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Wednesday 19 August 2015

Sight seeing in Switzerland

August already? How did that happen? Both our kids are spending some time with us here in Switzerland over the summer. As it happened, they are both moving from Asia to Europe this year too. My daughter finished the school year in Beijing and will start her new job in Milan, Italy next week. My son quit his job in Singapore as well and is now looking at two job opportunities; one in London and one in Zurich. Guess which one I want him to take ;)? On the other hand London would be a cool place for a young person to live and work and for us to visit. In any case, it's lovely to have the whole family on the same continent again.

Since the weather has been beautiful and it's been quite hot (too hot for my taste) we took the opportunity to go on a few day trips.

This is Gruyere, a small medieval village with its historical castle dating back to the 13th century.



View from the castle over the manicured garden


It was blessedly cool in the castle with its thick walls. 


As you might have guessed, Gruyere is also where the famous Gruyere cheese is made and although it was hot, we had to have an authentic Gruyere cheese fondue.


On another day we went up to Kandersteg from where we took a cable car up to Oeschinensee and a leisurely hike brought us to this wonderful little mountain lake. The fresh air up there was just heaven.


On the way back, we stopped at the Blausee (meaning blue lake) and it's easy to see why it's called that





and the obligatory selfie ;)! 


We also spent a lovely day in our cute capital city Bern. It was another scorcher of a day and lots of swimmers came down the Aare River. Unfortunately I didn't catch any on my camera. 


a cold drink under a sun umbrella in front of the Parliament Building. 


It was indeed a gorgeous day, but I still think Bern is the most beautiful in winter covered in snow. Oh boy, I can't wait!

Source
And surprise, surprise, I even did a bit of sewing. 

Block 3, 4 and 5 for the Aunts' Quilt are now finally completed. Just one more of the big blocks to finish and then I can get going with the side triangles. I know I'm hopelessly behind the "official schedule" but I'll get there as I'm still enjoying this project a lot. 




I've been very lucky as I've won a give away by Rita of Red Pepper Quilts fame, sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop. These lovely boxes of Aurifloss arrived on my doorsteps


and a look inside - can't wait to try them out. 



That's it for today. I hope you have survived the heat or the cold, depending on where you are.

Vreni x