Category: Trips

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Climb Every Mountain

“Love is looking at the same mountains from different angles.”
– Paulo Coehlo

We are in love with Toggenburg. After a week of looking at these mountains morning and night, on skis and by foot, from the valleys and from the peaks, we are sad to be leaving. To be honest, we were already familiar with the grandeur of the Berner Oberland and the Wallis, the Alpine regions nearest to our home. When we first arrived in Eastern Switzerland, we were skeptical of how it would compare. We admit it. We had become mountain snobs.

But it turns out this is yet another beautiful corner of Switzerland. Toggenburg is a string of towns in a valley not far from the border with Lichtenstein and Austria. We have spent the past few days enjoying much of what the region has to offer. For starters, we took advantage of our location and visited the tiny country of Lichtenstein. We took the relatively short and scenic bus ride to Vaduz, the capital of Lichtenstein. We walked around the town, enjoying its beautiful vinyards, cobblestone streets, cliffside castle, and views of the surrounding mountians. Not suprisingly, Lichtenstein feels liks a combination of Switzerland, southern Germany, and Austria. There isn’t much in the way of tourist attractions, so the highlight of our visit was our picnic lunch on a small grassy knoll where the kids had a chance to run around and play before we headed back home.

We are staying at a Swiss holiday village that is specifically for families (Reka Feriendorf). It has a few nice benefits including a pool, playrooms for kids, and a children’s program where you can drop your kids off for supervised activities (Rekalino). It makes for a great vacation that everyone can enjoy. Our kids had dinner at the Rekalino on Wednesday night, so Joe and I had a night out, or rather a night in, all to ourselves. We did plenty of swimming and playing between our other adventures.

Speaking of adventures, Thursday and Friday were our skiing days. We rented our equipment and took the whole family up the first chairlift. Joe and I took turns skiing with the older kids and hanging around with Henry and the sled. It was yet another beautiful day. So beautiful that the snow was pretty wet, and the snow levels were getting dangerously low in some places. Emily and James have really become quite good considering they’ve only skied a handful of times. They are working on keeping their skis straight sometimes (“french fries”) and spreading them out (“pizza slice”) to turn and break. They are handling medium runs like champs.

Friday morning, the kids went to Rekalino again so Joe and I could have a chance to ski together. We made it all the way back up to the Top of Toggenburg above the town of Unterwasser. Then we skied an unforgettable run all the way back down to the town of Wildhaus. It had incredible views and lots of different terrain including wide snowy slopes and narrow trails along the side of a cliff. Whatever you do, stay between the orange poles! In the afternoon, I took Emily and James skiing again while Joe stayed back with Henry. Emily loved to ski back and forth down the slopes singing the Abba song, “I Had a Dream.”

In a way, this whole week was like a dream.

Check out our Sport week pictures here.

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The Return of Team Alps

In February and early March, all Swiss schools have a week-long vacation that is known as “Sport Week.” It gives Swiss families a chance to enjoy the beautiful mountains that are the country’s pride and joy. And being in the mountains in the winter automatically means “sport” – mostly downhill skiing, but also sledding, snowshoeing, etc. This is not intended to be a relaxing vacation, but a week of winter sports.

As other parents know, a family vacation with young children is never relaxing anyway. In fact it is a lot of work to get the whole family transported somewhere, and then find things to do all together that everyone enjoys – which is nearly impossible. When you combine these two things to make a family Sport Week vacation, it turns out to be really exhausting!

Add to that the fact that our apartment is on the side of the mountain (really the only place it can be when you are in the Alps), so we have to hike up and down a zigzagging sidewalk and road whenever we walk out the door. Plus we arrived just as the grocery store closed on Saturday, and of course nothing is open on Sundays, and there are not many convenient restaurants around here. This made things particularly challenging for the first couple of days.

Oh, and on Sunday, it was foggy and raining/snowing all day, so we couldn’t see anything. Plus, I am still recovering from my knee injury that happened last week. All of this put together was a recipe for disaster. While we were supposed to be having a nice vacation and doing some family bonding, we were mostly just doing a lot of whining and yelling.

