The Schlittleweg

Joey seemed perkier this morning, so all five of us headed back up Üetliburg right after breakfast. The little sledge that Dennis bought for us from a colleague is of the prevalent style here.  Instead of a long plastic toboggan or disk, sleds here are either the bargain-alternative plastic shovels (the child sits on the scoop and holds the handle) or else they’re these adorable little wooden sleighs. With metal-trimmed runners, they’re sturdy and very fast.

We stopped first at a little children’s sledding run half-way up the mountain, but the kids protested that it was too flat.  Something more exciting, please.

So we hopped on a the next train out of the station (conveniently, they run every 20 minutes on weekends) and road up to the summit.

We remembered a likely-looking hill next to the fondue restaurant that we’d tried to visit last weekend, and fondue and cocoa sounded like just the thing after a hike and some snow play.

We were distracted immediately, however, by a little snack-hut that was closed, and covered with ice. My Berkeley/Seattle children have never seen an icicle larger than their little finger, and here was the real deal.

It brought back a vivid memory of when I was a kid in Cleveland: I wonder if my sister remembers.
We used to take icicles and line them up in the snow, pretending one of us was Superman in his fortress of solitude. I am a child of the 80s.

My kids, they found a different game.  When Ella noticed how much Alex was enjoying the ice, she set up a little store offering Alex the low, low price of 10 cents for three icicles.  

You’ve heard of selling ice to Eskimos, right?

Ella sets up shop

After convincing our budding snake-oil salesman to abandon her shop, we set off on the prettiest trail you could imagine. It was mostly abandoned, except for a few cyclists.  Unexpected.

We continued along the Planettenweg until we reached the restaurant, giving the kids a ride on the down-hill bits.

A one-mom open sleigh

We found Narnia!

We gave the hill a couple of runs, but it was a little too bumpy and, this time, too steep. The kids were getting frustrated and cranky: it had taken the better part of an hour to get up to the restaurant, and they had walked it willingly enough, but the hill we’d promised as a carrot was a huge disappointment.  Time for plan B: cocoa!

The fondue Dennis and I ordered we ordered came in an enormous pot: there was easily enough for six in there.  Dennis and I gave it our best, but we didn’t manage to eat half of it, even.  When it came time to pay, the waitress was most distressed: “Why did you not eat it? Did you not like it?” Oh no, no, it was just too much. “What? Too much? What?? Oh, no. I cannot believe it!” The Swiss, they take their cheese very seriously.

The kids were no help at all: they had chicken nuggets and fries instead.  They loved their cocoa, though: it was served as an envelope of chocolate powder and a glass of steamed milk so the fun of assembling their drinks kept them busy.  Appropriately, it tasted like Swiss Miss.  Joey, although he didn’t like the Emmentaler, enjoyed the eating process: he mimicked us, spearing his french fries on a little toothpick from the holder on the table, and only then dipping them in his ketchup.

After lunch, we had the long walk back to the train station, and both Dennis and Joey were starting to droop.  The other two, somehow, had plenty of energy still.  So we parted ways, Dennis and Joey off to home, and Alex, Ella, and I to the entrance to the Schlitterweg, or the special trail reserved for sledders that goes from top to bottom of Üetliburg, a length of over 3 km.

For the most part the descent was gradual, and since the gravel trail was showing throw the snow in many parts, I ended up pulling my little sledders for a good portion of the trail.  But there were a couple of steep sections, and though we practiced breaking, that little sledge picks up speed quickly, especially with two kids on it. So we turned the sled around on the steep bits. That way I could pull on the rope from behind them, keeping them from going too fast.

I’m glad we figured that out early: we were all a little unnerved to see a some bloodstained snow on a particularly icy patch toward the bottom.

It took us about two hours to go from top to bottom, even though I was jogging for most of the sled ride.  There was a lot to see, and we made frequent stops.  There was a little, semi-frozen brook along much of the path that kept the kids captivated, and midway down the slope was a large playground that the kids just loved.

Even after that, I really had to push to get the kids to go home at the end of the trail.  They were ready to ride the train to the top and do it all over again.  Although Alex, at least, was snoring within five minutes of saying goodnight. (Ella is deep in the pages of the last book of Harry Potter--she was a littler harder to convince.)

I think I earned my Swiss chocolate ice cream tonight.