Winter Adventures

Zurich, Switzerland - As the title suggests, H and I have been embarking on a variety of winter escapades over the last month. The most surprising aspect of this is that H is the driving force behind our galivanting. Over the course of our time here, H has discovered that she likes the outdoors rather more than she thought prior to our arrival, and this newfound appreciation has expanded to also include outdoor activities in the winter.

H detested winter weather and activities prior to her arrival here. To be fair, her most recent experience with cold, snowy winter included several scarring trips to visit Lake Tahoe: during one trip she contracted an agonizing eye infection and in another a blizzard extended our drive to nine hours and finally forced us to abandon our car in the yard of a neighboring property before we reached our destination. So she may have had some cause to be suspicious.

But here in Switzerland she's become rather taken with winter and its ability to transform the landscape. She's also a fan of swiss children waddling around in their winter outfits, which are often adorable onesies. She is so taken with them, that she's begun painting children in watercolors in her free time. Though you might say I'm biased, I can assure you that these paintings are excellent.

Activities

I have, of course, neglected to tell you up until this point what exactly we've been doing this winter that has H and me in a thrall. You'll forgive me for dallying - I thought the delay might add a measure of suspense. I shall now tell you that the exciting winter activity that has so captured our hearts is...walking! 

I must say, we've taken our walking to spectacular new heights (literally and figuratively) since we've arrived here. We've crisscrossed the country to trek through dense forests, over rocky mountain tops, and through alpine meadows dotted with cow pies! We've defied the elements (mostly snow)! We've encountered numerous agricultural animals, including at least two barking dogs and a small herd of goats that scampered / ferociously charged by us! And now we're conquering walking in winter!

As we've taken on new challenges in the winter, we have acquired a variety of new equipment to aid and improve our walking capabilities. Our prior experience with walking was so pedestrian that supplementary equipment was hardly necessary. These include:

• Trekking poles. AKA, walking sticks. These are common among hikers in Switzerland and after we stumbled and fell on a few steep hikes we realized why. See photograph below of H showing off our new gear.
• Snow Shoes. These make it possible to make your way through thick powdery snow. Snowshoeing has exceeded our expectations and we enjoy it. We especially like getting out while the snow is fresh and untouched. 
• Winter clothing. As mentioned above, H did not partake in winter activities prior to arriving, so we had to get her a pair of waterproof snow pants and a winter jacket. Fortunately, a good friend was able to lend us a set!

Locales

We visited a variety of towns in or near the Alps for our winter activities: 

• Lenzerheide, a popular ski resort in the Graubunden canton. I actually skied here last year with some friends who flew over from the states (see here). At that time, H did not know what she was missing.
• Interlaken, a town world-renowned for its beautiful mountain scenery with an utterly unimaginative toponym for a name ("between lakes"). 
• Grindelwald, another town well-known for its beauty, but with a somewhat more imaginative name that translates to "Grindel forest". I'm not sure who or what Grindel is. It may be lost to time or it may be beyond my poor German.
• Axalp, originally just the name of an alpine pasture, which has since been developed into a small resort town. It is perched high (1500 meters above sea level) in the mountains and accessed via a white-knuckler: a tiny, snow-covered, one lane road (literally only big enough for one car) that hairpins around the mountainside
• Amden, a small town in St. Gallen.
• Schwellbrunn, a town in Appenzell Ausserrhoden whose name translates roughly to "swollen well." We didn't see the well (or fountain) of note, but we did get in a rigorous hike around the mountain!

Unlike the US, the winter resort mountains here are more multipurpose and people don't just come to do alpine skiing and snowboarding. Cross-country skiing, winter hiking, snowshoeing and sledding all have purpose-built courses and are well-used. The winter hiking and snowshoeing paths are well-marked with pink signs and the hiking paths are sometimes groomed with tractors. As they wind their way up the mountain, these trails crisscross downhill ski and snowboard courses. 

Sledding (referred to as sledging, here) is also a common feature of mountain resorts. Sledding routes are no joke and will typically descend the length of the mountain. Hannah and I took sleds down a 10km course when we visited Grindelwald (stopping after about 7km for hot glühwein). H was initially a little apprehensive about sledding as she generally likes to have control over her body's direction and velocity. However, after a couple of gentle slopes, she found herself enjoying sledding. This changed somewhat when we came to a fork in the path and I made the fateful decision to go down the way labeled "steep." I'll grant that the course was somewhat steeper than I bargained for: my sled was going so fast that I decided to bail off the side and tumble down the slope a ways. Hannah inched her way down by planting her right foot into a snowbank on the side of the course, gently releasing herself for short descents of a few feet at a time before steering the sled and her foot back into the snowbank. I was persona non grata for a brief stint, but my reputation recovered somewhat with the glühwein pitstop.

Miscellaneous

While we did not get a Christmas tree this year, we did get some quintessentially Swiss (and German) holiday decorations: 

• Rauchermanner ("smoking men") are wooden figurines with hollowed out interiors. They separate so you can insert a small incense candle inside. A small hole at the bottom allows air in, and the smoke exits through the mouth. Our apartment smells like pine, now.
• Weihnachtspyramide ("Christmas pyramids") are wooden towers with a rotating base with tiny Christmas themed figurines on it (our has a shepherd and sheep). Candles are arrayed around the base. The base is also attached to a fan at the top. The heat from the candles causes the fan (and thus the base with figurines) to turn. Some of these get amazingly large and complex - H and I visited a Christmas themed store in Germany selling pyramids that were well over three feet tall.

My nephew learned that Zurich is a wealthy city and so there are many expensive and fancy cars here. Heretofore, he has been mostly uninterested in our stay abroad, but our proximity to so many expensive cars has piqued his interest. For his benefit, H and I have been photographing various Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys, etc. that we find around town. 

Photos

Lenzerheide

Interlaken

Grindelwald

Axalp

Grindelwald Again! (different day, different area)

Amden

Schwellbrunn