So begins week 2 of BTS (Back To School)

Monday, August 27, 2018

It's Monday morning, and the apartment is empty; the girls are off to school, Justin is off to work and I am starting week 2 of the school year. I kept myself busy last week with tasks to keep me from feeling lonely - I did some pretty exciting (sarcasm) things to keep myself busy: 

• I cleaned the shower drains (actually kind of cool the way the Swiss have the filters set up efficiently to catch the hair and debris that goes down the shower drain, but not really a thrilling task)
• I met up with a Mom from the school and showed her the river where we let our dogs run and play. The unfortunate part was that her dog kept running away to explore the forest and the river. The good part was that the hour I thought I was going to spend walking ended up taking 3 hours! That filled my morning!
• I tried a Pilates class in Zug and I loved it. I am going to sign up for a class that will go for 18 weeks! That will get me visiting Zug once a week and I can combine it with other shopping and exploring (actual or window shopping).
• I found an office supply store to get some school supplies for the girls. That is one of my weaknesses, but I stayed fully on task and only bought the folders that Shannon needed.
• I rode my bike to Hollegrotten to explore that bike route. It isn't that far away from the apartment, but it was a nice ride. Next time, maybe I'll stop and have coffee at the cafe that is tucked into the area! I love how cafes and restaurants can survive in Switzerland out in the middle of nowhere!
• I put together Sarah's IKEA set of drawers.
• I met Kelly for a swim in Zug at the badi and rode my bike through the crazy construction detours that have appeared. Luckily, the Swiss label everything quite well and the detours did not cause me to get lost.
• I went to the Okihof - the recycling centre - to drop off all our un-garbage that has accumulated. Then I came home and labeled some bags so that the recycling can be sorted ahead of time and save me having to do it at the Okihof.

Clearly, if these were my mid-week highlights, I have some improving to do!! More exercise this week, signing up for a fitness class, some new parent meetings are on the calendar and I have to dedicate some time to knitting Sarah's sweater so that I can hopefully get it done before October!

Here's hoping this week is a wee bit more exciting!!

Last Week of Summer Holidays

August 15, 2018

It's the last week of summer holidays and it's a relaxing one.
Shannon is enjoying 2 days at a horse camp in Lucerne, and Sarah is enjoying 2 training sessions at a gymnastics club in Lucerne. I am enjoying having my kids around before school starts back! Then it's off to Orientation for each of the girls before classes start next week. 

Some friendly cows on my morning walk. 

They are pretty interested in Murphy but he refuses to look at them.

I have to be honest and say that although things look happy on instagram and in my writing, it's been a rough day here with one child being homesick and nervous with school rapidly approaching...we'll get through...tears and deep breathing, and maybe a little chocolate...

Watch Out Italy, Here We Come!!

Friday, August 10

We drove this morning to Locarno, in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. Justin found a fantastic Lido where we spent the afternoon swimming in the indoor pools, outdoor pools or lake, going down the water slides, reading and napping on our lounge chairs. It was pretty relaxing for everyone!! 

Not a bad view for the afternoon!

Then we headed out for Italy, aiming to get most of the way to La Spezia. We are meeting Lea and Maui Calcone tomorrow and staying with them until Monday. I am excited to see them as well as to show the girls the towns in Cinque Terre, which are special because that’s where Justin proposed to me!

We decided to take a side trip to Andermatt. The temperature was only 12C up in the mountains! IT was so beautiful and I cannot wait to see it again when we go there to ski.

On the roads in Italy, we learned that the speed limit is only a suggestion. “We’re not in Switzerland anymore!”

We stopped in a little town after passing a couple of potential (but sketchy) hotels along the way.  We settled at Hotel Salus; Piazza Ponci, 7, 43048 Sant'Andrea Bagni PR, Italy

Who doesn't love a pink accented bathroom?!

Pizza leftovers....still delicious cold the next day!

