Monday was Knabbenschiessen in the Kanton of Zurich. When I first heard of this holiday, I thought, "They are commemorating when a whole bunch of little boys got shot?!?" Then Chris explained to me that it was actually a Kantonwide shooting contest for little boys. Oh and a few years ago, they graciously allowed little girls to compete as well. How 21st Century of them.
We went to the big carnival they have in town one year, but it wasn't anything our kids were interested in doing on a regular basis. Also, parking is a nightmare, so we usually just stay home and do something as a family. This year we decided to hike up Zugerberg and let the kids play on the playground at the top. We had heard from some friends that it was pretty nice and not a hard walk for the kids.
We found the train to take us up the mountain pretty easily, but decided we would rather walk up. So we continued on up the road looking for a parking lot. And we went up and up and up , the curviest, narrowest road ever. I remember being really glad that no one was coming down while we were coming up. We would have ended up falling off the cliff. We saw a sign that said we were allowed to drive there, and there were even a few houses, so it must be a normal road, but it was definitely not a well-used one.
We finally got to the top, having never found a place to park, and there was the train station complete with restaurant and parking lot. We hopped out and found the start of the Wood Sculpture Trail rather easily. In 1999 there was a huge storm (Lothar) that blew through Switzerland, destroying tons of the forests. A rather talented park ranger on Zugerberg decided to turn the cracked tree trunk eyesores into works of arts. Using a chain saw he carved various animals out of the remains of the trees all along the trail. The kids had a blast looking for the next animal, and if someone spotted one no one else had seen, they would all come running back to check it out.
We got to the playground pretty quickly and decided to stop for lunch and let the kids run around. We were the only people there which was nice because we didn't have to worry about the kids bugging anyone or being too loud. They loved exploring the forest right around the playground, and playing in the stream that ran right beside it. Fortunately, no one fell in. It wasn't raining, but it had rained the night before. So even the wood had been protected, the fire pit was soaked. Chris managed to get a fire started, but it quickly petered out in a lot of thick smoke.
There was just enough heat to warm up four skinny hot dogs for the kids, but not enough to roast marshmallows or anything. We munched on bread and cut up vegetables and then decided to go home and finish our lunch there. No one was complaining about being cold, but we were all woefully undressed and we didn't want to push our luck. So we packed up and headed home. It turned out to be a really fun outing and we will definitely come back on a more sunny, less windy day.
Glad you finally went to Zugerberg. We really liked that trail.