2022 Christmas Swiss Bells Blog 2022 has been another very exciting year for the Swiss Bells. We have had graduations, a christening, special birthdays and engagement celebrated in the family, trips of a lifetime completed and good business done and new jobs started. End of 2021
The week before Christmas we had a couple of days skiing in San Moritz where neither of us had ever been, staying at the World Famous Waldhaus that claims to host the World’s largest Whisky Bar before going back for Christmas in Zug and to work the last few days before the New Year. New Year was brought in in style staying up in Flumserberg with our good friends Nadia and Eveline.
January 2022
It was a fairly gentle start back to normality after the festive period - the usual crazy Burns Suppers in London all came to an end as the cost just outweighed any profit - so Piper Bell stayed in Switzerland and managed 4 jobs piping at Burns Suppers mainly with Mark Chesterfield and Robin Laing.
February 2022
The highlight of February was a trip to visit Elouisa in Malaga where she was studying at the university there as part of her Spanish studies - Roma also flew out from London. There were also a few piping gigs and an online piping competition organised by the CLASP.
March 2022
Apart from the exciting pizza sales in Unterägeri, the main point in March was a fun trip to watch Italy vs Scotland with Andrea & our good friend Elke - Italy will be a team to watch in 2023! Piper Bell managed to play a few tunes in St Peter’s square before the match. March finished off with a trip to Scotland for Piper Bell to compete at a live online competition at The Piping Centre with the help and hospitality of his teacher Tom Johnstone - thanks Tom.
April 2022
Andrea had a dental conference in Munich on the 1st weekend of April so we made a holiday of it - we tasted the amazing Schweinshaxen among other local delicacies. But the big event of the month was Stefan & Karin‘s wedding on the 22nd in Zug at the Ochsen Hotel - Piper Bell had to play a Swiss tune for Karin as she came out of the reception - Guggisberglied - luckily it’s a band tune!
May 2022
The first of May saw Pizzaiolo Damiano do a successful test to start a new site at Camping Vitznau - a campsite in a village next to Lake Lucerne - a spot of extreme beauty!. Our good friend Robert Gunther came down to visit from Germany the following weekend and put his pizza and piping skills to work in Vitznau - we look forward to his visits. Andrea passed another exam on anaesthetics completing the skill set for dental hygiene treatments. We then went on a road trip around Italy on a journey to find out about Neapolitan pizza - the pizza was disappointing but the trip amazing, stopping off to visit good friends Ivan & Luica in Tuscany and discovering some unknown spots like Bologna on the way to Pompeii and Naples. We did however have to hurry back for the very important date for Serafina’s christening which was preceded by a very lovely weekend with cousin Michele and her friend Jeannie and Cameron and Elouisa too. The lunch was on Sunday 29th in The Park Hotel who did an amazing job. We were almost 30 for lunch - Martin & Caroline joined us with the Basel Bells and of course Serafina - it was a very special day with Father Kurt Schaller carrying out the Christening at the Good Shepherd’s Church in Zug on Sunday evening at the English speaking mass at 6pm.
June 2022
June was the start of a long spring & summer of pizza work, service was from 10am until 8pm from Thursday through until Sunday - giving time for preparation & shopping days, there was unfortunately not a lot of time for anything else, On June 21-23rd we had a surprise and very welcome visit from Martin’s oldest daughter Eilidh, making a day trip to Basel to meet the Basel Bells and her new 1st cousin Serafina.
July 2022
On Saturday 9th July Piper Bell had a birthday to play at so Andrea took over as Pizzaiola that day helped by her friends Nadia & Eveline - they managed a very busy Saturday evening service on their own. Well done! We managed a visit over to see Eric, Roland & Anna in Môtiers, Val de Travers, and they reciprocated with a visit for pizza in Vitznau! On the 20th of July it was Roma’s graduation that had been postponed from 2021. She graduated with a postgraduate qualification in teaching (PGCE) - very well done Roma!! We are very proud of your achievements. Andrea as always was an amazing help throughout the summer working hard in her clinic as Dental Hygienist and then most Saturdays helping with Pizzaiolo Damiano - some days it was 45 C in the trailer! A huge THANK YOU! Pizzaiolo Damiano celebrated his birthday by going to mass and making pizza - I think it’s the first time ever he worked on his birthday!
