switzerland – Audrey's 74 A blog by Giulia Doyle Tue, 31 Jan 2017 21:28:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.1.17 A trip to Switzerland Part 2 /2014/08/06/a-trip-to-switzerland-part-2/ Wed, 06 Aug 2014 13:06:36 +0000 http://www.audrey74.com/?p=3106 Maienfeld Audrey'sI’m back with the second batch of my Switzerland photos! I still had trouble narrowing them down, so here’s another picture heavy post. On a particularly rainy day up in Flims, we decided to drive down into the valley to a small town called Maienfeld. I lived in Maienfeld for several years as a tween and teenager and it was very interesting to go back to the old stomping ground and show my kids where I went to school, the path I walked home, the small town square and expansive vineyards.Maienfeld 2.jpgMaienfeld is an odd little town. It's the third city on the Rhein because it has remnants of the historic city wall. While it's history shows it as an important city back in the day, with the town hall, the castle and many historic buildings, it also has a farming community surrounding it. Both worlds seem to collide in one small place and you can find a majestic vineyard mansion and turn the corner and see a working farm next to the elementary school. Maienfeld 3.jpgMaienfeld Audrey'sMaienfeld is an odd little town. It’s the third city on the Rhein because it has remnants of the historic city wall. While it’s history shows it as an important city back in the day –  the town hall, the castle and many historic buildings – it also has a farming community surrounding it. Both worlds seem to collide in one small place and you can find a majestic vineyard mansion and turn the corner and see a working farm next to the elementary school. Maienfeld Audrey'sMaienfeld 4.jpgMaienfeld Audrey'sMaienfeld Audrey's Maienfeld 5.jpgDue to it’s favourable climate and south facing hills, Maienfeld is a large wine producing region in Switzerland. I remember enjoying wonderful fall weather, which would help the grapes ripen to their full potential. I also remember picking those sticky grapes, one of the toughest jobs I ever had. We only stayed in town for the afternoon, strolling from street to street and picking up some wine at my old winery. It was lovely to be back.Maienfeld 6.jpg Maienfeld 7.jpgMaienfeld Audrey's Maienfeld 10.jpg Maienfeld 12.jpgOur last stop was Zurich. We stayed at my mom’s apartment and explored the city a little. We didn’t overdue it, just walked the streets one day and visited the zoo the next day. Other than that we met up with a few of my friends and spent some quality time together as a family. Probably the place I miss most in Switzerland is Zurich. It’s the city I spent part of my adult life in, where I got my first real job, my own apartment, where I have friends and an identity shaped outside of my family unit. It’s a really beautiful city and has so much to offer.Zurich Audrey's Zurich 2 Zurich 3 Zurich 4 Zurich 5My kids were fascinated by all the fountains they found on our trip through Switzerland. They took every opportunity to drink some water! This concludes our Swiss leg of our Europe trip. I’ll share photos from our visit to Spain soon. I really hope we manage to get back to Switzerland soon, we had the best time!

Photos by Giulia Doyle and Bruno Doyle

]]> A trip to Switzerland Part 1 /2014/07/23/a-trip-to-switzerland-part-1/ Wed, 23 Jul 2014 13:30:41 +0000 http://www.audrey74.com/?p=3047 Audrey's SwitzerlandThis summer we decided to bite the bullet and pay for four plane tickets to Europe. Going back home to Switzerland was going to be a big focus of this trip. With our kids being dual citizens we want to make sure they get to know their far-away home a little while growing up – seeing places where their mom grew up, experiencing different foods, high mountains and a different language.

After our long flight to Zurich, we decided to jump straight into a rental car and drive to a small alpine village called Flims, about an hour and a half away from Zurich. It’s where my dad grew up and where I spent many winters and summers as a child. It’s small, quaint and a place many would call typically Swiss – with high mountains, cows and lot’s of cheese.Audrey's Switzerland Audrey's SwitzerlandAbove images are around our rental apartment. Note the year on the first building!

On day one, my sister and her family came up to visit along with my mom. We decided to head up to a mountain valley called Bargis. It turned out it was quite a steep hike! What a way to kick that jet lag. Once we made it up we had a hearty meal and then cooled off in the freezing stream. The kids had a blast and were exhausted after a day in nature. Look at that sky…looks like it goes on forever.Audrey's SwitzerlandAudrey's Switzerlandflims 7Audrey's SwitzerlandAudrey's SwitzerlandAudrey's SwitzerlandAudrey's SwitzerlandOne of my favourite places is the Caumasee. It’s the most beautiful emerald coloured alpine lake. When I was 16, I had a summer job there selling swimming tickets and ice cream at the kiosk. The water is freezing cold, but it’s a great place to spend a summer day, ride a pedalo boat or enjoy the new kids playground. It’s an easy walk from the parking lot, so anybody can get there. The kids had a great time canon balling into the lake from that raft.Audrey's SwitzerlandAudrey's SwitzerlandAudrey's SwitzerlandAudrey's SwitzerlandWhile in the alps I wanted to enjoy more of the view from above. At first we wanted to go up to the glacier, but it turned out the gondola only runs on the weekends in the summer. Instead, we decided to take the chairlift to Foppa and then hike over to Fidaz. It’s a pretty flat hike, while it’s a bit long for our 5 year old, we did get the most beautiful view. Unfortunately the restaurant we were planning to eat lunch at was closed for renovations, so we had to hike a little further for sustenance ;).Audrey's Switzerland
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Another place worth hiking to is Conn. You actually hike down, which doesn’t seem to make sense, and after you’ve hiked down for an hour or so, you end up at these crazy cliffs that go straight down to the Rhein gorge. It’s called the little grand canyon. There’s a really good restaurant there and there’s an observation deck that hangs over the gorge, in case you didn’t get scared enough of the height.While we were there, someone came for lunch with their helicopter. The kids and Bruno decided to take the horse drawn carriage back to the village, while my mom and I walked back with the dogs.

We had an amazing week in the alps. It was incredibly relaxing, the food was amazing, it was great to see old and familiar things and the weather was pretty good.Audrey's SwitzerlandAudrey's Switzerland flims 17Audrey's SwitzerlandAudrey's SwitzerlandPhotos by Giulia Doyle and Bruno Doyle

I have a few more pictures to share with you in a separate post. I decided to split this trip into multiple posts since they are so picture heavy! So, stay tuned for more Switzerland photos and photos from Spain.

 

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