Our final day in Switzerland was spent driving back to Zurich where Elisa showed us a great time walking around the gorgeous city.  I have a vivid picture in my mind of the vantage point above the Limmat River as well as tasting macaroons for the first time but unfortunately my iPhone’s battery was dead and I do not have photos to share.  I can imagine after twelve total blog posts about this trip you are probably okay with that fact.

The trip back to Boise went pretty well except for a jet-lagged overtired toddler needing to run around like a crazy woman rather than stand in a customs line in Washington D.C., but we survived and were glad to be home.

I admit that taking a 10-day multi-stop trip through Europe with a six-month-old and a 2.5-year-old was daring even with my sister there to help.  It was an incredible experience for all involved, however, I don’t think our girls will remember the trip when they are older.  While we loved having our whole family together, it would have been a lot easier and cheaper had we gone without them.  I really didn’t think going without them was an option as Eloise was still exclusively breastfed at the time of the trip and it would have broken my heart to be away from her for so long.  Had our friends not been getting married, we would have saved a trip like this for when the girls were a little older but honestly, with it all said and done, I wouldn’t change much.  The one thing we would change was to not fly into Switzerland and instead would fly into Munich because it is a lot cheaper in Germany and it has better food.  But I am really glad we saw Zurich and met Elisa so perhaps I wouldn’t change a thing in retrospect.

If you are thinking of doing a trip like this please leave a comment and we are happy to provide recommendations and share more learnings from our trip.  Here is a quick summary of our itineary as well as links to posts on each location.  I have also included the hotels we stayed at.  We liked all of them and they were all kid-friendly (which is not entirely common in Europe.)

Sept 26 – Flight to Zurich

Sept 27 – Arrive at 8am in Zurich, Pickup car from Europcar Zurich Airport, Stay at Novotel Zurich Airport

Sept 28 – Drive to Konstanz, Germany to meet our friends, then drive to Munich staying at Suite Novotel München Parkstadt

Sept 29 – Oktoberfest Part I and Part II

Sept 30 – Drive to the Black Forest stay at Waibelhof Dorfstraße 6

Oct 1 – Wedding in the Black Forest

Oct 2 – Stop in Freiburg on way to the Alps

Oct 3 – Grindelwald, Home with Sick Belén staying at Chalet Alpenrose Grindelwald

Oct 4 – Jungfraujoch, Top of Europe

Oct 5 – Alpine Playground and Zip Line

Oct 6 – Drive Back to Zurich

Oct 7 – Fly Home

Thanks to my wonderful husband for planning and making all of the preparations for this wonderful trip!

Happy Adventuring!

For our last full day in Grindelwald, we decide to take a page from the hang-gliders constantly passing through our view of the Eiger and be adventurous.

We walked through town to find the gondola which would take us up the mountain to an alpine playground we had read about in the tourist brochures.

This was Eloise’s first gondola ride. She seemed pretty indifferent about the whole experience.

We got off at the first gondola stop and arrived at the most beautiful alpine playground I could ever imagine, the Aplenspielplatz.

Believe it or not, this is what Belén looks like when she is really excited and is asked to pose for a picture. It’s her “Arrr, matey” pose.

There were swings

and a stream to throw rocks into. What could possibly be better?

Weezy could swing too in the little spiderweb swing!

They even encouraged children to dig holes and build dams in the stream. It was unbelievable and the cheapest thing we did in Switzerland (it was free!)

Now it was time for the adults to have some fun. We took the tram up a little further to the Big Kids Playground, also known as a zip line. Anna and I went first and rode the gondola to the top, then hiked to the beginning of the zip line. This was a special zip line experience for me because it was my FIRST. I missed out when Andy did his first zip line in México because I was in Argentina. I missed out when he did his second zip line in Fiji because I was pregnant with Belén. Needless to say, I was THRILLED to finally have an opportunity to ride a zip line.

As we sat in the starting gates waiting for the zip line attendants to open the doors and start our ride, both Anna and I were giddy with excitement. Finally the gates opened and we were off, wind blowing forcefully our faces to the point where you have to reconsider how you inhale. We laughed and screamed and in short, enjoyed the heck out of every second on the ride. The only disappointment was that it didn’t last longer.

Next up, it was Andy and Stefan’s turn for the ride. Anna and I stayed back with the girls to answer Belén’s 20 questions about “where did daddy go?”