August 2022
August saw more intense pizza making sessions with 3 private gigs for 80-100 people at each - Planzer transport in Zurich and Bern and the Vitznauerhof Hotel’s Staff Summer Party. By the end of August we had sold over 2’000 pizzas! We had visits too from Robert and his son Ian and we managed to go busking between pizza making. We had piping online competitions where Piper Bell finally won a prize - for best background!! Piper Bell played for the start of the local Triathlon in Küssnacht where his good friend Leo was taking part! The end of August saw the finish of Pizzaiolo Damiano at Vitznau BUT we’ve been invited back for next season 2023 - looking forward to that immensely. In between the pizza making we managed to meet up with Martin and Gordana who have become good friends, Martin (Sigi) even came over to Vitznau in the pouring rain for pizza and a night under canvas! The next big event was the start of the Liechtenstein Tattoo led by Marco Kreissl and helped by Tom Johnstone.
September 2022
The Liechtenstein Tattoo was a great success despite its challenges and was very enjoyable. First of September also saw Andrea start a new job with another clinic in Zug, literally next door to where she had done her apprenticeship and this somehow led to an additional amazing two other jobs - one in Unterägeri and another marking papers for her old school - amazingly well done!! Then it was the start of a long 6 week break from pizza making as Piper Bell had to get fit for a big challenge - Trek up to Everest Base Camp. As preparation he climbed from the very bottom to the very top of 5 of the local Alps - starting with Zugerberg incorporating a long trek over the mountain to Arth in Canton Schwyz then another long trek from Vitznau to Arth over the top of Mount Rigi, then a hairy scramble up Pilatus, followed by a very challenging climb up Mythen a very impressive peak - worthy of a gold star visit then ending the tour with a long slog up the top of Stoos which is also a skiing resort in the winter. Then it was panic packing for the trip to Nepal and the Himalayas. There was a brief return to pizza for the RC Good Shepherd's Church in Zug where Pizzaoli Damiano & Andrea made 78 pizzas for their Volunteers Dinner. For our Everest trip there were supposed to be three of us to do the challenge but due to work commitments David pulled out and Damian and Richard made the trip together - it really was an amazing experience of a lifetime. There is a separate blog all about it - contact me if you’d like the link. Needless to say we made Base Camp after some challenges on Tuesday 4th October 2022.
October 2022
The real challenge was getting off Everest. The weather closed in, it started snowing and the planned helicopter trip back wasn’t possible so we had an extra day walking down where we finally managed to take a helicopter off the mountain and after some nervous waiting around and an overnight in Ramechhap we finally made it safely back to our hotel in Kathmandu! At some points I never thought we would make it home and I really couldn’t afford to miss the plane back to Zurich, as it was Andrea’s 50th Birthday and our wedding anniversary! Anyway I made it back and we celebrated Andrea’s birthday in style with friends and family - her best friend Jeanne flew in from Chicago and we had a lovely weekend with her. The next big event was on Saturday October 22nd where unfortunately we had already booked to go for a lovely weekend in Barcelona - but nonetheless Roma and Josh got engaged - huge congratulations!! And are due to be married on Tuesday 14th February 2023. We are all very pleased and super excited for them (and us!). In the meantime Andrea and I spent a lovely weekend with our very good friends Jordi and Carmen in Barcelona.
November 2022
Cameron’s graduation on Friday 4th November at the Celtic Manor Hotel & Conference Centre was a real privilege to attend on behalf of the family - he was awarded a 1st class honours In Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the Open University - quite an achievement on top of all his coaching and tennis playing duties!! Well done Cameron - I am very proud of you!! The same day I finally managed to meet Roma and her fiancé, Josh, for dinner with Cameron and Elouisa in Ruislip. He is a lovely lad and a very welcome addition to our family. I look forward to seeing more of them soon.
December 2022.
At the time of writing this we are looking ahead to a lovely Christmas and a New Year full of surprises - we will be celebrating Christmas early as we will be away in Mendoza, Argentina, coming back on Sunday 9th January 2023 - so without more ado we will sign off and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2023.
Do slainte fior mhath!
Andrea & Damian