Our last stop, last weekend, was Mainua Island. It is a little island on Lake Constance. This lake is on the borders of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The water was so blue and clear. We were amazed at how easily we could spot the fish in the lake, even Josh could see the fish. That is how clear it was. This island was full of great activities, mostly for children. Yay! We were excited to have fun things for them to do. The first stop was the petting zoo. We got to go in the goat's pen. Josh loved petting and getting close to the goats. Zack liked it, until they got a little aggressive towards another little kid. She had food so the goats ran towards her. This frightened Zack. But after they laid down again. He was all over petting them. We also go to see bunnies, chickens, and donkeys. Zack's favorite part was the pony ride. He was so excited to ride a horse. In the slide show, look for the picture of his face while he was riding. Priceless!
The island is also called "The Flower Island." It lives up to this name. There are so many gorgeous flowers all over! They had flowers made out of flowers. It was pretty incredible. The main flower garden is amazing. It has a little stream going through the middle and stair on both sides with flowers blooming everywhere you look. I wanted to get a good family picture here so badly, but of course Josh was asleep when we got here. But it was fun to look at.
There was a beautiful pond with lily pads. The whole pond was covered. It was beautiful. The flowers with the lily pads were gorgeous. I think I need some of those back home. :)
There was also a palace on the island. It was a cute little palace. There were palm trees around it. We felt a little like we were in Hawaii. Now we don't have to go there.
The last thing we visited was the butterfly exhibit. It was amazing! There were butterflies everywhere! They had put fruit out that the butterflies would land on. Then we could pick up the fruit and "hold" the butterfly. Both kids liked this. There was also a ton of water in this exhibit. Zack was interested more in the water than the butterflies. He wanted to touch every pond we saw. He liked looking for fish and turtles. But he wasn't too concerned about the butterflies.
There also was a big playground. It was actually a normal wooden playground! There was a wooden train to get in and drive. Zack really liked this. It was fun to have a weekend that he enjoyed, plus it was so beautiful that we enjoyed it too!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Affenberg Salem
After the World's Largest Cuckoo Clock, we drove to Salem and went to the Affenberg Salem. We got to the Affenberg and saw this. 
They had about a dozen pelicans and a couple of huge nests. Zack liked the big birds. They were very pretty birds. They made a very funny noise with their mouths. We continued down the trail that looked like this. 
It was very pretty. But there was just one problem: BEES. For some reason, the bees really like us here. I have never been stung by a bee in my life, yet in the first few weeks here, I got stung by a bee as I was walking along doing nothing. (Seriously, I was even inside!) So we were constantly trying to get the bees away from us. We had to keep moving or they would just circle us. These bees were rather aggressive too. They would land on us. They followed us when we ran from them. But we weren't going to let these stinkin' bees ruin our fun. So we kept going. Finally we got to the main attraction, 200 200 Barbary Monkey. These monkeys aren't caged. They wonder through a 20 acre forest and the trail that we were on goes right through their main habitat! They hand out free popcorn to feed the monkeys. Zack was very excited about this. He told us that he wanted to hug the monkey. Here is the first time we fed the monkeys:
He loved it! It was so dang cute, as you can all see.
Right after we fed that monkey, some of the other monkeys started squealing and yelling at each other. All of the sudden in the tree right by us, a baby monkey started screaming and running down the tree. It kind of scared us. We had no clue there was a baby up there. The monkey that we fed ran to the baby. The second she had her baby, the baby stopped screaming. It was really cute!
We continued down the path. Josh also liked the monkeys. We would ask him "Where is the monkey?" He would look around and point right at one. He even fed one. But really wasn't very amused. He wanted to eat the popcorn and didn't like this guy taking it from him!
The monkey had some really cool trees to live in.
