The Adventures of Michelle and Her Mother (Part 1)

My mother arrived safe and sound last Thursday. Since then, all of the airports in Europe have been closed due to an ash cloud caused by an erupting volcano in Iceland. God help me if they aren't opened by next Monday (her scheduled departure)...just joking of course...sort of :) We've had a VERY busy weekend. Friday we met Tatjana and Koryn for lunch at a traditional Swiss restaurant (Sonne). Turns out my mother isn't a huge fan of Swiss food. After lunch we toured a medieval castle, Kyburg, that dates back to 1027. We finished mom's first day off with a trip to the Irish pub, Paddy's where she met my friend Christian.

Saturday we took a train ride to the capital city of Switzerland, Bern. We went on a self guided walking tour and took in many sites including the Parliament building, the apartment in which Einstein was living between 1903 and 1905 when he discovered the theory of relativity, the Bern cathedral and ended off the tour at the bear pits where there is a mom, dad and two new cubs...so cute!

Today, we had breakfast at Fotostiftung Schweiz, the photo art gallery across from my apartment and then took in Marianne Breslauer's collection that was created between 1927 and 1938 (http://www.fotostiftung.ch/index.php?id=25&L=3). After that, we took the train to Zurich where the spring festival, Sechseläuten was taking place. Today was the children's parade, Kinderumzug. Tomorrow afternoon is the adult parade of the 26 guilds in their historic dress costumes, each with its own band. I will be unable to attend because I will be in class, but my mother may make her way into Zurich for the afternoon to see it. The festival finishes off tomorrow evening with another Böögg burning (which we plan to attend), similar to the one at Fasnacht that I attended in Winterthur in February. We ended our day today with a boat ride on Lake Zurich!