Albis area & the Türlersee

We promised to write a few words about Albis, the area around our new home. About half-way between Zürich and Zug (both cities easily reachable by train or 20 mins car-ride), it is also known as "Zurich’s nearby recreational area with a dense hiking-path network".

From Albis

As so often in Switzerland, the real charm of the area is provided by the nearby lake, the Türlersee, offering great bathing, camping and grilling opportunities for the summer, iceskating for the winter-time, numerous hiking & walking trails for spring & autumn.

From Albis

Aeugst am Albis (yes, that's our village :-)) itself is only a short walk from the lake with the most amazing views one can imagine of the Glarner Alps and the Bernese Alps with the Zuger lake and the Pilatus in the foreground:

From Albis

No wonder it did not take us very long to fall in love with this area...

It seems that soon after our move, Aeugst just wanted to present us its best: within just two weeks time in October (!) this year, we already had the opportunity to experience summer, winter and spring-time at our place (crazy weather, isn't it???)

From Albis

... and thus we are now looking forward to have a beautiful white Christmas this year (the chances seem to be very good in our village):

From Albis

New home for our growing family in Aeugst am Albis

After just 1.5 years in the Lorzeninsel (our latest appartment in Hagendorn), we started packing again this summer ... for the 4th time in 6 years since we moved out to Switzerland (!). This time however we had to take a longer term decision: was it the right place to buy and settle with our (growing) family?

We fell in love with the appartment (especially with its large garden area and amazing views on the Pilatus and Bernese Alps) at first glimpse.

From Albis - Our Home

Although it seemed like an ideal home for us, it was not an easy decision:
- Do we have / are we going to get from the bank the necessary funding...?
- Is it the right location the Albis-area (half-way between Zürich and Zug) for us? (a description of the surrounding area will follow in the next blog entry)
- And most importantly, are we ready to spend at least the next 10 years of our lives in Switzerland...?

Many similar questions were circling around our head, until we took the final decision to buy this place on the day we left on holidays to Mauritius & Reunion (and almost missed our flight due to last-minute arrangements) making the bank transaction from the lobby of our hotel in the middle of the Indian Ocean (isn't technology great?).

From Albis - Our Home

After 3 months of waiting and packing, we were excited to pick up the keys and finally celebrate the purchase of our own home on the 20st of Sept. First nice surprize: a warm welcome from our neighbours, who showed up at our door on the day of the move with a big basket of welcome gift.

From Albis - Our Home

... It just felt like a perfect start of another chapter in our family life, especially now, waiting for the arrival of our baby girl within a few weeks only.

Surviving the winter... with skiing therapy

We sometimes wonder how can people who do not enjoy wintersports survive the long, cold and dark winter-time, especially in Switzerland...? Well, luckily we can not complain as we spend most of our free time on the slopes. This year we probably hit our record with the 15 skiing days in our favorite Swiss resorts:

- Starting the 'season' at Hoch Ybrig on 1st of January:

From Hoch Ybrig

- then spending a very cold team event (-20C) at Pizol with my colleagues from JnJ:  

From Pizol

- and of course, some days at Grindelwald (still our number one resort):

From Grindelwald

- and another typically cold destination - becoming our favourite towards the end of the season when temperatures are getting milder and the snow is already melting in other areas - Engelberg-Titlis:

From Engelberg, the eldorado of via ferrata

Even Gulliver joined us for some practice (picking of course the sunniest day of the year :-)

From Engelberg, the eldorado of via ferrata

And finally, an area only 1-hour away from our place we just started to explore this season (with great potential to becoming another favourite) - Meiringen:

From Meiringen

And the season is not completely over yet, the last skiing days of the season we spent in the country's spectacular Jungfrau region, where the "SnowpenAir 2012" (the highest-altitude open-air-concert on snow) was taking place at Kleine Scheidegg

From Grindelwald

- offering just the perfect season-end with world-famous stars like Kim Wilde

From Grindelwald

and Bryan Adams

From Grindelwald

Needless to say, the atmosphere was incredible, with Swiss and Americans and all the other nationalities singing along and just enjoying the weather:

From Grindelwald

For the very last day of the skiing season, we woke up early to be sure to catch the fresh tracks left behind by the pistenbully:

From Grindelwald

Via ferrata (Klettersteig) adventures

During the summer we had a few weekends "empty" without anything planned.

Obviously we couldn't leave it that way, so we had two unforgettable last-minute-planned via ferratas (if you don't know what that is you haven't really paid attention to our blog...)

