A tribute to our visitors

We've had a constant flow of visitors ever since we moved to Switzerland -- It's funny how "popular" you can become when you live in such a beautiful place as this! ;) So, I've decided it's (way past) time to include a short tribute to each of the overseas visitors we've had here in Switzerland so far. Especially before the next round of visitors, which starts next week...

It all started off right after we moved here -- I mean right after, when we didn't even have any furniture yet! Our friend Brian was in the middle of his European bike tour, and his route happened to work out so that he visited us in both Amsterdam (before we moved) and Zurich (right after the move). He even helped us screw our new furniture together - Now that's a helpful house guest! We also checked out a local mountain pass on our bikes one day. Check out his blog for a great story on it all.

Next our friend Thomas from Colorado just happened to be in Berlin for a while, so he "hopped on over" to Zurich to spend a long weekend hiking with us. He brought some perfect weather with him, and we made the most of it by enjoying some incredible scenery. You can check out the pictures with this link.

After that was our long-time friend Sean... We've both known Sean so long, we can't really remember a time when we didn't know him. He and Jeff used to set things on fire just for kicks while playing in the woods as kids... So for our hiking trip I tried to keep them under control so they wouldn't try to "re-live old memories" and burn a whole Swiss forest down to the ground ;) Sean brought some perfect weather with him too, and we made the most of it with some great hikes and overnight stays in huts -- For more pictures you can click this link.

Then we had a couple months off from visitors, as we went back to the U.S. for a visit in November, and in December Becky headed to India for her brother's wedding reception.

No worries, in January we made up for lost time by having 14 friends visit all at once! Luckily we didn't all try to fit in our little apartment overnight here in Zurich - Instead we rented two adjoining chalets in the ski resort Verbier for the week. Here's a link to the pictures from the Verbier trip - What an unforgettable time with a great group of friends!
In February our long-time friends Michelle and Kevin came to visit with their two sons. It was great to spend time with them especially since it had been so long since we'd done that, and it was fun to experience all the differences here through the eyes of a 7- and 11-year old. A story about their visit is in this blog.
For March our friend Jim came out to do some skiing in the Alps... Unfortunately I couldn't be a personal tour guide for that endeavor since my ankle was still healing from "the incident", but luckily we have some friends here that were kind enough to take over. Kate and Mark, our tough "Abenteuer" friends, took him for a day of skiing at Davos, and uber-tough Martina showed Jim what Swiss ski-touring is all about (and it is not easy)... the good thing is he survived it all! Even with a smile.

In April while Jeff was gone running across a desert, I was kept from being lonely thanks to Pallavi and Geo who visited from Amsterdam. Watch out Zurich, it's Girls Weekend! We packed a whole lot into a short time. For more pictures from this estrogen-filled event :) you can click this link.

And last but certainly not least, in May it was Jo who graced us with a visit. She was only here for a few days, but in true Jo-fashion, we packed more in those few days than one would ever guess is possible, including a day-trip to the Italian section of Switzerland, and an ad hoc hike up a mountain (when we learned the train going up hadn't started running for the season yet!). For more pictures from that fun-filled few days, you can click here.

Jeff and I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to share the wonders of Switzerland with so many friends... and more to come this summer (including our parents)! It is the best way we can think of to make the most of this experience of living abroad.

Thanks for coming, and as they say where we're from, "y'all come back, ya hear?" :)

Cheers,
Becky