Now, I generally try to not to complain or be negative on our blog, but I want you to know the reality of the situation. It was a rough couple of days. I wondered if this whole vacation was a good idea in the first place. However, it is good that we have a whole week here. Although the weekend was not so good, there is still room for a happy ending.

Things started to turn around on Monday afternoon. The weather had cleared, and we decided to go sledding at a hill in town. Getting there was awful. Henry was cranky from having his nap interrupted, we had to hike down the road to rent an extra sled, we got off at the wrong stop from the ski bus, so we had to hike some more to get to the gondola that took us up the hill. By the time we finally reached the top, it was so late that we knew we would miss the last ski bus and were facing a very long and steep climb back to our apartment. Tempers were flaring and emotions were running high, to say the least.

There was no choice but to start our journey back, so we crammed everyone onto the two sleds and started down the hill. Given my knee injury and our poor track record for steep sledding, we opted for the longer, slower slope. We sledded and walked a beautiful trail above the town. But, we didn’t really know where we were going, and after a while it became clear that we were lost. We were not going back toward the gondola station or even the main bus stop in town. Just as the situation was getting really desperate, we looked down and saw what looked like our holiday village. “Is that our apartment?” Joe asked. Indeed it was. There was much celebrating as we hiked down the trail back home. We ended up getting back in plenty of time to enjoy a nice family dinner made from the groceries we had gotten that day. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but something had shifted.

Tuesday was our best day yet. We went to the “Top of Toggenburg,” riding a bus, a funicular, and a cable car to get to the top of a mountain with a spectacular panorama view. We were surrounded by downhill skiers, but there is also an amazing hiking trail on the plateau of the mountain that we had almost completely to ourselves. We sledded, hiked and played in the snow with (almost) no complaining. We caught all the right buses to get home smoothly. Then we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. It was a great day.

Team Alps is back!

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Best. Birthday. Ever. (Almost)

Over the weekend, our former host-daughter Isabel came from Basel and offered to stay with the kids so Joe and I could get away for a night. It also happened to be Joe’s 35th birthday weekend, so I said he could choose where we should go. On a recommendation from a colleague, he selected a secluded mountain hotel called the Hotel Weisshorn. The hotel is not accessible by car and is a 90 minute hike from the nearest town. It sounded like a fun adventure.

Starting our hike to the hotel - you can see it in the distanceSaturday was a perfect day in every way. The weather was beautiful. It was the first time Joe and I had been out alone in a really long time. We relaxed immediately into our journey, riding trains to the town of Sierre at the mouth of the Val d’Anniviers (Anniversary Valley). Then, a bus along a scary, winding mountain road to the village of St. Luc. From there we could see the hotel in the distance. We rode a funicular up a little further, but the rest of the hike to the hotel must be done on foot.

It was sunny and warm enough that we took off our jackets for much of the journey. We were surrounded by stunning mountain scenery. We talked and laughed the whole way. It was really beyond words. The pictures we took give a glimpse of the paradise we were in.

It was the perfect choice for our get away because there is no way we could have brought our children to this place. As we walked we were struck by the silence – there was no whining or complaining!

Sunset at the Weisshorn HotelWhen we got to the hotel, we discovered a building that is mostly unchanged since the 1800’s. It was historic and quaint. We rested up a bit, had a drink with other groups of hikers and skiers in the lounge, and then watched the sunset behind the mountains across the valley. What a day!

The next day started off just as good. A few clouds had rolled in, but it was still beautiful. After breakfast, we got ready to make our way back down the mountain. We had brought our sled for this part of the journey, figuring we could glide down the meandering mountain path. But, from the hotel, there is a fairly steep section initially before it flattens out. It seemed like fun, so we got on the sled with me in front to steer and Joe behind. As we raced down the mountain, snow was flying in our faces so we could barely see where we were going. Suddenly, we hit a dip and the sled stopped, but we kept going. We flew through the air and landed with a thud, Joe bounced on top of my leg before rolling down the hill, and that’s when I felt the “pop.”

