Grittibänz

As St. Nikolaus Day approaches, the local bakeries and grocery stores sell little bread men, called Grittibänzen. They are made from a slightly sweet brioche dough.

We've even seen them on billboards.

And the newspaper recently did a comparison too:

Church bells

There's a large church just around the corner from our apartment. Right after we arrived they closed for remodeling--this included taking down the bells from the tower. To celebrate the return of the bells and the newly renovated space, the church held a Messiah concert, which we all enjoyed.

We are so glad to hear the bells ringing each day again.

The Föhn

On our recent hike in the Glarner Valley we had amazingly warm weather for mid-November--the wind was so warm it felt like a July evening. We'd heard about the Föhn (a crazy warm mountain wind) but never actually experienced it. You can read about it here. And this note was in the paper the following morning.

Wandern: Klöntalersee

Last weekend we hiked in the Glarner Valley through the city of Glarus, through some pastures, along a river to the Klöntalersee. Then we hiked up to Schwammhöchi for an even better view of the lake and the surrounding snowy mountains.

Playing cards on the train

Wandern: Schnebelhorn

We took a fall hike toward the tallest peak in the canton of Zurich (which is not too high). Many of the hikes we've taken in the past few months are too snowy now for wandern--and most of the lifts are closed until ski season starts up.

Second lantern parade

We had a second St. Martin's Day parade with our Austrian neighbors. In Austria they make their lanterns out of paper. They also taught us another song, which you can hear below.