We recently got this sweet message with video and photos from Urs, one of our favorite colleagues in Switzerland, known among our Swiss Untour alumni for his positivity and his singing voice. We had to share his greetings, and a bit of his optimism.
In Coronatimes, singers and yodlers like me have a hard time. Just lately, even singing outside has been forbidden. So just before that happened, our family and friends from the neighborhood got together around the ping-pong table and sang a medley of – mostly English – Christmas songs.
Now it’s virtual Christmas Caroling, Swiss style, on Youtube. “Swiss style” meaning we also sang the translation of the song Jingle Bells into Bernese German. Jingle Bells – Zimetstärn sounds a bit similar. Zimetstärn means cinnamon star, the name of one of the best Christmas cookies made here! The rest of the text is composed of all the other cookies.
So with this “video on the ping-pong table” I wish you and everyone in the UnTours community a MERRY CHRISTMAS. Under the circumstances, it will be a quiet one. Why not remember all the good times we have had – and they will come again, maybe as soon as next year.
I am a very lucky guy here in wonderful Switzerland. Just retired from teaching, I have all the time to go outside, until recently on my bike, now on skis. We have gotten some very nice snow, as you can see from these photos from last week, taken in Kandersteg! Hiking and cross-country skiing there is fantastic right now!
All my best wishes to all of you at UnTours and all of our beloved Untourists, until we can see each other again. – Urs (UnTours staff on the Swiss Oberland Untour)