First wedding anniversary

Tomorrow is our first wedding anniversary! I can't believe a year has gone by already. It doesn't feel like we've been married for a year, but maybe that is because we had the big wedding day on the 3rd January, but really got married on 30 August last year already.

We decided to get married sooner because at that stage we were still going to go to the UK and it would have helped André to get a visa easier if we were married since I've got an EU passport.

We had a very small ceremony, only our parents were there and my sister knew about it too. But nobody else. We already had our wedding organised for 3rd January and didn't want to spoil that day. We didn't want people to think that since we're already married then it's not such a big deal. We still wanted that to be a special day too.

So we had this first ceremony at our house in Melkbosstrand. It was really special having such a small ceremony with our parents. Especially also having my dad there since he couldn't be there in January.

Afterwards we had cake and tea and champagne with our parents and then André and I went for a one night honeymoon, since we had to be back at work again on the Monday. You can read about our stay in this cosy little cottage here.

It wasn't easy keeping it a secret and it was hard for us to decide who to tell and who not. If we told some family we'd have to tell all the family and if we told some friends we felt we'd have to tell them all. So that's why we decided not to tell anyone. The minister was going to announce it in the chapel on our 3rd January wedding day, but then we decided it might not be such a good idea giving people such a shock! So on Christmas we told our families and then tried really hard to get all our friends together for a new years party and surprised them then.

We've had a fantastic first year being married. Definitely a very interesting and exciting year!

Do the Roomba!

Yesterday André came home telling me about one of his colleagues who bought this iRobot Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner. The guy had it there at the office and they were throwing cookie crumbs on the floor at this thing, 'feeding' it!

So André comes home telling me all about this. Now I should mention to you in case you don't know my husband, he loves any kind of gadget. He does a lot of research before buying anything, but he really does love any kind of gadget, even vacuum cleaners that are different in some way, like this one.

So we watch some videos of it on youtube. You should go see, type in "roomba cat" and see the cats riding on this vacuum cleaner! But I'm thinking he would never buy something like this. We just bought a really great vacuum cleaner after we moved in here only a couple of months ago. The Dyson Baby was his choice too after lots of research and being certain that it's the absolute best and we just have to have it.

But no, if it's good and it's a gadget, it doesn't matter how many of it we have. So off we go to Media Markt. I was still not believing that he would really buy this. Instead I'm hoping that he'll buy an espresso machine which we've been looking at for a long time now. Obviously that's not interesting enough for him!

So we came home with a very cute little vacuum cleaner. And a very clever little vacuum cleaner. I must say it is great just pressing the button and then sitting behind my laptop while the house is being vacuumed!

It has a base station where it gets charged. When you press "clean" it will start, check the size of the room and work out how long it needs to vacuum to cover the whole room. It takes a while until it has criss-crossed enough in order to cover all the floor space. So then when it's done it will find it's way back to the station and go climb onto the charger itself! Also when the battery is running low it will go back to get charged. So clever! I'm really impressed. And the floor is really clean.

Here's a video of our Roomba doing his thing. (I think it's definitely a "he".)

If you can't get the video to play here, you can see it on vimeo by clicking here.

Roomba! from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

I like this poem too.

It was long ago

-by Eleanor Farjeon

I'll tell you, shall I, something I remember?
Something that still means a great deal to me.
It was long ago.

A dusty road in summer I remember,
A mountain, and an old house, and a tree
That stood, you know,

Behind the house. An old woman I remember
In a red shawl with a grey cat on her knee
Humming under a tree.

She seemed the oldest thing I can remember.
But then perhaps I was not more than three.
It was long ago.

I dragged on the dusty road, and I remember
How the old woman looked over the fence at me
And seemed to know

How it felt to be three, and called out, I remember
"Do you like bilberries and cream for tea?"
I went under the tree.

And while she hummed, and the cat purred, I remember
How she filled a saucer with berries and cream for me
So long ago.

