our bags when Lukas starts crying quite hard. We thought that he was just tired. But as we listened through his sobs we heard...."don't want to wear underwear!"

So we've put the effort on the back burner again. Grootmoe just sent us an Elmo "potty time" DVD - we'll give it a try soon.

Don't worry - this will be the only post on this topic. No updates or details to follow.

It's a Böögg!

We just finished celebrating one of Zurich's most popular festivals - Sechseläuten. The name Sechseläuten means ringing of the six'o clock bell. Dating back to the 14th century, the church bells were used to announce the working hours. In winter, with dusk coming early, the craftsmen had to stop working at 5 p.m., in summer they used to work until 6 p.m. So, Sechseläuten festivities basically celebrate the spring equinox. The festival starts with a children's parade with all of the kids dressed in historical customs. This is one of Lukas' favorite parades since all of the kids throw candy and there are tons of horses in the parade too.

The next day is the guild parade (only men in historical costumes & lots of bands) - kind of boring in my opinion. BUT... the parade ends at a square on the shore of Lake Zurich where the Böögg, or giant snowman, is placed. The Böögg is made of wood & cotton and stuffed with explosives- yes - explosives. At precisely 6p.m. he is lit on fire - the sooner his head blows off - the sooner that the long-awaited springtime should arrive. Kind of the Swiss version of Groundhog's Day. This year it took over 26 minutes for his head to blow off....pretty long compared to other years.....ugh...more winter.