My brain immediately went into overdrive. “Oh God!” I thought, “I broke my leg, and now I’m going to be stranded on this mountain!” But fortunately, Joe remained calm, and after a quick diagnostic test, we figured out that I could stand and even walk, sort of. There were no broken bones, so we pressed on. We now know that my MCL (medial collateral ligament) was torn. Surprisingly, an MCL tear of this nature is not terribly painful. It just causes your knee to be unstable, making it difficult to walk. The pain comes in when your knee buckles in ways its not supposed to. So, for most of the rest of the journey, Joe pulled me while I sat on the sled with my legs straight. It was still beautiful. For most of the journey, we didn’t see any other people on the mountain, and occasionally Joe could sit in front and we would glide down long slow paths, just as we had planned – almost.

Kicking our feet up at the end of the hikeToward the end, we had to hike a narrow, downhill trail, so I used the sled as a walker. Then I slid on my butt down an icy road into St. Luc. I limped on and off buses and trains all the way home. It was certainly an adventure, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat (except maybe the steep sledding part!). And though Joe’s actual birthday was on Sunday during our calamitous trip home, we decided that this year, his birthday was a day early.

Check out some of our best pictures here.

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Winter Wonderland

Our real Alpine vacation started after all the Christmas festivities were over. We had spent most of the weekend celebrating indoors, so when we awoke on Monday to a beautiful blue sky day, we had to take advantage of it. There are a lot of winter sports in this area, including downhill skiing, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, ice skating, and sledding. We decided to start slow, so we bundled everyone up, rented an additional sled and headed to the nearby gondola.

A the top of the mountain, we had to hike over to the top of the sled run, darting across ski slopes with downhill skiers rushing past. When we came to a section with a downward slope, we crammed 5 people onto 2 sleds and rode down to the chalet by the Öschinensee, a beautiful alpine lake nestled among the mountains at 5177 feet. It was at this point that we realized we still had a long ways to go to the bottom of the mountain, and that sledding in the Alps is not really a slower choice after all.

The next section of the sled run is incredibly steep and follows a ravine which is not blocked by any kind of fencing. We flew down, jamming our heels into the snow as hard as we could, which only slowed us down to 50 mph from 60 mph. Joe and Emily, who had a significant lead, tanked first. And just as they were brushing themselves off and getting back on the sled, I flew by with the boys screaming at the top of their lungs. Seconds later, we also wiped out, mostly becuase it was the only way I could find to stop the sled before crashing into a tree or going over the edge. Just ahead of us was a 120 degree turn onto a narrow bridge over a mountain stream. But, after a few more harrowing turns, the trail calmed down a bit, so that we could at least look up occasionally and enjoy the scenery as we were whizzing past it.

We decided it wouldn’t be prudent to bring Henry on that run again, but the other kids were willing to give it another go. So, we took turns doing it again, with a little more success on the second round.

That night, we slowed way down, and walked over to the lighted toboggan run (Schlittenbahn) in town, which is a fairly straight and well groomed run with lights strung above it. We went down it a couple of times, and then walked back to the hotel under the stars for a dinner of traditional Fondue and Raclette.

Tuesday morning started our skiing adventure. Joe took the older kids up the mountain for their first ski lesson while Henry and I stayed back and hiked and sledded in the valley. Emily and James struggled quite a bit to keep their skis from crossing, they fell down a lot, they worked hard getting across flat areas, and they came back sweaty and exhausted. When I asked them how it was they said, “Great!”

With their first lesson under their belts, we figured we could take them out the next morning on our own. So we got up early and took the whole family up to a quieter, easier mountain on the other side of town. It turns out, this was not a good idea. Although the scenery was beautiful and we snapped a couple of cute pictures, do not be decieved. It was an unmitigated disaster. I could write a whole post about the next three hours of skiing (if you can call it that), but I don’t really want to remember it. Let’s just say that skiing with young beginners is extremely hard work. There was a lot of yelling and whining, though no crying, which puts us ahead of most of the other beginner families we saw. But, technically, we can all say that we have skied in the Swiss Alps.

