Switzerland- Crushed it!

Oh yah, we crushed it on this one.  We may not have seen it all, but we did a lot of fun things for a weekend. We decided to go with the scouts on their Klondike derby.

On the way down we stopped in Schaufhausen to see Europe's largest falls.

If you've been to Niagara- not that impressive, but still really pretty.  I wish the boats had been going so that we could have gone out to the peninsula and climbed to the flag.  You know one of my boys would have pushed or tripped someone; however, so maybe it's a good thing that wasn't happening.  I loved the little mill on the side with the small stream!

So beautiful. 

We also saw the Fortress- Munot. 

It looked like it housed lots of troops with it's large circle domed insides. 

It was built on the spot where an even older fortress dated back to the 1300's with a guard watching over the town.  No stairs up, just a spiraling incline to the top

where you had 360 degree view of the pretty town and river.

Rob hung his hat there

and we all danced on the stage and yodeled.

We also looked down the well- Maria captioned this picture... Bummer!  

We found some Swiss fish- 

not quite as good eating as Swedish fish, but still cool.

This was looking out from our Swiss Chalet- 

the view was amazing!

It is right across from the Scout center. 

Lots of ward members came down and spent the night too.  There were 4 levels of 5-8 person rooms.  Each family got on room and then the scouts had the 8 person room.  Joseph was one too many scouts and he was the youngest one there, so we had him sleep with us.  The families all shared dinners together.  There were fabulous soups and chili's the first night and Mexican food the next night.  There was also plenty of Swiss chocolate and other treats being shared.  We played games of spoons and The Great Dalmuti and we all went sledding as soon as the boys left for the Derby. 

The sledding wasn't your every day baby hill sledding.

You bought a lift pass and then you sledded down close to where the skiers were.  It took about 30 minutes of walking to get from the lift to the good sledding, but it was worth it when you got there.  Man, we crushed a few people on those runs!! You really had to know how to turn with your feet.  You had to drag your feet the entire time, because you were going so fast and then you had to dig in with the foot of which was you wanted to turn.  It was a fine balance of pressure.  The last run of the day we made a race and most of the kids and faint of heart were left at the bottom of the hill- except Max and Emma and one other kid who weren't about to get left with the babies.  That was one crazy, crazy sled run!  Besides being fast and having some 90 degree turns, it was now completely rutted.  You flew when you hit those bumps!  Also we had our share of wipe outs and those are hard to avoid when you are barreling down the hill right after them.  I almost took 1st place, but as I was edging the guy in front of me out, he heard me giggle, turned around and started to slowly shift his weight so that he pushed me off the run.  I went over a stump and off my sled.  In the end, Emma took 2nd and I took 3rd.  Rob had Max with him and Max made it so hard to turn!  I took Max down one run with me and we biffed it 3 times before he said, "I don't want to go with you again!"   I ended up with a huge bruise right on my derrière!  It's not pretty- but it wasn't from any falls, it was just from leaning so hard from left to right on my sled.  The scenery we were sledding through was so gorgeous that we had to stop and take a few pictures. 

The Swiss Alps are gorgeous.

The boys stayed out that evening and played in the snow for hours.  They built a snow fort with a tunnel and a little wall.

On the way home we stopped and saw Bern. 

We wanted to see their mascot- the Bears.  We looked everywhere and Emma finally said, "Their hibernating, Mom.  Even I know bears hibernate in the winter."  A few minutes later I found a sign.  I yelled out, "Hey, guys, guess what... The bears are hibernating!"  Ha ha- funny me.  So these are the bears we got to see. 

Bern has cool fountains all over town and the water is supposed to be lovely.  Here are the boys trying it.  Sam said it did taste very good. 

We saw the cool clock

 and the Cathedral with it's crazy relief.

See all the people popping in Hell?

Here is the other side for you.

We couldn't get the GPS to take us to the temple, so we just went to the middle of the town it said and drove around.  We had almost given up when I spotted the spire with Moroni off to the left.

We were trying to get the Swiss flag to flap just the right way, so that you could see it was Swiss.

Again- I really need to bring my tripod- so we can get a family shot!

On the way home we stopped at Cindy's dinner and had "American" hamburgers and fries. Recommended to us by our good friend, David L.  The cool glasses came with the kids meals.

This is European style "American," because they had things like cold slaw on them- not very American.  The one that was actually named the American burger had, as Emma predicted, bacon on it.  The Europeans think we can't eat a hamburger without it.  Rob made us a cake when we got home for Emma and my birthday.

Happy 17th birthday Dear Emma!

Karl said when we go to Switzerland we have to do...

Chocolate

clocks

watches

knives

and yodel after milking a cow with a big bell

Chocolate- check more than once

clocks- check

watches- well we looked at them, so check

knives- bought 3, check

yodeling- check, but there were no cows to be seen- or bears!

So over all I'd say... Vacation accomplished!!