A Birthday Hike to be Remembered

Elena's birthday was last Saturday. She has a big paper with an impending deadline, and she was determined to postpone her birthday celebrations until the darn thing was finished so she could enjoy it without the looming thoughts of the work yet to be completed.

However, the weather in Zurich had been picture perfect, Indian Summer all week and it was just killing Elena that she might be wasting some of the best weather of the year on work. So, on Saturday we set out on a big hike to Bechtel, a hilltop which is just north of the southeast end of Lake Zurich. All four of us spent a wonderful 9 hours out of the house, traveling there and enjoying the scenery (Elena's mom was at her friends birthday party in Germany). We saw loads of cows - many with the wonderful bells - and hiked to a nice restaurant and park at the top of the hill. We thought we had stumbled onto another great festival at the park on the top of the hill, where we saw and heard a traditional polka band (pictured here - talk about memories for me - my parents would go out to hear similar bands when I was growing up). Turns out it was a private party for a local hiking club - we gladly gave up our spots at the common tables and went to the restaurant nearby and had excellent schnitzel, bratwurst, rosti and, of course, beer.


After some concern that we had missed the last bus (after practically running down the hill for nearly an hour), we made good time home with a camera (and memory) full of wonderful portraits of the day. To boot, we finished reading as a family the second Harry Potter book on the train and bus ride home. What a great day. Happy birthday, Elena.