Venice

I have gotten behind on blogging the last few months. In September, we went to Venice and took a week-long cruise to Greece. We enjoyed the warm, sunny weather; Mediterranean cuisine; and beautiful sites. Here are a few of our photos from Venice.

3 Generations of Hott(i)es

The toughest aspect to life in Switzerland is being really far away from an already pretty scattered family. So, when we are all together -- we have to take photos. Kudos to mom for remembering to bring a camera with her to the family reunion!

The Summer That Was

Summer is practically over (at least in Switzerland), and I haven't gotten around to blogging. All in all, we've had a pretty busy and enjoyable summer. Our friends visited us for a week; my parents stayed with us for a week; and finally I took a whirlwind trip to the U.S. to meet up with both Mom and Nana. Here are some of the highlights (photos of the three generations still to come).

Hiking in Pizol














Munich






Pilatus








Bellinzona




Schenectady, NY

Our Little Garden

This spring we removed some of the hedges that surround our home and have turned that space into small gardens. We've been quite happy with the results thus far. We decided to plant lettuce in the hopes that may a few heads would actually grow. The attempt ended up way more successful than either Doc or I imagined and we have been enjoying home grown lettuce over the last few weeks, and are hoping our second attempt in the next few weeks will also prove successful. I have my fingers crossed that the chilis, peppers, tomatoes and berries will be as successful. Here are a few pics we took today.


Weeding ... a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon


The "main" garden


Today's, tomorrow's and the day after's salad :-)


The strawberry and raspberry plot


We'll soon get to enjoy these!

Geocaching

Doc and I decided to try geocaching for the first time last week. We picked a spot on the hill behind where we live. After a slightly round about route we reached the location where the cache was hidden. We misread the clue at first and spent quite a bit of time searching the ruins on the hill, only to realize that the cache was hidden between two rocks below the ruins. Here are some photos of our first geocaching adventure.


Bärlauch fields along the trails


A nice view of Zürich


Lake Zürich in the distance


Doc checking the GPS to see which direction we need to go


The GPS indicated to follow this trail


We finally reached the ruins and spent a long time searching to no avail


Then Doc checked out these stones ...


... and ta dah, found the cache.

We had great fun and plan to do this more often. It certainly makes taking a walk a bit more exciting!

Rapperswil

We had a suprisingly warm Easter weekend and spent quite a bit of time outside gardening and grilling. We also finally got around to taking the boat ride on Lake Zürich from the city to Rapperswil. It was a relaxing 2 hour ride, followed by a nice lunch and walk around the town. I had heard from many people that the Rapperswil is quite cute, and it definitely was. Here are a few of the photos we took:

Bang Pa Summer Palace

Bang Pa is a summer palace of the Thai Royal family. We visited the palace after spending the day in Ayutthaya.