A weekend North

Milano has just had, I think, its version of Halloween which came with a day (Thursday) off.

Just because it’s there and it is one of the small number of ‘child-friendly’ activities for kids around Milan – we headed to the Prehistoric Park on Thursday – (Parco della Prehistoria- about 45 mins drive out of Milan) to do a walking tour of life-size fibreglass dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures and some life-size, non-extinct mammals like sheep, deer, goats and horses.

Nothing much has changed!

 It was a lovely day out – another one of those days where you check the forecast and it looks rubbish but you go anyway and the rubbish never happens and the kids skip happily around pointing and exclaiming and loving being outside and you were glad you chose to be optimistic.

Our plan for the weekend that followed had mainly been shaped by the fact that the North/Lane family (who we holidayed with in Switzerland and are living near Zurich) have all their weekends booked and we have none so we chose to visit them on their only spare weekend til they leave! This involved a three hour (which eventually became a 4-5 hour excursion north). The weather was spectacular and the mountains were out in force sitting oh so close and yet oh so far away while we sped by on the autostrada. The kids failed to sleep and the parents argued but then not everything always goes according to plan and we finally arrived for a very late lunch of bread and cheese.

The Norths are living in a large Swiss farmhouse in a small village near Zurich. They (Chris, Emily, Ngaire and Hannah) are staying with Chris’ cousin Isa and her three kids and it makes for an even noisier household then ours in the morning but thankfully they are not surrounded by apartments and the thick walls soak up the lively play nicely. The Turnip festival (Halloween type festival) was the first item on the itinery. You take a turnip (think Swede), hollow it out, carve it up with little pictures by scraping off the top layer of peel, poke a candle in the bottom (after removing the lid) and hold it, lit, in the dark. The school kids all create one, gather en masse and process through the streets of the village holding their lit turnips, singing and being admired by their bystander parents. All very cute and creative and wonderful to be part of a long standing tradition that plants itself into the calendar year after year.

Rafz - village where Chris, Emily, Ngaire and Hannah are living

 The persistant rain wasn’t as cute (or rather trying to juggle a candlelit turnip, umbrella and child) and nor was fighting with a completely tuckered-out Gwilym in it which spelt an early end to the evening for us both.

Saturday’s plan was scaled down from a big day out to a smaller day out after I merrily fed Silas the muesli for breakfast – failing to realise that it contained peanuts. He announced he was feeling sick and a quick dissection of the muesli (no packet) revealed the problem. After getting Chris to find out how to ring for an ambulance and where the nearest hospital was and waiting to see what would happen, we got away with just a vomit after a couple of hours of feeling sick. Silas is so good at vomiting that we managed to take him on the fondue cheese buying mission, complete with bowl so he could spew when required – which he did with calm and poise in the supermarket . Not sure anybody actually noticed Rory removing him from the store. This, ironically, is all good news for us. We have had the fear of death put into us by the doctors and have religiously carried our epipen for the last 2 years and it could just be that he has almost grown out of most of his allergies (although seems to have developed a pine nut allergy just in time to come to Italy).

The thought of being free of all this is a lovely thought. To not read ingredient lists or question shop keepers or create headaches for hosts is fantastic although no doubt, the hospital will insist we wait another few years for them to find the time to officially food trial him with crash teams in the wings so that he can have quarter of a muffin….

Silas and Gwilym thrived with some outside garden play!

Since the forecast for Saturday was looking average and the general state of health was suboptimal, we scaled down a big day out in the hills to a small excusion up in the village forest (which it shares with Germany – the border goes meandering through the forest). It was wonderful soaking up the autumn colours as the trees turn their defiant faces towards winter for a last, blazing show. What a lovely thing it is that we have the autumn before the winter. 

The village beside Rafz - taken from the hill above Rafz. Each village has its own forest associated with it which is sustainably managed by the village for wood harvesting

As can be predicted from a North/Lane/Jones outing, the outing required many bikes, some running shoes and a unicycle. We also took the mushroom identification book and the cameras. The photos speak for themselves.

