more Murren to Gimmelwald

The wildflowers are blooming in the mountains.

There is always so much to see.

Wandern: Mürren to Gimmelwald

Zoë chose a hike in the Berner-Oberland area of Switzerland for her birthday. This is actually a hike we all did when we were visiting Switzerland a few years ago.

One of the highlights of the trip was the train ride from Zürich to Bern, which involved riding on a familienwagen, which we sometimes call a kindercar. This is a train car dedicated to kids--it actually has a playground built into the train. Talk about Swiss innovation! The world needs more of these!

The hike wanders along a ridge featuring some of the large snow capped mountains of the region: the Eiger, the Mönch, and the Jungfrau. It also passes through two towns that are car-free. To reach the towns you have to take a cable car.

There's almost always a playground at the start of the trail:

Many of the Alps run little restaurants. Someday we're going to stop at one....

This hike involved climbing around and over a lot of fences--these are meant to keep the cows in their proper places.

Zoë is 9!

For Zoë's birthday celebration, we lit a "tischbombe" -- literally a "table bomb." It's a cardboard rocket like thing that you light, with a match! None of us knew what to expect and we were kind of worried we might shoot a hole through the apartment ceiling. It smoked for awhile and then the top blew off and small toys and party favors flew everywhere!

Zürich's tram museum

We finally made it to Zürich's tram museum--Zoë's been wanting to go since we got here!

There were lots of old trams to climb aboard and explore.

And we even got to ride a historic tram home. It runs once a month for part of the year.

Burkliplatz farmers' market

Heidi discovered another fantastic farmer's market.

http://mykugelhopf.ch/2008/08/to-market/

In addition to the usual fruits and veggies, and cheeses and breads, this one specializes in cut flowers and potted plants. Uh-oh! The balcony is getting crowded! Heidi had to buy more pots....

Der Goldene Apfel

This is the first thing Zoë brought home from school:

Zoë had to read a book called Der Goldene Apfel. Here is a page from the book:

First day of schule

Zoë and Annie started school last Monday. Here they are heading off to school at the crack of dawn.

They are going to a public school here and are in a special class which is meant to teach German to newcomers to Switzerland. This is a bit like ESOL at Belle Sherman, but instead of being mixed into a regular class the newcomers have their own class. Zoë and Annie have five other kids in their class, 2 from the States, 2 from Spain, and 1 from Finland.

Much of their week is spent studying German. The rest is focused on math and social studies or science. For gym they have "turnen," which is like gymnastics, and then they have swimming once a week. They also have a music/art component and something called "handarbeit" or handwork, which is knitting or woodworking or beading.

So far they are really enjoying the experience.

Here they are rubbing the baby lion's nose for good luck on the first day--this statue is right next to the playground at school.