Notre week-end en Suisse!

We decided that since we had a few days off, we'd throw some kids in a bag, no wait, throw some clothes in a bag and load the kids in the car, yes, and head out to Schweiz! Right! Now we're cooking! We drove out of town...the kids with their pillow and blankets, me with mine and of course, my handy-dandy book on Switzerland! Wes, bless him, was dutifully driving 'the sub'. As per our tradition, we try to learn about a place before going to it, so as we're journeying onward, I'm reading aloud to the kidlings and they are ooh-ing and ahh-ing about different facts about the Swiss Miss...things like all the tunnels are lined with explosives incase another country attacks, they can blow the tunnels to keep them out...and all the houses have bunkers to sustain them in case of being at war...the reason you see CH on their tags (country code) etc. is because it stands for Confoederatio Helvetica which is the formal Latin name of Switzerland! All interesting tidbits that give you a unique view of the country you're going into...a new way to see it!

One thing I've really tried to teach my children is that while it's fine to get a sourvenir and shop a bit, culture is the point! Now don't get me wrong, I do like to shop some and I always want a token of where I've been, but what gets me going is knowing what has gone on in a place, knowing about the people...making it come alive! That is what I want my children to experience. So, we read about places, we watch shows about the places, we talk to people about the places and like now, we go to the places! Now, when we get there, the things we see and do have much more meaning to us! So, we get to Biel and it is beautiful! ..peaceful...just what we need!!

We check into our hotel and the staff is friendly, the rooms are clean...we have to 2 rooms, which we have gotten used to finally! lolol  In 2004, Gunnar, our youngest was 9 years old. Now, I was in one room fiddling with the TV and getting iller by the minute becaue the TV wouldn't come on much less turn station or anything else.  In the other room, the older boys had at least gotten the TV on, but that's all...they couldn't get it to change channels or do volume...but it was on. Meanwhile, I'd gotten fed up and threw the remote on the bed. Gunnar came out of the bathroom, jumped up on the bed, grabbed the remote and **BAM**. In less than 1/2 a split second, he had the TV on, flipping the channels and had it to his fave cartoon and laughing it up! I walked back over to where he was, the other boys walked into my room...Gunnar is oblivous....just laughing away. The rest of us are just standing there with our mouths open and then we all start talking at once about 'how did you do that'...blah blah blah!! lololololol So the 9 year old boy genius had to show the rest of us how to work the TV. What a way to start the vay-cay! So, on that embarrassing note, we decided it was better to get out of the hotel room and scope out the town! :D

Wandering down to the harbor area, we saw several anchored boats, a pier and a restaurant. The pier led out a ways where you could fish or have a lazy stretch and read a book! Over in the grassy area, people were playing soccer; on the sidelines they were watching, laughing and enjoying each other's company. After meandering all around, we finally strolled on over to the restaurant, Joran! Since it was already late in the evening, we decided to eat and get back to the room.

Waking up to a beautiful Swiss Sunshiney morn, we popped down for a yummy breakfast and then out the door to snoop around Bern! One of the best features of this trip was that there was no push to do anything...we simply were just moving at a leisurely pace...it was glorious!

We parked at the train station with loads of brightly colored graffiti marking the spot (where we parked! lol) and we walked into town! Of course, one of the first things we checked off the proverbial list was a Swiss Pocket Knife for the boys...8D  Bern, the capital of Switzerland and founded by Duke Berchtold V of Zaehringen in 1191, is represented by the Bear! When the Duke was building the city, he swore to name it after the first animal he brought back from the hunt...and that animal turned out to be a bear! You'll see the bear in statue form, on flags and in the ever popular bear pit! We absolutely loved it!!!!  We bought food there at the little concession area that sells 'bear food' and dropped food down to her. Feeding the bear was so fun! The kids were squealing with delight, laughing because they got the fruit in her mouth....it was just a very enjoyable experience!

Walking up and down the streets thru the new/old town was a pleasurable experience. The water that ran thru it (Aare River?) was beautiful and we stood there for a time just to watch it! Ahhhh...peace and tranquility! Heading on down the marktgasse, we marvelled at the many statues and local threads of history.  Speaking of history, Albert Einstein lived right here...or there...in that house on Kramgasse 49 from 1902 to 1909! WOW! In that very apartment is where he developed his theory of relativity and the law of the equivalence of matter and energy!!!!  DOUBLY WOW!!! Now, that apartment is a museum!!! **eyes doing that exaggerated blink** 

About this time, the familia is worn down and giving in to base needs...food, food and oh, um, food! So, we found a local restaurant and plop in for the yummies! Wrapping up the day, we find ourselves in Zurich tomorrow and then heading home!

