Skip to main content

Winter is Coming

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. 
















Labels:
Location: Zürich, Switzerland

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Swiss Advance to the Quarterfinals

Zurich, Switzerland - Monday evening was one of jubilation in Zurich, and indeed, throughout Switzerland: the Schweizer Nati (Swiss National Team) advanced to the quarterfinal in the UEFA Euro 2020 championship (European soccer tournament). As you've probably guessed, this championship was supposed to be held last year, but was obviously delayed due to the pandemic. Despite that, the tournament organizers have persisted in calling it Euro 2020.  This is the first time Switzerland has advanced this far in the tournament. The victory came over a juggernaut, the reviled French. Sports books significantly favored the French in this match (a $100 bet on Switzerland would have paid out $550) and in fact the French were the favorite or among the favorites to win it all.  Indeed, the Swiss were down 3-1 into the later minutes of the game. The crowd gathered around our local bar, Le Calvados, was sullen and quiet. With ten minutes to go, the prominent cranium of Haris Seferovic, showin...
Post a Comment
Read more

We're Back!

Paris, France - We've returned to Europe for a three-week sojourn in France, Switzerland, and the UK. We're obviously very excited. We arrived in Paris Sunday around 11AM. Our approach to jet lag is akin to tearing the bandaid off quickly: We purposely sleep little if at all on our transatlantic flight (below is a photo of Hannah, trying not to sleep on the flight), consume copious amounts of caffeine after we land, slowly descend into irritability and mild delirium, and then collapse after staying up as late as we can on our first night in Europe. Our body's, overcome by shock from this maltreatment, eagerly accept a full night's sleep, even if it's offered at an hour that's entirely out of keeping with our normal schedule. Works like a charm.  After depositing our things at the hotel, we aimlessly wandered around Paris for a few hours before meeting up with Maggie, an acquaintance of Hannah's from work. Maggie took us to the wine bar Delicatessen where we ...
Post a Comment
Read more

We summit Rigi

Arth, Switzerland - H and I summited Mt. Rigi this weekend. Rigi is among the great peaks in this area, known to some as the "Queen of the Mountains." It's visible from Zug and nearby Lucerne. Starting in the early afternoon, Hannah and I slowly made our way to the blustery and snow-covered peak by 300PM. Our ascent was over 1,200 meters, starting from the nearby town of Arth. As you might expect, there was huffing and puffing and even a bit of rumbling as we chugged our way up, but not once did Hannah and I think of turning back. No, we were committed to riding that train straight to the peak! Rigi is actually something of a landmark in railway history. It was the first mountain cogwheel railway in Europe (though, the title for world's first mountain  cogwheel   railway goes to the Mt. Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire). Rigi's cogwheel railway was complete in 1871 and it's still in use today. Unsurprisingly, the railway greatly increased access to th...
Post a Comment
Read more