Winter Sports: Skigibi

Example of a homemade Skigibi

On the most exciting aspects of moving to Switzerland for a kid that grew up in the flat lands of the midwestern United States is the prospect of winter sports. In the words of some British friends, 'Proper' skiing as compared to the stuff in Wisconsin and Michigan.

I am by no means very talented in winter sports. I have played a little hockey, and managed to learn to downhill ski. I have even taken up snowshoeing this season. And the sledding here is fantastic! One type of sledding I haven't had a chance to try yet, and I'm not sure I want to is called Skigibi in Swiss German. It is pronounced something like 'SHE-gi-be.'

The concept is to take a single ski, screw a seat to in and ride it down the mountain. Sounds crazy. Over the weekend when we were at Rigi I actually saw two people with Skigibis and I just had to take a picture.

A Swiss friend of mine told me that these things were likely invented in the Berner Oberland. She mentioned that she thought they might have even originated from Adelboden. Every year in Adelboden there is a annual skigibi race and it is puported that last year some guy hit 137 kph (85 mph) on his skigibi.

Would you be brave enought to try your luck? What winter sports are you planning to attempt for the first time?

Snowshoeing at Rigi

View from Rigi Snowshoe trail

This morning we decided to get up and head to the mountains on the train for an afternoon of snowshoeing. The trip started well with a surprise. The train ride to the top was much less than expected because as of December 13th 2009 you can now use a GA for the Rigi Bahn.

Rigi is one of my favorite views in the summer but we had never been there for the winter season. I was not disappointed by the winter view. The snowshoe trails were marked but a lot of the portions of the trail looked like no one had trekked on them yet. In some places we were cutting the trails ourselves walk from marker pole to makerpole.

After a good 2 and a half hours of hiking we finally fished the number 3 loop and returned to the upper train station at Rigi Kulm. We visited the resturant for a nice big dish of Alpener Maccaroni one of my favorite winter time dishes. After that it was lights out. I feel totally drained this evening. But drained in a good way. I know I will sleep well tonight. For now, I am just fighting to stay up so I don't go to bed to early.

Guten Morgen Sonnenschein

Any fan fan of German reality TV will undoubtedly be familiar with the song Guten Morgen Sonnenschein. It has become the anthem of early morning cranky wake-ups.

The song is extremely catchy and after some looking on youtube I found the version I was looking for by Nana Mouskouri

Do you have any songs in German or another foreign language that stick with you despite the language barrier? leave a comment.

My New Lieblings TV Show: Bauer Sucht Frau

I am addicted to Bauer Sucht Frau. Yes for those of you that know German it is 'Farmer Seeks Woman (wife).' The show is two weeks into the 2010 season and it is one of the best reality shows I have seen in a long time.

The premise of the show is quite simple. They find a bunch of mostly middle aged single farmers. Give them a couple of women to pick from, and then let the women stay with the farmers for one week on their farm. All the time they get to feed the pigs, shovel muck, and bond with the farmers.

The video clip above is from a previous season but it gives you a good idea of what the show is about. It is great because all of the dialog is basic conversational high German. It is a great way for me to practice the language.

This season I am really rooting for Farmer Bruno and his Frau Anja. They seem like a fantastic pair. Last weeks episode they pulled Bruno aside for one of those classic one-to-one interviews where the reality star speaks directly to the camera. He goes on to say something like 'She fills the emptiness I have had on this Farm, she cleans the entire house.' I love that line.

I give Bauer Bruno a lot of credit, he knew his farmhouse was a mess, so he rented an RV for Anja during her stay so she wouldn't have to be subject for his old musty ole farmhouse. For those of you watching the series who don't want a spoiler make sure not to do a search for Bruno & Anja, it looks like the final outcome of their relationship is already out there in public.

Show times on station RTL, 16:45 on Sunday evenings.