Such berries and such cream as I remember
I never had seen before, and never see
Today, you know.

And that is almost all I can remember,
The house, the mountain, the gray cat on her knee,
Her red shawl, and the tree,

And the taste of the berries, the feel of the sun I remember,
And the smell of everything that used to be
So long ago,

Till the heat on the road outside again I remember
And how the long dusty road seemed to have for me
No end, you know.

That is the farthest thing I can remember.
It won't mean much to you. It does to me.
Then I grew up, you see.

I like this poem.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads onto way
I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference


Robert Frost

Appenzell

On Sunday we drove to Appenzell. I must stop saying this, but I can't help it: Another beautiful typically Swiss town. You known when you get that feeling when you want to say "Oooh oooh look look!" I feel like that each time I see a cute cosy wooden house with flowers flowing over balconies. And green hills, and typical farm houses with those cows who give us the oh so good chocolate and cheese... If you don't know what I mean, just have a look at these pictures. And if you don't live in Switzerland, come and visit us so you can see for yourself. How did we get so lucky to land here?

This is in the town of Appenzell. I was suprised to see how many little shops were open. Selling mostly touristy souvenirs but it was nice to feel like a tourist and browse (and to see shops open on a SUNDAY!!)

Here I'm staring at chocolates... We bought some liqueur which we must still try and I can't remember what it was right now (it's downstairs and I'm not getting out of bed now) and whiskey flavored fudge. So good.

Appenzell: The town of stinky cheese! Appenzeller cheese is really really very stinky. No I mean really. But good taste though. (It says Appenzell on the building, you'll have to click to enlarge if you can't see it.)

My knight on his horse, riding off into the Swiss Alps.

How pretty is this? Look at those little windows and the curtains. That's just the way little girls draw curtains in a window!

Remember that lens André rented? Here is where I took over the camera while he was driving. I snapped pictures most of the way home.

We set the navigator to avoid the motorways so we could take the scenic route.

You see what I mean?

Just look at this adorable little house! Do click on the picture so you can see it full size. You have to really see this properly.

What would it be like to live on a farm like this?

With a real barn.

And have your own chocolate and cheese cows.

And to plant lots and lots of flowers.

See, like these. Next spring this is what our balcony is going to look like.

Ok, maybe I shouldn't make promises I can't keep.

But I'm going to try.

So go and visit Appenzell and take the road less travelled.

Saturday in Zurich

Saturday we took the train in to Zurich and walked around the old town part. Here's a picture of Zurich Hauptbahnhof.

I was in search of a new pair of jeans. We weren't successful so I still am in search of those jeans...

In the one store while I was trying on jeans I heard André speaking Afrikaans to some other people. There were this couple who heard us speaking Afrikaans to each other and they're also from South Africa now living and working here. It was so nice to hear and speak Afrikaans again to someone else besides each other. We stood in this small little shop chatting and after a while the shop assistant asked us to stand and talk outside if we're not going to buy anything!!

For a late lunch/ early dinner we went to the Zeughauskeller again where we went for Andre's birthday. This time we remembered to also get a picture of the entrance of the restaurant. (Not much to see actually..)

We ordered the Major's Sword which is steak wrapped around a very long sword! It's for two people. And we had it with rösti.

André convinced me to have dessert which didn't take too much convincing. I had the Vacherin Glacé which consisted of two toffee/ caramel flavored meringue biscuits with vanilla ice cream in between. Topped with (lots of) cream and marinated raspberries. It was amazing!!

Oh and André tried their special beer that comes in this huge glass. First they pour some whiskey in the glass and light it.

Then they pour the beer, which is some malt beer, and sprinkle some wheat on top. I don't like beer at all, but this one I didn't find too bad actually.

And André like it too of course.

Rent-a-lens

André has been looking at new lenses for his camera for such a long time now, not sure which one to buy (also because it's so expensive). So this weekend he rented a lens. You book the lens online at rent-a-lens.ch and it gets delivered to your door on the day that you've ordered it for. André rented it from Friday - Sunday.