As we were walking through the forest, all of the sudden Zack starts saying "Owie, Owie, Owie, OWWW!!" I look at him and see a dang bee on his finger. Sure enough it is stinging him! We got the bee off. Luckily, it didn't leave it's stinger. I think we caught it soon enough. Before we knew it, his finger was all red and swollen. He was very tough. He just wanted Mom to hold him. But he wanted to keep feeding the monkeys. We walked along and got rid of the popcorn pretty fast. His finger just kept swelling. So we really wanted to get some benadryl in him. We also hurried through the gift shop. We bought him a little monkey because we felt so bad for him. Finally we made it to the car. As I was attending to Zack, I feel this stinging pain in my armpit. Sure enough there is another dang bee! I really think it was smelling my deodorant. Those German bees aren't use to that! This one got me good. The stinger was left in. We pulled it out and fixed it up. It has been 4 days and it still itches like crazy and is red with a bump. I told you it got me good. Needless to say, we got in the car as fast as possible and got out of that place. In the car, Zack's 'baby monkey' kissed his sting better. He hasn't had a problem since.
It really was a cool place. I just wish they did something about those bees. Zack absolutely loved it. He still asks if we can go back to the monkey zoo. He says that there are not bees. When I tell him that there are, he says he isn't scared of them. The monkeys won his heart!
They had about a dozen pelicans and a couple of huge nests. Zack liked the big birds. They were very pretty birds. They made a very funny noise with their mouths. We continued down the trail that looked like this. 
It was very pretty. But there was just one problem: BEES. For some reason, the bees really like us here. I have never been stung by a bee in my life, yet in the first few weeks here, I got stung by a bee as I was walking along doing nothing. (Seriously, I was even inside!) So we were constantly trying to get the bees away from us. We had to keep moving or they would just circle us. These bees were rather aggressive too. They would land on us. They followed us when we ran from them. But we weren't going to let these stinkin' bees ruin our fun. So we kept going. Finally we got to the main attraction, 200 200 Barbary Monkey. These monkeys aren't caged. They wonder through a 20 acre forest and the trail that we were on goes right through their main habitat! They hand out free popcorn to feed the monkeys. Zack was very excited about this. He told us that he wanted to hug the monkey. Here is the first time we fed the monkeys:He loved it! It was so dang cute, as you can all see.
Right after we fed that monkey, some of the other monkeys started squealing and yelling at each other. All of the sudden in the tree right by us, a baby monkey started screaming and running down the tree. It kind of scared us. We had no clue there was a baby up there. The monkey that we fed ran to the baby. The second she had her baby, the baby stopped screaming. It was really cute!
We continued down the path. Josh also liked the monkeys. We would ask him "Where is the monkey?" He would look around and point right at one. He even fed one. But really wasn't very amused. He wanted to eat the popcorn and didn't like this guy taking it from him!
The monkey had some really cool trees to live in.
As we were walking through the forest, all of the sudden Zack starts saying "Owie, Owie, Owie, OWWW!!" I look at him and see a dang bee on his finger. Sure enough it is stinging him! We got the bee off. Luckily, it didn't leave it's stinger. I think we caught it soon enough. Before we knew it, his finger was all red and swollen. He was very tough. He just wanted Mom to hold him. But he wanted to keep feeding the monkeys. We walked along and got rid of the popcorn pretty fast. His finger just kept swelling. So we really wanted to get some benadryl in him. We also hurried through the gift shop. We bought him a little monkey because we felt so bad for him. Finally we made it to the car. As I was attending to Zack, I feel this stinging pain in my armpit. Sure enough there is another dang bee! I really think it was smelling my deodorant. Those German bees aren't use to that! This one got me good. The stinger was left in. We pulled it out and fixed it up. It has been 4 days and it still itches like crazy and is red with a bump. I told you it got me good. Needless to say, we got in the car as fast as possible and got out of that place. In the car, Zack's 'baby monkey' kissed his sting better. He hasn't had a problem since.
It really was a cool place. I just wish they did something about those bees. Zack absolutely loved it. He still asks if we can go back to the monkey zoo. He says that there are not bees. When I tell him that there are, he says he isn't scared of them. The monkeys won his heart!
