Trip to the mountains

Haven't made it to the mountains much this summer, and as we'll no doubt be dusting down the sledge soon thought we'd better do a little exploring on foot before it gets too late. Had a great day out in Elm (in the Glarus valley), and the children never cease to amaze me at how they can rocket up a hill if they want to, and overall they climbed 650 meters up (equivalent to half way up Ben Nevis) to reach over 2110 meters altitude and the same back down. At the top was a beautiful little lake to spend some time, with nobody around, and it became apparent why when we finally returned very wearily to see the cable cars at our starting point all hanging motionless as they'd ceased to run over an hour ago. After some desperate hunting, I found a nice guy with a school adventure group staying at a nearby guest house who I think felt so sorry for us and our trekking kids, that he offered to take us down from the cable car station to the valley bottom (which was still quite a way) in his car. It would have finished us off if we'd had to have walked that too. Not sure how I managed to cock that one up, but thankfully, it means I'm also way off track to becoming a Swiss citizen!

The beginning of the walk has lots of carved animals to spot.

Couple of dilapidated huts on the way up. 

Looking like Scotland! Bea heading towards a waterfall/stream.

Ili at little lake Chüebodensee (great echos!)

Bea in the freeeezing cold water.

On the way down. . . .

Fab panorama that Frith took from the top — the lake is in the middle.

First class photo

Received this pic from Bea's teacher this morning of his school class. The little boy he is sitting next to is Reuben, which interestingly enough is a child he used to see regularly (although he can't remember) when I took him to the first English-speaking group we found when we arrived in Zurich, based in the city center (i.e., before Bea could even walk). His father is English, and mother French/Japanese and they've just moved into our area. Bea says they play together quite a bit, so, maybe this will develop into a friendship. The little girl to his right is Sophia (German/Brazilian) who has a soft spot for Bea. Perhaps noticeable from the picture, but Frau Meyer is due to have her baby next month . . . .

Storython on the roof

It probably looks like we do nothing but hang around in hammocks all day — but not true ;-) However, Tuesday afternoon it is just Bea and I at home (Ili is in Spielgruppe Tuesday afternoons this year), so we had a mega 'Storython' (what we used to call our snuggle up with a pile of books sessions when Bea was teeny) reading Roald Dahl on the roof.

Bit of a bonus

We thought summer had gone, but not yet . . . 

Language lessons

We've been expecting a call from Bea's teacher, as all the children in his class whose mother tongue is not German — of which there are about half a dozen children —  have been speaking with the language support teacher to assess how much extra tuition they need in German. Bea had this extra language support all the way through kindergarten once a week. The teacher was very pleased to let me know today that Bea did so well in the assessment that she thought he no longer needed additional support. He makes mistakes, sure, but no more than regular Swiss children, i.e., they mix their High German, and Swiss German, which is normal. So that was a really nice boost for Bea, he's done amazing in his bi-lingual language development.

It was funny, as when he was doing his homework in maths the same day (simple number practice), I asked him as his maths was taught in German, did he do his homework in German? He told me, "Yes, I did, but then I switched languages as I remembered I can speak English!"

There have been some great studies to show that second language acquisition at a young age is a great foundation for future language development, as it strengthens the pathways in the brain which enable you to switch between them. Which is no doubt why when I try to speak French now as I found out in the summer, I speak a very poor version of French-German, and get no-where fast!  So, whether or not he regularly uses German at at later stage, he'll have a solid head-start for languages . . . .

New piano

A friend's mother—apparently a shiatsu-loving eccentric—was exchanging her piano and had no further use for this beast of an instrument that is now sitting in our apartment. It's been great for Bea so far—more so than the three friends who helped lug it up the stairs—and he has been playing it an awful lot more than the electric piano. I'll post a video of a tune soon. . .

Child of the week!

Bea is "child of the week" at school this week and the teacher took this photo of him to bring home—there's a bigger one at school. So today he could take some toys in to show his classmates, and he gets to help the teacher in some duties (handing out work, etc). He was very chuffed, especially as he was the first one this term!

Tigers, toads and treetops

It's been about a year since our last visit, and that seems to be the secret to the kids enjoying the zoo. It was a Zurich holiday today and Bea and Ili whizzed around the zoo highly excited as if they'd never before seen an animal. It was a bit of a "seen it", move on, "seen it", move on, at times, with Ili asking "is it dead?" . . . . but they had a great time. The tropical "Masoala" has a new treetop walkway to ascend—27 degrees on the ground climbing to 34 degrees at the canopy (40 on a summers day!) giving you a good view down over the tropical house, birds, lemurs etc. Nice interactive European frog/toad display in the reptile house with all of the particular frog/toad croaks at the touch of a button, including the midwife toad that we've both heard and found in France (very small little toad). Was all good, and we don't have to visit again until 2014 ;-) and by then the new elephant enclosure will be ready—41 million CHF spent for half-a-dozen elephants and a rhino, and I'm sure they won't appreciate the architectural roof structure. This city has too much money! I wonder how far that sum would go towards elephant conservation.

Stumbled upon a circus

On a cycle out into town this evening—which was planned as a simple picnic in a the Josefwiese park—we stumbled upon a cool little free open air circus performing in the park—Zircus Chnopf. Great, child-friendly performance with acrobats, rope dancers, and a storyline.

Summer shines on . . .!

Been a busy, but great week. Sorry for lack of postings, but work is getting in the way.

Here's a few pics of the last week. . . . We found a cool little fish and chip cafe, in the uber-trendy part of town, and I think the guys serving were somewhat stoned. We're usually left feeling broke when eating out, but this time when handing over 50 CHF to pay, Frith was given 42 CHF back. After receiving a confused glance from Frith, the stoned server went back to his till and handed him another 5 CHF! Later on, the same guy tried to pour beer for the kids! We'll go back again ;-) And they've opened a fairly new cycle route that now easily connects our part of town via a renovated viaduct (full of new markets, cafes, etc), to this vibrant, 'alternative'  part of town, which is cool for us! More 3 CHF fish and chip suppers, please! The pic of Bea at the bottom is by Zurich's tallest building, the Prime Tower . . .  Not exactly the empire state building, but has become a bit of a landmark and sits in the middle of this developing quarter of the city.

We managed to get some lake swimming in last weekend at Küsnacht badi (further down the lake), and another trip to the Theatre Spektakel Saturday night for some more free street theater— but the three-week long festival is now over. The pic of Bea late at night is at Theatre Spektakel with his kite!