Hiking near Amden.

Almost two weeks ago, right before Ruth arrived in Zürich, I went for a hike with my boss, his wife, and Rose, who I worked with in Alaska. We hiked around the Walensee, which is one of my favorite near-Zürich hiking locations. The day was totally perfect- sunny and warm! We started out by taking a chair life up the mountain.

It had been warm all week, so there was an inversion layer in the valley- which you could actually see by the line of haze!

The hike took us through an alpine moorland, which featured vegetation that was much different than what you normally see in the Alps.

We stopped for lunch at a mountain hut with amazing views over the lake towards the Glarus Alps.

It was a beautiful day, with great company and amazing mountains! Every day like this in the Alps makes me wonder how I could ever leave here. I think I'm mountain-addicted!

And, the best part was, I went straight from the hike to pick Ruth up at the airport!

Looks like winter in Zürich!

An evening in Bern with Ruth.

We watched the sun set on the mountains, wandered around Bern, and had dinner at the Altes Tramdepot.

I love snow!

Having snow here, even in October, has reminded me how much I love snow! I truly was meant to live in a northern climate. If only it was enough for cross country skiing!

Our snowy weekend.

Ruth and I have enjoyed our hibernation weekend. We've baked, listened to Christmas music, played Bananagrams, read, packed, watched movies, and enjoyed watching the snow, which hasn't stopped yet! We also took a nice run in the winter wonderland earlier today. Altogether a nice weekend!

Happy hibernation weekend!

This is what we woke up to this morning!

Fall in the snow.

Today, Ruth and I ventured out for some errands as the rain turned to snow. It's cold!

Normal Zürich.

The nearest sun is 500 km away. Time for a hibernation weekend!

With Ruth near Lauterbrunnen.

Ruth is here!

Ruth arrived this afternoon and is here for a visit! I'm excited for her to see my Switzerland!

Hiking by the Walensee.

The end of our tour of England.

On our last full day in England, we drove into London, and checked into our hotel in the Kensington neighborhood. Our first stop was lunch at the Orangerie at Kensington Palace. I've had tea there every time I've been in London, so it seemed appropriate for us to continue the tradition. Unfortunately, we were too early for proper tea, but we still had a nice lunch (and drank tea)!

We had tickets to tour Buckingham Palace, which is something that none of us had done in our different visits to London. It's only open in August and September every year, so I was happy when I found out that we'd be visiting during that window of opportunity. Plus, since it is the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth, there was a special exhibit with various royal diamonds that was quite interesting. Of course, photography was not allowed in the Palace, but it was really sumptuous and beautiful, and the paintings that were on display were quite incredible. I really appreciated the audio guide that came with the tour, as it did a good job describing both day-to-day use of the Palace and the history behind the art and furnishings that we were seeing. Overall, it was definitely worth the trip- I'd recommend it!

After our tour, we met up with Brian Patton after he got off work and took the train with him to have dinner with him, Jessica, and sweet Jessi, Jr.. Jessi and Brian and I have been friends since our days at Boston University (we met in 2003!) when we would go on T-surfing adventures together, and I was more than overjoyed to discover that they were moving to London, which is much closer to Zurich than Tel Aviv, where they lived previously. It was very kind of them to invite us for dinner on our trip, especially since they had just moved into their new place a couple weeks earlier! We had a lovely dinner and a fabulous time catching up and playing with Jessi Jr. (who might just be too cute for words!).

Jessi, Brian, and I have now been friends for almost 10 years, and we have lived in the same place for approximately 9 months of those 10 years. We've had adventures in Boston, New Hampshire, England, California, and Minnesota, and in Iraq, Turkey, Israel, and Switzerland since Jessi and Brian were married. I'm so thankful to have such dear friends now only a 1 hour flight away! I'm guessing I'll be spending a little more time in London this next year...

After the lovely evening with Patton family, we returned to our hotel and finished packing and getting ready for our flights the next morning.

The next morning, we headed our separate ways: me back to Switzerland, and mom and dad back to Minnesota. It was a lovely vacation: great time with my parents in an absolutely beautiful place to travel!