Finally, we ended the day at a place both kids and adults can enjoy. Belén had this slide to herself and literally went down it over a hundred times.

Meanwhile, we basked in the sun with a cold beverage and lovely conversation.

It doesn’t get much better than this!

Except for the little detour at the end of the day. I was dissing on the Swiss food in an earlier post but chocolate is something they do right. Should I really have been complaining?

Anna, Stefan and Christine came back from their day at the Jungfraujoch raving about the experience.  Anna insisted that she would watch the girls the next day and that Andy and I must do the trip.  Being that the train ride to the top and back cost about $220 USD per person, it was good to know that it would be worth it.  As we expected, it was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

I had worked on pumping nearly enough for two feedings but I wasn’t quite sure how long we would be able to be gone.  We figured we needed to get back within six hours so we weren’t going to be able to hike around like Anna and crew had done the day before.  Our plan was to basically go to the top of the mountain, take photos and then head back down half way and hang out since we knew we could easily catch the train down if I received a text saying Eloise would be hungry soon (not to mention the half way point was a pretty amazing place to hang out with the view of the Eiger.)

My pursuit of coffee caused us to miss the first train up and have to wait 25 minutes for the next one.  I cursed my poor planning while we sat there waiting.  The next train came and we boarded along with a lot of other tourists.  A couple of meters of flat and then the train started going uphill.  As you can imagine, this was no ordinary train.  It is called a “cog” railway system and the tracks had an extra tread for the train to grab onto and climb.  I suppose those extra tracks are the “cogs.”

In no time at all, the valley started to disappear behind us and the Swiss chalets became more and more sparse.  In less than two hours we would be at the Jungfraujoch.

We had to switch trains at the half way point called  Kleine Scheidegg, 6762 feet up.  This photo was taken as we were heading up the steep part of the climb looking back at the train station at Klein Scheidegg.

The train ride from Klein Scheidegg to the Jungfraujoch takes 50 minutes and is primarily inside a pitch black tunnel.  I hoped I would not feel claustrophobic because I would be screwed.  There are two stops from within the tunnel, one at Eigerwand (on the north face of the Eiger) and Eismeer (on the south side), where passengers can see through the holes excavated from the mountain.  I believe this one was at Eismeer.   As you are riding in the train they have a video playing but after it started to repeat and I worried about feeling anxious, I just started playing Angry Birds, a game I had not played since I was pregnant with Belén and that kept my mind occupied and prevented it from thinking nervous thoughts.

The craziest thing about this railway through the Jungfrau is that the idea for it was conceived in 1893 by Adolf Guyer-Zeller to make the glaciated areas on the mountain more accessible. The building of the tunnel took 16 years and the summit station was not opened before 1912. The goal was in fact to reach the summit of the Jungfrau with an elevator from the highest railway station inside the mountain.  (This is all taken from wikipedia.)

We actually had seen the lights from these holes in the mountains from the balcony of our chalet the night before.  When Andy told me that the tiny distant light, near the top of the mountain was a hole blown out for the train to stop, it was hard for me to believe.  The size of the mountains and the magnitude of the project started in 1893! was nearly beyond comprehension.

We finally arrived at the top at which point, Andy and I kicked it in fast gear wanting to get up to the lookout at the “top of Europe” and try and catch the next train down.  We stopped briefly at the bathrooms where a guy puked on Andy’s shoe.  Between the thin air and train in a tunnel for 50 minutes a few people were sick.  We were glad the girls were not with us.  Belén probably would have freaked out in that tunnel, but even more importantly, it was not advisable to bring a baby up to this altitude as the air has 20 – 30% less oxygen than sea level.

Adolf’s 19th-century vision was eventually realized.  A high-tech 90-second elevator ride up 364 feet to the Sphinx Observatory and we were truly at the “Top of Europe” from a vantage point in the Bernese Alps.

The Sphinx Observatory was completed in 1937 is the highest-altitude construction in the entire continent.  With multiple laboratories, a weather observation station, astronomical and meteorological domes, and a 76-cm telescope, the Sphinx has served as a headquarters for researchers in fields such as glaciology, medicine, cosmic ray physics, and astronomy. And over the years, the building has adapted to meet scientists’ needs. Today, the observatory is fully outfitted with electricity, water, telephone, internet, and even a machine to produce liquid air (this information was borrowed from here.)

