Playing catch up

So we've been feeling guilty that Dominic's "countries visited" list is going to be much shorter than his brothers. We decided to make the trek to Liechtenstein since none of us had been there and then dip into Switzerland and Austria to help clear our consciouses a bit and make room for more important parent guilt like the fact that I let him fall out of his Bumbo last week (he's fine).

After one night in Konstanz, Germany we were on to the beautiful city of Zurich, which we hadn't been to before and then drove to Vaduz, Liechtenstein where we met up with our good friends the Smiths and Bradleys who had abandoned us here in Germany for the pasta, wine, tiramisu of Italy. It was so good to see them and have everyone back together.

After our night in Vaduz we drove North on Germany's Romantic Road and stopped in some really beautiful little towns. As we strolled down the street with the adults oblivious to the scenery all around Luc said, "hey isn't that the building on the front of your Germany book?" Low and behold it was the EXACT building and neither Kenny nor I would have even paid attention if Luc hadn't pointed it out.

One souvenir we returned home with is Jack's black eye which we have no idea how or when he got. It happed our night in Vaduz, but no one heard him hit anything or cry. It's even worse than the pictures look and I was a bit embarrassed to bring him to school today.

And something I won't miss about living in Europe...

While in Switzerland I noticed this vending machine where anyone, including your kids, could purchase snacks....or cigarettes. Nice, huh?

Montreux, Switzerland - Happy New Year!!

How things have changed....instead of partying it up on New Year's, Kenny and I celebrated for awhile in the bathroom of our hotel until we were certain the boys were sound asleep. At least there was a speaker in there and we were able to listen to Jay Leno while sipping our awesome wine we bought in Barolo.

We spent one night in Montreux on the way to Interlaken. Montreux is right on Lake Geneva and looks like it would be beautiful in the summer, but unfortunately we woke up to rainy weather and didn't spend much time there.

Gruyere, Interlaken, Gimmelwald, Switzerland

After leaving the Barolo, Italy wine region we head north into Switzerland. We stopped in Gruyere, Switzerland where they make Gruyere cheese. We toured one of the cheese factories and here is a shot of the huge wheels of cheese aging.

We spent New Year's Day in Interlaken, Switzerland and then took a gondola up into the alps (the only way to reach this town) to the town of Gimmelwald. It was snowing like crazy and we all agreed that this is what we imagined Switzerland to be. Here is a picture of a bunch of cow bells hanging from the eve of a house, a picture of Jack in the gondola and a group shot.

A "not so funny at the time" story about our Switzerland visit came courtesy of Stella our dog. Right outside our hotel there was a big New Year's Day celebration going on which included parades, a band, lots of food booths and fireworks. Knowing that Stella hates fireworks or any loud noises, we left her safely (so we thought ) locked in our room. After the fireworks and dinner we went back to our room to find the door open and Stella gone. Fear and panic doesn't even start to cover how we were feeling. We filed reports with the police, our hotel, the tourist information center and scoured the city and one town over for 2-3 hours with no sign of her. We finally went back to the hotel and spent a sleepless night worrying about our dog who had never spent a night outside in her life, and definitely not a night in the mountains and snow. The next morning Kenny started hunting early, then came back to get all of us. When we were all loaded up in the car his cell phone rang with the news we'd been hoping for - Stella was found and on her way to the hotel. We all held our breath until she pranced into the hotel lobby and then found out that she had spent the night curled up in some sort of military installation under some stairs about 8 MILES from our hotel. The lady who returned her said her husband was in the military and got a call that morning about Stella being behind a fence in the military area. She went and coaxed her out and called the police. We figured out that she had gotten freaked out by the fireworks, jumped up and clawed at the door until she caught the lever doorknob and got it open. The door to our hotel opened automatically with motion, so she was free to bolt when she got close to it. So our Christmas present was one lucky, tired, hungry and smelling like a cow pooch.

Bern, Switzerland

On our drive back toward Germany we stopped in Bern, Switzerland. My Mom, the boys and I had been there one other time, but my Dad and Kenny hadn't, so we thought it was a good lunch stopping point. We had lunch in this awesome restaurant called the Kornhauskeller which used to be a granary. We figured we'd better fill up on good food (and it was extremely good) before heading back to the land of brats and all things fried. It was pretty fancy, but the boys were very well behaved for 2 & 3 year olds.

The Bern mascot is the bear because of these bears that live in a couple of pits at the edge of old town. They draw quite a crowd and the pits have been there for a long time. Einstein lived there in the early 1900's and even named one of his sons after one of the bears. It is kind of sad because the pits aren't that big and a group called the Bear Liberation Foundation is continually lobbying for better living conditions.