Barcelona!

I'm a bit late posting our trip photos from Barcelona at the end of February. Ryan attended the Mobile World Congress there so this was my first opportunity to explore a new city with the kids alone. I was a bit nervous about it so I planned activities that the kids would enjoy rather than drag them through the Picasso Museum! We visited the zoo, aquarium, the beach, and the science museum. All were terrific-Barcelona really is a kid-friendly city!

 Token selfie!!!!!

In order to see some of the amazing art nouveau architecture the city has to offer we took the double decker tour bus. The kids really enjoyed the architecture as you can see...

When Ryan was not working we were able to see more of the sites. We visited the Magic Fountains that put on an amazing show every night. 

Savannah here is wearing one of her Desigual brand dresses that are very popular in Switzerland- the store is from Barcelona so we were able to get some better prices there..

Dad and Travis and a lovely evening..

 We ate tapas pretty much every night. We went to this local restaurant twice and loved the interior as well as the food...

 The  Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família was an AMAZING cathedral! It is nothing like we have seen before. It was designed by Gaudi and has been under construction since 1882!   It is expected to be completed in 2026.

 Guell Parc, also by Gaudi..

It really was a fascinating trip! We are looking forward to our trip back to U.S. in April!

Things we miss about the United States...

With our upcoming trip back to the U.S. next month Ryan and I got to thinking about all the things we miss about the U.S. While we love living in Switzerland, it was pretty easy for us to come up with an extended list and it was funny how many of the items were about food!   Other themes were  the conveniences, customer service, and ease of doing things in the US. Our list below(excepting family and friends, which is a given!)

   Favorite Foods:We are really missing Mexican food which was always the meal we craved when we returned from vacation (or if hungover!). We have been to two Mexican restaurants here and paid what you might expect to pay for a dinner at Hudson's on the Bend for fajitas and margaritas! Close second has to be bar-b-que-Rudy's brisket was always a fave. Both are great with a lite beer-which we can't find anywhere here! There are also baking products you just can't get here and we have to bring back from the U.S.-brown sugar, chocolate chips..(surprising as Nestle is based here)

Individually packaged snacks: These are wonderful when packing snacks and lunches but they are practically non-existent here! You have to buy bigger bags and individually package them yourself. Also those great peeled baby carrots? We don't have them-have to buy big regular ones, peel, cut, etc. We don't tend to have a lot of variety in the snack area either-Switzerland is very restrictive in their product selection favoring their own products to imports. 

Drive Thru Restaurants: The closest one is 20 minutes away and the only one we have is McDonalds. I cannot wait to have a Chik-Fil-A sandwich!

Longer store hours: Talk about an adjustment to how you shop for the week! Stores close between 5 and 6 every day and are closed on Sundays. There is no getting something at night if you forgot something for school the next day(how I miss Target!!!)  The exception is that there are small convenience stores at some train stations. The Sunday closing has been tough to adjust to but they take the day of rest pretty seriously-no mowing the lawn on Sundays, and no recycling either due to the noise. On that note...

  One-stream recycling: I really miss the days of throwing all of my mixed recycling into one giant container! While Switzerland takes recycling seriously similar to a lot of other policies the burden of the effort is put on the individual. They come to pick up paper recycling on Tuesdays, and trash on Fridays, but to recycle glass, plastic bottles, cans, and batteries, you must take them to a designated Ecopoint to drop them off in separate containers. You are not required to recycle but you pay for your trash by the bag, so it is your benefit to recycle!  

Customer-focused service: Those of you who have been to Europe know about the notoriously bad service in restaurants compared to the U.S. As waiters don't have tips as part of their salary the service tends to be slower and without a smile. While we have adjusted to this and don't take it personally as we now know the slower service is because they expect you to linger, with small kids sometimes you just want to get in and out of a restaurant quickly! Same with grocery stores-having the HEB packers put my groceries away instead of packing them myself while the checker watches me is definitely better!

 Lack of construction: Living in suburbia it was  very quiet with little construction. We live closer to a city center and though it is small it is amazing how much construction is going on. My parents commented on the amount of cranes they saw here when they visited and it is true! They do not hesitate regularly block lanes to rip up the road and start reconstruction on another building. This is the view from our back window, though we don't notice the crane as much as we used to:

English!

Definitely something we took for granted before-being in a country where you speak the language! It is so much easier to do well, everything, when you are fluent in the language. We are taking French lessons but I still have to psyche myself up to make phone calls to make appointments, I use Google Translate constantly, and I can  never eavesdrop on other people's conversations! Most food packages have 2 to 3 languages on them:-German, French, and sometimes Italian. At least I don't buy the wrong kind of food as much as I used to!  

I'm sure we could come up with more items but I didn't want this to turn into a rant! We are very happy and have adjusted to the differences of living here-many of which are more positive than negative! But that's another post...




.....Not necessarily related but as usual wanted to include some family shots! They recently got a lot of snow at Les Pleaides, a ski/sledding area close to us. There is a cool sled pull that you attach your sled that pulls you up the hill, which is a real benefit to us not having to drag the kids up ourselves!

Savannah has finished her ski lessons and has made some progress though for her it really is just about getting used to the equipment. Travis is continuing with some private lessons with the ski teacher from his school-he really prefers the one-on-one to a class. 

 Ryan had his 41st birthday on February 28! We made him a nice dinner and this is a key lime cheesecake with a very large sparkler candle in it!

Do you ski?