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Christmas in the Alps

Spending Christmas away from family is a difficult thing. Every present we opened that had been shipped across the ocean was simultaneously exciting and depressing. We Skyped with many of our family members, which is bitter sweet. It was wonderful to see everyone and share holiday greetings, but hanging up (sometimes with tears) brought us back to our quiet hotel room again. But, since we are staying in a lovely hotel in Kandersteg, Switzerland in the heart of the Berner Oberland surrounded by the Alps, there are many beautiful things and new experiences to keep our minds from dwelling on home, and make this a Christmas to remember.

On Christmas Eve, the hotel had a torchlight walk through the woods. So, as the sunlight was fading away behind the mountains, we gathered with an international group of fellow guests, plopped Henry on his sled (his primary mode of transportation for the week), and received our flaming torches. Even Emily and James were given torches, along with a short lecture about fire safety. There was a light snow falling as we paraded toward the woods and away from the lights of the town, until we found ourselves among snow covered evergreen trees, with only torches to light our way. After a short walk, we stopped in a clearing and enjoyed some glühwein for the adults and hot apple cider for the children, before returning to the hotel.

We had a lovely, 4-course Christmas Eve dinner in the hotel dining room, including cream of walnut soup, duck breast, and gingerbread ice cream. After dinner the Weihnachtsmann (German for Santa) came to visit all the children in the lobby and handed them each a small stocking filled with Swiss chocolate. This was something the hotel arranged for its primarily British clientele.

The Christmas tradition in Germany and Switzerland is for the Christkind, or Christ Child, to bring presents on Christmas Eve. Often represented by an angel, the Christkind comes when no children are in the room, and rings a bell to call them back, though the children never actually see him. So, back in our hotel room, the kids were playing with some of the toys they had received earlier that day when a bell rang in their bedroom. They looked at each other quizzically and then jumped up to see what it could be. They opened the door and there was a rush of cold air from an open window, which they looked out to catch a glimpse of a present-bearer, but there was no one there. Then they noticed some gifts left in the room, which they immediately got to open. It was our first visit from the Christkind.

We struggled to get the kids into their pajamas and said a prayer for our families so far away. We fell asleep to the ringing of church bells at the small alpine church next door calling worshipers to midnight mass.

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Losing Ourselves in Paris

By the Eiffel TowerWhen Joe and I travel together, his job is always to navigate because he likes knowing where we are and he’s really good at it. Whereas I am happy to follow along blissfully unaware of which direction we are going. So, for my mother-daughter weekend in Paris, something I have been looking forward to for a long time, I turned on my navigation skills, only to be reminded that they are not one of my stong suits. We arrived in Paris at around 7:30pm on Friday night, and I found the Metro (Paris underground) to take us to our hotel. We made the right connections and arrived at the stop that was supposed to be “steps from the hotel.” But I failed to consult the last page of my meticulously printed directions, and simply started walking around looking for the hotel. We actually went right past it and carried our luggage all the way around a very large circular plaza. When we started passing things for the second time, I dug out my pages, reoriented myself and found the hotel about 30 feet from where we had started.

We hadn’t eaten much, so after dropping our things at the hotel, we decided to have a Paris-style dinner. At 8:30pm, which is normally Emily’s bed time, we were sitting in a café eating dinner and having a glass of wine. Café culture in Paris is deeply ingrained. There are cafés on every street, and Parisians go to their local cafés to pick up an espresso and croissant for breakfast, have a late leisurely dinner, or sit and enjoy a relaxing, afternoon drink. We did our best to take part in the café culture and try out French food. We had croissants at our neighborhood café for breakfast, we sampled crêpes at a café on the Île St. Louis, we had a late lunch in a café in the Latin Quarter, and finally a light dinner at a café near the Arc de Triomphe.

