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.

Family gathering in Como

One of the advantages of living apart from our families is, that sometimes family gatherings offer nice opportunities for a weekend getaway to a destination chosen by spotting on the map. Well, there is of course some rationale - mainly related to travel options and costs - behind, but you also have the flexibility of choosing the perfect travel destination: last year we planned a Christmas-market visit to Vienna with our brothers and friends, this year a summer weekend at the Lake Como, one of the most amazing sites at the Swiss-Italian border:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

Fortunately we had a beautiful weather and enjoyed exploring together the area around the lake:
- Bellagio (the real one, not the one in the meadows of Nevada), the pearl of lake Como:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

- Menaggio, on the western shore of the lake:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

- Panorama views of the lake from the observation tower in Brunate, high above Como:

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

- and the town of Como itself, with its waterfront, impressive Cathedral, pleasant terraces and best Italian icecream :-))

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

When we all got tired enough from wandering around and unsuccessfully search (as the Italians sold everything) for a public beach to go swimming in the lake, we found a perfect shady terrace for our siesta-time, before all of us heading back to our homes: Zoli's brother to Budapest, us (with my parents) to Switzerland...

From EUROPE - ITALY - Lake Como

Our photo album of Como, Italy.

Long weekend in Spain & Portugal

Our friends' wedding invitation to Galicia was an excellent opportunity for us to explore western Iberia this summer: a perfect destination (Baiona, one of the best resorts at the Galician coast) and just as perfect timing (my birthday weekend)... The only challenge was getting to the right place at the right time. After extensive internet research we found the "best" flight connections: Zürich to Galicia in 3 days via Barcelona and Porto.

Never mind, at least we get the chance to add Portugal to our list of countries visited... and Barcelona, well, it's anyway a city where we wanted to return to, for two reasons: 1. our first visit was in February and the city in winter-time doesn't present its full potential, 2. to return to La Sagrada Familia, one of our favorite sites to check on the construction progress :D

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Barcelona

When we first visited it in 2007, we said we wanted to return when it was completed. We were now surprised to see how long we'd still have to wait...

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Barcelona

Since there was a very long queue and extremely hot outside, we gave up waiting for the tickets and went to the Güell park and the beach instead. Eh, well. This just gives us another reason to return to Barcelona again (perhaps with our grand-childeren :-)), waiting for the eventual completion of the La Sagrada Familia.

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Barcelona

As mentioned, we headed towards the Güell park, hoping for a bit of refreshment in the green. As always, the park was crowded by tourists, so pretty soon we ended up at the beach, enjoying a relaxing afternoon at the sea, followed by a gorgeous seafood birthday dinner at La Rambla.

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Barcelona

The next day we continued our journey to Porto, the city built along the hillsides overlooking the mouth of the Douro river, which offered a lot of pleasant moments: exhausting walks up and down the winding roads (not sure if it was the language, the hilly roads or the colourful houses, but there was something in the city that reminded us of Salvador de Bahia), followed by a relaxing 6 bridges river cruise and wine tasting of the famous Porto wine.  

From EUROPE - PORTUGAL - Porto

We spent couple of very pleasant days in Porto (see entire full album on Porto here) before heading along the coastline of North-Portugal towards the Spanish border.

From EUROPE - PORTUGAL - Porto

In the end, the purpose of our journey was to reach Baiona...

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Galicia

... and celebrate Thomas and Laura's wedding in the gorgeous Parador de Baiona castle.

From EUROPE - SPAIN - Galicia

Reunion - Flight of a lifetime

As we spotted Reunion from the airplane when we arrived:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

we knew we have to fly over this amazing landscape some more. So we hired an ULM (Microlight) airplane

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

to take each of us on a one hour scenic flight:

As the plane only seats two and neither of us has a license, we had to take turns:
1st Flight: Krisztina In a few minutes after takeoff we were already in/above thousand meter deep valleys of Cirque de Cilaos:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Cirque de Mafate, with its isolated villages accessible exclusively by air or on foot

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Then we turned east towards Salazie (where we had the 1st climb)

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

heading to the famous Piton Fournaise:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

As seen on the above photo, the "mars-like desert" within the secondary crater we mentioned in our previous post, was filled with clouds.

The flight then passed above numerous crevasses and plains in between

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

 Proceeding back to the coast...

