Gruyere and Gruyere Castle

We still didn't have a car and it was really getting frustrating!  All the little day trips that should take an hour or an hour and a half were twice as long by public transportation.  You can get anywhere you need to go in Switzerland, it just may take you a lot longer to get there.

One place I had heard lots about was Gruyere.  For you cheese lovers, you may recognize the name of the famous cheese.  There is also a castle there that is supposed to be pretty neat. 

So we hopped on the train and then took a bus and then took a tram and 3 hours later - voila, we were there!  I know - 3 hours - and for that reason we almost didn't do it.  But we were really glad that we did.  Taking the train is far different than jumping in the car in that you can play games and talk and enjoy being together.  We brought along some games and cards and had a good trip.  Plus, it was really good for us to get out and see something different.  I felt like that was why we were in Europe and I really disliked that we had been there for almost two months and had done close to nothing.

When we arrived in Gruyere, we toured the cheese factory, which was interesting and included yummy cheese samples.  And then we hiked up the hill to the castle.  What I wasn't expecting was this cute little town.  I loved this town purched on the top of a small mountain surrounded by mountains on one side and overlooking the valley on the other. 

We enjoyed the sites and then had dinner at a really good fondue place... and then got on a tram, and then a bus, and then a train and.... voila, (yawn) we were home.

Trip to to the top of Mt. Rigi

We had a great time taking this trip up to the top of Mt. Rigi.  Our car hadn't arrived, but we rented a car and drove about an hour to the base of the mountain and then hopped on a cable car and then onto a train that steeply climbed the rest of the way to this tiny town at the top. 

The Swiss people are in crazy shape, largely because hiking up a mountain seems to be a regular event.  There are 70 year old people hiking up the side of the mountain with their hiking sticks in hand. 
They may not be fast, but they are certainly capable!  And then there are the simply crazy hikers that are all decked out in their skin tight gear and ready to dangle off the side of a mountain.  I try to stay far away from them just in case it might be contagious.  We did hike up the top part of the mountain and that was enough for us!

We had such a nice day.  The weather was beautiful and pretty warm, even up high.  From the top, one side looks back over the mountains and the other side overlooks a large valley with rivers and some small lakes. 


This may be one of my favorite pictures and views.  It was amazing.



Here is the train that took us up the hill.

Raben-chilbi Parades

We have been having a lot of fun lately.  I am past some of the culture shock and homesickness and have been really enjoying myself.  I still have some pangs of sadness when I miss something back home, but I reallly do find myself liking lots of things here and getting excited about things to come.  We are really looking forward to trips to other countries, but lately we have been enjoying all that Switzerland has to offer locally.

One tradition that sounds a little bizarre, but ended up being really impressive is the Rabenchilbi parades and activities.  Where we carve pumpkins, they carve turnips.  Seriously.  And since turnips are firm, they can be carved very elaborately which is neat.  But what they mainly do with these turnips is carve out a hole and put in a candle and they glow beautifully.  Then they take these turnips and put them with a bunch of other turnips and create a picture or design on a float for the parade.  They will also decorate houses and pathways and archways. 

All the little towns here do them, but the biggest is one in a town just a few minutes from us called Richterswil.  At exactly 7 pm, they turn off all the lights in the town and everything is only illuminated by the glowing turnips.  I know it is hard to make turnips sound lovely, but it really was.  There is a big parage with all kinds of marching bands (sounding a bit like polka music) and these elaborate floats.  There is something magical about no electricty or power.  Even the floats were on carts that people pushed.

You can see really great pictures of much better quality by follwoing this link, but here are some pictures from our night:



This is an Alpine Horn.  It is really a pretty sound when it is played.  Not at all the sound I was expecting. 



These two walked the parade and stopped every once and a while and played.

Swiss Will

Will started Swiss school.  He has been attending for two weeks and loves it! 

I agonized over sending him to an all speaking German school, I think largely because it was new and different and I wasn't sure what to expect.  But I also agonized over the fact that he wasn't in school since there was no room at the International School and wouldn't be until after the first of the year.  Plus, he wanted to make new friends and he was eager to go the local school.  We had heard very good reports on the local school and that people often move to our area simply because the school is so good.  So Rich and I went and visited the school.  The principal was a young, kind man who we thought presented us with a realistic picture of what to expect, what their school was like and the challenges for an only English speaking kid.  He assigned Will to a teacher who so far strikes me as one of the warmest, kindest, approachable, helpful and lovely people I have ever met.  She is one of those people who you believe is born to teach.  She speaks perfect English and has gone out of her way to help me.  She has a guitar in her room and sings with the kids in addition to spending one afternoon a week doing what they call "forest teaching" where they go out into the forest here (just a 5 minute walk from the school) and do their studies there, often involving nature and science.  It is really pretty neat and he is enjoying himself. 

Since Jack and Will are in different schools, I worried about them having different vacation schedules, but they actually match up really well.  Will has more vacation days during the year and gets out of school after Jack, but Will's vacation overlaps all of Jack's which means I have already started planning trips during those times!  :)

As part of school, Will has swimming once a week and he was shocked that all the kids simply get naked and change into their swimsuits. I hadn't thought about it before, but there are not many opportunities where Will has been naked in front of other kids!  Here, nudity is not much of an issue and there are pictures of naked people to be found in random places and there are opportuntities to be naked in front of other people at the sauna or even changing clothes on the beach (that's a story for another blog).

He walks to and from school every day.  That is a big thing here in Switzerland - every Swiss child is expected to walk to school on their own, even the kindergarteners.  I walked him the first couple of days and then I let him do it on his own.  It was really hard to do, but all the kids do it and he has been fine with it.  I don't worry about his safetly as that apparently is not an issue here.

Will was assigned a private German teacher at the school and he meets 4 times a week with her.  The rest he is learning through immersion which for whatever reason is not frustrating him.  He had three other kids in his class that speak English as their mother tongue and they help explain things to him and have become his good friends already. He joined the swim team and will soon sign up for soccer. 

And the really nice thing is that I wanted my kids to learn another language while here.  For Jack, he is learning German, but he rarely gets the chance to practice it as he is surrounded by English speaking people.  By the end of the school year, Will should be pretty fluent in German and in Swiss German.  Plus, he will make friends with local kids and have friends within walkign distance.  Jack's friends are spread out all over the area and are a car ride away. There are certainly advantages to Jack's school, but Will's has advantages as well and I think the school fits his personality. 

So far so good!