Visita de Abu

Cuatro semanas pasaron como agua. Abu regreso con nosotros cuando regresamos de America para visitarnos durante cuatro semanas. Hace una semana que se fue y Sydney pregunta diario por ella, JP le responde que ya se fue con Pucho, Tico y Picolino =(
Durante su visita, mi mama camino lo que nunca. Fuimos a Zurich varias veces, a Lucerna, Berna, Neuchatel, pueblitos al rededor del area y al final hizimos un viaje a Munich (Alemania), Innsbruck (Austria) y a Neuschwanstein (Alemania).
Mi mama probo todas las cosas locales incluyendo comida, bebidas, postres, medios de transporte (tren, tram, autobus, auto y barco).
Mientras ella nos visitaba, Jim y yo aprovechamos para irnos a cenar varias veces solos, lo cual fue maravilloso, comer agusto, sin peleas, sin lloridos. Ella feliz se quedo con los ninos y los ponia a dormir sin ningun problema. Creemos que JP y Syd entendieron que si se querian comunicar con ella, tenian que hablar Espanol. JP no le hablaba en Ingles, lo que hacia era tomarla de la mano y le senalaba lo que queria. Ahora trato de hablarles solo en Espanol. Esperamos que el anio que entra que vayamos a Mexico, ellos puedan comunicarse con su familia.

Llegando al depa por barco

Paseando por LucernaLucerna

Lucerna

Paseando por Neuchatel

Neuchatel

Visitando el castillo en Neuchatel

Paseando por Berna

Paseando por Berna

Jugando en el tren

Nuevo look de Sydney

Viajando en tren

Castillo Neuschwanstein en el Sureste de Alemania

(Conocido por ser la inspiracion del castillo de Disney)

Visitando el castillo Hohenschwangau (tambien en Alemania)

JP estaba listo para defender el castillo "En guardia"

Lunch en Munich, Alemania

Paseando por Munich

Otro lunch en Munich

Paseando por Munich

Di: "queso", Syd hace como que saca fotos

Visitando el "techo de Oro" en Innsbruck, Austria

Visitando Innsbruck

Innsbruck

Innsbruck

Castillo en Innsbruck

Viaje a America

Despues de un mes regreasamos finalmente de America. Como pueden ver regresamos en Espanol para todos aquellos que lo pidieron. Un mes es un poco dificil de resumir pero de cualquier forma aqui va un resumen de las cuatro semanas en America.

La primera semana fuimos a Syracuse. El vuelo a America de Zurich estuvo muy relajado y JP y Syd fueron pasajeros ejemplares! Estamos muy orgullosos de que ya son todos unos viajeros (aparte de que Mami siempre va preparada con todo el entretenimiento!). Fuimos a Buffalo a celebrar con David su graduacion de la escuela de Ingenieria. El segundo dia huvo una reunion del dia de la madre donde pudimos saludar y pasar tiempo con la familia de Jim incluyendo primos y sobrinos segundos... gracias a Marybeth por invitarnos. Al siguiente dia fuimos a Albany donde Jim visito su oficina y JP, Syd y yo nos reunimos con amigas de club de mamas, amigas de la YMCA Flor, Cathy y Erin, y por ultimo cenamos con Heather, Sabina y la nueva adicion Isabel... gracias a todas por hacer lugar en sus calendarios para vernos. Los siguentes dias en Syracuse la pasamos de compras, en el cine y pasamos tiempo con los papas de Jim y Chelsey quien se quedo en Syracuse para jugar con sus primitos que estaban de visita. Apenas habia pasado una semana y ya era hora de irnos a Mexico!

Los primeros 4 dias en Mexico nos la pasamos en Acapulco... que puedo decir, la comida deliciosa, el clima muy agradable y la compania mejor que nunca. Toda mi familia fue incluyendo el Tio Hector y tia Lucero. Gracias a Tico y Wendy que pidieron sus vacaciones en esa semana para poder vernos y estar con nosotros. JP y Sydney disfrutaron el agua mas que nadie y bueno, hasta escamas les salieron.

