Parents visit
A "blog" with only one entry in it is pretty sad, isn't it? So let's make it at least one entry per year ...
My parents came over to Europe to visit in September. I had them with me here in Zurich for three long weekends; they made some other excursions on their own during the week when I had to work. It was great fun, and the weather even mostly cooperated. I showed them some of the sights around Zurich, plus we explored some places I haven't been before.
My parents said they weren't up for too much up- and downhill hiking, so of course the first hike I took them on, along Uetliberg, was quite a bit longer (and hillier) than I remembered. We started at the train stop at the top of Uetliberg and walked south along the hilltop until we hit the gondola at Felsenegg, about 5.5 km. The view from the top of Uetliberg is pretty nice, but when we were there all we got to see was clouds rolling up and over us. But the weather improved as the day went on and the sun eventually came out.
Other trips included riding a portion of the Glacier Express (OK, but not spectacular, and what with having to take the train to and from the Glacier Express route, it was a long day of train-riding); the Rheinfall and castle Laufen by Schaffausen; a boat trip on Lake Zurich; some short hikes on Zurichberg, Hönggerberg, and along the Limmat; and a day trip to Luzern and the surroundings. The Luzern trip was great fun. We walked around the town and up into one of the towers in the old city wall. The tower houses an old pendulum clock, and Dad and I had great fun looking at the clockwork and trying to puzzle it out. Then we took the boat on the Vierwaldstättersee (Lake of Lucerne) to Weggis and took a gondola halfway up Rigi. We planned to take a cog railway the rest of the way up to the peak, but the railway was being worked on and wasn't running. So instead we walked along the mountain to a different cog rail line. Since it was getting late in the day, we just took the cog railway down into Goldau and then took the train home. If I get nice weather on another weekend this fall, I'm going back to get to the top of Rigi!