In between cafés, we saw a lot of landmarks and snapped a lot of pictures. We started at the cathedral of Notre Dame on the Île de la Cité. We walked much of the main island and the Latin Quarter on the Left bank of the river Seine. We took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower and braved the crowds to get a few prize shots, though we didn’t wait in the insanely long lines to ride to the top. Instead, we headed to the much shorter line at the Montparnasse Tower for a beautiful view of the city and the glowing Eiffel Tower at twilight. Lastly, we viewed the Arc de Triomphe, after which we got completely lost trying to find our hotel again, which didn’t look that far away on the map. After making at least one wrong turn and ending up in alternately sketchy areas and fancy areas, I finally caved and we took a cab.

That was all in one day! So, on Sunday we took a decidedly slower pace. We spent the morning in the Louvre museum, and again found ourselves completely lost. To my credit, that place is humongous and confusing. Like a labyrinth completely filled with incredible art. Once we abandoned the audio guides we had because we couldn’t find the things they were talking about, we just walked around and enjoyed the majesty of the place. Once, we were turned away at a stairwell, so we went a different direction and ran right into the Venus de Milo! We also came upon several pieces completely by chance that Emily recognized from the Louvre’s website (which has a great set of videos and explanations for children.) If you’re going to get lost, the Louvre is a great place to do it!

After two hours in the Louvre and lunch at a café, we were pretty tired from sensory overload. So, instead of seeing Sacre Coeur in Montmartre (Plan A) or taking a boat ride on the Seine (Plan B), Emily opted for Plan C — head to the right bank of the river and lay in the sun with all the Parisians on a Sunday afternoon. There was a street musician playing accordian on the next bridge and leaves falling from the trees above us. It was a beautiful way to end our weekend in Paris.

We spent my last Euros to ride the carousel in front of the Hôtel de Ville. Then we got on the Metro to our train station, where we got lost one more time trying to find the TGV trains, and then trying to find platform 23 when all the platforms seemed to be labeled with letters! I pannicked for a while, thinking we were going to miss our train, but we are now safely on our way back to Switzerland. Au revoir Paris!

Don’t miss the pictures in our gallery: Weekend in Paris.

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Team Alps

Sarah had a nice post about our recent trip to the Jungfraujoch, but she has left the bulk of the weekend’s activities to me. You see, we took the train back from the Jungfraujoch to Kleine Scheidegg where we had lunch. There is a 10km hike from Kleine Scheidegg to Lauterbrunnen (at the base of the valley) that was supposed to be very scenic. I had wanted to take one or two of the older kids on the walk, but Sarah felt that she would be a sure lock for the “Best Wife Ever” award if she let me enjoy the hike back in the peace and serenity of being by myself. So she offered me the “once-in-a-lifetime” deal of taking the kids back to our village while I walked back down the mountain. How could I say no?

Hiking TrailThe vertical distance from Kleine Scheidegg (2061m) to Lauterbrunnen (795m) is around 1.3km covered over a 10km walk. This is about a 13% grade averaged over the length of the walk, but for those of us who are not used to walking down that grade, your quads can begin to burn pretty quick (and that fire usually smolders for a few days).

Mountain hikeRegardless, it was a beautiful walk through grassy fields, snow, forest, and meandering streets in mountain villages. The sky was perfectly blue and cloudless all day. It took about 2 hours to get back to Lauterbrunnen, and a short bus ride and cable car later I was back in Gimmelwald.

The next morning we awoke to another beautiful morning with plans to take the kids on another hike. Emily and James told me that they had decided yesterday that they were such good mountain kids, that they had started “Team Alps.” This team currently consisted of them, Mom, and Henry. They were interested in seeing if I wanted to join, but they needed to make sure I was ready to carry on the spirit of the team (whatever that was). I felt ready.

Around 11am we took the kids by cable car up to Mürren, and set out along the Northface Trail. This trail starts with a reasonable climb up paved village roads, but quickly turns to grassy passes, wooded trails, and muddy paths dotted with cow manure. Suffice it to say, the kids loved it. We followed the trail about 2.5km in (and 300m up) where we came upon a small farmhouse on the edge of a cliff that led down to a rushing creek.

