Greetings from the Grand People (Final Chapter)

Dear All,

Well here we are back in good old South Africa, but not home yet.  However we are safely back with all our baggage intact after a fairly pleasant flight with Emirates Airline via Dubai.

Last weekend was special as we spent Saturday exploring the quaint German town of Regensburg built alongside the Danube River.  It was only about a two hour drive from Plzen so we left early and only went for the day.  When we arrived we found parking in a car park which was half occupied by a type of farmers market, reminiscent of the Sedgefield Farmers Market and after looking at all the stalls we went off to explore the town.   We walked along the river bank watching the river boats full of tourists as far as an old stone bridge which was well photographed and then headed into the old town with an old Roman Fort built in 179AD, which we duly photographed (from all angles!).

 

We then explored some very quaint old streets until we arrived opposite a very old church where we made a pitstop for Beer, Coffee, Cool Drinks and hot Chocolate, under the shade of a large umbrella.  We had to go through the pub to get to the loos and I was so impressed with the pub I took a couple of photos.

From there, refreshed, we continued to explore the town, ending up back at the old stone bridge at lunch time to have sausages and sauerkraut at an open air restaurant on the bank of the Danube.  However this was no ordinary Wors!  It was The Historical Wurstkuchl of Regensburg!  The oldest sausage tavern of the world! 

"By the Danube whirlpools right next to the Old Stone Bridge you'll find the over 500 year old historical WURSTKUCHL!  Little has changed since the days where in the Middle Ages Regensburger stonemasons and dockers treated themselves to refreshments at this tavern: with it's charcoal grill, homemade sausages purely of ham and pork, sauerkraut fermented in their own cellar and of course the Wurstkuchl mustard following the original recipe of Elsa Schricker."    Most enjoyable, but very busy and of course there is only one item on the menu.  The only variation is the number of sausages you order with your sauerkraut.  We went the most economical route and ordered three plates of twelve sausages and shared between the six of us, plus beer and cooldrinks.

Suitably refreshed we continued our exploration which included a couple of very old and ornate cathedrals with very colourfully painted ceilings and lots of statues.  Needless to say we used up lots of our camera memories with all the pics we took.  We also found a few town squares filled with lots of people attracted by various bands and singers entertaining the crowds.  The people were all very well behaved and Jolly and I'm sure the beer sales were excellent.  What a pleasant vibe everywhere.   We left Regensburg after five PM having had a lovely last day of exploration.

Sunday was pack up day.  Hayley had found out that our bus to Zurich stopped in Plzen so we did not have to go all the way to Prague to catch it.  This saved a lot of traveling and it left from Plzen an hour later than Prague, giving us more time with the family.   We said our good byes  to Colin and the girls at the flat and Hayley drove us to the Bus Station with all our luggage.  The bus trip, starting about 22h30, did not give us much sleep.  After about an hour we stopped at a Macdonald's for a 15min pitstop and then  at the border the lights came on again and we all had to produce our Passports.   A few hours later, possibly at the Swiss Border on came the lights again and we had to hand over our passports which were taken away and scrutinized before being handed back to us.  It was about 06h00 when we got to Zurich and all got out at the bus station.  Luckily there was a coffee shop and a hotel right there so we made our way there and treated ourselves to a magnificent mug of hot chocolate whilst finding out how to find our hotel, The Europe Hotel.  We learned we could catch the No 4 tram nearby which would take us there, we had to get off at the Opera House stop and it was just around the corner.  We reached the Hotel safely and they had an empty room which we could occupy right away, so had a bit of a ziz until near midday.  The hotel organised for us to do a two and a half hour bus tour of Zurich starting at 13h00.  We caught the tour from the bus station where we arrived so it was easy to find.  We enjoyed the tour and the guide was good and after landing back at the bus station we decided to walk back  to our hotel, taking in the sights alongside the water/river.  We also found the Tourist Info Centre who suggested we do a round train, hike, cable car and train round trip by ourselves the next day.   We found a pleasant restaurant for supper and then crashed quite early after a tiring night and lovely day.

