Blogs from Glarus, North-East, Switzerland, Europe

The next step in the Switzerland discovery for Nui and the rediscovery for Nenad was a stay in the hamlet of Arvenbuehl located about 10 min drive up the mountain from Amden, which itself is positioned high up overlooking the Walensee. In Arvenbuehl we stayed in a chalet with innovative architectural features, very unusual for this region. No wonder it was build and is owned by a retired teacher from Seattle, USA, who runs it as a B&B. Its called 'Mountain Chalet' and has the most amazing mountain views from your bed. A cool way to wake up in the morning. Nearby is the Hotel Restaurant Arvenbuehl, who has an amazing cuisine, especially a Roeschti (a local potato dish), which will make you jodle :-) Arvenbuehl sits at the end of the mountain range called Churfuersten, ... read more

Once again we have another lovely sunny and calm day although we expect it to change for tomorrow. This is therefore our last chance to experience the mountains around here before heading home. There is a lake called Klontal in a valley near Glarus and it looks lovely in the pictures so it would be a shame to leave this valley without a visit. We could get the train and then bus up there but since it is a Sunday, Marc could take us up in the car and we could walk along the lake track. We packed a picnic and set off with the backpack for Sophia and packs for us. It was a good theory but fell down in that Sophia was having nothing to do with the backpack and let the entire lake ... read more

Winter is coming. The mornings here start at 3 degrees until the sun arrives and it gets warm. Since it was going to be another gloriously clear and sunny day we wanted to stay in the mountains and enjoy them while we could. Near here is the valley to a small town called Elm where we had stayed during our across Switzerland hike from the Foo Pass. Irvy took us by car up the Sernf valley which is another long and narrow glacial valley with picturesque farms dotting the landscape until you reach Elm at the head. While she took a day off from us to spend time at home, we got the cable way to high up on the mountain to 2300m where the land is more sloping but still steepish. This level throughout Switzerland ... read more

The day started with rain as expected which brought the temperature down to 18 - shades of home! The rain soon passed and left the day with clouds high up on the mountains and quite clear in the valley, so it was conducive for a walk down the valley on the high road. This trail took us along through farms and past farm buildings. There are virtually no animals around at present so I can only assume they are still grazing higher on the mountains until it's too cold. We came across a dairy selling mountain cheese, fresh milk, eggs and preserved meat so we purchased a block of cheese for about half of what we would pay at home. We also continued to pass textile factories that appear closed which took us to 4 in ... read more

The trip to Zurich was just another long flight. At least we had most of Monday at home so that we could watch the school cross country race. Both Deken and Mila won their races and we are all so proud of them. They ran to win and win they did. It's great to see that our grandchildren are growing up to enjoy sport and not too much time spent sitting looking at phones. We left New Plymouth at 6pm, had a wait of 4 hours in Auckland, then a 11 eleven hour flight to Shanghai. Air New Zealand was okay but not up there with the best we have travelled with in the past. We flew out of Shanghai over the huge sprawling city and surrounds and it was amazing to see how people have ... read more