Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Atzmaennig

This past weekend we went to "Atzmaennig," which is a ski resort up in the hills just east of the town of Rapperswil.  This time of year the resort turns into a kind of "mountain park," with playground equipment, zip lines, trampolines, bungees, and slides.  The ski lift takes you up to the top of the mountain where you can hike around and check out the views of the Alps nearby.  The highlight is the "Rutschbahn," which is a long slide down the mountain.  The ski lift takes you up about half way, and then you ride a "small seat with wheels" down the mountain on the slide.  It's kind of like a tame "bobsled."  Anyway, it was a pretty fun place.  I'm sure we'll be back soon.






















Monday, May 28, 2012

Trains & Boats

This past Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, so we thought it might be fun to go back to Rapperswil, which is a small town across the lake from us.  We've been there once before (back in February) and we really enjoyed it.  It's a nice little town that has a nice European feel to it, there's a cool castle which the kids love, and the town is right on the lake.  Best of all it's a quick train ride from our house (about 10 minutes.)

The trains drop you off right in the old part of the city, so we let Jenny go do some shopping.  Meanwhile, the kids and I walked up to the castle, which sits up on a bluff overlooking the town.  Inside the castle is a "Polish Museum," which commemorates all the Polish immigrants who settled in the area during World War II.  There's also a nice lakeshore trail surrounding the castle grounds which the kids liked.  In towns like this we usually just find ourselves "wandering" around.  "Hey...let's see where this goes."  That kind of thing.  That's how the kids and I found the nice "rose garden" you see below.  Sometimes it makes for a lot of walking for the kids, but it's fun to just explore sometimes.

Back in town all the restaurants and bistros sit next to the marina, which makes for a nice spot for dinner and to watch the sunset.  Then after dinner we took a boat back to our side of the lake, hopped on another train back to our town, and we were home.  The kids thought it was fun hopping around from train to boat to get where we wanted to go.  It's a typical European way to get around, and I have to admit it's growing on me.