Triberg: The Black Forest
On Friday, we drove an hour and a half to a town called Triberg. The hour and a half was so much nicer than the 6 hour drives we have been doing. It was very much needed! Triberg is in the Black Forest. From my understanding, this is where the Cuckoo Clocks were all started. Now it is famous for Cuckoo Clocks. So this is where we started: 
The House of 1000 Clocks. Steve said it was the coolest store he has ever been in. We really liked the bear on the outside. The one on the rope was moving up and down.
Their clocks were amazing! We have seen them a lot of places. But it was cool to see them in the town that they come from. You will all have to come and see mine when we get home, so you can see what I am talking about. They are real Cuckoo Clocks. Some look like little houses, others are carved wood with leaves and crosses like the one above. We really like the house ones. After spending way too much money in that store, we headed across the street to see Germany's highest waterfall. I don't think that we saw how high the waterfall actually is. We climbed as high as we could with the stroller. I am not sure if it the fall kept going up the whole trail or not. The part we saw was amazing! It was really beautiful!
It si kind of funny that this waterfall doesn't have a name. The signs just say wasserfalle, which means waterfall. All the pamphlet just call it "Germany's Highest Waterfall" I just think it could use a cool name.
We continued walking along a trail to get to a little pond.
It was really cool to walk in the Black Forest. It was really kind of dark. It wasn't black, but dark. We looked at the town and saw that the sun was shining on it. It was bright! But we were in the shade the whole time. The sun was not getting to us. It was cool to see.
Can you see the contrast? Pretty neat!
At the pond, there was a little park! We love to see parks! It is a great place to let Zack run around and have fun. Josh also loved the tetter-totter. He giggled the whole time!
We had a wonderful dinner a little cafe by the pond. Then we walked back to our car and headed to our hotel. When we got to the hotel that we had a reservation for, the receptionist told us there was a problem with our room. We asked about what the problem was. She said that it is already occupied. WHAT?! Since when did having a reservation mean that you don't have a room? She told us that they have a partner hotel that will have a room for us. She said that they had everything we needed and assured me it would be the same price and that I would still get my points. (I joined Best Western Rewards since their hotels are usually really nice over here and since we have been staying in a lot of hotels, why not get something out of it.) The receptionist gave us directions to the other hotel. We found it. The guy was super nice. He said that we are very lucky because he has one room available. But he didn't know that we had a baby. He did not have a crib. He also didn't have the view that the other hotel had. He did not have the adapters that the other hotel had (which explains my hair in the following picture. I had no curling iron and one bad dryer!). There were many things that we look for in a hotel that this one didn't have. But we stayed there anyway. We just needed a place to stay. The next morning we went to pay and check out. Steve pulled out his VISA and the man tells him that they don't accept credit cards. Well he don't just have 100+ euros on us. So we have to try to find an ATM. We go looking in town. We find one. It doesn't accept VISA. We go searching again. We found another one and yes it accepts VISA. We get our money. We return to the hotel and pay. This took quite a bet of time from our day. Yes we still did everything we had planned, but it was a huge inconvenience. Yes, I have emailed Best Western and asked what the definition of a reservation is. It doesn't seem like a huge thing now, but at the time it was really inconvenient and stressful. Anyway, we headed off to see the World's Largest Cockoo Clock.
It is pretty big! We also got to go inside of it and see all the gears and how a clock worked. It was really cool! When we were in there, the clock struck 11:00. The gears started moving so fast. One wheel particular. Then we saw the bird go out and Cockoo 11 times. It was awesome!
The House of 1000 Clocks. Steve said it was the coolest store he has ever been in. We really liked the bear on the outside. The one on the rope was moving up and down.
Their clocks were amazing! We have seen them a lot of places. But it was cool to see them in the town that they come from. You will all have to come and see mine when we get home, so you can see what I am talking about. They are real Cuckoo Clocks. Some look like little houses, others are carved wood with leaves and crosses like the one above. We really like the house ones. After spending way too much money in that store, we headed across the street to see Germany's highest waterfall. I don't think that we saw how high the waterfall actually is. We climbed as high as we could with the stroller. I am not sure if it the fall kept going up the whole trail or not. The part we saw was amazing! It was really beautiful!