When we came here for our trip to scout out a new place to live,it was surprising how often we were asked this question. Even more than "Where are you from?" or "What do you do?" Since Switzerland's surface area is 65% mountains I can see why they have such a love affair with all mountain sports.  At the drop-off at Travis's school it is funny to hear all the moms talking about where they skied that weekend and often they are dressed in their ski clothes ready to go while their kids are in school. I myself have scooted off after the drop-off to hit the slopes as well! The closest resort is 15 minutes away, with bigger resorts like Verbier and Port de Soleil 45 minutes away.

The school that Travis attends, Haut-Lac, starts taking the kids for skiing every week starting in first grade, and they have ski teams that regularly participate in competitions. It's amazing to me that they take them skiing at such a young age.  Ryan and I first skiied when we were 13 and 10, respectively.  We have put Savannah in a "Jardin de Neige" (snow garden) where she and other 3-4 year olds get bits of practice. Really it is just babysitting on skis! Travis starts private lessons this week as there was a lot of standing around in his group lessons and not so much skiing. After their lessons we have rewarded them by taking them sledding, which they both prefer to skiing.

Prior to this past weekend, both kids were pretty fearless. Unfortunately we got a little too overconfident this past weekend and took the kids to a slope to ski with us. They say you shouldn't attempt to teach your own kids to ski and that is definitely the truth!To put it mildly, it was a disaster-lots of crashing and crying by most members of the family!  I'm still sore from going up the ski-pull while trying to keep mine and Travis's skis straight. We fell off the pull and got our skis all tangled up.

This past weekend aside, Ryan and I are really enjoying the opportunity however to improve our own skiing abilities. It definitely is different here-they don't have names for the runs(called "pistes") but they have names for the lifts. Therefore it is difficult to know where you are and what level slope you are on. It seems rather easy to ski right off the slope and go "off-piste!" (Which is rather dangerous, as the threat of avalanches is particularly bad this year.)

 In a few weeks we already have another school break (called "Ski Week", naturally) which seems pretty soon considering we just had such a long Christmas break! However, we won't be skiing that week-we're headed to Barcelona for Mobile World Conference-hopefully Ryan will be able to get away to enjoy the city with us!

Couple other snow-related topics: We went to Geneva last weekend to see "Frozen" in 3D and more importantly in English! Of course we are all loving the songs and have been watching clips on Youtube!

Lausaunne is the home of the Olympic committee as well as the Olympic Museum which recently reopened after two years of restoration. There was so much interesting Olympic memorabilia there including medals, mascots, and sports equipment. It really got us in the spirit of this year's Winter Olympics!

This is Norway's mascots from 1994-the girl is named Kristin!

Northern Italy trip

We decided shortly before Christmas to do a trip over the break to fill up the 3 week break Travis had from school(kids here are on vacation a LOT!)  Ryan and I love Italy so we planned a driving trip through northern Italy- Verona, Venice, Modena, and Stresa.

Verona is the town if you recall your high school English where Romeo and Juliet is based. I was fascinated by the beautiful marble streets-we had seen this in Turin but there they were covered. At night with the lights from the shops reflecting off of the marble and the Christmas lights it was a magical atmosphere. We stayed just off the main shopping drag and it was packed from about 4:30 to 7 each night-this is called the "passeggiata"-the evening stroll.

 

Though Romeo and Julie were not real they were based on real families in Verona, and you can visit "Juliet's balcony." There is a statue of Juliet that if you rub her breast is supposed to bring you luck in love (her breast now has a hole in it!)

After Verona we made our way to Venice, one of my favorite European cities!  Venice is a difficult place to navigate because there are no cars on the island. We had to turn our car in keys and all to a parking garage with just a slip of paper to show that we had turned in a vehicle. Then we took a water bus to a stop close to the apartment where we were staying, where the owner then met us (1 hour late, typical Italy! :) He then took our luggage on his boat to our place. While our place was a bit sketchy it was a terrific location in central Venice and bringing the kids' scooters really helped with keeping them going through all the walking. 

Venice truly is "decaying elegance." The architecture is so beautiful but the buildings literally seem to be crumbling before your eyes. Makes you wonder how much longer Venice will be around..

 

I absolutely love Murano glass so it was terrific to take the boat over to Murano to see glass being made. I also picked up some jewelry and decore items for the house. I'm not a big shopper but Venice is one of those places where I can just look and look and look!

The kids had a lot of fun feeding the pigeons in San Marco Square..

We left Venice and headed for Modena-if the name sounds familiar you may have seen it on basalmic vinegar bottles.  The making of the vinegar is quite an art and there are a small number of families who have made it over the generations. We visited a family vintner's house and participated in a basalmic vinegar tasting-even Travis tasted it! The good stuff goes for about $150 for 1 oz-needless to say we didn't get the best stuff but we did bring something back for special occasions. It was a really unique experience!

In Modena we stayed at a farm that is part of the Italian Agriturismo movement. The bed and breakfast was a renovated farmhouse and in addition to growing wine and keeping donkeys, chickens, and cows the owner bottled their own jams and honeys which were delicious.


Ryan and Travis had a boys' trip to the Ferrari museum while we were there and had a great time.

We also visited Parma, home of parmesan cheese. We had delicious meals there as well as in Modena, this area of Italy is definitely a culinary epicenter. 

This is at a cathedral in Parma where the kids lit a candle for good health for their grandparents-I like the intense look on Travis's face in this photo.

Finally we headed to Stresa, which is on Lake Maggiore. We were there for just one night and the weather wasn't totally cooperative so we didn't do much but we had a fantastic dinner!



On the way home over the Alps naturally there was a snowstorm which made for some tense driving, but we eventually made it home. After our trip we are all pretty maxed out on pasta given how much we ate!!! Once we get over our pasta overload I plan to give the pasta maker that Ryan gave me a shot. :)