Virtual Tour: Limmat River Promenade

We had such a great snow fall over the last weekend that I decided to hike around town to capture a few more winter scenes for the Baden virtual tour page. My with these tours is to give anyone out there considering moving to Switzerland they will have a few pictures of small town live in Baden.

The promenade along the Limmat river here in Baden is one of my favorite place to relax. A stroll along the river after a snow, or in a summer evening after dinner is the perfect way to relax. The promenade is also the perfect path to take between my apartment and the thermal baths which are located next to the promenade on the north end of town.

Check out the new Limmat promenade virtual tour to take a look around.

Snowshoeing: The Day After

Snowshoe Trail Near Amden/Arvenbuel Switzerland

Yesterday we did a 2 hour snow shoe trek through the alps near Amden Switzerland. The weather looked a little foreboding as we were taking the post bus up to the top of the mountain. The area had just gotten about 8 inches of new snow the previous night, but no worries, the bus had chains on the tires and I am sure the driver was well experienced.

This was the first time I was ever snowshoeing. It is a really great time if you are hiker and want to get out in the snow. The blue trail leaves from Arvenbuel and is a 2 hour loop. As you can imagine the 2 hour loop with me and my camera meant we took a bit longer.

At the end of the trip the group of about 10 of us found a Switzerfamilia feuerstelle to make some fondue. The first 8 to get to the fire pit dug out the fire pit from under about 3 feet of snow and then lite a fire and began about 30 minutes later just in time to enjoy the fondue.

Everyone had carried about bit of the meal on the hike including some wood. I was carrying the 3 package of fondue cheese. So although I was a bit late we could only make 1 batch of cheese at a time in the pot so it worked out well that I was a little delayed.

This morning my legs were killing me. I couldn't believe how exhausted I felt after truding through the snow. Some parts where I stepped off the trail I found myself waist deep in snow. With all the sore muscles today we made a trip to the Thermal Bath in Baden for the afternoon. It was a beautiful day for the baths. Snow was coming down like crazy while we were outside in the 35 deg celcius (95 F) swimming pool. What a way to end a weekend.

I will be looking for more snowshoe trails for sure. Do you know of any in Switzerland? Leave a comment.

Buying Snow Shoes

Everybody should buy snowshoes. Makes sense right. Okay, so maybe not, but today I got a pair of snowshoes. It felt a wee bit like a total impulse buy but what the heck.

I do actually have a need for snowshoes. Well, maybe not a need but rather a desire. We are planning to go snowshoeing with some friends on the weekend. The idea is to head to the mountains, hike around until we find a nice spot and then make some fondue somewhere. I am not really sure how this is going to work other than I have been told that one person is buying all the stuff and then we are going to split up all the stuff and each carry a bit of the lunch for the hike.

I sure hope I'm not the one that gets stuck carrying the fondue pot. Apparently this is a logistically proven feat. This group of friends did the same weekend trip last year so it should be interesting if nothing else. We'll be hiking through the Amden resort area.

If you are looking into shoe shoes I can tell you in Baden they cost about 35 CHF for a weekend rental. If you want to buy them from the local sports outlet store in Tagipark the prices range from about 100 CHF to 300 CHF. Seems like you can get a good buy at the lower end of the scale.

Hiking in the Woods

Today we went for a hike through the woods not far from our apartment. We live the area north of the Alps so believe it or not we don't get too much snow here. Most of the snow will fall in the mountains and nothing other than a grey fog makes it as far north as our town. That means a walk through our little piece of Switzerland at this time of the year is usually covered only lightly with traces of snow.

It was much warmer out today that I had anticipated. Once we got moving, I took of my hat and gloves and unzipped my jacket to enjoy the fresh air. Or course part of that could have been the uphill hiking as well.

I did notice that it is staying light a little later now. Even at just before 6:00 in the evening there is still a faint bit of light in the sky. Just enough to see the outlines of the distance hills.

To night we are going to watch a recorded episode of Bauer Sucht Frau, but I'll leave those details for another post