Zürichhorn

Sniff!

Today is was our last day with Dennis's parents, and, after we got the big kids off to school, we spent the morning sharing with them the little slices of our life that they hadn't yet seen. Dennis invited us in to Google for breakfast, with all of it's freshly-squeezed, freshly-baked glory. And then Joey and I introduced them to another of Switzerland's greatest wonders: the chocolate aisle at the local grocery store.  When Dennis first moved here, the relocation agent told him that the store's generic chocolate was absolutely delicious. It is, and it only gets better from there.

We had more ambitious outings planned for the afternoon, but they had to be put on hold when Ella came home so fragile and furious.  She was feeling completely overwhelmed by school.  After a morning of swimming, she'd spilled her snack all over the ground.  Her friends had helped her pick it up...and then ate all the food themselves.  Starving, she'd gone to her German lesson, where her tutor was working his way through a bag of candy. Watching him longingly, she'd blurted "It's okay if you eat that in front of me. I won't be jealous."  And then she immediately regretted saying that, realizing that, though she'd meant to be polite, she probably shouldn't have said anything at all.  (She said her teacher had just looked at her and finished his candy.)  So her blood sugar was low, she was feeling embarrassed and, on top of it, she'd been given three worksheets for homework and had been told that, on Friday, she'd be given a spelling test in German words, and that the answers had to be written in cursive.

Diktat

Well, I stuffed her with food and made her take the Texan approach to the worksheets (git 'er done), but I'm not exactly sure what to do about that spelling test.  I'm sure she'll be able to figure out how to spell those words, phonetic as German is, but I really don't know about the cursive.  I'm not sure if Ella wasn't paying attention during handwriting lessons, or if they learned most of their cursive before we moved here, but Ella has absolutely no idea how to form those letters.  I don't, either, half of them, and so we sat at the table, with the handwriting chart in front of us and did our best to finish up her spelling worksheet.

But I absolutely wasn't going to be able to teach her the cursive alphabet in an afternoon, and I certainly didn't feel compelled try on her Grandparent's last day with us, so at about 2:00 we called it an afternoon and burst into the sunshine.

With the burdens off her small shoulders and her grandma's hand in hers, everything was instantly better for Ella, and the boys were their usual sunny selves.  We took the train to the Hauptbahnhof and found that the main atrium had been transformed into a farmer's market. While Grandma and Grandpa went to the tourist office to arrange for their transportation to the airport tomorrow the kids ran around the stalls exclaiming...no, not over the fresh fruit. Don't be silly. There were waffles! And donuts! And candy!

We'd had a pretty joyless couple of hours, so I got them some bubble gum to share, which had the unforseen bonus of keeping them relatively quiet for the next half-hour, during our cruise around the Zürichsee.

If you purchase any sort of day train-pass around Zürich, the ferry system on Lake Zürich is included in your transportation benefits.  It's very popular, among locals and tourists alike, to take the ferry, which crisscrosses, east to west, up the length of the lake and back down again.  Our destination was probably just two miles from where we boarded just outside the Hauptbahnhof, but it took us a half-hour and about six ports to glide up the Limmat and then back and forth across the lake to the Zürichhorn stop.  And that was just about the perfect length: Ella relaxed with her book, and the boys pressed their noses to the windows and watched the waves and the boats and looked in vain for whales and sharks and mermaids.











We visited the Zürichhorn parks a few weeks ago, and the kids were excited to show their grandparents the stepping stones and the Chinese Garden and, best of all, the playground.

The frog eggs we'd seen last visit had hatched, and the pool
here was thick with tadpoles, and salamanders, too.

Joey found a family of ten ducklings. And he got
thoroughly scolded by the mommy for disturbing them.

The fountains in the playground were running, and it was
definitely hot enough to enjoy them.

The kids, jittery from the ice cream and lollypops their indulgent grandpa brought them, darted around the Chinese Garden until I'd decided they'd disturbed the adult tourists there sufficiently. I hauled them over to the playground, where they stripped off their clothes to change into their bathing suits.  The European attitude (or lack thereof) toward modesty is awfully convenient sometimes.

We were headed home close to dinner time.  As I sat in the back of the tram, I watched the kids, Ella in her grandma's lap and Alex next to her.  At one point, Alex slipped his hand in Joani's and said, appropros of nothing, "I'm really going to miss you, Grandma."  Ella seemed to be stockpiling conversation with her grandma for the rest of the year, fliting happily from what she was going to be when she grew up (a substitute preschool and Kindergarten teacher) to how many babies she should have when she grows up (three).

Just at dinnertime, the skies broke and I we were shook with the loudest thunder clap I've heard since I lived in Texas.  I've heard that they have very dramatic thunderstorms here because of the mountains, and I'm looking forward to them this summer. So, with our fondue and our rain, we had a cozy last night together. 

And, for the record, Team Dan&Cheryl totally came out ahead in our week-long spades tournament.  Excellent playing, partner!