Since we were already confident in our skills after a few climbs, we decided to climb a K4 difficulty, 700m high wall, the amazing Fürenwand:

From Engelberg, the eldorado of via ferrata

As the photos taken show, it was quite a challenging climb, most of it being one vertical wall:

From Engelberg, the eldorado of via ferrata

while just so that we don't get bored during an easy climb, mother nature decided to treat us with some water effects:



as we climbed higher and higher the view down below got scarier and scarier
and just before reaching the top, the route had another great surprise, a pretty high and pretty swinging ladder


However, the joy of the last steps to the top:


and the view made up for our efforts:


And finally, as a surprise present, we were rewarded with an amazing lake or rather pond (unfortunately it was too cold to take a plunge):


which offered us one of the best photo spots ever:



The next of those blank calendar weekends, we went for a climb of  only "K3 -K4" difficulty that was supposed to be "like a walk in the park" compared to the previous climb...well it wasn't a walk in the park (but more on that later).

So this climb was inbetween two "branches" of the Steingletscher (black rock in the middle):

From Steingletscher

The overall climb was again about 700m in altitude split into:

• an "easy" K3 section:

with views on the western "branch" of the Steingletscher:

• a middle section of a short walk towards the eastern branch of the Steingletscher, 

where Krisztina decided to take matters -sorry mountains - into her own hands - sorry between her legs:

• and a surprisingly technical K4 section:

But the big surprise awaited us on top of the climb: the Steingletscher in all its beauty:



Some lucky bastards were lucky enough to have a place to sleep overnight (on the left side of the photo):


but not us, we had a painful descent ahead of us...one of those spots down there being our car we had to get to:



and this was the part we underestimated a bit, as the descent was almost as difficult - at least for our knees - as the climb.
But overall it was just another wonderful day in the alps.... highly recommend to everyone.

The two albums:

Fürenwand:

Steingletscher: 

Exploring the Alpine passes and Wallis...

During my parents' visit in August, we set off on a Saturday morning for a weekend trip to Wallis.

From Wallis (Leukerbad & Val d'Anniviers)

The drive itself - over the alpine passes - was quite an experience already, especially when realizing in the middle of the Grimsel pass, that we only had gas for 10 kms (while the GPS was showing the first gas station 16 kms away...) Well, the driver (Zoli) had to slow down (which was quite unusual :-), but at least helped us reach the first gas station...)

As we arrived to Leukerbad (one of the largest thermal spa and wellness resorts in the Alps) we took the cablecar up to the Gemmi pass for a panorama of the valley:

From Wallis (Leukerbad & Val d'Anniviers)

From Wallis (Leukerbad & Val d'Anniviers)

... and to take a walk at 2300m around the mountain lake Daubensee:

From Wallis (Leukerbad & Val d'Anniviers)

To get hungry enough for our Swiss Roesti dinner, we continued with another long walk along the thermal canyon walk path, leading to the Dala gorge of Leukerbad.

From Wallis (Leukerbad & Val d'Anniviers)

It's been a long day, so next morning was time for us to spend a few relaxing hours in the thermal bath before heading towards Val d'Anniviers, also known as the "hunnic Swiss valley", where some of the inhabitants are considered the descendants of the Hunnish tribes and had as their closest relatives the Hungarians.

From Wallis (Leukerbad & Val d'Anniviers)

The valley, with a landscape of Alpine wilderness and sun-blackened houses with rich flower decoration is truly picturesque and definitely worth a visit.

From Wallis (Leukerbad & Val d'Anniviers)

It seemed like a great area for hiking and climbing, panoramic mountain tours or skiing, so we will surely return once to explore the beauties of the valley. However, the time was too short this time and we had to return home. On the way back, we took another route - over the Furka pass, one of the most impressive alpine crossing in Switzerland - just to ensure Zoli doesn't get too bored while driving :-)).

From Alpine Passes

From Alpine Passes

As we reached the Hotel Bélvèdere, our view opened up to the Rhone Glacier and we were soon standing in front of another natural beauty well worth seeing: the Ice Grotto, allowing visitors to take a look inside the glacier. An amazing experience, but also very sad: the ice grotto moves together with the glacier apx 10 cm per day downstream, due to which the cave needs to be cut back in the glacier every year.

From Alpine Passes

You can visit our full albums here:
Alpine Passes
Wallis

Summer 2011

OK, so it's been a while since our last blog entry, so we have a lot to catch up on. In the meantime, summer is officially over, with plenty of achievements and fun, too.
First, we finished our moving  and decorations of our apartment, which we have celebrated with couple of house-warmings. This is a view of our "island" from the countryroad above:

From Hagendorn

... and we started to exlore the area around Zug
- by bike:

From Zug and area

- sailig (hmm, did we mention we started to take sailing courses ...?):

From Zug and area

- swimming in the lake (the very best way to relax during lunch breaks :-))

From Zug and area

- hiking at Mt Rigi:

From Mt Rigi

-or, taking the funciular up to the Zugerberg:

From Zug and area

It's been also a time full of family events and birthday celebrations, having barbecue with our parents at the balcony:

From 2011 - Csaladi Esemenyek

From 2011 - Csaladi Esemenyek

And last but not least, the two main reasons for celebrating in the summer of 2011: Zoli's successful EQE (resulting in officially becoming a European Patent Attorney) and our 5th wedding anniversary!!!

From 2011 - Csaladi Esemenyek