Getting to Switzerland

When we left Verdun the next morning we headed through France and into Switzerland.  We had fun spotting the castles off in the distance.

Sometimes we would get a sign to tell us about where we were and what we were looking at.

We could see these castles for quite a while as we drove.

This fallen down building on the side of the highway was so intriguing.  

We stopped in Strasbourg for lunch and then we crossed over into Switzerland.  When you cross the border you have to stop and buy a sticker for your car.  40 francs later and we had our 2014 sticker and we were ready to go.  I was so disappointed that there was no "Welcome to Switzerland" sign. 

This is the exit sign, this picture is for you Mom.

We saw tons of vineyards as we drove through the country.

More fun buildings as we drove through Switzerland on our way to Zurich.

The house we were heading to wasn't actually in Zurich, but our GPS did not know about the bypass around the city, instead we got to see a whole lot of Zurich at the end of our 5 hour trip.  We had an emergency bathroom stop at a Starbucks and then we finally made it through the city and on our way to Vorderthal, Switzerland.

Here were the views from the highway as we drove south from Zurich.

The mountains were as beautiful as we expected.

You can take boat rides to this island in the lake, maybe on our next trip.

About 35 minutes from Zurich we got to our rental house.  We had to get off the interstate and head up into the mountains to get to our home away from home.   This was the view from the house.

Our sweet home owner left us some treats, the fresh eggs and apples, Lindt chocolate and carnival cakes were all delicious.

The living room.

The dining room.

The piano, a crowd favorite.

These are the stairs to the attic.

This is the attic space, the kids loved exploring and playing up there.

This is the one full bath in the house, I was thankful for plenty of hot water and good water pressure.

This town was so peaceful.

The graveyard at the local church was very well maintained.  There was lots of love shown to all of the head stones.  

We ended up eating dinner at a local restaurant.  The owner spoke some english, but he had a hard time describing what was in the dishes.  We ordered a few things and hoped for the best.

We were not disappointed.  The food was AMAZING.  We all enjoyed the food, there was nothing left over when we were done.  There was a lot of meat and some fried potatoes, what's not to love.

They had these great little food heaters, there were candles in the bottom of the tray, genius!

Jon and the kiddos after dinner.

It was a very busy day, but we all had so much fun!  We went back to our chilly old house and cuddled up in our beds for a good night rest.