It was really unbelievable!

The Swiss aren’t scared of building anywhere!

Hanging out at 11,333 feet!

The chalets in the valley below look like tiny dots.

It was really fun going on an adventure without our kids…just like the good ole days.

This is part of the largest glacier in Europe.

If this for some reason looks familiar, you may have seen it when Matt Lauer was here in 2011 as Day 4 of Where in the World is Matt Lauer.  The Today Show does a slightly better job of capturing the beauty of the mountain and the region in this video.

The air is thin up on top so you have to be sure to drink a lot of water and bring snacks to eat.  Only in Europe can you find fine dining at the top of rugged mountains.  You just have to make sure you find the right restaurant that allows your crampons.

We waited until we were back at Klein Scheidegg to eat.  I ordered a cappuccino and apfel strudel.  Andy ordered a sausage and a beer.  Both of us were treated to a side of breathtaking mountains.

Like Matt Lauer mentions in the video, we still had cell coverage so we were able to call the Swiss doctor who had seen Belén the day before and learn that her fever had been caused by a urinary tract infection which was easily treatable.  Knowing this information made the day even better!

Nothing like basking in the sun with the beautiful Eiger hovering above you while your (healthy!) kids are having a ball in the valley below with their Auntie Anna.

Since I have already spent two entire blog posts telling you how we drove to Munich and the Black Forest, I will spare you the details of the commute to the Swiss Alps.  I will just tell you that we knew we were getting near when we started seeing views like this:

This:

And this:

Oh right and this:

And that our kids were SO FED UP with being in the van that I was breaking into full on soprano renditions of “The Hills Are Alive…with the sound of Hoobing” (adapted from the Griswold version in European Vacation which of course was adapted from the Sound of Music.)  This kept the adults entertained even though their ears were bleeding and my kids were confused enough by the screeching noise they stopped crying for a minute or two at a time.

Before everyone could kick me out of the van, we arrived to Grindelwald, Switzerland, a sight for sore ears eyes.

That mountain on the right is the famous Eiger.

It was lovely, to say the least and every house looked a bit like this.

Not at all cute and quaint, right?

Oh and the cows, yup, they all had the bells.

And these goats were cute and Oreo-cookie/yin-yang-like.

Then, of course, there is the Eiger, one of the most famous mountains in the world and THE most dangerous mountain in Europe if you a rock climber type.

Since 1935, 60 climbers have died attempting to ascend the north face of 13,000 foot summit.

—–

After arriving, we spent the first evening gawking at the incredible view, moving into our apartment and finding food.  Speaking of food, I feel compelled to mention that not everything in Switzerland is perfect.  In fact, there are three things in the country that leave something to be desired:

1. People (generally unfriendly)

2. EXPENSIVE with a capital E

3. The Food

If the mountains were not there, I don’t think you would make the sojourn for this:

It’s pretty much fries, sausage (and not the good German sausage) and beer that does not hold a candle to German beer.  They do get the apfel struddel right though!

The next day, on our first full day in Switzerland, Andy and I stayed around town to take Belén to the doctor as it had been over 48 hours of fever with no other symptoms.  Anna went with Stefan and Christine up to the Jungfraujoch, the Top of Europe.  She came back with stories of ice castles,

a cheese plate (see what I mean about the food.  I bet that cheese plate cost $15 and it is literally rolled up slices of swiss cheese,)

and a glacier at the top of the Jungfrau.

Meanwhile, we were back in Grindelwald with this silly girl.

That morning, I went for a run and was able to explore the area a bit.  Afterwards I rejoined my family and we wandered through a very lively market to take Belén to her doctor’s appointment.  We had two pages of paperwork to fill out before we were immediately seen by a doctor.  She did an examination of Belén and then asked for a urine sample.

Okay so I felt a little bad snapping this photo but I found it so ironic that our first full day in such an amazing place revolved around our sweet little girl going to a doctor we had never met due to a fever that would not fully go away.

We took our time returning to the apartment, wandering through the street fair.  I bought my souvenir for the trip…a cow bell, which required me to tell Andy that “we need more cowbell” at least fifteen times before I ultimately decided on the one I am holding in my hand.  Even though Eloise doesn’t look it, she was very amused.