It si kind of funny that this waterfall doesn't have a name. The signs just say wasserfalle, which means waterfall. All the pamphlet just call it "Germany's Highest Waterfall" I just think it could use a cool name.
We continued walking along a trail to get to a little pond.
It was really cool to walk in the Black Forest. It was really kind of dark. It wasn't black, but dark. We looked at the town and saw that the sun was shining on it. It was bright! But we were in the shade the whole time. The sun was not getting to us. It was cool to see.
Can you see the contrast? Pretty neat!At the pond, there was a little park! We love to see parks! It is a great place to let Zack run around and have fun. Josh also loved the tetter-totter. He giggled the whole time!
We had a wonderful dinner a little cafe by the pond. Then we walked back to our car and headed to our hotel. When we got to the hotel that we had a reservation for, the receptionist told us there was a problem with our room. We asked about what the problem was. She said that it is already occupied. WHAT?! Since when did having a reservation mean that you don't have a room? She told us that they have a partner hotel that will have a room for us. She said that they had everything we needed and assured me it would be the same price and that I would still get my points. (I joined Best Western Rewards since their hotels are usually really nice over here and since we have been staying in a lot of hotels, why not get something out of it.) The receptionist gave us directions to the other hotel. We found it. The guy was super nice. He said that we are very lucky because he has one room available. But he didn't know that we had a baby. He did not have a crib. He also didn't have the view that the other hotel had. He did not have the adapters that the other hotel had (which explains my hair in the following picture. I had no curling iron and one bad dryer!). There were many things that we look for in a hotel that this one didn't have. But we stayed there anyway. We just needed a place to stay. The next morning we went to pay and check out. Steve pulled out his VISA and the man tells him that they don't accept credit cards. Well he don't just have 100+ euros on us. So we have to try to find an ATM. We go looking in town. We find one. It doesn't accept VISA. We go searching again. We found another one and yes it accepts VISA. We get our money. We return to the hotel and pay. This took quite a bet of time from our day. Yes we still did everything we had planned, but it was a huge inconvenience. Yes, I have emailed Best Western and asked what the definition of a reservation is. It doesn't seem like a huge thing now, but at the time it was really inconvenient and stressful. Anyway, we headed off to see the World's Largest Cockoo Clock.
It is pretty big! We also got to go inside of it and see all the gears and how a clock worked. It was really cool! When we were in there, the clock struck 11:00. The gears started moving so fast. One wheel particular. Then we saw the bird go out and Cockoo 11 times. It was awesome!
Fernehturm Stuttgart
About 15 minuted from our hotel, is the Stuttgart TV Tower. This was the world's first TV Tower made from concrete. So we decided to check it out. Once on top we could see all of Stuttgart and more. You are suppose to be able to see the Swiss Alps, but we didn't. It was still very pretty. We tried to get a good family picture. But Zack is done with his getting his picture taken. He won't look at the camera. I try to dance around so we can try to catch a good one. But I don't think even the best professional photographer in the world could get a good pic of all of us. So you get 2 picture instead of a family picture.
Here is Steve and Joshua:
Josh looks very amused, doesn't he? It was really windy on top.Here is me and Zack:
YAY! He is looking at the camera!Do you see the view? We also ate at a little restaurant on top of the tower. It was the highest place restaurant we have ever been in. It was very nice to look out and see the view as we were eating.
There was a park at the bottom on the tower. Zack really liked playing on it with his friends.
See he is happy when he doesn't know his picture is being taken!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Our Life
Our Home:
I know you are all jealous of the size. It is huge!
Our Kitchen:
See the whole 2 burners we have! Also note the can of spaghetti sauce. We have been eating a lot of that and also a lot of Hamburger Helper, Chicken Helper, and other easy one pot meals. You can't do much else with 2 burners, one pot and one small skillet and no spices or sauces and stuff. We don't have room to haul those around every weekend. We will be so happy to have a real home cooked meal when we return!