Una vez que regresamos al DF, nos dedicamos a seguir comiendo, a visitar a la familia y a ver a los buenos amigos. Jim solo estuvo una semana y se regreso a Syracuse para despues volar de regreso a Zurich. Los ninos y yo nos quedamos una semana mas asi que tuvimos tiempo de ver a mas familia y amigas (yo vi a mis queridas amigas Perl y mAle)
Fuimos unos dias a Queretaro a pasar mas tiempo con Wendy y los ninos y tambien fuimos a la boda de MariLaura, donde tuve la fortuna no solo de celebrar con ella sino que tambien pude ver a primos que no veia desde el 2002. Como si eso fuera poco, pude pasar tiempo con mi amiga Vero (para quien no la conoze, mi primera amiga la secundaria, y una de mis mejores amigas) con la que para variar y no perder la costumbre rei muchisimo y me la pase de pelos. Despues regresamos al DF para ver a mas familia, nuevos miembros de la famila Espinosa.... la pequena Janelle y la mas reciente adicion a la familia, Gabriel Jr. Tambien pudimos ver a la familia Guendulain con tambien un nuevo miembro, la pequena Sofia. Felicidades a todos esos nuevos padres este fin de semana!
Por si este itineratio fuera poco, les cuento que tambien vi a mis cuates de ESIME! Abel, gracias por organizar la reunion, me encanto haber visto a ese grupo que siempre estuvo conmigo y que siempre estara en mi corazon.

La ultima semana la pasamos en Syracuse donde JP y Syd pudieron pasar mas tiempo con sus abuelos, JP fue a visitar la prepa donde mi suegra trabaja y donde Jim estudio... maestros y amigos de la familia reconocieron a JP como hijo de Jim al instante... uuufff!
Cuatro semanas pasaron como agua y finalmente nos reunimos con Jim en Washington para volar de vuelta a Suiza, con mi mama nos visita por 4 semanas.

Before trip to America

This weekend was very different and for once we have no pictures!

On Saturday we went to a barbacue to Carmen and David's house outside Zurich, in a town called Birri. We had fun and managed to prepare spare ribs and baked beans.... it was a success! and our friends (she is from Peru, he is Italian Swiss) are really growing a taste for American cusine. JP and Syd played with little Maurizio and didn't come back home until 10PM.

On Sunday we went to another barbacue to Jo and Chris' appartment where JP and Syd played with twins Carolina and Siena and their little dog Paco. We had tastety burgers made with beef and lamb and we had brownies for dessert.

It was a nice chance of pace for us since we are always on the go. Thanks to our friends for inviting us.

I will try to post some pictures while in America but I can not promise anything. To out friends and family.... see you tomorrow and in the next 4 weeks.

Scandinavian cruise

May 1st is labor day in Switzerland as well as some other countries. As May 1st fell on a Tuesday, we used the opportunity to string together a long weekend and took a five day Scandinavian cruise. The cruise left from Amsterdam, Holland on Friday, arrived into Copenhagen, Denmark on Sunday, and ended in Oslo, Norway on Tuesday morning. We took an overnight train to Amsterdam on Thursday night and arrived bright and early on Friday morning. The cruise was not scheduled to leave until 5PM so we had the whole day to explore. We wanted to see one of the famous tulip fields; however, the fastest trip would have taken 4 ½ hours so we decided to make better use of our time exploring the city. We started the day with a canal cruise. Amsterdam is actually much like Venice with its system of canals. There are approximately 2000 house boats all along the canals, which thanks to a government program a few years ago, all have gas and electricity running to them. The number of house boats is now fixed, so if someone wants to “park” his boat on the canal, they have to wait for someone else to leave. Another unique thing about Amsterdam is the construction of the houses. They are very narrow and steep, which made it difficult to get furniture and things to the upper floors. For that reason, all houses have a beam sticking out of the gable with a large hook on it. Pulley systems were attached (and are still used today) to move large items in and out of the house through the upstairs window. The gables of the houses are also very interesting, with some of the more popular styles being the clock, neck, step gables. After finishing the canal tour, we took a walking tour of the city, and saw among other things: The Westerkerk, which is the church where the famous painter Rembrandt is buried, the Anne Frank house, and the Royal Palace. We cut our walking tour short and raced back to ship to start our cruise. On our way, we took a wrong turn and ended up walking through the red light district. Its actually a charming part of town, but as we walked, we realized that the girls standing in the windows were not mannequins and we high tailed it out of there and got to the ship.

We sailed on Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas and it was the biggest ship in the world at the time it was built 20 years ago. It can hold about 2,500 passengers and another 1,500 crew. In general, we had an incredible time. JP was old enough to join the Aquanots playgroup and did so when he was not enjoying family time in the indoor pool or playing in the arcade. For Sydney, there was a separate playgroup requiring parental involvement, so we participated in this playgroup with Sydney while JP was next door in his playgroup. We did casual dining for breakfast and lunch, but ate in the formal dining room for dinner. We had a three course meal every night, but since the kids eat like birds, Sandy and I ended up eating almost 2 three course meals every night – we must have gained about 10 lbs each! At night, we put the kids to sleep, and went to the nightly show or the movies, and finished off the night in the casino – we were ahead at the start of the cruise, but lost it all by the end.

