Today was a little over the top. Stop reading here if you are finding our adventures a bit much to stomach while still calling us your friends. Even I was a little disgusted by the absurdity of today.

When we arrived in Winterthur our cousin Thomas asked if we would like to join him Sunday at the Lake with his friends. Sure! Who wouldn’t?

Well, we took the train to Zurich to meet Thomas. (That experience was not enviable…it got to 34 today in Zurich. We somehow ended up on a train packed with young, European, “open air” revellers.  Picture every inch of space crammed with sweaty, smelly 20-somethings, in what felt like 40 degree heat, salt stains on their shirts from all the sweat, loud music blaring while they all bobbed their heads in unison to the litany of swears and slang that comprised the lyrics. Good thing my kids know their way around the odd f-bomb! This train also ended up being an express which meant it skipped our stop.  Oops…)

Once back on track (literally, ha!) we arrived to a jaw dropping scene at Lake Zurich.

 

We then met up with Thomas who guided us to another train, free of the revellers. We travelled to Herrliberg, along the coast of the lake to the lake-house his friend had rented.

We promptly hopped into the lake for a swim lest the other party guests discover that we had become just as smelly as our train buddies.

The party was full of delicious food, drinks and lovely people. The host family were Swiss/Canadian/Equadorian. Turns out in the days we’ve been here, Spanish has come in a lot more handy than we’d expected. Makes our progress with learning German considerably slower.

Making friends and contacts is one of our goals at the moment and so we did really well here. Manolo has taken to telling people he’s a surgeon who specializes in polar bears. You can tell that people are really considering it to be true.

The kids had a great day swimming and hunting for lizards as usual. The park our party was next to looked like a Renoir painting. Everyone picnicing and reading beneath the trees. 2 things I may never get used to here are the euro-style swim suits the men wear (EYE CONTACT! EYE CONTACT!) and the very liberal displays of affection. Major make out sessions in every combination possible around every corner.

Below are a few images from yesterday’s journey to Bäretswil to have dinner with the aunts & uncle there. Quintessential Swiss views from every window. It was a spectacular evening.