Ice skating with friends

Over Christmas Break we took a trip with our friends Zoë B. and Felix and their mom, Kathy, to the Dolder ice rink, which sits on a hill above the city. It's said to be the largest open-air ice rink in Europe.

A trip to the desert . . .

. . . in the greenhouse at the Botanischer Garten.

Urban snowman

Queen for the day

Between New Year's and Epiphany all the bakeries in Zurich sell Dreikonigsbrot (three king's bread). Inside the bread is a tiny plastic king--if you're lucky enough to get the king in your portion, you get to wear the cardboard crown that comes with the bread and be ruler for the day. Guess who got the king this year!

Penguin parade

Every cold day during the winter, the Zurich Zoo has a Penguin Parade--the penguins are let out of their enclosure and get to walk along the path a ways. Zoë and Annie joined in recently too!

Silvester

We had a fantastic Silvester (New Year's Eve) here. Lots of ladybugs and pigs around to bring luck for the new year.

We had our usual oil fondue (though the tradition in Switzerland is Fondue Chinoise, where you cook meat and vegetables in broth instead of oil) and then headed over to the university terrace that overlooks the city. A bit after midnight the church bells started ringing. All the lights in the city went out and we saw a spectacular fireworks display.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Lizard