Snowy SuperBowl Sunday Funday

    Bonjour!! Writing this now, we have reached February and I officially have less than 3 months left here in beautiful Switzerland. For the past month, Hardy and I have been battling the elements and are practically buried in snow.

This may be nothing compared to what East Coasters are dealing with but a girl from the Willamette Valley and a guy from Cali would be quite appreciative for the months of winter wonderland to end thank you very much. 

      Since our trip to Paris, it has been difficult to explore due to the weather conditions. In turn, I have bouts of cabin fever and my poor guy has to deal with the mood swings but he's a trooper.  We have been able to make a couple day trips to Luzern and Lausanne which I figured I would share with all of you! First up in the Swiss German area, Luzern.

     

To start this off, we lucked out immensely with this trip. The forecast was supposed to be cold and cloudy with a chance of rain. We could see partly blue skies almost the whole day with many great photo opportunities such as this. The swans were very easy to work with. This view right here is off the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke) which was really cool to walk over.  We made our way fairly easily from the train station and stumbled upon this historical sight.  

As you walk over this footbridge, there are these paintings showing scenes dated back to the 17th century. After some brief wikipedia research, I learned many of these had to be restored after a big fire that happened in 1933 but the bridge still stands as the oldest covered wooden bridge in Europe. Asking around as to what we should see in this city, this was one of the most popular recommendations in person and online and I think it was definitely worth a look see. 

With the weather, we had some incredible views of the surrounding mountains that seem to envelop the city along with the lake. It's just not fair how beautiful each and every city in this country is.  Coming from someone who lives in the PNW and has a very unbiased opinion of the most beautiful scenic area in the states, Switzerland is just breathtaking.

    After a brief stop for some wifi at the local Golden Arches, we began our further exploration of this historical city.  What came next was a trip uphill to find what used to be the protective walls of the castle that once stood in this area. These watch towers unfortunately are closed during the winter seasons, but during the summer it is open to the public which I wish we could have done but still a very cool thing to see. 

  It also happens to be next to a sort of recreation area. The track had me reminiscing of the Sheldon glory days, even though I'm slower than slow and spent more time with field events than the lanes.



















Further proof that those who lived in mid-evil times would think we are giants and most likely fear our existence.

 Another famous landmark that was a must see is the Dying Lion Monument. Might be a weird name but you should think of it quite literally because it is a giant stone carved lion.  It was made to commemorate fallen Swiss soldiers who were killed by revolutionaries during the French Revolution in 1792.  (Thanks again Wikipedia) Some people may not understand why this would be worth to actively seek out but in person it really is incredible to look at. The sheer skill needed to make this is mind boggling to comprehend. It sits above a pond so it was difficult to have an up and close look but this picture does the trick. Next to this landmark is a Glacier and Natural History museum. We slightly wavered on whether we should fork out the 30 francs because the initial glance of everything did not look promising. But being the good tourists we are, the decision was rewarded with some pretty incredible stuff.

      This picture is of where glaciers once carved their way through stone. It was discovered in 1872 by a Swiss dude named Josef Wilhelm while trying to build a wine cellar. Kind of a bummer he couldn't have a place to store all his delicious wine but I guess stumbling across a now national landmark makes up for lost luxuries. The pamphlet given to us had number by number explanations of different ways glaciers have been analyzed that include things like glacial striations, potholes, boulders and many fossils dating back to 20 million years ago. Really cool stuff for nerd 1 and nerd 2. This walkthrough glacier park then leads into the museum where you can read more about Switzerland's glaciers past and present as well as information of prehistoric animals and plants that have been discovered over the years. May have been quoting Ice Age from time to time during this experience. Are you really surprised?

    Throughout the museum, it turns into an overall history lesson of Switzerland, more specifically the region where Luzern lies. This ranged from more fossils and old skeletons to displays of historical  clothing, furniture, maps of landscape then and now, and much more. The real gem we happened to find was the Hall of Mirrors. It was kind of weird to find this because I don't think of a diskombobulating maze of mirrors when I think history museum but I believe we made the most of our experience. Of course this necessitated the classic Myspace mirror pic. I call it...pictureception. Hardy proceeded to race through as I took video and did my best to not bump into the mirrors, (I failed if you were curious). The video is me talking myself through and trying to figure which Hardy was the real one because he thought it funny to play hide and seek and all I could see were five of him at one time not knowing where he was. What a poop.

   After finally making our way out of Bad Trip Land, we were brought outside to some funhouse mirrors. This was way more fun and we finally got to see what it would be like to have little itty bitty legs.

 The end of this museum includes a brief climb of over a hundred stairs, yes we counted, to a wooden watch tower that gave us this incredible view.

     Even after all of our shenanigans, we were not done yet.  Next up was to see another famous tourist attraction, the Bourbaki Panorama Museum.  We weren't at all sure what this was going to turn out to be, but once again we were not disappointed.  The tour begins with a video that introduces the incredible work of an artist named Edouard Castres who was assigned to paint a scene of General Bourbaki's French soldiers seeking internment in Switzerland during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871.  Castres was tasked in painting the growing popular style of panoramic paintings.  He  worked with a team of painters and it took five months to complete.
    This history of this event, long story short, was the defeat of the French Army and Emperor Napoelon III being overthrown and taken prisoner by the Germans leading to a rise in power of the united German Reich.  With the only option to stay alive, leader of the French Army General Bourbaki sought internment within Switzerland. 87,000 soldiers were allowed to cross Swiss borders on the condition they give up their weapons.  Those who made the transition were distributed to over 190 locations in 24 cantons (cantons are what states are in the U.S.) Swiss civilians were tasked with taking them in and nursing them back to health so they could return back to France.  This period in history is one of great pride for Switzerland because it marked a national humanitarian effort made by the whole country and by the Red Cross. Out of those who crossed the borders, only 1,700 died which I think is pretty incredible considering the state the soldiers were in when they were taken in.

