The family friends I have in Zurich are actually family, The Johnson's...Paul and Jenni Johnson to be exact. The connection is that Paul's younger brother Ralph is married to my elder sister Ashley. The plus side to this particular weekend was that Ralph was planning to be at Paul and Jenni's with most of my niece and nephews too! I was keeping it a secret from Izzy, Ciaren and Euan that I would be there too.
Thus my story of the Zurich weekend commences in photos. Lot's and lot's of photos!
Despite the look of the early morning sun, it was a late start after I picked up Liz...
Moi at the empty station awaiting our train.....
Ich lerne Deutsch, but not swiss German...that could be a problem, not that that will stop me Deutsch zu lernen anyway...........
No one to see you picking your nose Liz........?
She's just not looking forward to a dull three hour journey......
Not so dull anymore! A three hour journey with Tess, and we didnt even have to use headphones in our empty compartment......for the first 15 minutes, after that the headphones were in our ears for the next two and a half hours.........
Scenic views from the train.........
On our second train. We had arrived at Zurich, but to get to Birmensdorf (where Paul and Jenni live) we had to get on another train. However we were just a little hyper after refueling on some very suspect drink and skittles.........
Ooooppppppsssss!!!! The wrong ticket for this train?! That's not what the ticket guy in Geneva told us when we quizzed him on what ticket to get for the day. He probably didn't really care what he gave us because were foreign. It's lucky that Liz and I are foreign though as the ticket master on this train was so baffled by the language barrier when we tried to defend ourselves for having the wrong ticket that he just waved it off and waked away. No fine for us!!
We arrived safely in Birmensdorf where Jenni picked us up from the station and drove the two minutes to her house, where we would stay for the weekend. We had a very warm welcome to the Johnson house, with a meatball diner too! YUM!! It is always great to go somewhere new and spend time with people that you haven't seen in ages. We spent a very enjoyable evening talking and watching TV while we waited for the next round of people to arrive. When they did arrive I was satisfied to have surprised the little midget Johnson's with my presence. Then it was off to bed for all of us.....or rather just the women and children as the men were watching football.
Sunday morning was church in Swiss German, actually most of it was in English because of translators and the option of an English Sunday school. In Sunday school Ralph was introduced by a friend who used to be in Farnborough Ward, so he introduced me as his sister-in-law and I introduced Elisabeth as my friend. Everyone in the class may well have been wondering why Ralph brought his sister-in-law and her friend to Zurich and not his wife! Haha!! Elisabeth then offered to play the piano for the hymns in Relief Society, which didn't go as smoothly as she may have liked! Playing music you know while everyone else is singing the words you know in a different language turns out to be off putting. She is actually an amazing pianist.........
Goodbye German church.............
Everyone chilling out after church......
My favorite photo from the weekend, the sight of Euan and I together is a rare occurrence......
Crazy CiCi............................
We all took a trip to a frozen lake to while away a little of the afternoon....
Paul, Ellen and Jenni..............
Liz showing some sliding skills.......
Is the ice this thick? Because it better be!.......
Do bubbles mean trouble? I was a little nervous at walking across this vast lake...
Wes having rescued Euan from his big head only to pass the crying boy on to me...
My mate...............................
Leap..........................
Izzy has skills, you can't stop her from anything.....
A chilly Jenni and Paul......
Dancing to keep warm, it was FREEZING.......
Boys will be boys........
Everyone on the ice........
The Beautiful Lake........
Cold much?................
Yes! Cold!...................
Our hostess.................
Dead Liz...................
Just to prove I was here......
Izzy and Abbie sitting in a tree K I S S I N G...haha...she wishes.....
Another of Ciaren's unemotional falls to the cold hard ice.......
Liz and I.......................
I love Euan here running across the ice like he is on a mission......
Back at the house Izzy works her magic on my hair....
Monday Liz and I take it easy with a lie in, and catching up on e-mails...from...errrrrrr.....Andy, Liz's missionary boy in Africa........
Still not wanting to brave the cold we put off the inevitable by watching some 'Lost in Austen'. Sadly for me Ralph and the kids thought that Liz and I had left already because he didn't bother to check up stairs! So he went out sledging with the kids while Liz and I were getting ready to go see the city of Zurich. This meant that I didn't get to say goodbye to them before Liz and I set of on our journey. It was good to have seen them for a while though anyway.......
Packed, ready to set off for the city.......
The town of Birmensdorf.......
Auf Wiedersehen Birmensdorf........
We stuffed all our things into a locker at the Zurich train station.......
......and went into the city for a little wounder........
The girls in the city...................
Possibly the quietest city in the world, the kind of city that I would live in....
Zurich going old school with the use of a traffic man directing your way at an intersection.....
Can you tell I'm trying to pretend that I'm not cold?.......
The beautiful Liz..........
The light was rubbish for photos so they kept coming out fuzzy. Liz had the amazing idea to steady the camera on her head to stop that from happening. She doesn't even look stupid, right?....
Candid.........................
One of the things I like here are the cosey looking alley's.....
This was the end of our walk in this beautiful city.......
Zurich train station............
Liz getting our tickets back to Geneva, it cost 170CHF there and back...each!....
Strike a pose...........................
We had stocked up on some food for the train journey, I wasn't impressed with our purchases.....
....and Liz didn't seem to be either. At least we had more 'Lost in Austen' to look forward too.....
I had a great chilled out weekend with friends and family. It is the best way to spend your time. True there wasn't much to do in the city, but then again it was so cold outside that we were happy to keep the outdoor's trips short. Seeing the natural beauty of Zurich's landscape was wonderful. Walking across the frozen lake was probably the highlight of the weekend, it was just too beautiful for words to fully describe.
Dankeschön an die Familie Johnson für mit Liz und ich bleibe bei dir!
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