It is a small town - very small - and in true Italian fashion, the kids and people came out in great numbers after 10pm. Ristorante Piccadilly served us the best pizza - THE BEST crust I have ever eaten, for sure. Shannon even got hers with fries on top! Super delicious and not a foreigner other than us!  

Saturday, August 11

Off to La Spezia today!! We started the day with a delicious croissant, filled with a little peach jam. Mmmmm. And a cappuccino!

Keys to driving in Italy: 

• use more accelerator than brakes 
• proceed at least 50km/hr above the speed limit and ignore the cars that are passing you at alarmingly fast speeds. 
• Use lots of hand motions and minimal indicators 

We met up with the Calcone’s this afternoon! We drove a short distance from our hotel to La Spezia and arrived in the morning in La Spezia. 

Then we went to Monterosso (one of the villages in Cinque Terre) for the beach. We rented 2 beach chairs and an umbrella to lounge on and to escape the intense heat of the sun. We got pounded by the waves!! They were big and really hit just a few feet from the beach. It was a fabulous introduction to the beach. 

The beach was PACKED with people!! A sea of umbrellas and beach chairs.

Somehow, the girls are always hungry enough for some ice cream, and how can you blame them? They have done a good job at sampling gelato and ice cream wherever we go!

 After the beach, we headed to the Calcone's apartment and got caught up before dinner.

We waited for the train back from Monterosso and it was late - THUNDER DOME - chaos trying to pack onto the train. We were non-conformists and waited for the second train which came within 5 minutes and we got a seat no problem and rode it in comfort, rather than being squished like sardines! Still, the 20 minute ride took us over an hour and we were all excited to meet up with Lea, Maui, Maddy and Ben.

Dinner on Saturday night was delicious! A little restaurant where I had Trophie pasta with pesto (regional speciality) and tuna and shrimp (seafood is also a local speciality).  Trophie pasta with pesto is what I ate the night Justin proposed to me, so it was a bit of a trip down memory lane for me. 

Sunday, August 12

This was a heavenly indulgent beach day with the Calcone’s. We started the day with coffee and pastries, hearing about Lea’s travels from years before. Shannon, Maddy and I were in stitches laughing and enjoying her trip down memory lane. Here’s what I learned: Lea has a wealth of experience travelling and should never be underestimated!  She will go up against soldiers when needed, and dodge an international search in the name of travel.

We started with a short walk around Vernazza, to the pier for a re-creation of Justin’s proposal!! It was beautiful. The town has changed a lot and a landslide/big storm changed the pier in 2011. But it still has the quaint feel of a small village on the Italian Riviera, and the beautiful buildings are just as I remembered. We couldn’t find the exact alley where we spent a couple nights in an apartment, but it all looked familiar. 

Ben got in a little fishing, we got some photos, and then it was on to Monterosso for the beach day. Today the waves were much calmer, and even I spent a long time swimming. Sarah and Ben spent the longest in the water - maybe 6 hours at least! Shannon and Maddy spent the next longest, which was maybe 5.5 hrs! The kids bought inner tubes to float in and we made a flotilla in the water, catching perhaps a little too much sun, and a lot of fun.  2 for Euros 7!! Much better than renting them for  Euros 5/hr. 

The train back was delayed again... delayed and then delayed again.. Ah, the Italians…. the 20 minute train ride ended up taking us 1.5 hrs. And we have no idea why it was delayed. 

Dinner on Sunday night was pizza. Beautiful pizza since it was Maddy’s choice because we were celebrating her birthday a day early.  Lea even had candles put in Maddy’s pizza to celebrate her birthday and we sang at the restaurant. So much fun!

We drove back to Switzerland on Monday. We picked up Murphy on our way back. 

Murphy has been outstanding settling in. He had a real bout of jet lag for the first week, but luckily, so did I, so we were up often and outside often. He went to a kennel while we travelled to Italy - it seemed like a summer camp for dogs!! He came back dirty, and tired....just the perfect combination! Get this: they find the dogs adjust better if they have a friend, so he had another black lab as his roommate for the few days! ha! Totally a summer camp experience!