It came in this little crate with a lock on (lots of money inside this little crate). On the outside cover of the crate some documents are taped and inside this is the code for the lock.

Once you've unlocked the crate you'll find the lens neatly and safely packed inside. This morning we packed it the same way and dropped it off at the post office to be sent back.

So we've had lots of fun snapping away this weekend. I was even snapping out the car window on the way back from Appenzell this afternoon! The weekend pictures will follow later :-)

I was snapped by a google car!

I've been meaning to tell you about this, but never got around to it. Just after we moved into our apartment I was walking down our street, just going for a stroll to explore our new town when a little blue car slowly drove past me... It had a funny looking thing on the roof and while I was still trying to figure this out it went SNAP! in my face! It was a Google car, busy capturing all of Switzerland for Google street view.

Here's a picture of a Google street view car with the camera on the roof. (It says Google on the car, that's how I knew...)

And here's a trike which they use in areas where the cars can't go, like narrow roads. Yeah you thought you could hide? Oh no, they will come and snap you too!

So that must have been in May after we moved in here. I just forgot about it because we thought it would take ages before they actually have Switzerland up on street view. But now it's here and you can see me walking down our street eating (South African) grapes! I'm wearing my hat as usual so you can't see my face really. But it's me!

Here's the link, I hope it takes you to the right spot. It's a bit difficult to navigate and to move around (click and drag) and see what you want to see. Takes some time getting used to. I'm walking past a light yellow house, there's a big grey bin in front of me and on the other side of the road there are lots of cars parked at a car selling place. I'm wearing what Andre calls my mushroom hat, a cream colored floppy hat and a long sleeve navy top. You can turn all around and see me from all angles! haha this is fun!

So now you can see the street where we live :-)

PS If you're family or a friend and want to see which one is our apartment you'll have to skype us. Coming from SA I still don't feel safe telling the world exactly which door is ours..

Bern

Finally! Here are the pictures from our day in Bern last Saturday. There were too many to choose from so I chose the best ones and put them in a slideshow/ video.

Some info on Bern from our Lonely Planet book: Switzerland, and things you'll see in the pictures:

The medieval town centre is u-shaped along a river bend (Aare river) and has been declared a World Heritage site.

The cobbled streets are lined with covered arcades and cellar shops. Pity we didn't get a picture of these shop doors leading you underground. You can see the covered arcades in the pictures.

There are 11 decorative fountains built around 1545 which depict characters from history and/ or folklore. The most famous is the Kindlifressenbrunnen (Ogre Fountain) of a giant snacking on children!

The Zytglogge (Zeitglockenturm in High German), clock tower, has revolving figures that begin twirling at four minutes before every hour. We didn't wait to see this, but I did get a picture of a bunch of people staring up at the clock (also pictured) waiting for this.

There was a huge market when we were there, I'm not sure if this happens every Saturday? One section was selling all kinds of stuff like clothes, baskets, jewelry, DVD's, anything. And then there was the fruit and veg market which sold all these delicious fresh foods including breads, meats, cheeses, flowers, honey and lots more.

Did you know that Einstein lived in Bern? He actually developed his theory of relativity in 1905 here. You can visit the apartment where he lived with his family which is now a museum. We didn't but André took a picture of the outside of it. You can see it in the video.

Also in the pictures you'll see the 15th century Gothic Münster (cathedral). Everywhere you go in Switzerland there will be something that is the highest or the steepest or the fastest or the best in something. Bern apparently has the tallest cathedral at 100m. You can climb the hundreds of steps up the tower but of course not something I would do!

Behind the cathedral is a lovely park. There were some people playing games and there's a café under the trees. (This is the picture where André is sticking his tongue out at me.)