This little gal was making quite a killing playing this massive Swiss horn.

Belén celebrated the completion of her doctor’s visit with a few revolutions around the makeshift carousel.

That night, as we were waiting for Anna, Stefan and Christine to return from the Jungfraujoch, we decided to snap some photos of the girls with the Eiger in the background.

We tried and tried and tried to get a photo of Eloise and the Eiger without our hands in the picture and this is the best we got.  It’s really kind of ridiculous HOW many photos we took to get this shot.  At least Weezy was having fun.

I was going to try and do all of the Black Forest in one post but it would have been way too long so it is now three.  After the post-wedding breakfast, Claudia told us that we must visit the town of Freiburg on our way to the Swiss Alps.  I had heard her say how cute it was a c0uple of times so I convinced Andy to make the stop.  We were really glad we did.

Had we not, we would have missed out on a very big Rathaus (City Hall),

an opportunity for Belén to tame pigeons (she was doing okay even with her fever),

a cute city center area,

delicious gyros,

and most significantly a very incredible cathedral.

What a great little city.  I can see why Patrik and Claudia would love to live there.

The next day we all slowly woke up and one by one went out on the patio to inhale the views of the black forest.

Once nibbling on the snacks Anna and Andy had procured the night before was no longer enough, we went in search of breakfast and coffee.  After the long journey the day before, the girls vehemently protested about getting back into their car seats.  I think we may have scarred them for life on that one.

The GPS told us there was a restaurant a mile away but it turns out that was as the crow flies.  Ten nail-biting miles later on roads barely wide enough for our van, let alone a passing car, we pulled up to our destination and it was disappointingly closed.  We backtracked stopping only to take a picture of why the Black Forest is thus named.

Pretty dark in there, eh?

While the drive was a bit scary, the views all around us were breath-taking!

An hour after we had set out, Andy was driving a van full of famished gals through the “forest” so he was ready to pull over at the first café he saw.  This experience taught us that not every little town in Europe is full of quint little cafés.

We eventually did find a cafe to eat in a nearby town in the nick of time.  We were approaching nap time and also needed enough time to get ready for the wedding.

Guess what Belén wanted to eat for breakfast?

Andy ordered for us in German and the waitress looked directly at Anna and I to ask us questions (in German) about our order.  We awkwardly looked back and forth at one another while Andy jumped in to try and clarify.  When the waitress left he said, “I think we are getting coffee, some pastries and an egg.”  Perfect!  At that point, anything would have been perfect!

The pastries arrived a little bit later and we were so hungry, calories were of no consideration.  We piled butter and jam on each piece, sharing with Belén who was equally hungry.  The coffee was brought out a little later, each in our own separate little teapot.  We started to feel like normal humans again.  Mine and Anna’s eggs came out as a single hard boiled egg on a plate with a spoon.  We both looked at each other like, “What the hell do we do with this?”

This is what we did with it.

Andy must not have been paying attention until we were already making a huge mess because he said, “Oh, there is an easier way to do that.”  This is how he ate his egg.

Apparently, it is quite common to be served an egg like this in Germany so if it happens to you, the key is to tap the shell at the top of the egg and sort of decapitate it and then use the rest of the shell as a makeshift bowl for the egg, sprinkling salt on as needed.

We finished with breakfast and drove back to our abode which was quite quaint, and less scary looking in the daylight.

The right two-thirds of the house is actually the barn.  We were staying on half of the top floor.

The girls went down for naps while the rest of us showered and got ready for the wedding.

We woke Belén up just in time to get dressed for the wedding.  She was piping hot with a fever of 103 degrees F.  Andy and I didn’t know what to do as we had come such a long way to attend our good friend’s wedding and yet our first born had the highest fever of her life.  We quickly concluded with Anna that she would stay with Belén and make sure she was alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen to keep the fever down and then Andy, Eloise and I would go to the wedding.  I hoped more than anything that Belén’s fever would go away quickly but also that the rest of us, especially Eloise, would not catch whatever it was that she had.

Hesitantly, we drove off without two of our tribe and I immediately began texting medical people back home to see how we should be treating Belén as well as texting Anna to see how she was doing.  Her response, “GO HAVE FUN! SHE WILL BE FINE!”

The drive was once again beautiful and it eventually took us to the cutest little old church you have ever seen, located smack dab in the middle of nowhere.