Heading home, we told the kids we'd swing in to Zurich (ok, it was a bit out of our way, but who's counting, eh?!) and take them to the zoo! Our kids--this a parental brag moment, are wonderful travellers....not usually whiny or things like that, we entertain each other and have a good time of it! So, here we are in the sub and we play some sort of game, sing a song, do something to pass the time--of course we look at the scenery and yell if there is anything of unusual appearance!

The trip to the zoo was rather uneventful and all of us, except poor Wes--it was admittedly rude of us, but we saw no way around, mind you as he was driving, decided to take a nap. When we got into the outskirts of Zurich, I woke up and took a few snapshots, but nothing of real spec-tacularity...but still, it was Zurich!

I figure I can get some real shots once we leave the zoo!

  

We arrive at the zoo...lovely little jungle area....the kids are excited...us too...we go in...take some fun shots...lovely critters abound...frogs, snakes, the penquins SO ROCKED--we stayed there quite awhile. They dove and dove on the rocks...great fellows..knocking each other off, it was hilarious. 'Nyhoo...I love ele-PHAMPS and ca-MELLAS....and I was so happy to find them and oh OH OH...MY CAMERA DIED!!!! NO WAY!!!!!  I mean, did you notice how the shots just stopped? Yes, well, the old battery just kicked up its heels and said no more! What kind of respect is that? The nerve.... I was just plain sick to realize that not only could I not finish photo'ing the zoo, but I couldn't photo ZURICH!!!! **forearm is now thrown across the forehead and the intense possibility of a swoon is at hand***  Then that nagging little voice that always wants to intrude began to tell me that had I recharged the battery when we were at the hotel this wouldn't have happened. THE ABSOLUTE INSOLENCE!!! I clamped down on that nonsense so hard my head spun...oh yes..lolololololololol----oh the pain of admitting that it was my fault hurt more than I wanted to say. OH well, gave me a reason to have to visit Zurich again, right?! Right!

At least we had a wonderful time at the zoo! No more pics, but a great time!! :))

Belemmeringen, Kaas en Corrie Tien Boom in Nederland!

WOW!! We had so much fun staying at the Clara Maria! http://www.claramaria.nl/?lang=en  It's a charming cheese farm and clog factory southwest of Amsterdam that was just the perfect place for our family to stay and enjoy the delights of Holland. On this trip, it was my mom, dad, my husband, me and our 2 younger boys...our older son and daughter stayed in Germany because of football and homecoming events *grin*.  Anyway, upward and onward...

The countryside was beautiful and I absolutely have a thing for windmills....there's just something so peaceful about them. I especially like to watch them when the sun is coming up or going down and the rays are shining through the blades...spectacular! Out at the farm, we unpacked and traipsed around the grounds just looking our fill & taking in the scenery. The boys had a blast running all over the grounds playing 'farmers golf' with wooden clogs on poles for clubs and big rubber balls. Later they visited the cows and drilled the young man working there for every drop of knowledge they could drain out of him! :)  We all played with the baby calves/goats and on the huge bales of hay...I don't think I've ever seen bales that big in my life!

The house was old and charming and the owner was friendly and entertaining. One very special thing was that he invited us into his personal area where we sat and talked with him about the area and different things. He told us all sorts of stuff that we found funny and useful. For me, I find it is a time such as this that makes a trip worthwhile more than anything else.

...strangers meeting, sharing and appreciating each other. This gentleman owed us nothing but took his time to tell us stories of his life, of his land and of his house. What a privilege that he would share that with us!!

When it was time to eat, we ventured out and found ourselves in Amsterdam. OH! I forgot to mention that we were driving an 2004 Suburban in downtown Amsterdam!!!! Yeh, an oh so wrong move! *YIKES* There were bicycles EVERYWHERE! We were afraid we were going to hit someone because our car was SOOOO BIGGGG and the roads were sooooo smallllll and bicycles were e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e!!! The more we tried to get back out of the city, the more we seemed to get deeper in it...like a spider's web of bicycles! lololol  Not to mention the one way streets! Man, it was tight and harrowing to say the least, but my man, being the excellent superhero of driving that he is, got us out of their without hitting anything or anybody!!! He soo rocked (and still does! ;-P)