You can see the 1902 Houses of Parliament. A beautiful building, Saturday pictured with the market in front of it. It has a stained glass dome and apparently a huge, 214-bulb chandelier. We didn't notice this when we were there but I actually see we did get it in the picture!! If you look carefully you might see it too with the lights on shining through the window right in the centre.

In 1191 some powerful duke (I'm not going to bore you with names) had his first hunting success here, shooting a bear, or Bärn in the local dialect, and that's where this city got it's name.

Hope you learnt something today? I did! Now here are the pictures, enjoy :-) If for some reason you can't see the video here, you can go to my vimeo page by clicking here.

Bern, Switzerland from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

I survived my first haircut!

I finally did it! Went for my first visit to the hairdresser here in Switzerland. I decided to go to the one André went to a while back. There are many hairdressers working there and the girl who did my hair was really nice. Nice is important to me. You have to be nice to me if you're going to do my hair. My hairdresser in cape Town was very very nice to me. So this girl is from Kosovo, click the link to see a map if you don't know where it is. I didn't.

She understood what I wanted. I had to speak German as none of them speak any English but we understood each other. She kept asking me "Ist es gut?" (Is it good/ Are you ok?) which they actually pronounce here more something like "Ish gut?" So she scored points for checking on me. She scored bonus points when she told me my German is very good, after I told her it's not just so she understand she shouldn't even try speaking Swiss German to me. She reckons in half a year my German will be perfect! That's good news, but I'm not so sure. Maybe if I visit her once a week for a chat in German.

Now to get to the actually cutting and coloring. I've been used to spending 3-4 hours at the hairdresser for my highlights. This morning I was there for just over an hour only. Not complaining about that because I don't like sitting there for long. It took her only 10 minutes to put the highlight stuff with the foils on my hair! TEN minutes! That's a record. I explained that I only wanted half a head highlights, so that's only the top which shows when my hair is down and the sides which shows when my hair is tied up. And that she did. In about 50 min less time than it took my hairdresser back home. But then she did not do it nearly as carefully. It looks fine actually, but Delene back home made it look perfectly natural and blended in, strand by tiny strand. And I have a lot of hair. I always felt bad asking Delene to do a full head of highlights for me.

The colour is not exactly what I was hoping for but it could have been worse. And I think this might actually blend in even more with my natural color. I'm not going to post a picture. I'm sure Andre will capture me with the new lens he's getting this weekend soon enough to show you what it looks like.

My hair is now also a whole lot shorter which feels better. Strange but better. It was very long and now it's just on my shoulders. So a big difference. I do like some change.

I wont have my hair blow-dried at the hairdresser again. They don't get it as straight as I like it. I came home and immediately got the straightener out. If I don't it's all fuzzy and all over the place.

It cost me Sfr. 90 for highlights, cut and blow-dry which I feel is not that bad. That's R673, double what Delene charged me but she did not ever charge me very much. At any other salon in SA I expect I would have paid around the same as I did here today.

So after being so nervous and scared and sitting there all tensed up, it was actually not that bad.

I got another teaching job!

But first I have to say, what's with this HEAT? It is extremely hot here in der Scheiwz. I wish I had a thermometer at home so I could tell you how hot it really is now. I'm sitting out on the balcony, I dragged my desk chair outside because we don't have outside furniture yet so I'm actually very comfy (it's a good chair :-), and if I use my imagination I can feel a tiny little bit of cooler air. But I think it's just my imagination, that's all. André always says women don't sweat, we just glow. Well I don't think there was any glowing going on today, it was definitely sweating! So Switzerland is not only all about snow. Oh no.

Last week I went for another interview. This one to work only mornings as my afternoons are now all filled with English lessons and the classes are filling up nicely. The owner of this English play school is actually moving to South Africa. Not only South Africa, but to Atlantic Beach Golf Estate in Melkbos! Small world! Her husband is South African and so they are moving back there with their son. She has sold the school to someone else. I got the job to take over the curriculum planning from her and to teach. I spent the morning there today and really enjoyed it. I start next month and I'm looking forward to it. Now I can really settle into a routine and know where I'm going and where the money is coming from! Andre has been such a good husband and taking very good care of his new wife, but it would be good to earn some of my own money again too.