Our Dining Room:
Kinda cute, huh?
Our Closets
We live out of our suitcases. These have taken quite the beating the last 2 months! We unpack every Sunday night and pack up every Thursday night. We have to take everything with us because we check out every weekend so that we can travel Europe.
Our Lake
This beautiful lake is a 5 minute walk from our home.
Our Park
This park is right behind the lake. The playground is a little scary, but Zack stays away from it. He only climbs as high as he feels comfortable. If you turn the metal wheel, water comes out of a little spout and down the long metal pipe. Zack loves this!
Our Race Track
Zack uses the pipe as a race track for his cars and a river for his boats.
Our Sand
Zack also loves playing in the sand. Our sand sparkles. Plus mixed with the water, it makes great sand castles!
Our Drinking Fountain
We were so excited to find a drinking fountain. They are very sparse here. But when we got closer, we decided not to drink from it. Zack thought it was great!
Our Right Lake
This is the other side of the lake. Very Pretty!
Our Grocery Store:
Unfortunately, this is not as cheap as everyone says it is. But we are happy that we can find familiar food.
Our Car:
Okay, this is a picture of our car, but it is what our car looks like. I just keep forgetting to grab a pic of it. We love it! It is a very nice vehicle. Plus it has a great GPS. We would literally be lost without it!
Our Laundry Room
This is also just a picture of another laundromat. Ours is much smaller. It is wonderful to have all the clothes cleaned and folded in less than 2 hours. But the clothes never get as clean as they use too. It is not so fun to keep 2 boys entertained in a little room that is usually crowded with people. Plus it totally stinks to have to pay to clean your clothes. I know we pay for the water and stuff at home. But it just seems silly to pay $1.25 for a small load and then at least $0.50 to dry them. It is also no fun hauling all the clothes to and from the mat. I will be ecstatic to have my own washing machine when I get home.
Our Funner Than a Park:
Since we are in such a little room with not so many toys, there is a lot of wrestling and playing around the room. The boys love to ride us as a horse, or a nay as Zack calls them. Zack and I are getting very good at playing the drums on the garbage cans and make quite the marching band. We have a lot of fun together. The other day while Steve, Zack and Josh were playing, Zack shouted "Dad is funner than a park!" Pretty cute boys!Our Friends:
It is crazy that we had to come to the other side of the world to meet a wonderful family that lives in our same city! But they have been wonderful friends! We are so lucky to have them here with us. They have made this experience that much better. Thanks, Hunters, for letting us hang out with y'all!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Oh My Heck!
Early today I was going to upload all of our video from our camcorder to our computer. I looked all over in our little hotel room and couldn't find the camcorder. I was sure that Steve had hidden it somewhere so the boys couldn't get it. When he walked in the door, I asked him if he knew where it was. He got a look of panic on his face and said no. We searched our room really fast again, but had no luck. We had to plans to go out, so we ran out the door. During our look, I saw the garbage can and thought "maybe it fell or Zack put it in there." The maids clean our room everyday and take out the trash. It wasn't in there right now, but what if it was in the garbage they took out already. I said something about it to Steve. We headed off to see the TV Tower with intentions of going through the garbage when we got home. As we left we saw the garbage cans on the street. The garbage truck comes tomorrow. We enjoyed ourselves at the TV tower. I am sure a post will come soon about that. When we got back to our hotel, we parked our car. I walked out to the street to look in a can to see what exactly was in it. (They have a lot of different cans for recycling and stuff.) I opened the lid and there were flies all over. It was so nasty. I thought "Oh no, I really don't want to go through garbage." Just then Steve called my name. He was looking in another can. Right on top was this: 
Take a closer look at the right hand corner. What do you see?
Our CAMCORDER (it's red if you can't see it)!! After plenty of wipes, it is as good as new! Zack must have tried to throw it away. We are usually really careful with this. I am not sure what happened. We are just so happy we found it! What a blessing!
Take a closer look at the right hand corner. What do you see?
