the hildebrands say hello

It was our pleasure to host our first family visitors a few weeks ago when my Aunt Jeanne and cousin Kurt spent a long weekend with us in Zurich. Kurt is spending a year working as an RA for a school in Denmark and as he had a fall break from work, Jeanne met him Denmark so they could explore more of Europe together. It was Jeanne’s first trip to Europe in 30 years, and Kurt’s first visit to Switzerland, so it was fun to have such excited travelers eager to see new things.

After they spent a few days in Denmark, Kurt and Jeanne spent several days traveling in Germany before riding the train from Munich to Zurich. After one night with us, we sent them off to explore Bern and the Jungfrau while we worked the rest of the week. When they got back to Zurich on Thursday evening, they had seen the Alp up close and were ready to spend a few more relaxing days with us.

I took Friday off so that we could spend some time touring Zurich. I’m developing a patented chocolate-coffee-old town-chocolate route that seems fairly popular with most visitors so far. We walked around the city, climbed to the top of the Grossmunster, and bought lots of chocolate before meeting Martin for lunch. After lunch, we walked more and made a special Starbucks trip. I’m always pleased when Jeanne saves her once-monthly Starbucks trip allotments for my visits, and considering I’m an infrequent Starbucks visitor here in Zurich, it was even more fun to enjoy warm drink together here. As you can tell, I think Kurt especially enjoyed his hot chocolate and double-chocolate muffin.

On Sabbath, we had a lazy morning while waiting for the fog to clear so that our hike up on the Uetliberg allowed for the best views. After another stop for Luxembürgerli (the little macaron-like cookies) at Sprüngli, we headed up the Uetliberg around 1:30 and spent a few hours leisurely walking along the Planet Trail from Uetliberg to the Felsenegg cable car. Each meter along the Planet Trail from Uetliberg to Felsenegg corresponds to one million kilometers and covers the distance from the sun right out to Pluto, with scale models of the planets (scale 1:1 billion) along the way. We were distracted by the scenery along the way and missed seeing a few planets, but it was still a beautiful and insightful way to spend an afternoon together.

Jeanne & Kurt: You are welcome back anytime!

My favorite sight was this farmhouse. Can I live here please?