mom & dad in switzerland

After we dropped Lainey, Josh and the kids off at the airport, Mom, Dad, and I drove to Basel, which is really one of my favorite Swiss cities. I've been there a few times visiting my friend Lise. Unfortunately Lise was out of town when I was there with mom and dad, but she gave us some good tips and recommendations.

 

We enjoyed walking around the city and doing some window shopping. We stopped at this cafe for tea and coffee. The cafe is inside an old church that has been turned into an event center. 

We walked through the old town area and through the main square. Since it was a Saturday, the outdoor market was in full swing.

We then walked across one of the bridges and along the Rhine river. It was a gorgeous day and there were lots of swimmers in the river.

We took this adorable little ferry back across the river.

 

Our next stop was the cathedral. This is the first time I've actually gone inside and it is beautiful.

 

 

The last stop on our little tour of Basel was this amazing restaurant that Lise recommended. It was the cutest place. We sat outside in the shade and we all devoured our gnocchi. Later that week, on the last day of mom and dad's trip, we were talking about all the places they'd visited and I said Basel and dad said, "is that the place where we had that awesome lunch?" and I said, "yes!" (after as many new places as they went to, it was hard to keep track of all the names).

On Sunday I took mom and dad to the english speaking church that I go to. After church we drove to Schaffhausen. We walked the 3km to the Rhine falls. We stopped along the way for lunch - we'd brought pretzel sandwiches with us. When we made it to the falls, we walked around a bit but decided not to do the boat tour.

Look at these  lovebirds!!

 

Then we did a more strenuous walk back up a couple of steep hills (we didn't want to go the same route we came). By the time we made it back to Schaffhausen, my parents were tired and I was ready for ice cream. As we walked (uphill of course), my parents started to talk about all of their ailments which have been "flaring up" as a result of all the walking we'd been doing since they were here and not to mention the 5 flights of stairs to get to my apartment. It was hilarious to listen to the two of them. I think between the two, they named every single body part and it was hurting at least one of them! So, I looked up how far the walk to the ice cream place was and told them it was 7 minutes away. My parents stopped at this point and said I was trying to kill them with 15 more minutes of walking! So we decided to opt for driving to the ice cream place instead of walking.

During the week my parents spent a day in Zurich while I was working and then went to Rome for a few days. They were back to make dinner for me on Thursday night and my friend Jelena joined us. On Friday, I got out of work early. I met my parents for lunch at the lake and then we walked around the town a little bit and had Sprungli treats for dessert.

 

After making our way around the city, we decided to have a couple beers and relax by the lake since it was such a nice day. Then we went to Reithalle for drinks and an early dinner. We spent our last evening together enjoying the sunset on the roof. I dropped them at the airport on Saturday morning (which we'd just done with Lainey and her family one week before). When I got back to my apartment that day it was very quiet. I was glad I had plans with friends to spend the day at the lake and then have a grill out at my place so I had some company :)

And here is the final picture from my parent's trip....those damn stairs at my apartment that almost killed them!!!!

family trip to switzerland

The long-awaited visit of my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew has come and gone. It was so much fun to have my family here. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Jared and Jenae here too to make it really the whole family. We were very busy while they were here (as you can tell by my previous posts on Germany and Austria and all that is to come). Here are the highlights from the time my family spent in Switzerland.

I received this picture of the kids (and dad) the morning that they arrived. They were all ready to come to Switzerland!

And they arrived with ALL of their luggage! After a small mishap at the airport where I managed to lose the Schaefer family (within 20 minutes of their arrival in Switzerland), we made it back to my apartment. For awhile in the parking garage at the airport, we really did not know how all of this luggage, 4 adults, 2 kids with car seats, and 2 strollers were going to fit into the two small cars we rented, but we managed.

After short naps and showers, we headed into the city of Zurich to walk around a bit and took a boat ride on the lake. The boat ride was so relaxing that mom, dad & Kaylynn all fell asleep.

On our first day back from our Germany/Austria/Liechtenstein trip, we took it easy and stayed in Zurich. We took the train to the top of Uetliberg. Some of us even were brave enough to climb the tower overlooking the city (Kaylnn included, Lainey not).

Then we took the kids to one of the swimming areas at the lake and they got to go down the big green slide. I think this was one of her favorite things about all of her trip!

The next morning, everyone went to the playground while I went to the doctor.

Then we drove to Broc and did the Cailler chocolate factory tour. Eli was very happy with the free samples. He was not so happy when his mommy stopped giving him chocolate.

We stopped in Gruyere, but missed the last cheese-making demonstration of the day.

Then we stopped on the way back to Zurich for dinner in Bern. Lainey and Josh took the kids in the strollers on top of the "fountain" and unfortunately for those of us watching, it didn't go off while they were on it.

The next day we went to Lucerne. We toured the Hergiswil glass factory.

Kaylynn was really excited that she made this fountain on the lake go using the control panel.

 

Lainey, Eli, Kaylynn & Josh in Lucerne

And here is a picture of one of the many dinners that we had on the rooftop at my apartment. They lucked out with great weather on the whole trip. On the roof is where Eli discovered his favorite thing about Switzerland - paprika flavored potato chips!

Here is a picture of our trusty drivers for the whole trip. They did a great job in these little cars. Dad only forgot he was driving a stick once and that was on the first day in the middle of a roundabout blocking 2 lanes of traffic. He recovered quickly though.

 

For their last full day in Switzerland, I took them to the Lauterbrunnen valley. We took the gondola up to Mürren and had lunch and walked around a bit.

Mürren

 

The whole group
 

Me and the kids

When we made it back to Zurich we got sausages and ice cream for dinner and walked around the old town area



Thanks for visiting! Love you guys!

family trip to austria

Next stop on my family's little European tour was Salzburg, Austria. We did a Sound of Music city tour.

 

Dinner at an Austrian restaurant:

 

The next day, on our drive from Salzburg back to Zurich we stopped in Innsbruck. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the river and then walked around the old town which was really cute.

 

Our last stop on the drive back to Zurich was in Liechtenstein. This was a quick stop as there really isn't much to see or do here, but not many people can say they've been there, so now my family can add that to the list of countries they've been to!