     The size and impact of this painting was pretty incredible to see. It stand 14-15 meters high with a circumference of 110 meters.  Since then it has been moved and installed in different locations and during this change, about four meters were taken off the height so it now a little less than 10 meters tall. My attempt of using the panorama feature on my iPhone took a few tries when trying to get a almost view of the painting.

Here if you look to the right of the first wagon, there is a man with a walking stick and a red cross band around his arm. Castres painted himself into the piece because he was a part of the Red Cross effort during the internment.    









  Our night ended with a trip to the local library to kill time before we had our first Mexican food meal in a long time. Food was delicious but way too many people were ordering a cheeseburger at this place and I just wanted to shake them.  Blasphemy to go to a Mexican place and not order a burrito the size of a newborn baby. Just saying.

   The next day trip we made was to Lausanne which still lies in the French speaking part of the country.  This time around we were not so lucky with the weather. Grey, cloudy, windy, and too cold for us to really enjoy a stroll outside, we made our way to my favorite part of the trip, the Olympic Museum.
 
 This hands down has been my favorite museum I have visited because like many others, I get crazy excited about the Olympics.  What was so cool about the experience was we didn't just see old uniforms and pictures of olympians, but learned the history of how the games were brought back in the late 1800's.  Quite honestly, I didn't know they had ever stopped since they began originally in Greece.  Apparently after the games ended many years ago, people had tried and failed to reintroduce them over the years until a Frenchman by the name of Pierre de Coubertain came around.  What had made previous attempts to make the games come back fail was the inability to get international interest sparked.  Somehow with his persistence and knowledge he persuaded many countries to get on board and that was the key to Coubertain's success and set the foundation to what the games are today.  If you ever have the opportunity to visit this place, set aside a good two hours because there are so many things to see, read about, and fun interactive games at the end. We had to rush at the end to make our lunch reservations with my teammate Fabi but I would definitely go again. By the end of it all, I was buzzing with excitement in anticipation for Rio.

    Lunch was at a cozy little place called Edelweiss, yes I did start singing the song, and had a nice view of the lake with some traditional Swiss sausage and rosti. My favorite Swiss dish next to fondue.  After we were warmed up and filled up, the rest of our day was spent walking/shivering to the downtown area. We checked out a shop we found in Paris, Lauduree and bought more macaroons because they are that good.  Not wanting to be outside more, we found a natural history museum that had displays of taxidermy animals (super creepy), a whole section dedicated to sex (more taxidermy animals in precarious positions), dinosaur fossils (pretty cool), rocks and crystals (I was pretty burnt out by this time) and old money (officially checked out of this experience).  I think this city has some pretty cool stuff to see but we probably did not pick the best day to really enjoy the sights.
  

Evolution to present Homo Sapiens

    This past week, my club held a week long clinic/tournament event to promote volleyball to the girls in the area, ages 9-12 years old. Being the two professionals on the team, Vanessa and I spent four days, from 8AM to noon watching, slightly reffing, and demoing volleyball to the girls present. At the end of each session the girls played, members of the club including my coach, Vanessa, junior players and I played queen of the court and I was able to bounce a few balls to help gain some oohs and ahhs and possibly gain new additions to the club.  I now can say a few key volleyball phrases in french fairly well, and learned that certain ages have very distinct personalities. The nine years olds were super cute, all had matching jersey's and almost all were really eager to play during the morning.  Once you hit double digits, mostly 11 and 12 years old, the makeup wearing, eye rolling and disinterested girls are present and it is very clear to see who enjoys athletics and who doesn't.  One particular day I had to do more damage control warning girls to "tranquil" or calm the eff down because they enjoy yelling at each other more than playing volleyball.  I felt like the awkward tall girl in middle school all over again. Puberty is rough man.

    Playoffs have officially kicked off for Hardy and I. My team is currently in the top four of the western league of LNB and now compete against the top four teams from the eastern conference. Hardy's team is in the bottom half and must fight to stay in LNB.  We play each team twice, once away and home. If we end up first, we have the opportunity to sign up and move up to LNA. If not, no matter what we stay in LNB and get to say a job well done getting into the playoffs.  So far, we are 2-0 and have only six weeks remaining for the season. Time has gone by so fast, especially since Hardy came to visit and in a month he'll be flying back to the states. We are pretty fortunate to have a free weekend around Valentine's day so we took the opportunity and booked tickets to the Netherlands to see the sights and visit some family friend's of his which should be really fun. Blog and pictures will follow. Researching all the things we have a chance to see is getting me super pumped for the weekend getaway. 

     As everyone in America, especially Seattle knows, it's SuperBowl Sunday.  I am super excited to know that it should be broadcasted here in my little space of the world,  all I have to do is wait till midnight to watch it. This should be manageable because I don't have to be up early at all this week thank goodness.  To get me jacked up for the game, I finally turned my T.V on for the first time in six months and have been watching the European ice skating championships all day while writing this blog and Hardy is currently playing three hours away. This Sunday has been intense I can assure you.  Everyone have a fun and safe SuperBowl and until next time, á bientôt and Go Hawks!

Sincerely,

 The fanatical football fan yelling at her TV.