Tuesday dawned fine after intermittent rain the previous day.  After a good breakfast we packed our bags and left them in Reception and arranged for the airport shuttle bus to take us to the airport at 18h50, in plenty of time to catch our flight home.    We caught the No 4 tram again to the main station where we caught the S10 train from Platform 2 to Uetliberg.  That was the end of the line and we hiked up quite a hill to get to "The Top Of Zurich".  It is the summit of the highest hill in Zurich at 869.6 meters with lovely panoramic views of Zurich and surrounds below.   From there we did a super walk of approx. 6kms through forests all along the ridge with many undulations to the cable station at a place called Felsenegg.  Here we had a jolly good lunch of Goulash soup and bread rolls plus a beer for me and apple drink for Mom.  The cable car ride down was interesting because we stopped half way down whilst a technician in the car coming up stopped at a pylon while he climbed out and onto the top of the pylon superstructure to carry out some repairs or inspection.  Anyway it added interest to the ride down to Adliswil.   From there we had a short walk through the town to the railway station where we caught the S4 train back to Zurich station. It was a thoroughly enjoyable outing.   We then strolled along the waterfront and stopped at a pub built out over the water for a rest in deck chairs and refreshments until it was time to go back to our hotel to catch the shuttle bus to the airport.   We both loved Zurich which is a clean city and nearly everyone is smartly dressed and pleasant. They are helpful and one can normally find someone who understands the English language, so getting around is that much easier.  It is a beautiful city.

Our flight back to Cape town was uneventful and quite pleasant.  From Zurich we had the two seats on the side with a good window position so could see the approach to Dubai.  From there ,however, in the larger plane we were not able to get seats in the centre on the isle, but had the window and centre seats of the three on the side, so had to ask the isle set passenger to let us out every time we needed to go walkabout.   However it was a day time flight so the window was an advantage at times when there was no cloud cover and we could see the ground.

As you may have heard, Michelle took a tumble down the stairs at her home last week and ended up in hospital with a couple of crushed vertebrae (compression fractures) so we have broken our journey in Cape Town and will only fly back to PE on 31st July.  It was so fortunate that we flew overseas from CT and not Joburg and are able to be here to help the family.   Michelle is coming on nicely now. She must spend most of the time over the next month on her back, but has been given a brace to strap on to be able to get around the house a bit.  She must either be on her back or she can stand or walk a bit, but cannot sit for more than 15 minutes a day!    So, here we are in Cape town for a while and since we arrived on Wednesday it has been very cold and wet.  Yesterday we woke to find fairly heavy snow on the mountains to the north, which we can see from their home.  Today dawned clear and sunny but not very hot. All the spectacular views from the house are very clear after the rains and as it was such a nice day Pierre suggested we go and climb Lion's Head after lunch.   He, Michael and I set off after lunch and had a super climb in perfect weather.  Mike managed the climb extremely well and even managed the scrambles up the chains without help from Pierre.   The views after the rains were clear and spectacular and we had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.

Well, that about sums up our holiday, with our very grateful thanks to Colin and Hayley for all they did for us and making it all possible.   A holiday and travel experience we will never forget!!!

As I write this The Wood family are in London!    Hayley learned just a few days before we left that she had to fly to Zurich and then go on to Zug on the same Monday we arrived in Zurich.  She had to attend a two day meeting in Switzerland and then back home and on to London on the Thursday for more meetings until the weekend.  Next week, Wednesday she has to fly to Johannesburg for more meetings, returning home to Plzen next weekend.  Wow, what a busy girl!   Anyway,we were surprised to get an SMS to say she was in London with the whole family for a few days, until Monday!   No doubt they will have more interesting news on their Blog in a few days time and we look forward to reading all about it.

Bed calls so it's time to stop my waffling.   Lots of love to you all from us all in Cape Town.

(Greetings Chapter 2)

Schhhhweiz!!

The casual observer might think that a word like this might pass the lips of a son-in-law on the eve of a 6 week visit by his mother and father in-law...

It may also be fair game for burning ones fingers while stealing a hot piece of borewors off the grill, or when the boks knock-on in the oppositions 22.

 

Far from being expletive this expressive little word is better considered superlative for all things scenic and beautiful. I am, of course referring to Switzerland, who is known to her (German) own by this name.

As it happens, our second trip to Schweiz in 6 months was occasioned by the arrival of the in-laws for a 6 week visit! No expleting necessary on this occasion though, far from it in fact, the date has been counted down to for a good month or more by an eager wife, eager babies and, yes, me too.

We collected the weary travellers at Zurich airport, after the necessary howdoyoudos, and without any great further ado made for an old friend (of Geoffs) in the Swiss countryside.

