International Visitors 1

We've been busy the last couple of weeks with visitors from foreign climes, as you will soon see. First, Andrew and Maria came to visit from Slovakia/Scotland/Norway. So we showed them the sights of Zurich and it was very fun, but unfortunately I have left it so long to write up, that I can't remember exactly what we did. Perhaps some photos will help......

Sight one: Ilona

At the river; Bluet probably ate some ice cream a little later on. And we all jumped in the river because the weather was so hot

The tram, going somewhere. We took the tram a lot. Ilona did not face the right way for this photo

Of course, we had to go see the world famous Zurich pond. This day it rained

The big pond; I think Bluet got her feet wet

A park near the big pond

A new person to push the swing proves popular

Exhaustion

Looking at the bees - we went for brunch at PQ - which is funny, because when Bluet was the same age as Ilona is now, and Andrew came to visit New York, we went to the branch of PQ in Central Park. 

Andrew and Maria bought Bluet a lego house for her birthday, which is still being played with every day

Then we went for a walk in the woods near our house. There is a gun range up there (we discovered), where the European championships were taking place, so our pleasant walk was interrupted by sporadic gun shots. We also saw some of the women's marathon the day we went to look at the pond, and quite possibly would've been visible in the background on TV. 

There are also big piles of earth

1-2-3 Jump!

Just outside of the city there is a place where you can take a cable car up the mountain and get a great view of the city. So we did a small excursion by tram, train and cable car. Bluet loved being in the 'little car' above the trees, and we saw a splendid view of Zurich.

Apple Juice at the top of the mountain. It was too fizzy for Bluet

Coming up next: more international visitors

Gran Helen in Zurich

And then it was time to return home. To continue our holiday we brought Gran Helen back with us to enjoy the sun and rain of Zurich, and experience first hand the playgrounds she had read all about on this very blog

From York

To Cambridge......

To Zurich (not pictured, Luton Airport as it is the worst place on earth)

Having a visitor gave us an opportunity to see what Zurich has to offer the tourist (aside from playgrounds)

This house by Le Corbusier is opposite the playground pictured above

If they do classes in English, I might study here

At the world famous Zurich pond

Bluet was fascinated by this window display in our local model train retailer. I therefore thought that this photo would be of interest to some friends and relations out there in the Aberdeen area

Zurich One

We are still getting acclimatised to Zurich. It seems that there are a lot of places to take kids. There is a playground with a wooden pirate ship a minute or two from our house, and we have already been there several times. Zurich is built around a lake (or as Bluet said 'A pond' - when I corrected her, she said, 'No, I think it is a pond') and on Sunday we went to a place where the edge of the lake is fenced off for kids to swim. It was very nice. Still, it is weird being surrounded by people speaking foreign, I can't help thinking that Zurich (and the world in general) would be greatly improved if everyone spoke English. But we will learn German fast enough, I'm sure, especially from trying to work out what to buy to eat - as you can see we have successfully purchased ice cream.

The world famous Zurich pond

In Zurich, it is impossible to get homesick

One of the nicest things that has happened at the park is that Bluet is very keen to push Ilona on the swing, which Ilona loves. Bluet even knows not to push it too high

(NB Bluet does not like Swiss Cheese - I gave her some, and she said 'I don't like this cheese, can I have some cheese that I like'. I concur.)