Our first port of call was Copenhagen, most well known for the famous writer, Hans Christian Andersen, for whom the Little Mermaid statue in the harbor pays tribute. It was a cold day, so we took a bus tour of the city. In addition to the Little Mermaid statue, we saw “The Thinker” statue by Rodan, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek art museum, National Museum, Christiansborg Palace, and Amalienborg Palace (winter residence of the Royal Family) where we observed the changing of the guard. Copenhagen is also home to the Tivoli Gardens, a beautiful landscaped amusement park filled with restaurants, rides, and games. The spent the better part of the afternoon in the Garden’s playground before returning back to the ship for dinner and another late night.

The final stop was Oslo, Norway, probably the most expensive city we encountered in our travels (even more expensive than Zurich). After having breakfast, we departed the ship and made it to the train station where we put our luggage in a locker before starting our tour of the city. We started with a short walking tour of the city and passed the Oslo Cathedral, Parliament building, and City Hall, which is beautifully frescoed on the inside. We made it back to the port area, not far from where our ship pulled in, and took a ferry to Bygdoy, a peninsula where some of city’s more popular museums are located. We toured a Viking ship museum which displayed the remains of three Viking ships found in burial mounds by the Oslo fjord. The ships were buried more than 1100 years ago to carry their royal owners to “the other side”. Close to the Viking ship museum was the Norwegian museum of natural history, which is an open air museum displaying 155 traditional houses from all over Norway, including Gol Stave Church from 1200 AD. We spent some time at the museum’s playground, before catching the ferry back to the city center. On the way, we could see the Holmenkollen ski jump tower (Norway’s most visited tourist attraction), built especially for the 1952 Olympics. We concluded our tour with a stop at the Royal Palace, did some souvenir shopping, and caught a train to the airport where our hotel was located. The next morning, we hopped on an early flight back to Zurich so that I did not miss another day of work.

We probably got 5-6 hours of sleep per night, so with all the activity, light sleep, and heavy eating, we were ready

Before the cruise April 21-22

It was the weekend before our cruise vacation, so the kids and I went to the gym so that Sandy could stay back and pack. The sauna at my gym is for women 3 days a week, men another 3 days a week, and mixed on saturday. Saunas in Switzerland are linen free (no clothes - only a towel). I was determined to take a sauna bath after my work out, so I did, only to find it unexpectedly populated with naked men and women - the Swiss are apparently not shy. It was a summer like Sunday so we ventured down to oue local beach front. Each town along Lake Zurich has a park along the lake - some have board walks, beach areas, playgrounds, restaurants, grassy parks for sunbathing, etc. Ours is very nice with everything except a boardwalk. We were fortunate enough to find an apartment practically on lake Zurich, so our local beach is only a few steps away. We brought along a picnic lunch, spread out in a nice shady area and enjoyed the unseasonably warm temperatures (it was snowing just a few weeks earlier so we had a week or two of spring before jumping right into summer). The kids played on the beach and even ventured into the lake despite the cold temperature (around 60F). We were surprised to see many people swimming and playing in the lake, young and old. After finishing lunch and building a few sand casles, we strolled back to the apartment for some front yard soccer and a little BBQ.

Sechselaeuten Fest (April 14-16)

This weekend we attended Zurich's centuries-old festival called Sechselaeuten, which stems from the tradition of driving out evil winter spirits and welcoming the longer, milder days of spring.
The event is always held on Monday and everyone gets a half day off from work to attend the event. On Sechselaeuten-Monday, some 3,500 colourfully-costumed guildsmen, over 350 horsemen, 50 horse-drawn wagons and around 30 bands parade through Zurich to the Sechselaeutenplatz for the burning of the Boegg, a straw snowman atop a 13-metre high bonfire.

The procession to the bonfire is a huge spectacle and attracts thousands of spectators. The bonfire is lit at precisely six o'clock in the evening and horsemen then circle the blaze three times to the accompaniment of the Sechselaeuten March. Tradition says that the faster the Boegg burns, the sooner summer will arrive and the longer and sunnier it will be.

Going back home on the boat
The boegg before being set on FIRE!

When we came back from Italy, we found a package from grandma Lori with tons of goodies including easter egg coloring and stickers. We invited Mea for the activity and the kids really enjoyed it... thanks grandma!