Engadine Valley

Little town of Guarda as viewed from one of our hikes

We finally made it to the Engadine Valley for a weekend of hiking. It has been on our "list", but we've always pushed it off since it is in the farthest eastern part of Switzerland. We headed out on Friday & it took 2 hours, 14 min. to get there. Hmmmm... not so far afterall. The 2 hour trip also included a section where we drove our car onto a train ferry so that we could cut through a mountain instead of enduring pukey curving roads over it. Lukas thought that was pretty cool.

We stayed in Guarda which was one of the most charming towns we've seen in Switzerland. It is perched on the edge of the mountain with beautiful views of the valley. Most of the houses are decorated with "sgraffito" - kind of etchings in the stucco and colorful painting. It only takes about 5 minutes to walk from one end of the town to the other with numerous pretty fountains along the way, and the town is mostly car-free.

On Friday we hiked the Ursli trail (or as Lukas called it: the "wurstli" trail - he really is becoming Swiss ;-) The trail has signposts along the way that tell the story of a little boy, Ursli, and a bell festival in his town. At each signpost there are games for the kids: play a song on bells, look for hidden Urslis, find the correct key to open a lock, etc. Lukas really got into the story & enjoyed the hike - good thing because it was over a 4 hour hike! Different hiking than other areas of CH - no dramatic peaks, but beautiful meadows, lots of trees and creeks & more wildflowers than I've ever seen on any other hike.

On Saturday we planned to stop at the little tourist office to get some recommendations for another hike. Closed. Of course, what were we thinking? It was only a Saturday in the peak vacation season! Aargh! So we had to pick a trail on our own. It turned out OK, but nothing spectacular. However, we did see one spectacular sight: We had stopped on a little plateau to eat our lunch. We heard a helicoptor flying over the mountains and heading our way and then noticed that it was carrying something on a long line. Rob says "it's a cow!". Yeah, right. But sure enough, seconds later there was a live cow in a sling flying over our heads. Of course that fueled Lukas' question barrage for the rest of the hike. "why was the cow flying?" Where is the cow going?" "Is the cow scared?" , etc. etc. Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of this.

On Sunday we headed to the mineral baths in the nearby town of Scuol. It was fun, but by this time Lukas was pretty wiped out so we kept it pretty short. All in all, a really nice weekend.

Lukas' favorite YouTube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP-n3E43M3Y


Dinosaurs and "toots" .... it doesn't get any better for him....

Dragons and St. Beatus

On the recommendation of our good family friends, Jim & Clare, we booked a weekend at a hostel on Lake Thun. The hostel is right on the lake, and we planned to make it a nice relaxing beach weekend. Of course, the best laid plans......

The weekend forecast called for 70% chance of rain on Saturday and 80% chance of HEAVY rain on Sunday. Unfortunately, the forecast was completely accurate - so much for lounging on the beach! But we outfitted ourselves in our rain parkas and ended up having a great weekend anyways.

On Saturday, we hiked in the misty rain on the Beatusweg adventure trail. The short trail has signposts along the way that tell the story of St. Beatus and how he slayed a dragon and saved the villagers (and also converted them to Christianity - thereby "saving" them twice.). To accompany the story, the trail has a castle, boat, dragon footprints, etc. along the way for the kids to play on. Lukas LOVED the story and has since been talking about dragons and St. Beatus nonstop. It was actually kind of cool that it was such a foggy & dark day - it made the trail even more mysterious & eerie.


Ship that Beatus sailed on.


We definitely missed the views on this hike, but we kind of liked the fog.


Lukas & his slug collection at the start of the hike.

The next day it was POURING out so we decided to explore the St. Beatus caves where it obviously wouldn't matter if it was raining. Plus, Lukas was very excited to see the cave where St. Beatus slayed the dragon. The cave was huge - we took a one hour tour that took us 1 km into the mountain. Lots of stalagtites, stalagmites & underground rivers. Of course at one point in the tour there was a huge dragon in a cavern. The guide warned us that they were going to tell the story, turn out ALL the lights - it would get pitch black - and then the dragon would light up like fire. We warned Lukas. A few minutes into the story, Lukas proudly proclaims "I'm not scared." Seconds later the lights go out & Lukas is shrieking ;-)

The cave tour also included a little dragon museum and dragon playground so Lukas is now into fullblown dragon mode. At home all of his knights are now St. Beatus and all of his dinosaurs are dragons.


RAINY, RAINY play in a dragon's mouth

The hostel was fun - kind of like a summer camp: set your own table, strip your bed linens, board games in the dining room after dinner, quiet time after 10p.m., etc. It was a great casual kid-friendly atmosphere. We also lucked out & got the best room in the house with a balcony overlooking the lake. The rain cleared for a few hours at night so we did get a sunset:


Thanks Jim & Clare for the recommendation!

Seeüberquerung

The daily chocolate bars have definitely taken a toll on my shape, so now that the weather is nice I'm making an effort to run & swim more. Last week Zürich held the Seeüberquerung which is a 1.45km swim across Lake Zürich with safety kayaks and police boats along the way to control boat traffic. I had wanted to do this last year, but the water temperature never reached the minimum 21 degrees since we had such a poopy summer. Rob took a 1/2 day off work so that he & Lukas could be my cheering section at the finish. At first I was kind of nervous, but at the start I realized that a lot of people weren't even wearing googles. I quickly switched from being nervous to being annoyed at all of the slowpokes in my way! Apparently, it is much more of a fun swim with people just casually swimming along in groups & talking along the way. But it was a gorgeous sunny day & the water temp was perfect. It is funny that even at something like this, there are still cultural differences. At the finish, after exiting the water there were booths with drink & food for the swimmers. I grabbed what looked like a gatorade - but then scalded my tongue on what was hot tea instead! Hmmmm? It was over 80 degrees outside! The food turned out to be a big bowl of risotto - no bananas or power bars here. Lukas was excited to see me at the finish - just one of 5000 orange caps.

Can you spot me in the crowd?

A peek ahead into the teenage years....

We were lucky. We experienced Fête de la Musique when we were in Beaune on June 21. Then, the next weekend our Zurich neighborhood put on its own Fête de la Musique. It was very small - they closed down just 2 or 3 blocks - but they had live bands playing from 5p.m. until 2a.m. It was a wonderful small event. We got to share a drink & talk with friends while Lukas cruised around with his best friend on their bikes. The first few bands were pretty mellow, but then a hard rock bank took the stage. I thought for sure that Lukas would flee from the music since he's afraid of loud sounds (he actually used to run & hide from a "talking" snoopy greeting card that my sister sent to him.) To our surprise, he LOVED the hard rock & acted like a groupie right next to the stage for the entire set.....Is this what his teenage years will be like?

(Sorry for the bad video quality - for some reason the camera kept going in & out of focus - but I think you can get the idea from it anyways.)