The church was built before the United States was founded.

As much as I hated being away from Belén and not having her with us, my spirits were raising at the thought of seeing Patrik and Claudia married in this absolutely perfect setting.

The only thing the tiny chapel was not good for was storing a car seat.  We ended up ditching it in the back row and took a pew mid-church and waited for the ceremony to begin.

Soon, Claudia and Patrik entered the chapel both looking amazing.  Claudia’s dress was SO beautiful and it fit her like a glove.

The service brought back memories of the many Catholic masses I attended when I was younger with the minor detail that all of the words were in German and I couldn’t understand anything besides their names. My mind tunes out sermons so well though that I didn’t feel like I missed much.

It was very fun seeing some of the slight differences in a wedding ceremony in Germany versus the US. I loved how Patrik and Claudia walked down the aisle together even at the beginning of the ceremony. Things were definitely more similar than different.

Eloise was a trooper and only started to get fussy once.  Luckily, I had pumped some milk for her that morning using my handy dandy hand pump so Andy fed her the milk and that calmed and then she passed out on me.

Before we knew it, Patrik and Claudia were officially husband and wife and we were outside congratulating them!

We lingered only momentarily before driving to the location of the reception which was very conveniently located right next door to the house where we were staying.

We passed the time between wedding and reception checking in on Anna and Belén.  B seemed to be doing much better and was quite happy to have an attentive adult playmate at her beck and call.  Andy and I decided to leave Eloise at home as well and make a date out of the wedding reception.  We promised to bring Anna food from the reception since there was no place nearby to get her something to eat.

The reception was BEAUTIFUL in this neat old farmhouse turned bed and breakfast and it truly couldn’t have been more perfect.  Patrik and Claudia had considered every last detail from a very unique guest book where you put your green fingerprints on a tree branch to the most incredible pre-meal cake to the five course dinner followed by champagne, toasts, beer, wine and dancing!

Patrik and Claudia had introduced us to their good friends who have three kids, the younger two of which match the ages of our girls.  They were actually the family sharing the upstairs of the farmhouse where we were staying.  Their kids were able to attend the wedding so Andy and I were constantly being reminded of our girls because their behavior was so similar.  We talked a lot to the parents and came to realize that toddler and baby behavior is not cultural.  Even though I couldn’t understand little Jula when she was whining in German, I could tell you exactly what she was saying based on knowing what Belén would be saying at that same moment if she were there.

It was also fun to talk with them about the cultural differences raising kids in the US versus Germany.  For example, breastfeeding in public seemed very accepted in Germany.  Maternity leaves are OBVIOUSLY longer in Germany and it just seemed like the country had a lot more policy to encourage working, educated parents to have kids than in the US.  I also found it interesting that doctors in Germany encouraged babies to start eating solids at four months whereas we can start at four months but many encourage you to wait until six.   Minor details but it is always nice to know there are many acceptable ways to do things.

Keeping our promise to Anna probably had a few people suspicious of us crazy Americans.  We didn’t have them take Anna’s place setting away (even though she wasn’t there) and so they continued to serve the phantom guest food.  Each time a course was served, Andy and I took turns slinking out of the room with the plate and walking it back to the top floor of the farmhouse for Anna to consume.  We would then bring back the dirty dish from the previous course.  Luckily the wait staff was varied so I don’t know that they caught on.  For some reason the exercise conjured up images of  taking food to someone in a dungeon.  Anna was happy though and we were very grateful to have her there to watch the girls.

We had so much fun and were so thrilled to have been able to attend the joyous occasion.

The next morning, we met Patrik, Claudia and their families for breakfast and gave them the gift we had had made for them.  We wished we could have spent more time with them, but we needed to get on the road for our last major stop of the trip, the Swiss Alps.

A long long time ago (last October) in a country far far away (Germany) a subset of the Hoobing’s attended the wedding of our good friends Patrik and Claudia.  And now continues the gripping saga of our trip through Germany and Switzerland with my sister, our 6-month-old and 2.5-year-old.  if you ever have thought about taking your young kids to Germany and Switzerland, check out the next seven posts that will post throughout this week and next.