We finally ended up back in Amstelveen at a restaurant called the Silversant http://www.silversant.nl/

and had a delicious dinner in a very friendly atmosphere. A nice place to relax after the 'squeeze' in  Amsterdam! lol After dinner, we headed back to the farm to tuck in for the night. The guest portion of the house is upstairs and consists of about 5 or 6 rooms, a commons area and a bathroom. The commons area was rich in old memorbilia--pictures, books, miscellaneous objects/antiques. Speaking of antiques, the bed in our room was what they called a 'dating bed'. It was like two twin beds fused together with the middle still having the rails. I'm not sure how correct my understanding is of this, but I think a partition went into the middle of the bed and the man and woman could lay there, one on each side separated by the partition and get to know each other but maintain propriety. Well, there was no partition that night for us, but the center railing slots were still there & that made it rather uncomfortable! lol
But, as I'm an optimist, it was worth the experience of saying that I've slept in an antique 'dating bed'! 8-))))  

The day couldn't have started out better...the breakfast table was spread with several types of cheeses, fruits, breads, eggs...on and on...it was delicious and we absolutely enjoyed it! We tried all the cheeses, which I might add, if I thought I loved cheese before, I was in heaven now!! I wasn't crazy about the nutty cheese, but as for the spicy, the butter, the tomato/basil and the garlic cheese---BRING IT ON!!!

Having such a keen interest in the cheese, we made our way out to the cheese area of the farm where Chace and Gunnar got all gussied up and jumped right in and made their own cheese!! WAY TO GO BOYS! A really neat experience for them! After that, we all went to the clog factory and had a tour there. We saw how and where the clogs were made and loads of different types of clogs. They were all so pretty!


Right after lunch, it was time to drive to Haarlem. It was fairly close, so the ride was short. We quickly found the Ten Boom House and we were thrilled to realize that an English tour would be starting soon. For those that aren't familiar with Corrie Ten Boom, she and her family hid Jews and others from the Nazis. She, and her family eventually did end up in a concentration camp where her sister died, but she was released and continued to help people in need. Always, she gave praise to Jesus. She truly was an example of hope, kindness and love...a light in the darkness. There are books in the library and movies out about her life. Their house, with the watch repair shop in front, there in Haarlem is now a museum and definitely worth the visit!
Our guide through the museum was very passionate and brought the Ten Boom family alive through her retelling of events that took place so long ago.

We learned about the Ten Boom's themselves, the people that they helped, the signals that were used and the constant fear of discovery.  One of the really interesting parts was being able to go into Corrie's bedroom and see the hiding place in the wall where she hid Jews. The cover wall has been removed now so that you can see inside the hiding place. It was so small. It was awful to think people had to hide there, but also wonderful to know that they could, and did. It was a very moving experience.

After touring the house part, we went into the watch shop and it is currently still a watch/jewelry business. My dad bought my mom several different pieces and a lovely watch--to have a watch from the Ten Boom's Watch Shop...Wow! Outside on the street, the boys were being entertained by a street performer...he was quite good and full of himself--cheeky fellow! ;-)    We made it out and into Grote Markt and rambled around thru the various wares...I love doing that! Gorgeous view of the church there too! Lovely day spent with my parents!
Meanwhile, we head back to the farm and get ready for tomorrow...we're going to see horses be milked out at the Riga Ranch!!

On Sunday of our trip, we headed out to Riga Ranch. The owner/host out at Clara Maria recommended Riga Ranch and his daughter runs it so he knew we would really have a good time! At Riga Ranch, they milk horses! That's right, HORSES, I know, right, it took me a moment to wrap my head around it too!! We'd never seen or heard of that, so this was a real treat for us. Their foals remain with them for six weeks and after that they only nurse at night. Then the horses are milkes four times a day and the foal nurses only at night. This way, the mare continues to produce milk for up to 8 full months! Anyway, the horses at the Riga Ranch are mostly Haflingers and they originated in zuid-Tirol (place of Hafling), Bavaria and Austria.

When we got there we walked into a huge barn area where tons of gorgeous horses were happily entertaining a ba-zillion people! We eagerly threw ourlselves into the fray and wandered from horse to horse! Lovely coats, assessing eyes, twitching ears and flaring nostrils....then, the little beauty was moving right in on my and trying to eat his shirt!!!! She moved fast that one, he didn't even know her name! lololol  We all loved the horses...and as you can see, the boys really loved them. The more they fed the horses, Gunnar's shirt slowly changed from white to brown....eeeeewwwww!!! lololololol

After pulling all the straw from my sweater, we meandered on over to the big barn/warehouse area that was the store. Wow, it was alot bigger than it looked and really cute inside too. There were kosmetics (for face and body) with horse milk, liquor and chocolate made with horse milk...just a vast assortment of products made from horse milk----who'd a thunk it, eh? lol  Ah, well...we perused and oooh'd and ahhhh'd, bought a few things and of course, Chace had to have his picture made with the pretty owner! *grin*

Once we left there, we drove around the area and saw some of the prettiest little houses I'd seen....just b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!!! A very delightful trip to be sure! :)