The car was filled with a pleasant natter punctuated by the occasional yelled sentence whenever trying to communicate with the mother of all ducks in the back seat...

 

Happiness all round, we stopped in the Alps, not sure where, and if I think of it, not really important at all, could be anywhere in the region and it would look as grand. Motherduck was spouting superlatives of her own at the passing scenery.

 

We were amazed by the amount of snow still on the ground... we are only a few weeks away from the summer solstice and there's just snow everywhere.

You might say "Duh... you're in the Swiss Alps dude, what would you expect??" and you'd be partially right - but what one does expect is snow capped mountains, maybe a glacier or two, like you'd see on a postcard or a box of Swiss Chocs, but what one (at least this one...) does not expect to see is 9 feet of snow standing on the road side far from the top of anything...

With frozen lakes to match (behind the girls is a very frozen lake)!

I got a shoe-full of the powder while doing this shot... it was, well... lets settle for "refreshing"

 

And, no matter which way you turn, there is something stunning to look at - enlarge this one - its lovely

 

In the mountain pass, the temperature was in the low 20's, the masses of snow and ice melting at a heck of a pace and the rivers, big and flowing fast.

On the way to Nigel's place in Scuol (say school - sort of), coming down from the pass.

Out and about in Scuol with Nigel and the family, taking in the quaint village. Many of the houses here are old farm houses, in the neighbourhood of 4 to 5 centuries old, and are a lesson in how good we have it in the 21st century.

While the houses are built as solid as you can imagine, and surprisingly big too, and as pretty as they look, (not sure if they looked this great in the early days) they might not have been as comfy on the inside as the outsides belie. Back in the day, these were essential shelter, but not only for people...

The front door is typically set in a large domed wooden board like in the house above. Nothing too far out of the ordinary right? That feeling goes away fast enough when Nigel, our capable guide, tells of how the entire arch can be opened and a hay wagon wheeled into the now gaping doorway of the house to offload nosh for the beasites. "Well...", you may ask, "why the heck would you have feed delivered into your house...?" one would think that leaving it in a pile, or store outside would be service enough wouldn't one, whereas bringing it into the actual house is taking it a bit too far, and driving a wagon through the front door into your living room of all places really is just the last straw... (I'm ashamed to admit that there is a pun intended here...) Imagine how the carpets must have looked!

As it happens, there is perfectly good reasoning behind all of this oddness. You see, the farmers used to keep the animals in the house with them during the winters. Pause for dramatic effect
That's right, in the house. Not in the living room itself you understand, that would have been impractical, what with trying to watch the telly and Bessie chewing her cud in the line of vision.

European winters are exciting enough with central heating and all the other mod cons I've spoken about in previous blogs, but for those of African origin such as we, there are still a few things to get used to...

One example I will mention briefly here is the need for space and fresh air... On any given day one would prefer not to live on top of (literally) your own livestock, one would prefer them out in the kraal, yes it is a drag having to get up and shoot the lion, leopard, hyena and jackals that pester the animals at night, but you'd get used to it. And after a few of their cohorts get shot, the other predators would probably get the message that oubaas means business when he gets up with his rifle and would leave the herd alone.
Ok, in Europe, generally space is not something you commonly get, as in this case where your livestock spends the winter mooing in the basement. Secondly, during an African winter, when it's cold you put on a jersey or a coat, throw an extra blanket on the cot and stoke the fire. In Europe, you dress up in everything you own, sleep under very warm bedclothes and, because you don't have distributed heating systems yet, you make one fire and make the most of it. The other thing you do is make use of the body heat of the animals a foot below your feet in the basement. Through the gaps in the wooden floor boards a steady flow of warmth would rise up into the house, the living room in this case and ease, ever so slightly, the terrible cold of winter. But this blessing, as I'm sure you're guessing comes as a package deal with some other stuff. Cows, pigs and sheep don't save up a big poo or pee, dash out of the house like fido or fluffy, go to potty by the tree, and zoom back into the house. They unceremoniously dump the whole lot right where the location and mood happens to find them. When that location is a foot under your living room floorboards, then you can bet that body heat is not the only thing that's going to be rising up through the gaps in the floor.

I'm not sure if I mentioned that it gets really cold in winter... when it's cold like that, and you open the window, it gets even colder, so you know what happens? You don't open the windows! Ever! Well, it's not exactly "ever" but you certainly don't get to open them from November to March - that's a long time to hold your breath... Now, I think I shall change the subject and remind you about how pretty these places actually are and how wonderful and civilized Switzerland is...