Emily heads UP the hill

Can we eat it or will it kill us?

That night – in good Swiss tradition we enjoyed a stonking fondue. You buy the lump of cheese (fondue cheese) and they grate it for you in a special grating machine so that it melts more easily. Then you buy the ‘fondue wine’ to melt the cheese with and a pile of bread to carry the calorie-laden molten cheese mixture to your mouth. And if you drop your bread in the bowl, you sing for the table. And you if are an adult – you can dip your bread into some other fiery alcohol first, before adding more alcohol and cheese to the mix on your bread. There are endless possibilities for getting fat in Switzerland. Chris and Emily seem to have enough genes and a large enough appetite for fat burning exercise (think riding unicycles up hill) to avoid this outcome. It was a great feast; so communal and full of action.

Next morning – just to make sure – we had cheese and bread again for breakfast. Can’t spell the name of the bread or say it – but think solid, knotted loaf of brioche, oven warmed and piles of gruyere, gorgonzola and emmentaler to eat with it.

We had planned a day of wandering in Zurich which we did after another group bike ride to the next village for some playing on the playgrounds on offer. The rain just kept holding off and off. I loved cycling around the village getting a feel for the houses and their traditions. No doorstop left unswept or undecorated and opening right onto the street.  Signs over the lintel of the door announcing when a new baby has arrived (Name, birthdate and decoration). Cows sitting in the shed in the middle of the village. Bicycle stands at the front door. As I have said before, I think Switzerland seems to suit my rule-following personality but I am fairly confident that my doorstep would never reach the village standards without some tweaks to my priority list.

In Zurich, we wandered. Slowly. We wandered the old town through the cobbled streets and stared into shop windows. Thankfully absolutely nothing was open other than the cafes so I got to resist spending money.. Once again the rain held off and off and we got to take in the lake and the roof lines, the rainbow of pastels on the old buildings and a liberal smattering of Swiss flags. We enjoyed buskers. I loved the moment when we arrived at a violinist accompanied by a ‘statue busker’. Gwilym stood rooted to the spot right in front of them, gradually working out that the statue was moving. Kids don’t worry about polite distances or what people think. They just take it in and enjoy the moment.

Silas and Hannah cruise the streets of Zurich

Finally we said our goodbyes to Chris, Emily, Ngaire and Hannah (we will see them next back in Christchurch) and jumped in the car to drive to our dinner date with good friends Veronica and Mikey, their daughter Riley and their newly hatched son, Samuel.

As we departed Zurich I caught a glimpse of a golden clock face against a black sky, heavy with rain. We literally departed as the rain began to pour and it didn’t stop until we arrived home.

Alison’s GPS (thank God for these things – they make the job of passenger so easy and reduce maritial tensions no end!!!) faithfully took us winding up the one-laned road to Veronica and Miki's and we enjoyed another evening in a gorgeous, old, solid as a rock, Swiss farmhouse. They totally spoilt us with ‘Raclette’, one of the other famous Swiss traditions – complete with cheese, , meats and an array of veges to cook on the raclette and coat generously with melted cheese. But first, Gluhwein, on the balcony, over-looking the lights of the villages below from the flanks of the very large hills they live on.

Samuel is 2 weeks old, a wee button of a boy with a gorgeous face who slept all the way through dinner but woke as we left, ready to keep his parents entertained for the next 2-3 hours with that lovely feeding, crying cycle you get in the evenings of newborns. Their house left me feeling envious – uncluttered, beautifully kitted out with lovely new and old things and you can ski from the front door in winter. And tidy - like a Swiss house should be!

Miki, Rory and Samuel

Riley and Veronica

It was great to talk openly with friends over dinner, sharing stories and experiences – especially over 19 month age gaps and babies and the challenges of parenting and marriages and all that good/hard/life-defining stuff.

To end, a drive back in the driving rain that couldn’t hold off any longer to hit home by midnight. Two sleeping boys, two tired parents and four flights of stairs to negotiate. Ah - apartment life.