I've had almost a year off now. And I haven't been bored for a bit. I love being at home. But it will be good to work again too. (I just keep telling myself that!)

So have I told you how hot it is? Shame I hear you Cape Tonians are being washed away there by the rain. I've put the cookies I baked into the freezer to have something cool to nibble on. It makes them nice and crunchy.

Ok, let me stop talking nonsense now and sort out Saturday's photos of Bern so I can show you.

This and that

On Saturday we drove to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. It's a beautiful city and we had a great day walking around there. More about Bern and pictures later.

I did some baking again over the weekend. I baked a Hungarian tart. It was delicious and didn't last very long!

I finally bought what I thought would be a non-stick spray as I know it from South Africa (Spray & Cook), but it's not the same. It's just some kind of an oil that is spritzed out, not an even spray. It's not the same stuff inside. Here's a picture of the one I bought.

School started yesterday and so did my English classes. Yesterday afternoon I was back at the little 4 year old girl for her private lesson at her house. I've now also got her younger almost 3 year old sister joining us too. Her attention span is of course not that long so she's just around joining in when she feels like it and at least hearing English while I work with the older sister. She was so excited when she saw me and this got the little one excited too which was a good thing. I was worried how she would react being with me, because her mom said she takes a long time to get used to someone. But it went well.

Today I'm free all day! So good! The two boys I'm supposed to have on a Tuesday after school can't make it this week. And tomorrow I've got my group of six 4-6 yr olds for beginner reading and writing. I've got lots of great stuff prepared for them, but still have some things to do, so that's what I'm going to do now.

Oh oh I forgot to tell you! I finally made a hair appointment! I'm going on Thursday morning. So I'll let you know how it went then. Please hold thumbs that it will turn out well.

It's been soooo hot for days now. It's lovely but it can get a bit much. I'm sure next summer we will appreciate the warm weather more after a proper cold winter. I love these summer evenings though, when it starts to cool down...

Ok, let me go finish my school work so I can get some relaxing time in too later.

Luzern in the rain

My mom and Jürgen (my step-dad) came to visit us last weekend. I am truly blessed to be so close to them again. It's not good being far away from your family. It can't always be helped but after more than 6 years away from my mom (when I was still in South Africa and she living in Germany) I appreciate it so much now being only 4 hours drive away from each other. Just wish my sister could be a little closer too... she lives in California. But she might be a little bored living here after almost 9 years of exciting Hollywood life I think.

Friday evening I made home made pizza. Oh so delicious as always! Mmm... now this gives me an idea for dinner...

Saturday we drove to Luzern. I really wanted to walk around Zurich, but they had a huge parade there this weekend and we didn't feel like being squished between hundreds of people. So we went to Luzern. I really like Luzern. We're going there again this Saturday. But that's because André needs to stop by the archery shop.

It's a beautiful town. I love the bridges with the flowers all along it.

Unfortunately last Saturday was very rainy. It rained the whole time we were there. Us South Africans aren't used to walking around in the rain for fun. When it rains, you stay indoors. I didn't even own an umbrella in SA. When you have to go out in the rain, you run from your car into the building you need to be or park undercover. But here people go on with their business outside as normal.

Once we got over getting a little wet it was actually quite nice to see Luzern in the rain, with a grey sky and dark water in the river. I like how the rain here falls straight down. Quiet and peaceful. No howling wind like in Cape Town, forcing the rain into every little crack in your house until it comes streaming down the walls inside your lounge. (This really happened to me a few times.)

So here are some pictures of our day in Luzern, some taken by Jürgen and some by my mom. I was just holding my umbrella to stay dry and didn't even take out my camera this time.