Our CAMCORDER (it's red if you can't see it)!! After plenty of wipes, it is as good as new! Zack must have tried to throw it away. We are usually really careful with this. I am not sure what happened. We are just so happy we found it! What a blessing!
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
A Little Piece of Heaven
Switzerland is our favorite place we have been. So we decided to go there again. It is just so beautiful. We are amazed by all the different views and different breathtaking scenes around every turn.
This time we started in the French Swiss countryside. We stayed in Fribourg. We thought this was just a stop on our way to see the things we wanted to see on Saturday. But this town was really neat. This was the church that was right across from our hotel.
We went on a little walk and saw this view. Amazing! I just love all the old buildings all around Europe.
Saturday morning, we headed to Broc to the Callier Chocolate Factory. Zack calls it Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory.
To start the tour, we watched 3 short, black and white movies about chocolate.
We saw the inside of the factory. We saw cocoa beans get roasted, ground and then heated and mixed with milk to make chocolate. We saw how the machines poured it into the molds. Zack really liked it, even though he couldn't understand it. Then we actually got to go see the factory. Of course, we couldn't actually go inside. That would not be a very clean factory. We just got to look through big glass windows to see the machines. This is the mixing machine.
See all that chocolate!
They did have huge bags of nuts that they used to make different kinds of chocolate.
The best part of the tour was the TASTING TABLE! We really enjoyed ourselves! They had about 40 different kinds for us to taste. Don't worry we didn't try all of them, but the couple behind us did! They must have really liked it. We liked what we tasted. Very yummy!
Steve liked it so much, he wanted to try all the chocolate he saw!
After the tour, purchasing some very delicious chocolate and eating way too much chocolate for 9:30 in the morning, we just had to have a taste of their hot chocolate too. DELICIOUS!
After the chocolate factory, we decided we still needed to eat a little more so we went to the Gruyere Cheese Factory. This was actually really, really cool. First we learned about cows and the importance of cows in the cheese making process. Especially about their diets. Switzerland cows have the best diet which makes the best cheese.
We saw big pots of milk being heated and stirred to make cheese. Look behind me and you can see them. We listened to the audio through that remote I am holding.
Zack liked checking these out!
We saw how they mold it into large circles. We saw the salt baths that the cheese is in for 36 hours. This is the cellar that the cheese sits in for 5 months. After that it is ready to eat. But if it sits longer, it will get a stronger flavor.
We had a couple different samples of different aged cheese. We decided anything after 6 months was to strong. But before that was very good.
Since it was lunch time and we were at a cheese factory, we had to try the restaurant's cheese fondue. It was the best cheese fondue we have had and if you know us, you know we have had a lot of cheese fondue. So delicious!
Zack liked that the restaurant had toys and a park.
Josh, like always, was just happy to be there.
After lunch, we drove to Interlaken. While we were driving there, we turned a bend in the road and saw this:
I told you Switzerland is absolutely beautiful!
In Interlaken, we met up with the Hunter family. Since it was foggy and rainy, we decide to tour the St. Beatus-Hohlen caves. It was a beautiful cave. Of course, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the cave. Just take my word for it, it made the Timp cave look like hideous. It was amazing!
Sunday morning, we looked out the window of our hotel room and saw this:
For breakfast we had some of these.
Okay we had more than a hard boiled egg. But these made me smile. The Swiss are so proud of their flag. They put it everywhere!
After church, which had English translator radios-they must get a lot of visitors, we went on the same hike we went on last time. This time we saw the Alps! It was amazing! They are absolutely breathtaking. We were able see all three peaks. We saw the Eiger and Jungfrau as we were hiking. But a cloud would not leave the front of the Monch. Just as we were leaving in our train, we looked back and the cloud had moved! They are amazing! Another thing that was new this time around was cows. Last time we didn't see any cows. This time they were all over the hike. There was even one on the trail. At one point, Steve was going to take my picture with a cow behind me. As soon as I got into position for the photo, the cow start urinating. Steve and I just started laughing. There were also goats all over at the final destination. Zack wanted to pet one. So we went up to pet it and guess what it did. That's right urinate. We must have that affect on farm animals.