The Nesbitt Girls and the Chocolate Factory

August 7, 2018

Ah, chocolate!! It was on my list of things to do, and I dragged the girls with me. .. ok, maybe I didn’t have to drag them at all.  They came willingly. Especially when I told them we would do only a self guided tour... they were happier then but still not thrilled that there was a tour involved. This wasn’t just any tour we were doing: this was a tour of the Läderach chocolate factory. Our eyes lit up at the start of the tour when we were handed a small spoon and a box containing 3 chocolate samples. Our eyes lit up brighter and wider when we saw the 3 chocolate fountains waiting for us to sample them!!! HELLO!! GRÜETZI!!! YES!!

My favourite is still the dark chocolate, Shannon prefers the milk chocolate and Sarah prefers the white chocolate. We left the factory with a good, healthy supply of chocolate! 

The Auto-WHAT?!

August 3-4 :We're off to Germany

First stop: Schaffhausen in Switzerland - love that the Bay windows and paintings  on the buildings were so ornate and beautiful. 

Autobahn: WOW!!! Why doesn’t 160km/hr feel that ludicrous?! I can confirm that 200km/h IS Ludicrous!!! Passing cars was extraordinary and scary!!! It is amazing how fast the kilometres go by at that speed!! The rest of my racing crew was smart to hit the gas when I was asleep - I was white knuckling the car door handle in the back seat when I was awake!!!

For this road trip, I pulled out some of the treats that I brought back from Canada. The fuzzy peaches were a hit with the gang, and they definitely survived better than the chocolate we brought!! The chocolate ended up in a melted chunk - rest assured, we let it cool and enjoyed it from the fridge when we were back from our trip!

Tübingen: to the castle that is now a university (and perhaps was back then?) where we stepped into the laboratory where DNA was discovered in 1869 by Friedrich Miescher! I totally geeked out - truly, I am in awe that I was there! In my next life I am going to go into science instead of accounting! We had to be fast, since we were heading to the AMG factory tour, and there was no way we could be late for that! Construction on the highway meant that we couldn’t benefit from kilometres of unlimited speed limit!!!

The castle was up on a hill, overlooking the area of beautiful countryside, slanted roofs, and vineyards. It was a trek up in the 35c heat and we were thankful that there was some shade in the cobblestone roads heading to the car. 

AMG Factory tour: saw the Formula 1 safety cars and medical cars in for service. They repair the cars every time they need to. 

Dinner was nearby the AMG factory. It was a deliciously traditional german restaurant with schnitzel bigger than the  size of my head! It was superb! So was the local white wine - I tried a Riesling since it was local.

Then on our way to Freiburg the navigation took us through a windy twisty route. Justin wanted to go faster, and said “let’s get slippery and autobahn this  shit”! 

We finally arrived in Freiburg at 9:30pm. Hot day and we are tuckered!! The hotel has no air conditioning and is at least 30c!! Ugh!!! 

It is interesting that even though we are about 150km from Baar, there is a noticeable difference - Town cleanliness, organization, etc. 

Saturday August 4, 2018

Freiburg, Germany: 

There was a market so close to our hotel and it was filled with fruits, veggies, meats, wood workers, wines, honey, and more... plus a couple musicians! 

We went for a walk up into the forest to get to a beautiful look out- well, the actual lookout was a spiral staircase that rose so high, and had a fabulous feature of wobbling when you were at the highest point!!! That was a tidbit only Sarah learned because she was the only one who went up!! We can’t wait to see her photos - I am sure hey are spectacular! 

It is so hot - it said 37.5c at one point. I mentioned already that this is the hottest summer in Switzerland since 1854! But all across Europe there is a heatwave now. And there is hardly a break at night. 

After the hike where we all sweated buckets and soaked through our clothes, we found a cafe. I am craving a coffee but I couldn’t do any more heat, so I enjoyed a smoothie, as did each of the girls. So cool and refreshing!!! Then back out into the heat to wander around before seeking refuge in the Air Conditioning of the car for the drive back to Switzerland . 