Another Summer camp

This time the theme was pirates and water. I don't know much about pirates and they've never interested me. They are bad and violent people and I wouldn't choose to teach kids about this, but if you leave the violent part out, kids do like to play pirates, especially the boys. (The girls enjoyed trying on the jewelry in the treasure chest.)

We had a pirate ship in the one classroom in which the kids could play with a treasure chest with some 'treasures' in, which they could fight over. Each time I would take it away and hide it in a drawer. By the 3rd day they would bring me the treasure chest themselves to hide when a fight breaks out! Proper pirates!!

We made all the accessories pirates need- hats, telescopes, treasure maps and so on with a treasure hunt on the last day. We also learnt a bit about water- the water cycle and fish. Here's the scene from the story "Drippy the raindrop" about the water cycle.

There were 22 3-5 year olds from 8:30 - 16:30 with 2 teachers and an assistant. Again it was a bilingual course and I of course did the English part. The assistant was a great help and could speak perfect English too.

I did enjoy it but am glad it was only three days. On Tuesday evening I was totally exhausted. André laughed at me because all I could do was sit and stare. Went to bed early and just lay there! I couldn't even hold up a book to read!

When I woke up on Wednesday morning I was wondering why my legs felt as though I've done a really tough gym class, sore muscles like when you've had a proper workout. Then I realized it's from bending down all day long to these little kids and squatting on the floor beside them!

I am really appreciating the day off today! I had a lazy morning, didn't even walk with André to the station this morning. André cleaned the whole house on Tuesday when he was home (and he does a better job than I do actually) so I don't even have house work to do. Such a good husband I have :-)

Hairdressers in Switzerland

My biggest worry before we moved to Switzerland was who was going to do my hair! (And it still is.) I had lots of highlights. Lots. My hairdresser spent about 4 hours every 5 or 6 weeks to keep my hair looking naturally blond.

I started going to Dalene when I was 8 years old. That's 21 years at the same hairdresser! And I never had to sit there worrying what my hair would look like when I walk out of her salon. She's good. If you're ever in Table View/ Cape Town area and need a hairdresser, ask me for her number. But try to book ahead, I'm not the only one who thinks she's the best. Here's a picture of us in her salon. She's doing my hair for my wedding here. *sigh* I miss those wedding days... And the blond hair...

There are so many hairdressers here in Switzerland. Today I counted them walking back home from the grocery store and I counted 9! Nine! And the grocery store is not far. Only about a 5 minute walk. There's a coiffure on every corner and more in between. Here's the newest addition, Tessie's Coiffure, which is just around the corner from where we live, the first one I pass on my way to the shops.

But even though there are so many to choose from I still have not been to a hairdresser since we moved to Switzerland. It's been 4 months now... Oops.

But don't worry, my hairdresser back home did some magic before I left and my hair still looks good enough. I said good bye to half of my highlights before leaving South Africa and Dalene replaced them with darker streaks, actually the exact same shade of my natural colour. So even after 4 months you can hardly see the re-growth, it blends in really well.

Dalene said I must not worry. Swiss hairdressers are very good. They are known to go through a lot of training. But neither of us knew then that most of these many hairdressers aren't Swiss. Tessie on the corner here is Asian. And at the place André went to they're all Turkish. Not that I mind where they're from, but does it then mean they're as good as the Swiss? And as good as Dalene?

If I had the kind of money where I could just fly anywhere, I would fly to Cape Town to go see Dalene. So she can do my hair for me. I really really don't want to go to anyone else. But I will have to. Eventually. Soon. Very soon. My hair is getting quite long now and one of these beautiful summer mornings I know I'm going to wake up and it's going to be too long. It's going to bother me. And then I'm going to cut half of it off. And keep my eyes closed while they do my highlights and pray that it turns out well.

I will let you know after I've been. I'm thinking maybe next week. (But I said that a few weeks back too...)

André's Birthday

Yesterday was André's birthday and we went for dinner at Zeughauskeller, a restaurant in Zurich. It's not far from the Hauptbahnhof, a nice stroll down Bahnhofstrasse.

