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!!!!