Travel Series: Christmas in Switzerland
Our next weekend in Europe was Christmas and we were spending it in Switzerland! Switzerland is also where I'm pretty positive I Henry was conceived. After learning from our Versailles hotel fiasco, Matt reserved a "suite" at a good ole reliable Hilton. It was significantly more family friendly than the Waldorf Astoria, and next to the airport and an Aldi in Zurich. Our hotel had a room for honors rewards members with unlimited wine and appetizers and we ended up having most of our dinners there while in Switzerland because you know, kids and all. We took the ipad with us and they played on the couch while Matt and I gorged on wine and snacks. Our first stop in Zurich was the train station/Christmas market. While I was still on edge about Christmas markets, we weren't going to not go to them....I had the most incredible food from the vendors in that Christmas market. Some apple desert, a baguette with the filling removed and filled with fondue (literally drooling right now just thinking about it), cheese...the list goes on! We also walked around the city of Zurich along the water and once again, the architecture just drew me in. Between bell towers and churches and doorways, there was always something beautiful to look at. I was grateful to discover that cobblestones were only a Versailles thing and most of the cities would be stroller friendly.
Zurich became our home base and we explored Switzerland from there. Our next stop was Lucerne and I was so excited about this! Lucerne is beautiful- seriously such a gorgeous city on a lake. We took a boat ride to a train station and a train to the top of a mountain and it's seriously still a day Charles talks about. He had a blast and I'm so grateful for the opportunities we can provide our children. After our boat/train adventure, we were able to walk around the city a little bit and the kids were gracious enough to sleep for a while which allowed us to pop into a restaurant for an actual meal. I seriously bought all the chocolate in Switzerland- ALL THE CHOCOLATE.
On Christmas we drove over to Sattel Hochstuckli, a little ski area. Granted, there wasn't any snow on the ground, but they had a fun gondola ride up the top of a mountain with a bobsled looking thing, a petting farm, a park for the kiddos, and well- we were in Switzerland so we were pretty content with just about anything. To this day, Charles associates all gondolas with Switzerland. There was also a ridiculously high, ridiculously long suspension brige across a canyon. I am terrified of heights, I have no idea why I planned to visit this place. About 1/4 of the way across the bridge, it started to sway and I could feel the panic settling in. I was insanely high, pushing my kids in their stroller, over a canyon, on a swaying bridge. There's a video of me singing Jingle Bells as I deliberately put one foot in front of the other to just get across the stinkin bridge. Thankfully, there was another way around the canyon to get back to the car and we didn't have to cross the bridge again. Our Christmas dinner consisted of McDonald's. And it was amazing. We ate so much McDonald's in Europe and that's totally ok with me. The kids ate it, it was a family friendly restaurant, and I had access to the curry sauce for my chicken nuggets. PLEASE AMERICA, bring the curry sauce to the motherland. This stuff is so good- if any of my friends in Europe would just mail be a big ole box of that stuff (and perhaps some happy hippos) I'd be super grateful.
Zurich became our home base and we explored Switzerland from there. Our next stop was Lucerne and I was so excited about this! Lucerne is beautiful- seriously such a gorgeous city on a lake. We took a boat ride to a train station and a train to the top of a mountain and it's seriously still a day Charles talks about. He had a blast and I'm so grateful for the opportunities we can provide our children. After our boat/train adventure, we were able to walk around the city a little bit and the kids were gracious enough to sleep for a while which allowed us to pop into a restaurant for an actual meal. I seriously bought all the chocolate in Switzerland- ALL THE CHOCOLATE.
On Christmas we drove over to Sattel Hochstuckli, a little ski area. Granted, there wasn't any snow on the ground, but they had a fun gondola ride up the top of a mountain with a bobsled looking thing, a petting farm, a park for the kiddos, and well- we were in Switzerland so we were pretty content with just about anything. To this day, Charles associates all gondolas with Switzerland. There was also a ridiculously high, ridiculously long suspension brige across a canyon. I am terrified of heights, I have no idea why I planned to visit this place. About 1/4 of the way across the bridge, it started to sway and I could feel the panic settling in. I was insanely high, pushing my kids in their stroller, over a canyon, on a swaying bridge. There's a video of me singing Jingle Bells as I deliberately put one foot in front of the other to just get across the stinkin bridge. Thankfully, there was another way around the canyon to get back to the car and we didn't have to cross the bridge again. Our Christmas dinner consisted of McDonald's. And it was amazing. We ate so much McDonald's in Europe and that's totally ok with me. The kids ate it, it was a family friendly restaurant, and I had access to the curry sauce for my chicken nuggets. PLEASE AMERICA, bring the curry sauce to the motherland. This stuff is so good- if any of my friends in Europe would just mail be a big ole box of that stuff (and perhaps some happy hippos) I'd be super grateful.
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