We drove to Highcliffe and were able to spend part of Christmas Day with John and Vera, Dale's great uncle and aunt. When we arrived they were celebrating at their neighbour's and had only just finished their main course. Uncle John and Aunty Vera are 95 and 92 respectively and they were celebrating Christmas day with their neighbour, Kath, who is 93 and her sister Jean, who is 91. In addition Kath's daughter Jennifer and grandson, Peter, were supervising proceedings, making sure that the nonagenarians didn't get out of hand. We spent a lovely couple of hours at Kath's place being stuffed full of Christmas pudding and chocolates and being regaled with very funny stories by Kath and Jean.
On Boxing Day we went for a nice walk that we had also done last year on a lovely sunny autumn morning. This time it was a little more cold and overcast.
Entrance to the local church
The public footpath through the Highcliffe Golf Course, but beware of the golf balls. People were out on the golf course earlyish on Boxing Day. Escaping the family perhaps!
After crossing the golf course, we walked through a nature reserve before descending the high cliffs down to the beach where you can look across to the Isle of Wight. Then we reascended via a winding footpath and wandered around the grounds of Highcliffe Castle.
We spent the rest of the day at Uncle John and Aunty Vera's place. In previous years we have always gone out to restaurants for lunch, but they now find it very difficult to go out so we stayed at home instead.
On Saturday we met a friend, Nigel, for breakfast in nearby Christchurch. Nigel grew up in Christchurch and found us a great cafe for breakfast. We didn't have a lot of time but after breakfast he gave us an excellent 15 minute tour of central Christchurch.
St Martin's Priory in Christchurch
After spending another few hours with John and Vera we drove to London where we met more friends, Andrew and Rhys for dinner.
The following morning we trained from London to Zurich, via Paris, and then on to Zug. As we got into the French country side snow started appearing on the ground and then in started snowing. It was still snowing when we arrived in Zug at 7.30 pm. We were met by Manuela's friend Guido at Zug train station. We had spent quite a lot of time with Guido when we visited Manuela in 2009 but I didn't recognise him as he has a beard now. Manuela and Guido cooked us a lovely dinner and served us up lots of lovely wine.
The following morning we wandered down into Zug to re-acquaint ourselves with this beautiful town. It was freezing even though we were pretty well rugged up. At midday, as we started to walk home, it started to snow and it has only stopped about a day and a half later. Manuela has said that it is quite unusual to get this much snow in Zug so she has taken the opportunity to take us out walking in the surrounding country side. I have never seen so much snow. It is very cold but the scenery is spectacular.
First up, we walked in Steinhauserwald, the forest above Steinhausen, which is a town very nearby to Zug and is where Manuela grew up.
Baby Christmas trees covered in snow in Steinhauserwald
Dale and Manuela enjoying the snow in Steinhauserwald
Yesteday, Manuela introduced us to snowshoeing, which we just loved. We spent 3 hours walking around Oberwil bei Zug. We had planned to take a funicular to Zugerberg but it wasn't working - thanks to the snow falls.
The country side was a true winter wonderland.
Beautiful snow covered gate
Spying on the sheep through snow laden branches
Bee hives
Can you believe the amount of snow piled up on the branches?
Manuela's idea of fun. Shower some snow down on David
Exhausted, near the end of the walk
Loved the sight of this fence and gate surrounded by snow and snow covered trees.
We walked up a forested road that Manuela has never seen covered with so much snow
We have also been eating and drinking too much with Manuela's lovely friends. We had a raclette dinner party at Manuela's place on Monday night. Manuela has bought a raclette griller that sits in the middle of the table and you grill your own cheese before spreading it over boiled potatoes and adding condiments. I want one. Last night we were entertained by some more friends in their home and had another wonderful 4 course meal and some lovely Austrian white wine. It continues tonight with new year's eve celebrations at Guido's place in Zurich. Hopefully there are some nice fireworks photos to come.