The building used to be an armoury (where weapons were kept) and was rebuilt in 1487 after a fire destroyed it. Many old weapons are still on display in the restaurant and according to an inventory of arms dated 1644, even William Tell's bow was on display here.

The food was really good. They have a very big menu with one whole page filled with different sausages. I had the smoked sausage from the Engadine valley and it came with potato salad, my favourite salad! André had the spicy beefsteak tatar and he said it was really good too. Then of course we had dessert too since we were celebrating his birthday! André had the "Walnut Parfait made with sugar-roasted walnuts and frozen nougat-crème. Topped with real walnut liqueur (a rarity!) and garnished with whipped cream. Highly recommended!" And I had Tiramisu with vanilla ice cream.

I was surprised how full the restaurant was on a Wednesday evening. It's quite a big restaurant with tables outside too. Outside was already full when we arrived so we sat inside. Most of the tables are big so you might share a table with other people. They have these trolleys which they use to serve from and clear the tables which I thought was very clever.

The service was really good and your food comes out very quickly after you've ordered. Usually we don't ask for English menus in a restaurant, we manage to understand the German. But last night I got a bit frustrated because the menu is so big. In the end André got me an English menu which helped! Our waiter spoke a good English and we heard a lot of English spoken in the restaurant by the other people there. The owner is around all evening, dressed smartly but with an apron over, checking on everything and helping where needed which I thought was nice too.

It was such a perfect evening. Even when we left it was still warm outside. We walked back to the station with a quick stop at the apple store (André can never resist!) and with over full tummies!

Swiss National Day at Murg, Walensee

André and I drove to Murg this weekend. It's a small village on the Walensee in canton St. Gallen. At first we missed the turn off because it's such a small place! We stayed at the Loft Hotel which used to be a spinning mill, but was converted into apartments and the hotel a few years back. It's very modern. There are even two biker rooms where you can drive your motorbike into your room! We stayed on the first floor where we had a beautiful view over the lake. The lake is stunning with the mountains right against it on the opposite bank. It's amazing waking up in the morning and seeing this view when you open your eyes.

I've made a short video of our pictures from the weekend. No descriptions with the pictures in the video so I'll tell you a bit more here first. The pictures start with our drive to Murg. We set the navigator to avoid the motorways so we had a really scenic drive through all the small towns and right along the Zurich lake. I still can't get enough of all the GREEN here!!

Then there's our room at the Loft Hotel and the view from our room. We had a little reading corner (or TV watching corner) and I loved that couch/ bed!

Then there's lots of pictures down by the lake. There's a camping site which looked great. We used to enjoy camping back in South Africa so maybe next summer we'll try the camping here. So with all the campers there was great atmosphere on the beach. A pile of wood was there since early on Saturday which was lit when it got dark.

For lunch we went to the hotel's restaurant just down the road, also on the lake. This restaurant was booked for a wedding that evening so I'm glad we got to try it for lunch. Before dinner we tried the hotel's other restaurant which is a more casual place, selling pizza and salads. We had some cocktails there before going to the beach where the fireworks were going to be. There were stalls selling food and drinks. I got a pizza and burnt my mouth terribly because I couldn't wait!

We sat on the beach watching the fireworks display. Beautiful! And we had perfect weather too. André had a swim in the lake earlier in the afternoon. Apparently it is one of the lakes with the cleanest water in Switzerland and André reported that he felt really clean after his swim!

Ok, watch the video now and enjoy the fireworks!

Swiss National Day at Murg, Walensee from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Oh, I just noticed for some reason the video is not playing here on the blog. Don't know why. You can go see it here on vimeo.

On Sunday, before heading home we drove up to Flumserberg. We're looking for places to go skiing this winter and I've read about this place. Any other skiing recommendations Swiss readers? I've never tried skiing and am even scared of going in a ski lift so it must be a beginner friendly place!!

Flumserberg