ETH, Hönggerberg Campus

Since no shops and few restaurants are open on Sundays, there is a grand Swiss tradition of spending the day in one of two ways: either at home, with family, or else, on the mountains or trails, hiking, with pause to build up a fire and roast a sausage or two at Mittag.  Sadly, we have no family here. As for the second option, with Joey's short legs, we're a little limited on the hikes we can take.  But, as for the fire and sausages, well, that's something we could totally do.

The weather's turned cold this weekend, with temperature only a degree or two over freezing. But it's been clear as well as crisp, and cold weather seems like the best sort for building a fire.  We decided to give it a try, and made plans with Susannah's family to meet up at the Hönggerberg Campus of the ETH (the university in Zürich), where they'd noticed a likely place for a picnic.

I love being on a college campus. They feel so inviting, and there's always something for little kids. At this campus, they had some big hard foam climbing blocks in the entry quad, which Joey proudly scrambled up. And then, further on, there was something for me to play on as well.

I'm not sure where the snow came from: I don't think it's snowed at all in this part of Zürich. It seems as though it must have been brought in or manufactured.  For our enjoyment, the kids decided, as they smashed hunks of ice onto the ground.  It was shaping up to be an excellent morning.

Things got a little dicy when we tried to make our fire.  Often, in Switzerland, there are neatly filled chests of wood close to the fire pits, free for the taking.  Perhaps they didn't want to make it too easy for the college kids to set things on fire, but at these pits, you had to rummage in the adjacent woods for your fuel. Here and there were piles of trees and brush that seemed to be for burning, but everything was much too big, and we're not woodsmen enough to have brought our own saw. I eyed the little saw on on my Swiss Army knife, but I didn't feel like working that hard.

So we did the best we could in the soggy woods, pulling out the oldest and driest branches we could find, and Dennis poked and coaxed these to light into a tiny, very smoky fire. We were about to give up when Dan, who is half Swiss, took over, and in minutes we had a merry fire. I swear it's in the Swiss genes.

Sharpening sticks for marshmallows

So we grilled our big pile of meat. You can't really tell, but that's a bottle of Cleveland's Famous Bertman Ball Park Mustard in my hand: representing!  We also tried grilling some bread, something that the bakery next to Susannah's house did with the neighborhood children this past summer. Wrapping pizza dough around some sticks, we set them near the coals.  The end part was mostly cooked and mostly edible.

But, of course, the real purpose of any campfire is marshmallows. I was puzzled as to how we'd managed to finish off a whole bagful, until Ella, bouncing from foot to foot, informed me that she'd eaten no fewer than twenty of them. But the kids burned off plenty of energy, too.  Ella spent a lot of time hopping around on the rocks and benches, while Alex and Joey and Susannah went into the woods with me, to look for mushrooms.

I was a little sad, this year, that the kids had missed out in playing in the leaves this year.  Although our apartment complex is lax about mowing, they raked up the leaves just as soon as they fell.  So I was happy when Alex and Joey discovered a spot on the edge of the woods with a thick blanket of leaves.  Although Joey learned the lesson that Linus taught my generation: "Never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker."

Spotted on our way out of campus:
"No speedos in the fountain!"

We left the campus at 3:00, but the sun was already low in the sky. The kids were tired, too, and I was glad for it. Dennis is leaving tonight for a trip to Manchester, and I was hoping for an easy start to my stint at single parenthood.

At Google, teams have a "fun" budget: in the American offices, they do things like trips to Disneyland or ski resorts or Vegas.  Dennis's manager is from England, and he decided, as their treat, to take the team on a short vacation to Manchester.  Unfortunately, they won't be seeing any football, except, perhaps in the pubs, but they'll be visiting a few museums, interspersed, I hope, with a lot of relaxing.

Meanwhile, I'll be doing my best not to be jealous!