Winter in Zurich is my second favorite season with summer winning only for the incredible lake and river swimming to be done in the middle of the city. In winter though, the city is magic. Sure it’s cold and gray and drizzly for weeks on end but this California girl will take it if only for the occasional days when the snow sticks and everything glitters and glows.

Here’s a little album I put together of winter in Zurich. I guess I have a thing for snow on fences.

And here’s an album of a great day trip we took to a nearby ski region.

In January of 2017 we hosted Alan, Rachel and Brant for the annual New Year’s get-together. This crew has been getting together for NYE since the fellows were in middle school, long before Rachel and I married into the friend fam.

With the NY Crew, we took a day trip to the sweet town of Gruyères. Yes, like the cheese!  It’s about a 2 hour drive from Zurich and located in the French speaking canton of Fribourg. There we toured the 13th-century Château de Gruyères where we saw a mummified hand and some very old graffiti. Who knew drawing penises on walls has been a thing for so long!

We also visited the HR Giger Museum because I guess we hadn’t seen quite enough penises yet. In case you’re not familiar, HR Giger was a Swiss artist who is most famous for creating the creatures featured in the Alien movies. The museum is housed in a chateaux where the artist once lived. His work is quite dark and features many sexual and bio-mechanic themes. We were also able to see some of Giger’s personal art collection from which he drew inspiration. After touring the museum you can pop across the street and have a drink in the Giger bar while relaxing in a chair that looks like an inverted alien corpse!

Our tour of the town also included a rachlet lunch (melted cheese served with small potatoes and cornichons) and a visit to the Gruyères cheese factory where we watched a robot flip and spray giant wheel after giant wheel of cheese with a saline solution that hardens the rind.

It was a great visit. We were so thankful that the entire crew was able to join us before we moved back to California. This January, Tyler made the trip to Boston but I did not. I stayed home with the flu which I sneakily gave to Tyler right before he left for the airport. Sorry babe!

Here’s an album of our time with the NY Crew.