This is an old post (end November, just managed to finish it now!)
It's been snowing non stop in Zurich. It lets up for a couple of hours and again the snowstorm starts. Sometimes its mild- you can walk in it, and sometimes its really stormy, its difficult to even drive. The highest temperature over the last few days has been + 1 and its mostly -2 or -3 degrees during the day and much colder at night. The downside is that the car gets covered in snow and every trip to the school and back or anywhere needs to more minutes to scrape off the snow, sit in the car with the heater on so that the windows clear and only then you can go. Of course the driveway will be completely snowed in so either you have to shovel an exit for yourself, or take your car 3-4 times over the snow so that i can get out. And its very cold..brr..2 mins outside without a cap or gloves and your hands feel numb, or you get a headache.
The upside is that its so beautiful - there's a huge blanket of snow over everything and it looks amazing. The fir trees are snow covered and the drive to the girls school is through some field and the landscape looks amazing all covered in snow, especially when the sun is out. Its so bright you need to wear goggles to look at the snow. And the best thing about the snow- sledding! Or sledging, i don;t know what is the proper term for it.
Our kind neighbour gave us his two sleds- they were used by his kids when they were young but they are in great condition. And when it snows like this in Zurich everybody heads to Uetliberg where there's a 3 km trail down the mountain. The whole exercise was pretty exhausting though. Cars are not allowed all the way to the top of Uetliberg mountain so parked at the nearest station. The GPS didn't tell us that the last 800 m was restricted access, so we actually had to park away from the station and walk 800m . and with two sleds and two whiny girls (ok they were fine on the way up, but exhausted on the way down!) it felt pretty long!
The train was very crowded (I think the whole of Zurich was on the train headed for the mountain) and there was barely room to stand, let alone manage two cranky kids and sleds. At the top it was easy enough to spot the start of the sledding course. The hubby took S (and zipped away) while I took A and began a more cautious downhill journey. While it was a 3 km downhill trail, a lot of it was very gentle slopes or flat ground so often we had to get down and pull the sled, or sit on it and push hard. The steeper parts were fun but i couldn't go full speed as A was getting frightened. Being Switzerland it was not at all child protected, meaning if you took a curve too fast you could literally fall off the mountain so that made me more cautious but we ended up falling hard once (but not over the mountain!).
It was good fun, the steep stretches made up for the effort of the flat stretches and the whole thing took about 40 minutes. I'd read up on it before going and when i mentioned to the hubby that it could take 40-45 mins he laughed and said to come down the mountain? that should take 2 mins! Now we know.
The return journey was tiring. We ended up at a train station before the one we had parked at. So we had to catch a very full train heading towards the mountain and get off before the stop everyone gets off so there was much pushing and nudging and stepping on toes , that too carrying the sleds but we managed! The Mumbai locals, Bandra-Churchgate experience came in handy! I lost my gloves in the train and my hands literally froze on the 800 m stretch back to the car. It did not help that A who was exhausted and cold by now kept whining and i had to carry her and the sled.
It was fun, but we won't do that again in a hurry! I thought i was decently fit now with the regular running on the treadmill but all my joints and muscles were aching the next day.
It's been snowing non stop in Zurich. It lets up for a couple of hours and again the snowstorm starts. Sometimes its mild- you can walk in it, and sometimes its really stormy, its difficult to even drive. The highest temperature over the last few days has been + 1 and its mostly -2 or -3 degrees during the day and much colder at night. The downside is that the car gets covered in snow and every trip to the school and back or anywhere needs to more minutes to scrape off the snow, sit in the car with the heater on so that the windows clear and only then you can go. Of course the driveway will be completely snowed in so either you have to shovel an exit for yourself, or take your car 3-4 times over the snow so that i can get out. And its very cold..brr..2 mins outside without a cap or gloves and your hands feel numb, or you get a headache.
The upside is that its so beautiful - there's a huge blanket of snow over everything and it looks amazing. The fir trees are snow covered and the drive to the girls school is through some field and the landscape looks amazing all covered in snow, especially when the sun is out. Its so bright you need to wear goggles to look at the snow. And the best thing about the snow- sledding! Or sledging, i don;t know what is the proper term for it.
Our kind neighbour gave us his two sleds- they were used by his kids when they were young but they are in great condition. And when it snows like this in Zurich everybody heads to Uetliberg where there's a 3 km trail down the mountain. The whole exercise was pretty exhausting though. Cars are not allowed all the way to the top of Uetliberg mountain so parked at the nearest station. The GPS didn't tell us that the last 800 m was restricted access, so we actually had to park away from the station and walk 800m . and with two sleds and two whiny girls (ok they were fine on the way up, but exhausted on the way down!) it felt pretty long!
The train was very crowded (I think the whole of Zurich was on the train headed for the mountain) and there was barely room to stand, let alone manage two cranky kids and sleds. At the top it was easy enough to spot the start of the sledding course. The hubby took S (and zipped away) while I took A and began a more cautious downhill journey. While it was a 3 km downhill trail, a lot of it was very gentle slopes or flat ground so often we had to get down and pull the sled, or sit on it and push hard. The steeper parts were fun but i couldn't go full speed as A was getting frightened. Being Switzerland it was not at all child protected, meaning if you took a curve too fast you could literally fall off the mountain so that made me more cautious but we ended up falling hard once (but not over the mountain!).
It was good fun, the steep stretches made up for the effort of the flat stretches and the whole thing took about 40 minutes. I'd read up on it before going and when i mentioned to the hubby that it could take 40-45 mins he laughed and said to come down the mountain? that should take 2 mins! Now we know.
The return journey was tiring. We ended up at a train station before the one we had parked at. So we had to catch a very full train heading towards the mountain and get off before the stop everyone gets off so there was much pushing and nudging and stepping on toes , that too carrying the sleds but we managed! The Mumbai locals, Bandra-Churchgate experience came in handy! I lost my gloves in the train and my hands literally froze on the 800 m stretch back to the car. It did not help that A who was exhausted and cold by now kept whining and i had to carry her and the sled.
It was fun, but we won't do that again in a hurry! I thought i was decently fit now with the regular running on the treadmill but all my joints and muscles were aching the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment