trippingdifferently

Yep, we were in our car & the car was on the train … hmmm… kinda reminds me of a kids song – can’t remember what’s it called but it went something like this … “The rock was on the river, the boy was on the rock, the arm was on the boy, the rod was in his arm ……… etc …… and the river flowed on ……” – it was something like that – anyone know it??

Anyhow, so we were actually on our way to Wallis to spend the night – we were invited by our neighbours to go up to their little house in the mountains. It was very nice. There was lots of snow & they had a great view & the boys (theirs & ours) had lots of fun playing & skiing together. A BIG THANK YOU to Uncle Peter for helping to teach Tobias to ski, being patient even when Tobias was throwing a temper.

The exciting bit for us was riding on the train thru the mountain in our car. That’s right we drove our car & ourselves right onto the train, parked & the train took us all thru the tunnel – it was a really fun experience!

Here’s a photo of what the car-train was like:

Here’s one of the view from our neighbours house:

Here’s one of Tobias on skis:

& talking about skiing & snow – there was still lots when we came down from the mountain last night – in fact, it snowed even to cover a new layer. Today it snowed some more!! hmmm… i wonder when Spring will actually start – hehhehehhee 😉
But i must admit – it is nice to get one last chance at playing in the snow since we were gone for most of Feb & Mar 🙂

Next post – hopefully i will post stuff about our visit back home.
syc

Yes, it finally snowed – in a decent manner! It finally feels like Winter & with Spring coming at its heels 😉
So we woke up this Good Friday morning to a blanket of white – & it kept on coming down in big fat flakes with string gusty winds till about 3pm. We went out at about 2.30pm to try & play in the snow but found the snow was coming down too hard – it was more like wet snow (i think it’s called slate?). Tobias was determined to have some fun in the snow so we stayed out there for a little while – got quite wet – but no worries – we were all nicely bundled up 😉

We got to build our traditional snow-baby, here’s a photo of our creation:

Oh & here’s a photo of the wonderful snow:

It seems to be the tradition here that it snows before or during or after Easter – many say this is the very snowfall of the season & a big one always comes before Spring hits. See 2006 & 2007.

Hopefully my next post will be filled with our time in Singapore over Feb & Mar. Still slightly jet-lagged:(
syc

So we went to our 1st KinderFasnacht Umzug – Kids Fasnacht Parade.

1st a tiny bit of info about Fasnacht – it is carnival season all over Europe – but i think it is biggest in German-speaking countries/areas. So people get dressed up in outlandish costumes & join parades & play Guggemusic (basically ordinary people getting together to form a band – they take their Guggemusic very seriously!) Why? Well, some say it’s to break from the long winter (or what used to be a cold long winter). Most say it’s traditionally the big celebration before the fasting season of Lent – sort of a finally big bang before we get serious & solemn. Whatever the real reason, it is a time for big colourful parties with lots of noise & drinking & eating. The Swiss seriously let their hair down & party till the wee hours & simply go crazy 😉 The normally serious, quiet & peace-loving people of Switzerland do have another side – hahahhaa 😉

i couldn’t find a website with general info on this celebration & each big city has it’s own celebration at slightly different times & most sites are in German – i found only 1x in English – it is said that the one in Basel is the biggest & the best in the country – so check it out.

Now back to our KinderFasnacht Umzug – we didn’t go to the one in our city of Solothurn – we missed it. So we went to the one in Bern today with a friend & her little gal. The kids were a little overwhelmed at 1st by the sheer number of people in strange outfits & loud funny music – but they warmed up & had a nice time.

Here’s a couple of photos (of cos we dressed the kids up – that’s part of the fun):
Here’s Tobias the Airplane & Cera the Bee:
(Tobias’s costume is home-made!)

Here’s one of me with the 2x of them:

Here’s an example of the wonderful costumes (most are home-made!):

Here’s a couple showing off the face-painting (done by mummy – hehhehe) on Tobias:

It was a fun day even in the midst of trying to get everything done before we fly off on Tuesday to Singapore.
syc