Traveling Switzerland 2

Weekend Continued in Switzerland...

The rest of the weekend; after the day in St. Gallen.


On Sunday we went to the church in the Zurich area we have been attending almost consecutively for the past 2 months or something. Then we went home to eat and go to the gym; which is also a regular routine for us now. Sunday night we went back to Zurich with Pat the see the downtown area all decked out for Christmas. We also walked through the Christmas markets while we were there as well.

Zurich was definitely the most decorative and had the nicest displays for sure. They also had a major Christmas market inside the train station. This was kinda nice since we didn't have to be in the cold the whole night wandering around. There were also small set ups outside around the downtown area of continued from the market. And of coarse many roasted chestnut stands available all around as well as lots of gluehwein.

Traveling Switzerland

Before Luxemburg...

Since it's Christmas time...well getting closer to Christmas anyways...we decided that we better check out the Christmas markets around Switzerland. Apparently Switzerland (as well as everywhere else in Europe I'm assuming; especially Germany) is known for these markets that occur every year around December until Christmas I guess. So Brian, Pat and I randomly picked a place and ended up going to St. Gallen for the day.

St. Gallen was a pretty nice village; I don't really know how big it is or anything because we basically just stayed around the Old Town area. This is where the majority of the markets take place and where all the best Christmas decorations are.

Unfortunately we didn't go at night so it wasn't that dark; therefore the Christmas lights didn't look as good as they would have but that's alright it was still neat. The markets here, like all the other markets we have seen so far, consist of lots of different stuff. Everything Christmas of coarse; ranging from candles, to knitted sweaters and mittens, to jewelery. Also every market has many food/snack tables where you can sample different things...if you are thinking about buying something, and of coarse they have Glüwein. Glüwein is spiced wine; which is a special Swedish drink. Everywhere around Switzerland there are venues set up selling roasted chestnuts; apparently they have these as soon as it starts to get cold outside. Every train station you get off, Christmas market you go to....and street corner basically there are stands selling roasted chestnuts. It is actually a pretty tasty little snack; they taste like potatoes almost with a bit of a sweet taste too. We get them often since it's the thing to do!

Here are some pictures of St. Gallen at Christmas time:

In St. Gallen we saw something very unusual and had to take some photos of it. Even though this has nothing to do with Christmas:

Luxembourg in December

So we went to Luxembourg, on a really short notice. We booked the plane at 7pm Friday night and flew out at 9am the following morning. Found cheap tickets and thought, why not?

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a super small country, squished between Belgium, France, and Germany. And when I say small, I mean small. In fact, it would fit twice into Prince Edward Island. We went to the main city, Luxembourg and it was an amazing little city. It was a nice mix between old and new buildings; although we didn't hang out in the newer area because it was out of the way and was mainly the business center. We mainly hung out in the old town, which was beautiful. The city used to be a huge castle and the castle walls, turrets and churches still remained. We took soo many pictures, and a lot of it looked like it was out of a fairy tale, and not a real city.



























Luxembourg is a rich country as well, but luckily we found a hostel which was cheap and very, very nice. Also, because it was Christmas, the town square held their Christmas market and was filled with Christmas booths selling, candy, ornaments, soup, sausages, Gluehwein (hot, spiced wine), waffles and other delicious treats. We hung out at the Christmas market a lot because it was such a nice atmosphere with lots going on. Besides that we also wandered around through the cobblestone streets, appreciating the European buildings and life.
























Without knowing it, we had booked this trip on the weekend that Luxembourg hosts a fireworks display on their bridge, Ponte Adolph which spans over a huge valley. After a lot of walking down paths late at night, we found the perfect viewing point for the fireworks display in an uncrowded area in the valley. The fireworks where great, not quite as good as "Thunder in the Valley" in Crowsnest Pass, but they where really good.



We flew out Sunday night at 18:45, the flight home only took 35 mins. We were barely in the air and the pilot already announces that we are starting our decent to land. We got home by 9 and started getting ready for the Christmas party we are hosting on Tuesday, December 12th; which is also dads birthday!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Linked to Friends

If anyone still checks our blog periodically here is a quick little update.

We want to explain our "links" list on the RHS. Some people know the people on there, some don't. So since we are linked to these sites, we figure we should explain to you who these people are, and ENCOURAGE you to visit some of the sites.

The obvious ones are:
The Brian List: Brian's way of using spare time at work....
James and Heather Boldt: Brian's older brother and sister-in-law
Johnny Boldt: Brian's younger Brother
Miriam DeCock: Louise's sister; whom was in Uganda at this time.

The not as obvious ones are:
Gord and Janice Mills: Our friends from Calgary that we used to go to church with. We now go to a different church. For those who where at our wedding, Janice was the amazing singer!
Mike Birdgeneau: Brian's good friend from Engineering, classy guy, classy webpage.
Kelsey Plowman: Will and Kelsey are friends of ours; Brian met Will in his first year of school, and Will helped him out a lot. His wife Kelsey is an amazing singer also. You can here her sing on her website. Please go and listen, and check out when she sings in Calgary....and then go watch her!
Kate Stam: Louise met Kate her first year of school and we have been friends ever since.
Kurt Pearson: Could be the worst role model Brian ever had....haha! Mohawks are cool, and so is punk music. He lived in Pincher Creek in the winter, working at the ski hill. Brian hung out with him a lot back in the day.
Becca: Went to school with Miriam in Briercrest. During her blog she was in Korea to teach English.
Beth and Jeff Beer: Bethany used to live in Pincher Creek and her family was good friends with the Boldts and hence, Brian and Beth where good friends. She has since gotten married to Jeff. Louise also knows Beth quite well through high school sports; playing against each other. Now they live in Pincher Creek and Jeff is now the Baptist Church's Youth Pastor. They also just had a baby!