Sunday August 5, 2018

Justin had a great time going to the old car show that happens the first Sunday of each month in Zug. He went with Peter, who also loves cars.

The girls and I rested up for our afternoon adventure to Sisikon to watch the RedBull Cliff Diving competition!

It was so cool to be a part of that. There were floaties, boats, canoes, kayaks, dingies, paddle boards, and of course boats of all kinds, all crowded together to make a grandstand. We watched from on the shore, on  the docks (where we were under a sprinkler for some of it!), and from the water. The town of Sisikon has a population of 382, and during the cliff diving event there were over 8000 people!! Taking the train was super easy and we were there in less than 50 minutes. 

Tour de Beaches

The driving age here is 18 years old. They can drive a Vespa or Moped at 16 but a car is 18. They can drink wine and beer at 16 and Strong liquor at 18. It makes some sense to me but I can be confident that Shannon is not too happy about having to wait until she is 18 to drive!!

We continue the beach tour today since it is another super hot and sunny day. Fun fact: this is the hottest summer in Switzerland since 1854!!!! They are actually getting concerned because it is so dry and hot and they are depleting the drinking water reserves. But in typical Swiss fashion, they are Uber prepared with plans and rules: camp fires in the forest are prohibited; and they already conserve about 70-90%of the water used in an average building by recycling and by trapping rain water. It is very

Shannon spent the afternoon with her school friend/ambassador yesterday and it sounds like she is a nice girl. That was a welcome break from hanging with me and Sarah and she seems to be in better spirits after that.  The real meeting of new friends will come when School starts on the 21st of August. And we have a few travels planned for the weekends before that, so that is nice. Sarah is spending time with the 13 yr old daughter of our landlord upstairs. She is so sweet and kind and active (like Sarah) so they seem to get along well. She has come with us to he outdoor gym a couple times, and we went to the outdoor pool with her yesterday.  The outdoor pool was very cool - we went early and by the time we left before lunch, there was a lineup outside to come in! And no wonder in this heat!! There are splash pads, wading pools, lap pools, diving platforms (1 m, 3m, 5m) outside and then a lazy river, hot tub, lap pool, diving pool and leisure pool inside!! I didn’t think I would enjoy going with the girls but I had a great time actually. 

I am so happy with our IKEA furniture. It looks great and works with out apartment. We had to change our typical traditional style to look a bit more modern and I really like it. The couch is huge and we can all sprawl out or we can cuddle close together. Our kitchen table is big enough for an easy 8 chairs so we can have friends over easily but we also have plenty of room for homework and work at the table. We also have a couch and chair on the balcony to enjoy the view and the outdoors.

Our Beach tour has been successful. Here is the rundown so far:

Zug Badi Seeliken: Great location, close to downtown Zug. Nice changeroom facilities so easy to meet Justin after work. Popular meeting spot for people of all ages. Almost entirely grass.

Strandbad Zug: Easy bike ride from the apartment. Super facilities including rest rooms plus a restaurant with drinks and ice cream. Plenty of bicycle parking. Super popular meeting spot for all ages, but it didn't feel too busy. Nice area to swim.

Bruggli Lido: We stumbled here before meeting Justin at Strandbad Zug. There are paddleboards for rent here, and it is a spread out area of beach. Easy bike ride from the apartment and only about a hundred meters from Strandbad Zug. It is next to where the Lorze river flows into Lake Zug.

Oberwil Bei Zug: This beach is much quieter than the other badis. It was an 8 km bike ride from the apartment, but an easy bike ride, now that Sarah and I know the way! We learned the hard way! Very rocky, so we better bring our flip flops next time. The water gets deep very very quickly, which was super nice.

I will update this as we go! There are still some beaches to discover:
Choller - apparently we can take the dog to this beach!
Cham Lido
Strandbad Hunenberg
Strandbad Unteraegari


Lots of work ahead of us in the next couple weeks!!