Zurich, Switzerland - The title of this blog is both literal and figurative. The pandemic has been on a bit of a tear here in Europe. It seems many European countries, Switzerland included, got a little lax over the summer thinking the pandemic was behind them. The Swiss reopened bars, nightclubs, and even some large-scale events. The results were predictably not good, with cases spiking rather drastically in October and November. Tragically and also hilariously, a Swiss yodeling competition that attracted ~600 people was one of several superspreader events this fall. While case counts have settled down a bit recently, they are still about four times higher than they were at their previous peak in March.
Indeed, the Swiss seem rather more cavalier with coronavirus than what I understand is happening in the US. Restaurants are routinely packed with customers. People wear masks indoors to shop and on mass transit, but rarely outside, even if city streets are crowded.
All this means that Hannah have resumed living in fear: we no longer see people unless we're outdoors and wearing masks, we don't go out to eat under any circumstances, and we don't take mass transit. So what's left to us? Renting cars and going hiking. Below is a brief run down of some of our recent hikes.
Chli Aubrig
We had a lovely time hiking up Chli Aubrig, wandering among the meadows and through some forests on our way to the top of a truly lovely vista. Unfortunately, we're still not entirely sure how to pronounce it. We'll get there.
Sisikon, near Bugglialp
A lovely hike that rises straight up out of Lake Lucerne and provides beautiful views of said lake. We didn't quite make it to Bugglialp, as getting there entailed another considerable climb into the snow and we felt ill-prepared. Before the hike we spotted a vending machine selling rather atypical items: pasta, cheese, condiments, etc. Of course the Swiss always want you to be prepared for a cookout on the mountain.
Obersee, Näfels
There's a lot of Obersees in Switzerland and Germany, since obersee is literally "upper lake." So, its pretty important that we specify here that we visited the Obersee in Näfels. On the other hand, it's very hard to use umlauts on an American keyboard, so I'm just going to stop referring to the place altogether since it would be pointless to say obersee and its too hard to type the specific name.
Anyway, this was a great hike. We started by a frigid lake, which was especially cold because it is constantly shaded by the mountains towering up on all sides. It was sufficiently cold that people were ice skating. From there, we climbed up the mountain through forests which got considerably warmer with the sunshine. Eventually we reached another shaded valley with some primitive cabins in which people were camping. From there, we hiked back down into the valley through some pastures where we encountered some goats. Hannah was - not pleased - at the lack of barriers between ourselves and the goats and at one point made herself scarce when she thought perhaps we were going to be the victims of the first ever goat stampede. Fortunately, we survived.
Uetliberg
We took another trip up our local mountain, the Uetliberg, earlier today. When we left our apartment, there was no snow, but as we rose up the mountain it went from wet to slushy to winter wonderland at the peak. It's remarkable what a small change in altitude (~400 meters) will do to the atmosphere! Hannah was quite taken with the adorable swiss children dressed in their one-piece snow outfits tumbling through the snow.
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