Fall Leaves in Zurich and Halloween

I took lots of walks in the beginning of October when we had great weather to capture the leaves turning. The leaves aren't as beautiful as in Northeast, but they are still pretty great.  I walked through my usual parks like Rieterpark and Belvoirpark the first day and found some great trees.

Ivy leaves changing color on a wall by Rieterpark

It was still early in the season, so only some leaves were turning

Not a fall color, but my first encounter with a native holly tree, they grow all over here

The beautiful arches at Belvoirpark still feel like summer, but a hint of fall is up ahead

Some other pretty berries at Belvoirpark

 I also went to a new park in downtown Zurich behind the Swiss National Museum that we have driven by many times.  The park is fine, but has a bit more sketchy people in it than the parks by me so it was just okay.  I still took some pictures anyways.

Some nice colors in the downtown park

The Limmat river running out of downtown Zurich

There is another river that runs right next to Darren's work building that I don't know if I've ever mentioned before.  Those who have visited it might have seen it.  It is called Sihl River and it has nice walking/biking trails with great trees along it.  I think it is a really pretty area, but I can never take pictures to do it justice.  Here are my attempts, though.

The Sihl River

A pretty view of Sihl River from a bridge

Another attempt at capturing the river and the great fall colors

Some were asking, from the last post, if Switzerland celebrates Halloween.  Switzerland does not traditionally celebrate Halloween, but it is becoming more popular.  My friends who live in more residential neighborhoods might get five to ten trick-or-treaters on Halloween.  The American ladies from our church put on a big Halloween party one Saturday in October each year for their kids to celebrate Halloween.  Darren and I helped out with the bean bag toss at the party this year and it was fun.  Who can resist little kids in cute costumes?

My homemade cat costume

Jucker Farm

In the beginning of October, Darren and I went to a farm just 30 minutes away from us called Jucker Farm  I love visiting farms and I have such great memories of going to the Ardenwood Farm in Fremont as a kid with my family.  I had been to Jucker Farm one day during the summer with friends and I wanted to go back to get some fall produce.

Visiting Jucker Farm on a beautiful fall day

Jucker Farm is also fun in the Fall because they build displays out of produce that surround a certain theme.  Luckily, this year's theme was Switzerland!  I took picture of most of the displays because I thought they were really cute.

A Swiss cow made out of butternut squash

Heidi, her grandfather, and Peter the goat herder

They had some really large, but cute rabbits, though you couldn't pet them

We had heard that the farm could be very crowded on the weekends in October, so we were preparing for the worst, but it wasn't overly crowded like we thought it would be.  The weather was also fantastic.  We spent some time admiring all the different kinds of squash they had grown.  Some of them I had never even seen before.  I really like butternut squash soup, so I picked out two to buy and take home.  We also bought some fresh apple juice and it was delicious.

Thousands of squash

I can't remember what this one was supposed to be, sorry

Swiss army knife!

The three leaders swearing allegiance to each other to form Switzerland

Petting the fat goats

Not sure how this one got up here, but we think he couldn't get down

A man with an alp horn

Walking around the farm and pretending to pick apples

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of Darren, but I promise he came with me.  I had a great time and the butternut squash soup I made later on was delicious.

Engelberg

On the last Saturday in September, we took one last mountain hike of the season in Engelberg.  Engelberg is a mountain resort town just south of Lake Luzern.  It sits in a valley with two popular mountain ranges on either side of it.  I had heard it was a really pretty place from friends and so I had wanted to go.  The morning we arrived just happen to be the day the cows were coming back from their alpine summer pastures to the barns in valleys.  The cows are dressed up and have to wear even bigger bells than usual and are marched through the mountain towns.  It is a nice Swiss tradition, but I cannot figure out the official name of the holiday (every source calls it something different).  Anyways, I was happy to see my cows!

Farmers with their traditional outfits and huge cow bells

The cows all decorated for their parade

After seeing the small parade in the town, we took a cable car and a chair lift up the mountains on the north side of Engelberg.  These mountains only get to a height of 6,000 or 7,000 feet, while the mountains south of Engelberg are dominated by the 10,000-foot mountain and glacier called Titlis.

The view of the valle Engelberg sits in

Riding the chair lift up the mountain

The view at the top of the chair lift

At the top of the chair lift is a fun family area with a tiny lake, a little river, picnic tables, and an interesting thing called a tickle trail.  The idea is that you take off your shoes and socks and walk along the course around the lake that has different surfaces.  They have different kinds of rocks, wood, cement, mud, etc. to walk on.  Kids and adults love it.  We forgot to take a picture of it, so I'm borrowing this picture below from my friend's blog.  Anyways, I enjoyed watching people do it while we ate our lunch on the picnic tables.

 A picture of the fun activities on the mountains in Engelberg (picture not taken by us)

After our lunch, we walked along the mountain side for a while and made our way down to the cable car, skipping the chair lift.

Partial view of Titlis on the right in this picture

Me in Engelberg

Darren on our hike in Engelberg

Darren making friends with his own favorite animals

Trying to pet the cows who were not having it, they would just walk away from me

Beautiful mountain barn along the hike

Taking the cable car back down to the town of Engelberg

I enjoyed going here, though Rigi and Jungfrau are still my favorite mountains.  It was a fun last hiking activity of the season, though.  Oh Swiss mountains, we are going to miss you!