Nigel and the 'duck walking along an old wooden bridge built in 1819, it still carries cars daily and is rock solid, not bad huh?

There are small troughs throughout all the villages, fed by spring water, originally used to water the animals, wash clothes and get drinking water. I am happy to report that, by a simple but clever series of compartments, the people could get to drinking water before Bessie and the washing.

There's a knight of some kind watching over this one - I think he's from the "Dark Side"

 

Not far up the road from Nigel's is another small village called Tschlin, where they brew a unique local beer, we had to go get some after we made some decent headway into Nigel's stock. From the car park, this one tiny part of the view

The same view with us blotting it out, but good, just for the record...

Sarah taking a drink from another of those fountain / trough thingies, like a well-bred princess

I love the way Europeans in general take care to decorate their buildings, everything is adorned, painted and decorated

Another snippet of view out over the mountains as seen from the other side of Tschlin, one would have to have something this wonderful to look at to make enduring a winter worth while.

When you stand on Nigel's doorstep, this is what you see...

You'll need to forgive the perspective distortions here, the photo stitching (or was it the taking) didn't go so well.

If you walk into the aforementioned door, this is what greets you...

Floor sloping upward toward the back, very rustic, very wooden very old and not a single hint of cow gas to be had anywhere.

Our time here ended too soon, bidding farewell, I felt like it was my old friends I was leaving behind. Thanks to Nigel and Valerie for their amazing hospitality and personality quirks.

There is apparently good skiing just up the mountain - see you in a winter coming soon I hope!

To all our millions of faithful readers

To all of our millions of faithful readers... Please be patient, this blog will be updated shortly...

So, just in case you were wondering what has happened to The Woods...

From November the 16th the ski season opened... That should say it all ;)
Then, there were the German Christmas Markets; then shopping for the arriving Marais clan; then frozen lakes for Christmas and new ice skates;
Then a week-long road trip in a vw kombi with 4 adults and 4 kids (ages 3;4;5;&6!!!!) through Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Followed by a week of skiing in France at Samoëns in the Grand Massives with the view of Mont Blanc
This is now our first week-end home since the 9th of November and we are wading through the over 2000 photos from the trip and planning our next ski week-end!

3rd Jan - Tour Day 7

An easy morning is had by all after the usual "crack-of-dawn attack of the hyper children", we have nothing to do, nowhere to go, so there's lots of TV, talking and stuff of the close-to-bored spectrum. The guest house is closed today, but inimitable Gabby lets us stay on in the rooms for as long as we like - still no extra cost. At some point in the morning we go out and have a look around, there is snow everywhere, a small field next to the house and a river passing by, Michael wants to ski,

Sarah wants to to sleigh,

Hayley and Amber are off on a walk,

 

... there's a degree of fun happening...

 

12:00 comes and goes, some sms's start moving about and there are just delays... eventually the man with the spare bus arrives at about 3:30 and we are keen to get moving. They unload the new bus and Pierre happily begins to pack it - I take the man over to the stricken Volksie and he gets in to see what all the trouble is. Sure enough that stick won't budge. He starts the engine, clutch in, tries again. Almost immediately switches off again, pulls the keys from the ignition, sticks the "other" key into the gear lock..., the blood drains from my entire body as I know what is about to happen, the little silver button pops out and - well, the *&^%*&^#(@*&$#^$*&^* gear stick is as free as a bird... we drive around, there really is no problem.
I am speechless.
What we'd done was allow one kid at a time, on rotation to sit up front in the bus between the driver and whoever else is sitting in the front seat. The booster seat lifts the foot of the kiddy to the precise height of the gear lock and... well, one can guess the rest, it is only a matter of time till that little silver button gets a nudge, a shove, a kick or something locking the stick in place. Aiiiii!
The man had to pack up his new car and drive all the way back to Prague...
We told Gabby the news and she did laugh... at least someone thought it was amusing.
If you are ever in the neighbourhood and want to meet the proprietor of the Gastof Engel, and who qualifies for the title of Engel all on her own, stop of at these coordinates: Hauptstraße/St2008 @47.613060, 10.632230 and say "Hi".

Thanks for all the help Gabby!

Moving right along... now all we have to do is drive, in the same bus, to Zurich for the night.

Click here for the previous day - 2nd Jan

Click here for the next day - 4th Jan