As you can see, Switzerland is still wonderful! It is still our favorite place yet, even more so! We will be saving our pennies to come back here someday!
This time we started in the French Swiss countryside. We stayed in Fribourg. We thought this was just a stop on our way to see the things we wanted to see on Saturday. But this town was really neat. This was the church that was right across from our hotel.
We went on a little walk and saw this view. Amazing! I just love all the old buildings all around Europe.
Saturday morning, we headed to Broc to the Callier Chocolate Factory. Zack calls it Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory.
To start the tour, we watched 3 short, black and white movies about chocolate.
We saw the inside of the factory. We saw cocoa beans get roasted, ground and then heated and mixed with milk to make chocolate. We saw how the machines poured it into the molds. Zack really liked it, even though he couldn't understand it. Then we actually got to go see the factory. Of course, we couldn't actually go inside. That would not be a very clean factory. We just got to look through big glass windows to see the machines. This is the mixing machine.
See all that chocolate!
They did have huge bags of nuts that they used to make different kinds of chocolate.
The best part of the tour was the TASTING TABLE! We really enjoyed ourselves! They had about 40 different kinds for us to taste. Don't worry we didn't try all of them, but the couple behind us did! They must have really liked it. We liked what we tasted. Very yummy!
Steve liked it so much, he wanted to try all the chocolate he saw!
After the tour, purchasing some very delicious chocolate and eating way too much chocolate for 9:30 in the morning, we just had to have a taste of their hot chocolate too. DELICIOUS!
After the chocolate factory, we decided we still needed to eat a little more so we went to the Gruyere Cheese Factory. This was actually really, really cool. First we learned about cows and the importance of cows in the cheese making process. Especially about their diets. Switzerland cows have the best diet which makes the best cheese.
We saw big pots of milk being heated and stirred to make cheese. Look behind me and you can see them. We listened to the audio through that remote I am holding.
Zack liked checking these out!
We saw how they mold it into large circles. We saw the salt baths that the cheese is in for 36 hours. This is the cellar that the cheese sits in for 5 months. After that it is ready to eat. But if it sits longer, it will get a stronger flavor.
We had a couple different samples of different aged cheese. We decided anything after 6 months was to strong. But before that was very good.
Since it was lunch time and we were at a cheese factory, we had to try the restaurant's cheese fondue. It was the best cheese fondue we have had and if you know us, you know we have had a lot of cheese fondue. So delicious!
Zack liked that the restaurant had toys and a park.
Josh, like always, was just happy to be there.
After lunch, we drove to Interlaken. While we were driving there, we turned a bend in the road and saw this:
I told you Switzerland is absolutely beautiful!
In Interlaken, we met up with the Hunter family. Since it was foggy and rainy, we decide to tour the St. Beatus-Hohlen caves. It was a beautiful cave. Of course, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the cave. Just take my word for it, it made the Timp cave look like hideous. It was amazing!
Sunday morning, we looked out the window of our hotel room and saw this:
For breakfast we had some of these.
Okay we had more than a hard boiled egg. But these made me smile. The Swiss are so proud of their flag. They put it everywhere!
After church, which had English translator radios-they must get a lot of visitors, we went on the same hike we went on last time. This time we saw the Alps! It was amazing! They are absolutely breathtaking. We were able see all three peaks. We saw the Eiger and Jungfrau as we were hiking. But a cloud would not leave the front of the Monch. Just as we were leaving in our train, we looked back and the cloud had moved! They are amazing! Another thing that was new this time around was cows. Last time we didn't see any cows. This time they were all over the hike. There was even one on the trail. At one point, Steve was going to take my picture with a cow behind me. As soon as I got into position for the photo, the cow start urinating. Steve and I just started laughing. There were also goats all over at the final destination. Zack wanted to pet one. So we went up to pet it and guess what it did. That's right urinate. We must have that affect on farm animals.
As you can see, Switzerland is still wonderful! It is still our favorite place yet, even more so! We will be saving our pennies to come back here someday!
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