Charlie and Matt started the day by taking a walk in the park and visiting two playgrounds to give everyone else a chance to sleep a little longer. Charles still likes to wake up at the crack of dawn, but the time zone change went well overall.
Today is National Swiss day, which is like the 4th of July in the US. We started the celebration by attending a parade in downtown Zurich. The parade included a marching band, a group carrying and playing Alpine horns and a couple of groups dressed in various Swiss historical dress. It was not like an American parade, with floats and candy for the kids. However, Charlie was waving at the marchers in his Swiss shirt and one lady threw two Ricola candies, which seemed to be a rarity. Charlie has proven he is cute by any country’s standards.
We then headed to the train station to begin our adventure up Rigi mountain and then down the other side to Lucerne. Unfortunately, the train to the first connection was delayed, causing us to miss our first connection and reducing our time on the top of Mt. Rigi from an hour and fifteen minutes to fifteen minutes. This was OK, because the views from the cog wheel train as we were ascending and descending were amazing.
We then boarded a ship that crossed Lake Luzern (or Lucerne). Lucerne was absolutely lovely. Exactly what you would think of when thinking of a Swiss city. We only had about an hour to explore but we hit the one of the highlights the Lion of Lucerne. It was MUCH more impressive than any of of us thought it would be. We happened to overhear an English tour guide talking about the artist was being threatened to not be paid for the job so he added a hidden feature to the sculpture- see if you can find the pig! We finished our Lucerne visit with yummy gelato and another quick train ride back to Zurich.
We headed back to Zurich with plans to meet one of Belinda’s co-worker and family(the Beavers) for dinner on the beach and watch fireworks over Lake Zurich. Unfortunately it was too dry for fireworks, so they were canceled, but oddly enough it started to pour rain just as we arrived back to Zurich. So we called off the beach and the Beavers selected the perfect restaurant for us and the kids. It was downtown at the ZiegHaus Keller, which served a fabulous traditional Swiss dinner of Wiener Schnitzel for Belinda and a foot long sausage with rosti ( giant hashbrowns) for Matt. The kids enjoyed the meal as well, as they had “the best” bolagnese pasta that Lily has ever ate 🙂 The rain cleared out so we headed to the lake to play in the water. The girls once again really liked hanging out with Caroline – and can’t wait for when they move back to MN!
A perfect end to a Swiss vacation. We head to France and the Caucutts in the morning!
Amazing!