UBC January 2025 - Away Game in Schwarzenburg

Welcome back to yet another UBC post. January is a mighty long month, isn't it?

The other day I was telling you about Colin's double duty for what turns out the rest of the season: He trains with and plays for his regular team U17 as well as U20, and these categories play in different regions. 

With the first we get to go to the Italian speaking part of Switzerland with all its pros (gorgeous area, great food) and cons (opponent players are often very rough and refs are turning a blind eye to whatever the local team does), the older teammates' opponents all play in the Bern area and beyond. 

Last weekend we got to go to Schwarzenburg, which is a tiny community with less than 7,000 citizens, that lies in the middle of nowhere. But as usual in Switzerland, no place is too remote to be reached by public transport!

And the landscape is beautiful! Gigantic icicles hanging in shady places.

Tall trees seem to grow into the blue sky.

I could imagine that this creek was still frozen until a few days ago.

Now the bridge you can spot through the trees... The Schwarzwasserbrücke ("black water bridge") is the architectural showpiece of the region. Schwarzwasser is the name of the river, more about it in a minute. 

The truss arch bridge was built in 1882, its length is 167m (548ft), its span 114m (374ft) and its height 80m (263ft). Embossed limestone blocks were used for the arch supports, column bases and roadway abutments. The concrete arch railroad bridge from 1979 runs parallel to it.

I thought it looked fabulous. This region has lots of cool bridges.

This is the view from above. Not for people with a fear of heights!

The Schwarzwasser is a veritable torrent, its valley floor filled with huge masses of debris that are deposited during floods. The name 'Schwarzwasser' probably comes from the dark-colored water caused by mud and stones during floods.

The Schwarzwasser forms significant alluvial landscapes along almost its entire course. Alluvial plains, large gravel banks and islands, long meandering loops and ravine structures give the river a unique character.

The riverbed appeared to have been flooded recently, which is why access to the gorge was prohibited. In the meantime, however, the flood waters have receded considerably, which is why the alluvial wood is visible. 

Back from our little circular walk under the bridge to the other side, we came across this handsome fellow. 

In front of the hockey arena they have these huge concrete pucks. 

So the "arena" is an outdoor rink! It is used as a public ice skating place until 5pm. After that it's a hockey rink, carefully prepared by two ice masters. You can see it in the intro of the video. 

In order to watch the game you will need to stand on the outdoor terrace of the restaurant. 

Hubby and I thought we were going to be the only crazy ones. It was about minus 4°C = 24.8°F and the wind chill made it even more uncomfortable to stand outside all night.

We ended up being far from the only audience. In fact the local team, even though they had an even worse season than us in terms of results, they brought a lot of spectators with them. And they were so friendly and fun, as was everybody else. The speaker was super fun. At some point  our team had two players in the penalty box, and one player had to serve a penalty for the opponent. The announcer joked: “The penalty banks are filling up, it must be nice there.”

The restaurant was surprisingly big, and the choice of food was huge: from cheese fondue and raclette to various pasta products, soups and sandwiches to typical stadium food with chicken nuggets, fries and the like. 

We felt like there were more patrons than hockey fans, so people came to this place that felt like a local hangout for something to do on a Sunday night. 

The local team won 8:2, and it was their first win of the season. I was happy for them. Ours didn't play well. The real highlight was at 9:12 of the video: A player tried to score with his helmet ;-)

Never a dull moment in the life of a Hockey Mom! It was awfully cold that night though. It took me almost the entire 75 minutes of the return journey to warm up!

I hope you enjoyed joining me on game day - from the warmth of your home!