Frozen on Ice (ish)

Sometimes those Facebook ads are powerful. When Frozen on Ice in Liechtenstein (we didn’t even have to go to Zurich!) started appearing in my feed multiple times per day (MULTIPLE) in late October, I quickly reached out to friends with girls in the 3 - 8 year age range and started planning an epic take over of the little bitty theatre.

Leading up to the event, I started questioning how they were going to build an ice rink inside, especially for a one day show. Then I started worrying that perhaps this shindig was going on outside – as with many things over here, the instructions on this show were a bit sparse. I couldn’t figure it out. The other Moms were unsure, but we were determined to roll with it. So we showed up to the theatre, layered up in an odd mixture of thermals and Elsa costumes (because despite any lines repeated by my daughter, the cold always bothers me).

Come to find out, we’d booked seats in the first row of the mezzanine which was absolutely perfect. We could see the whole stage, but were totally unobstructed to see anything. We had a set of friends up on the third row, so I stole a couple of her photos so you can see the characters close up, but I really like where we were.

Charlotte never took her eyes off the stage for the 96 minute show. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so focused on what was in front of her. And that is 100% the reason I took her.

Now…just a few things that amused me throughout the show that I put here only because I don’t want to forget how much I chuckled while watching…

Frozen on Ice lacked any real ice or even ice skates on the main characters. Remember how I layered up? Yeah, we were inside. The theatre was a comfortable 72*. Well comfortable to those not wearing thermals and sweats. Whoopsie. We went up to the stage after the show because I was so curious. The “ice” was a rubbery material coated with something slick - it felt a bit like a surfboard.

The entire show was in German except one reprise of Let it Go during the final curtain call. However, apparently Elsa didn’t quite have Idina Menzel’s pipes so Olaf sang a couple of them for her. This led to a solid week after the performance of having to answer why German Frozen has “the songs wrong” to a six-year-old. Also not appreciated by the six-year-old was the fact that Anna was taller than Elsa because “younger sisters should NEVER be taller than older sisters”.

But also, go back and watch the last video of the woman skating on stilts. That was impressive!

Räbechilbi - A Turnip Party

In November, many towns in Switzerland celebrate Räbechilbi, literally “turnip party.” In short, people carve designs into turnips, light them up like a lantern and have a parade. The turnip lanterns represent the warmth of home during the cold winter months. It's a beautiful, special tradition.

One of the largest turnip parties in Switzerland happens to only be about an hour from us in Richterswil. To say it’s an event that takes over the city, is an understatement. Every year they process around 30 tons of turnips (this works out to around 55,000 turnips) into ornate lanterns. The turnips are then displayed in store windows, people’s homes, hung from trees, outlined on streets and added to around 45 human-powered, hand-pushed floats and paraded through the town in a 2-ish mile parade route.

From the town's website, they start passing out turnips the week before the festival for everyone in town to carve & prepare

It takes just a few turnips to put on this festival

We took the train and discovered about 30 other expat friends. The Americans basically took up an entire train carriage by the time we arrived at the festival. To the extent that the ticket inspector checked the first two family’s rail passes then moved on in his overwhelmed-ness of the noise that only Americans bring to a party.

In the daylight, popup concerts from various brass bands occur alongside all the open markets and food vendors. You can wander through the town checking out the detailed carving on all the turnips.

When it gets dark the magic really starts. The tea lights in the turnips are lit, the village center becomes a fairytale backdrop.

And then about 6:30, the town cuts all lights to the entire city and the parade begins. The schools and associations of the municipality of Richterswil pull the floats along the route. The parade lasted about 40 minutes and really did feel like everyone in the entire county had come out to participate in it.

I may not totally understand the tradition, but it sure was fun to take part in it.