Bachtel Hike

In the middle of November we spent an afternoon hiking to the Bachtel Radio Tower to enjoy the views.  With the typical fall fog all around on the lower elevations it was great to drive up to the city of Hinwil and actually see the sunshine.  We ate at a nice, typical Swiss style restaurant, outside on the terrace, with great mountain views and a nice playground for the girls before beginning our assent to the tower.  The hike was under an hour and the girls were rewarded with yet another playground at the top.  The tower views didn't interest them near as much as the enormous, fit for a giant, teeter-totter.  Next time we go we should bring some sausages and take advantage of the great fire pit that was there.

There was a second restaurant next to the radio tower that had some great photo's on their website of the area. Worth checking out: http://bachtel-kulm.ch/content.asp?ID=9

Lexie and the Slide

Lexie is growing up!  Check out this cute movie I made of her going up and down the slide.

Mmmmm, toes!

Kaitlan's Räbenlichtli Parade

For the second year in a row we enjoyed the very Swiss tradition of the Räbenlichtli Umzug (Turnip parade), this time with Kaitlan's kindergarten and joining up with 3 other kindergarten's in the area. This parade is closely related to the end of the harvest time and signifies the time when the last of the crops are brought in. It's also dark extremely early and a bunch of kids walking around with turnip lanterns and singing these traditional Swiss songs is very heart warming during these long cold nights. This year's hiking path was around our village of Nürensdorf and lasted well over an hour before we reached the ending point at the middle school. There, we joined up with the other groups who were also walking around their respective villages or walking paths. The kindergartners formed a huge circle and sang the Räbenlichtli songs one last time all together. This was followed by free pumpkin soup and bread for everyone. I must admit that soup was fantastic! I liked it more than the one I usually make. I think it was half pumpkin, half cream. Warm soup was the perfect ending for the brisk night air. I wish the US had a similar tradition, it was really so wonderful to a part of it.

Tüfels Chilen

Also in October we spent a spectacularly sunny afternoon checking out this old abandoned quarry that we read about called, Tüfels Chilen. It's now more of little waterfall to look at as nature has pretty well reclaimed any man made damage that may have been done to the area.  The hike was under an hour, through the changing leaves of fall.  It was so great to be outside and enjoying the sunshine and the beauties of nature.

Ted's Hike

In October Ted went on a giant 8 hour? hike with his friend Lenny ? to ?.