Our host, Olle, told us that campfires can be set along the trail anywhere if you want to stop and cook sausages. He further demonstrated this point to us by giving us frozen sausages, matches, and paraffin paper to start a fire. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Look. Your children will not be impressed that you are a doctor, but what will impress them,” he holds up the matches, “is if you can start a fire.” The smile afterwards sold it.

Roasting sausages on the ShilthornSo here we sat, in a field spotted with cow manure, overlooking a rushing mountain stream, in front of a small Swiss farmhouse, roasting sausages over an open fire. The sky was clear, the sun was warm and inviting, the air was crisp, and the sausages were delicious. Team Alps enjoyed a “moment of Zen,” and then headed back home.

If only my damned quads weren’t still burning from the day before, the walk back (and down) would have been that much better. But hey, I can’t let my team members down.

Not when I’m the newest member of the group.

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Jungfrau Weekend

We are addicted to the mountains. Last Thursday, we noticed that the forecast for the weekend was clear and gorgeous, so we decided to spend the weekend in the Alps. And on Friday night we were at Olle and Maria’s B&B in the beautiful town of Gimmelwald, on the Schilthorn mountain. We were directly across the valley from the Jungfrau, and the view is amazing. You really have to look at our pictures to get an idea of what it was like.

Lautebrunnen ValleyJoe and I have actually been to Gimmelwald once before when we visited Switzerland in 2010. We loved it so much, we wanted to go back with the kids and make it our home base for our Jungfrau adventure. The only way to get to Gimmelwald is on a cable car that lifts you over the impressive cliffs of the Lauterbrunnen valley. My heart still skips a beat every time the cable car goes over the edge of the cliff on the way down, and I am suddenly looking down the sheer wall of the cliff several hundred meters to the valley floor.

On Saturday morning, we woke the kids early to begin our journey to the Jungfraujoch, the “Top of Europe.” It is the highest rail station in Europe at 3,454 meters (11,332 ft). The railway and station are 100 years old (or will be next August), making the ascent even more impressive. The views are incredible as you climb up the base of the mountains. Then, shortly after you pass the last town of Kleine Scheidegg, the train enters a 9km tunnel through the Eiger and Mönch mountains. The train station at the Jungfraujoch is actually inside the mountain.

[singlepic id=568 w=320 h=240 float=left]Once you arrive, there are several ways to take in the stunning landscape. We went up the elevator to the Sphinx, the highest viewpoint. We walked out onto the snowy plateau where we slipped and slid with all the other tourists. We looked out the panorama windows of the main building. And capped off the visit with a tour of the “Ice Palace,” a labyrinth of tunnels through an ice glacier filled with ice sculptures that the kids loved. It’s hard to describe how incredible it is to be at the top of the alps. Which is why it has become an international tourist destination, marked by hundreds of Asian tourists trying to take pictures of our children.

We stopped for lunch in Kleine Scheidegg on the way back down before the kids and I returned to Gimmelwald. We bought some fresh milk, eggs, and cheese from our neighbor in the little mountain town. Then I sat outside and watched the sun set behind the tops ofthe mountains, while Joe had an adventure of his own.

Swinging in GimmelwaldWe feel so blessed to be living just a couple of hours from such a paradise. The weekend was so clear and beautiful, we never saw a cloud in the sky. One of my favorite moments was sitting outside in Gimmelwald after putting the kids to bed and looking up at the stars. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that many stars in the sky. It was just one of the many memorable moments in a magical weekend.But I’ll let him tell you about that himself…

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Mountains – the highs and the lows

Fall has finally found us. The day after our arrival in Zinal, Switzerland, the sun came out and melted the snow, at least at our altitude. We have had a few beautiful fall days in the mountains (and one rainy day, too). The mornings and evenings are quite brisk, and since On a mountain topwe are in a valley, the sun doesn’t rise over the mountains to the East of us until 10:30am, and it sets behind the mountains to the West at 3:45pm. Between those hours, it is gorgeous, even warm. But, even though it is still light out when the sun is behind the mountains, the temperature drops instantaneously. We have gotten to be very good at Swiss-style dressing – lots of layers.

