A Never-Ending Sunday in the Theatre of Life

After half a day water-sliding my way through life at Alpamare, you'd think I'd've been on the couch recovering.

Not so. I did have a reviving cup of tea, but then realised we should think about heading into the city to see the annual Santa parade down the Bahnhofstrasse.

So off we set, into the Kinirtaq (!), and on the train to the Hauptbahnhof, where floods of kids and parents were making their way into the city.

As we got off the train at the Hauptbahnhof, we were a little surprised to see a Harry Potter mural along one side of the train parked on the very next platform (or Gleis).

Not only that, but there was a queue of people lined up to go on the train. DH and I cast excited looks at one another and, without further ado, swung into action.

He and the kids joined the queue as I headed for the nearest 'Hogwarts Security' guard, who explained that we could go on the Hogwarts Express (read: ZVV train all Pottered up for promotional purposes). He told us it was an exhibition which included costumes from the most recent movie, as well as props and partial sets (read: the launch of The Order of the Phoenix DVD).


We really couldn't believe our luck (remember how DD was reading all those Potter books in parallel?), especially when we boarded the Hogwarts Express to see the real live robes of Harry Potter, Lucius Malfoy and Luna Lovegood, as well as a reconstruction of part of Umbridge's office complete with pink cat-plates.

DH was rather taken with the rows of ingredients for making potions and frankly, even though this sort of blatant promotion aimed at children makes the cynic in me cringe, I couldn't help feeling somewhat excited and more than a bit interested in the costumes and theatre of it all.

And we even had time to get to the Santa parade! (Which we privately and totally undeservedly congratulated ourselves on...)

In fact, the parade was just about to get underway as we arrived, and I must say I rather enjoyed seeing all the Elves and Santas in costume, congregated in the just-rainy night with their various floats and horses and Christmas lights.

Brass bands played very oom-pah stuff as the procession worked its way down the Bahnhofstrasse, but even though it was very Euro and Christmassy and all that, there were bucket-loads of people lining the street, and the kids were starting to get cold and hungry. Plus, I suspect seeing approximately 37 Santas could have been a mite confusing for DS.

PS. I took a few photos of the parade, but after the HP adventure my camera kept shutting down and telling me I had zero charge. So I had to keep tricking it and quickly taking a photo before it shut down again.

So if you look closely at this last photo you might see one of the old trams all lit up like a Christmas tree, and - at the top - you might also see the vertical Christmas lights which are hung the length of the Bahnhofstrasse (the ones people complained about last year). And I must say they are kind of interesting, but not really Christmassy in the twinkly sense. Another photo later, perhaps, when I have a charged-up camera.

A watery Sunday

This weekend DD was invited to the farewell party of a friend she'd only just met. (Such is the life of the ex-pat.)

This was no ordinary party. It was at Alpamare, home of Europe's biggest indoor water-slide.

Now I don't think I'm an over-protective mother, but I did have a little niggling feeling that it might be best if I accompanied her, or at least loitered nearby, since all the girls were at least two years older than DD, and DD is not yet a strong swimmer.

So at the crack of dawn I jumped on a train to Pfäffikon, with the aim of meeting them there. (DD had joined the girls in the car.)

Oh boy was I glad I went.

Not for DD's sake - she was fine; happy I'd come, but basically fine.

No, I was glad I'd gone because Alpamare has some serious water-slide action, and let me tell you I might have been acting all casual, but it's not every day you get the run of the place without having to keep an eye on a five-year-old as well.

The first thing I noticed on approach was that the side of the hill was steaming. That looked promising.

The next thing I noticed was that, because we were there so early in the day, the car park was rather empty. So far so good.

I located the girls easily, made sure DD was OK with new faces and non-English-speakers, and then went for it.

I can't say I tried all the slides, because there were a few favourites which took up a bit of my time, notably one which was very fast and you had to go down solo: unaccompanied by people or floatation devices.

DD, whenever I passed her, forced me to go down whichever slide she'd just been down, so of course being a good mother I obliged.

But by far the funniest thing about this place was the wave pool.

Every 20 mins or so a siren went off, and people started swarming towards the wave pool (which was really just like a 50 metre pool, if that) to the throes of Hawaiian guitar. Not only that, but as the Hawaiian music subsided, the artificial thunder started up, the strobe lightning kicked in, and then it started to 'rain'! I couldn't stop laughing, and wondered what DD was thinking about it all as she braved the chlorine waves.

I tried to explain to DD's friend's mother why it was so funny, but found myself telling her about Australian beaches and how DD had been surfing last Christmas holidays, and how huge the beaches are...

Even the raspberry (or was it grape?) slushy at lunch couldn't mask the homesickness at that point.

I meandered back to the train station with my hair still a bit wet under my hat, and wondered how long it would be before I felt sand between my toes again.


I felt the solidarity, though, when I got home to find DH glued to the computer again after yesterday's election, eyeing off the electorate figures and ruing the fact that he hadn't been able to go back to the tally room this year.