The day was September 30th and we had recovered from Oktoberfest (with our kids) the day before.  We attempted to pack up the massive quantity of stuff for our caravan quickly to get on the road.  Andy didn’t want to take the time to sit down and eat the continental breakfast, a fact I was not entirely pleased with, but he was driving so I obliged.  Everyone piled into Vito (the van) and we briefly joined the expressway before exiting to get gas.

At the gas station, Andy stepped out of the van and fiddled around with the gas pump for quite some time.  In his best German,  he asked a couple of fellow gas pumpers if there was a trick to the pump and they both looked at him like he was a dumb ass who couldn’t work a gas pump.  Eventually, he figured out that the numbers on the pump had not been reset to zeros and someone ahead of him had likely pumped and run. He pulled forward to another pump ready to give him some gas.  When he went inside to pay, he then proceeded to pay for the wrong pumps gas, which apparently has never been done before in the history of  this particular gas station so they had to call the manager to sort it all out.  The man whose gas he had paid for was annoyed at having to wait while Andy’s credit card was credited and he paid for the correct pump’s gas.

Meanwhile, back inside Vito, we wondered where Andy had disappeared to and the unfed undecaffinated (for some reason even though I drink decaf, I still need my coffee) demon inside of me started to rear its ugly head.  When Andy finally returned to the car, he read my mood and immediately suggested we get some food from the gas station.  Not thrilled to be waste one of our meals in Europe on gas station food, I reluctantly realized we didn’t really have a choice so Anna and I went inside to fetch some form of breakfast navigating the German language and shrink-wrapped sandwiches by ourselves.

As we walked back out to Vito, we saw a gas station attendant next to the driver’s side window talking to Andy.  They were questioning whether he had paid for his gas at the original pump, which you will recall had numbers on it when we pulled up to the gas station.  Andy explained the situation and the man apparently understood and walked away.  We were finally ready to go!  By this point, I was immensely thankful I had gas station food and that Andy spoke rudimentary German.

The road to the Black Forest was long especially because the notoriously fast autobahn was riddled with construction.  Between detours to quaint little German towns, stopping for meals, stopping to breastfeed and pit-stops in response to “Mommy, I need to go potty” at which time I almost wished Belén was not yet potty-trained,we eventually found ourselves driving in the dark in a foreign land with still more than an hour projected for our commute.  We made one final stop at a gas station on the edge of the Black Forest where Andy took Belén to the bathroom and came back to the van with a crying child and puzzled look on his face.  He then proceeded to ask Anna and I about the female anatomy and what would cause pee to not go straight down into the toilet but instead squirt up a bit getting an emotional toddler’s tights wet.

The final leg of our trek made us wish it was still light outside because we could tell we were driving through beautiful country.  We plunged down into what seemed like a valley and then through a town called Freiburg continuing on thinning roads to a little country town called Horben.  Our friends had long since gone to dinner as we pulled up to the house/barn combo we were going to be staying for the next two nights.  We navigated country dogs and difficult to understand German to claim our rooms on the top floor of the dwelling.

While I settled in with the girls, Anna and Andy drove back to Horben to find some food (and beer) for the evening.  The two places that served food in tiny Horben had already closed down for the evening.  I got the girls to bed and relaxed by myself for ten minutes before Anna and Andy returned with a much deserved beer.  To say the day had been long is a complete understatement.  My role as the back seat entertainer on a trip that was scheduled for four hours but then turned into over eight was much more challenging than any day at the office.

The saving grace of the day was the Burger King crown that kept Belén happy for hours, even when it was nearly over her eyes.

As we crawled into bed that night, we all eagerly awaited the breathtaking views of the Black Forest we expected daylight to bring as well as our good friend’s wedding the next day.

Andy’s mom found a new park she has been wanting to take Belén to.  It is relatively close to our house and nestled right into the Boise foothills.

Andy was trying to give me some time to finish up our blog posts from our Europe because you know the only thing better than reading about someone’s vacation is reading about it three-and-a-half months later…

Anyway, Grammy, Andy and the girls braved the below-freezing temperatures for a mini-adventure at the new park.

Eloise swung in a swing for the first time.

And Belén was able to show Eloise how high she will one day be able to swing.

Even though the cold didn’t bother our fearless toddler, the rest of the crew was frozen within 20 minutes so they headed back to Grammy’s for hot chocolate.

Here’s to hoping the adventures get warmer soon.  I am so over winter…especially the cold kind without any snow.