Globitrotter – has moved to a foreign country

New sport

At New Years we bought, with much ambition, snow shoes. The weather was going to be good and we wanted to get out in the mountains. Since I am not very fond of skiing (Yes, it might be annoying for some that I live very close to good ski resorts and do not take advantage of that…) I thought snow shoeing must be the perfect alternative. This way the hiking season does not really have to end and I get to enjoy the mountains in the winter as well. What a bliss! Anyway, last Sunday, two and a half months later, we finally got out to try those snow shoes. So much for that ambition..

We caught the train, bus and cable car and within an hour or so we arrived in Melchsee-Frutt. This is a small ski resort at an elevation of 1920 meters. Not very well known it seems except among the locals. I like it though, easy to reach from Lucerne, it has good hiking, climbing, mountain biking and more in the summer and skiing in the winter.

This day was very warm. The weather started out cloudy but cleared after lunch. When the sun was shining and we were hiking uphill it was hot enough to walk in t-shirt. Andy actually sun burned his arms! The loop we did was around 8-9 km and 500 meters elevation. A nice tour that took us about 2.5 hours.

It was such a nice day and I was walking with a big smile on my face. A bonus was that it was still sunny and warm for a barbecue on the terrace when we got back. 🙂

My suspicion that this would be the winter sport for me was correct. I loved it and this was not the last tour.

On a foggy day in the Alps

What to do on a Sunday when the weather looks like this in Lucerne?

One option is of course to stay in town, drink coffee and accept the foggy weather. Another option is to check the webcams on a mountain, like Pilatus. If you’re lucky the clouds are low, which is often the case in the winter, and you can escape to the sunshine above 1500 meters or so. If you do, this is what it might look like.

Once up there you can walk up to a peak next to the cable car station to get a 360 view of the world above the clouds. Then you can relax in a sun chair for a while and have a piece of warm Apfelstrudel with vanilla sauce before heading back down into the fog.

And that is a great start of the day! 🙂

Merry Christmas!

Dear friends,

We would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We hope you had a good year and that 2014 will be even better. Our
year started with adventures in New Zealand and Australia and ended
with building a new life in Lucerne, Switzerland. It has been quite a
trip and we have enjoyed every step of the way. 🙂

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones,
Angela and Andy

Advent

Lucerne is a beautiful city at Christmas time with lots of lights, decoration and Christmas markets to drink Glühwein at. One of the larger clothing store presented this very cool Advent calendar. I do like the time before Christmas very much, actually more than Christmas itself.

Chocolate!

I do live in one of the biggest chocolate countries in the world. So last week when I was fortunate enough to be invited to join Andy’s company for an event at Lindt & Sprüngli my introduction to Switzerland was complete. I bet most of you know the Lindt chocolate, you can buy it all over the world. We bought it occasionally during our stay in America and on the trip and our favorite is the chili flavored one.

At the factory in Kilchberg, outside of Zürich, they have a show room which is equipped with marble benches and large pots to keep the chocolate at the right temperature for further refinement. Our group of almost 30 got dressed in baking shirts, apron and hats. The show room was Christmas decorated with Disney perfect trees and golden Lindt chocolate bears.

The chocolatier started to tell us a bit about the company and chocolate but pretty soon we got into the important part of the evening, making chocolates. 🙂

We were shown how to fill champagne ganache in chocolate shells which were later sealed and decorated with powder sugar. We made 28 each and they have to be eaten within a week or so. What a pity! We then got 10 basic chocolates that we could decorate in what ever way we wanted. The chocolatier showed us some tricks and for our creations we could use gold flakes, caramelized nuts and more.

In addition to working with chocolate there were Lindt & Sprüngli chocolate available for us to eat as much as we wanted from. It did not take long until I did not feel like having any more. Such a shame!

A few hours later we went home with our handmade chocolates, slightly sick after having had way too much chocolate but with a big smile on our faces. 🙂

The weekend disappointment

Usually in the beginning of the week I start thinking about what I want to do on the weekend. Of course in my mind we do great things outdoors in the perfect weather. Picture the intro to Sound of Music and you get the feeling. In the middle of the week I look at the weather forecast which of course decides what kind of activity is possible at all. Way too many weeks this autumn it has been looking like this:

And so also this weekend. Bummer. Here goes my hiking trail discovery plans out the window and shopping and “fika” plans becomes reality. On the agenda this weekend is shopping (in desperate need of shoes and new glasses), dinner with friends and Sunday Afternoon Tea at Hotel Palace also with friends. Not too bad after all. 🙂 Just have to remember to bring the umbrella.

Enjoy your weekend!