During the sunny hours, the kids and I hiked down into the valley where a beautiful river flows through the town. We also took a cable car to the top of a nearby mountain for a Mountain Slidefabulous view. We found several great playgrounds (I’m still amazed that they build a playground at the top of a mountain!). There have been so many beautiful simple moments with things that both the kids and the adult can enjoy. But it isn’t without effort.

“Hiking” with the kids really means walking slightly farther than they are used to, which isn’t very far. In order to go anywhere in the mountains, you are automatically going either up or down. And getting back to our apartment means climbing up for about a quarter mile, the last part of which is rocky, so the stroller doesn’t work. Getting three kids, including a two-year-old, up the hills (and then up three flights of stairs) is quite a workout! No wonder you don’t see many overweight Swiss people.

SwimmingWhen it isn’t sunny out (i.e. the other 7 waking hours), there are still lots of options for the kids. They spent one morning at a supervised children’s program, so I had two hours to myself! We have gone swimming every day, and I have three little water bugs. There is also an indoor playroom for children with lots of toys. All in all, it is a fantastic vacation. The only thing that could make it better is if Joe could be here to share it with us.

Don’t miss the pictures of our mountain adventures in our gallery.

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Legos and Castles

Once we got to Legoland, the kids were in heaven. We stayed at the Legoland Holiday Village where even our room number was made out of legos. There were things for kids to do everywhere — themed playgrounds in each suite of cabins, a ropes course, and a 4-wheel race track. A short 5-minute walk got us to Legoland, where even more fun awaited. Henry loves LegolandWe had lost most of our first day traveling, so we wasted no time getting over there to check it out.

Legoland has several themed areas with rides for kids, play areas, shops, and everything made out of Legos. One of our favorite areas was called miniland, where there were miniaturized European cities and landmarks made completely out of Legos, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, Berlin, Neuschwanstein castle, oh and, oddly, some famous scenes from Star Wars. It was my favorite area, but I was suprised that the kids also thought it was really cool.Riding the coasters

We were lucky to have gorgeous weather while we were there, and since it was off-season there were no crowds or lines. So, even though we had limited time, the kids were able to go on every ride they wanted (several times in some cases). Unfortunately, Henry got bowled over by a teenage boy and face-planted into the pavement. But, other than that, the kids all had a blast. They also spent their hard-earned allowance money in the Lego store. And before we knew it, it was time to move on to our next destination.

We took buses and trains from Günzberg to Hohenschwangau, Germany, home of the international tourist attraction – Neuschwanstein castle. Hohenschwangau is incredibly beautiful, but it feels like a different world. We heard almost no German being spoken, mostly English, Chinese and Japanese. There are packed hotels, souvenier stores on every corner, and lots of huge tour buses. There are many South Asian staff at the hotels and restaurants wearing dirndls. Somehow, it doesn’t quite add up.

But, we had a very nice family suite in a hotel with a view of the castle, and our visit was still filled with several memorable experiences. Saturday morning, we took the kids up to Neuschwanstein on a horse-drawn carriage. We toured the castle with a lot of very friendly and patient Neuschwanstein from MarienbruckeEnglish-speaking people from America, Australia, and Britain who all thought Henry was adorable and forgave his disruptions. After the tour, we hiked over to the Marienbrücke, a stunning footbridge spanning a mountain waterfall with a beautiful view of the castle. We descended back to town where we ate lunch at an outdoor restaurant on the Alpsee, the blue lake nestled in the mountains. It was idyllic except for the previously mentioned incident at the end of the meal.

The boys were a little castled-out and preferred to stay at the hotel to nap and play with their Legos. So, Emily and I visited the lesser-known

Sunset on the Alpseecastle of Hohenschwangau. It is smaller than Neuschwanstein, but has more history as the summer and hunting residence of the Wittelsbach Bavarian royal family. We all watched the sunset over the lake and the castles, which was a beautiful way to end our German vacation.

We took so many pictures during this part of the trip. The best ones are in our gallery, which can be seen here.