Scenic Switzerland

For Fall Break (October), we decided to drive to Switzerland. Best choice ever! Be warned: there are lots of pictures (ok, not really a surprise when it comes to me :) and none of them show how huge our rental van was, how we almost took off our rearview mirrors in narrow parking garages, how lost we got, how many times things didn't go as planned, and how many actual temper tantrums/ mindless squabbling fights there were on our road trip. Don't be deceived by the pictures! But we did also have an amazing time, saw so many beautiful sights, and enjoyed the family trip of a lifetime. 

This is a bridge we drove through that I thought was pretty cool looking for a bridge!





And the statue just on the other side.



It quickly became apparent that Switzerland is NOT a cheap place. So we'd find the local Aldi supermarket, buy a bunch of breakfast food, and eat in the trunk of the car in the parking lot. Glamorous, I know, but at least now we'll still have money to send the kids to college! And when we couldn't find spoons, we made do...





Rheinfalls









Our first introduction to the Alps -Stoos: we took the world's steepest funicular train up to the top of the mountain. My kids were pretty excited (although one burst into tears at the thought of riding it, then when we got to the top talked about how fun it was and wanted to do it again...) The views were indeed spectacular. As my father in law said, I think it's impossible to take a bad picture in Switzerland! Everything is so gorgeous. This blog doesn't do it justice, since it won't upload the pictures in high quality, but even then, I think you can see it!

The funicular train. A 4 minute ride at an incline of 110%.





The sun was out once we got up above the clouds!



We were literally in the clouds. The first thing we could hear were the sounds of cow bells, loud and clear - we just couldn't see the cows through the thick fog! They would appear, then disappear!

Our family took up two cable cars.

Ken refers to this as our "Lord of the Rings" picture. 



The rocks we were going over in the cable cars.

The view from the train ride down.

The next morning, we stopped in Lichtenstein, mostly just to say we'd been there. It's a tiny country, with a not very impressive castle, but the kids still enjoyed climbing around. 

We then took a ferry across the lake, and hiked along the lake for several hours to get back to the city we were staying in. It was A LOT longer than we anticipated (possibly because we missed the last ferry), but beautiful, and the kids were troopers.  

Part of the trail back was along a rode, and we had to go through this tunnel the cars used too. Made taking the picture exciting!



My hiking buddy on the way home. Owen and Colby were DONE hiking and it took everything in our arsenal of parent tricks to convince them to keep going! 



Fortunately, we found dinner at the end and that lifted everyone's spirits!