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

...followed by a smooth landing putting an end this amazing experience.



2nd Flight: Zoli

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Quickly after takeoff, we took a turn from Saint-Paul (below) towards Cirque de Mafate

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

I soon found myself surrounded by green mountains with waterfalls plunging in the valley, a true paradise:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Particularly impressive in Reunion is that in just 15km away from the coast

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

you have 3000m peaks towering above, like Piton de Neiges at 3069m above sea level

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

In the one and a half hour since Krisztina flew here, the clouds around the volcano started to dissolve

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

It was really interesting to "review" the hike to the Volcano the day before...

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

...and the martian desert we crossed

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

It was then time to leave the volcano behind and head for the coast

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

...descent to the ground

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

and tow the plane back to the garage:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

May I just end the story with the remark that this flight was definitely one of the most amazing experiences of our lives...

 The map of the flight


View ULM Flight over Reunion in a larger map

check out all photos of the flight

Reunion - Hike to Piton de la Fournaise

For our second hike on Reunion, we set ourselves quite an ambitious goal, the 2632m high Piton de la Fournaise.

The day began early, very early in the morning at 6AM in freezing temperatures by driving to the foot of the volcano

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Note: no, that is NOT the sun but the moon...

We started early as we wanted to being the hike just at sunrise (the colors being amazing at this time):

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

The hike began with a 150m descent first from an outer ridge (in the background) of the secondary crater, leading to a long, that is few-hours long "moonwalking"

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

In order to get a few nice photo shots we climbed some smaller craters:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

The hike then continued on a mars-like landscape...

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

before reaching the main crater.

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Note: this photo we did not take during the hike, but two days after from air.


The climb of the main crater was quite a challenge and seemed never-ending as the route went spiraling up, each time giving the impression the summit is "just around the corner" just for a new stretch to unfold.

...forward a couple of hours...

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

...notice the small bump at center left in the background? That is the "small" crater from before...

Going around one of those "corners" offered us an incredible view of the main lava flow

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

and the next corner of the most recent lava flow, both leading down to the ocean (some 2300m below us):

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Forward a couple of hours more...we finally reached the ridge of the main crater:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

... a rewarding site it was.

As always, we did not go alone, taking Gulliver with us

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

The descent wasn't particularly easy either, especially walking through the "martian desert" seemed endless, but after the 7-8hours hike, we were both proud to look back to our "achievement":

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

check out all pictures of the hike to Piton de la Fournaise

Reunion - drive around...

Note: Our drive around Reunion was spread over several days, but it makes more sense to combine it into one post.

Day 1. The road trip started with climbing the curving roads leaving the capital Saint Denis

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Descending back to sea level, we had a fantastic cruise on Reunion's "sunset boulevard" heading east

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Days 2-3: Unless one sticks to the coastal highway, the roads in Reunion don't stay flat for long, a few kms inland one is already surrounded by huge mountains

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

with plenty of waterfalls everywhere:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Back on the south-east coast there is still plenty to see, like old bridges:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

lava flows from the Piton de la Fournaise:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

and dramatic seas-side cliffs.

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Day 5: change of scenery: where sometimes driving in Reunion feels more like driving on mars (not that I have too much experience in that...)

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Unfortunately our rental did not enjoy the roads of Reunion as much as we did and decided to abandon us at the most remote location on the island. Even though thinking back...maybe the little Fiat just wanted to spend more time at this splendid spot ...after all it can't be a coincidence it broke down exactly HERE

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

...giving us enough time to enjoy the sunset (and the weather cooling down close to 0C) while the replacement car arrived.

Day 6. Just as driving up the roads towards higher grounds, descending down is also quite an experience, as the gigantic size of the continuous slope of the volcano's footsteps lie ahead of you:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Along the west coast a few other sights lined the road around the island as well such as colorful Tamil temples:

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Day 7. With so much to do in Reunion (make sure to check out the posts about the hike to the Volcano and the ULM Flight over the island), there was little time left for the beach, but we "saved" a day for "walking" the beaches...

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

which are well suited for snorkeling (after all we could not just lie on the beach the entire day) :

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

Day 8. Then it was slowly time to drive back to the Roland Garros airport and fly back    :-(

From INDIAN OCEAN - Reunion

All our photos from Reunion