Switzerland in photos and some words

Warning: This post has photos, lots of photos. This is a "what I do on my summer vacation" report. If you don't like photos, just skip and come back and visit another day. 

The other week we looked at our calendar and realised that we had not taken much holiday/vacation this summer and our fall was going to be busy with ministry, new students, training, meetings, conferences so we looked at our options. As home schoolers,  some of the best time to go on holiday is when the schools are back in session. We couldn't decide where to go. Switzerland was mentioned and so we contacted one of the children's leaders who is from Switzerland. We met Dom from last summer at our training in Asia. The timing was perfect as he was off work and didn't have anything planned. A family was his church had space and so we were able to stay with them.

We were so blessed and challenged by their hospitality. They opened their home to strangers, shared their food, and even an extra car. God provided in so many ways.

When Miss K hears Switzerland, she would respond with cheese and chocolate. Last summer Dom had shown the children a DVD entitled More Than Cheese and Chocolate. Miss K loves cheese and chocolate and so that was all she heard.

We spent some time in the small town walking around. We were in a village/town on Lake Zurich.

After wandering around the town a bit, we decided to take the ferry and go to Zurich.

It was about 1 1/2 hour ferry ride with stops along the way. Riding the ferry was a fun way to see the countryside.

Here is just a village along the river. I love the shutters on the windows.

We did get some chocolate. Miss K doesn't like nuts so she just got some plain milk chocolate. (Her brother has told her that Nutella has nuts so she stayed away from that. Then she had it and discovered it is chocolate and now she is trying to tell her brother that it doesn't have nuts.)

The shop smelled so good. It was hard to not buy one of each. I really do like dark chocolate.

We went to the Toy Museum. It was just a small area and had toys made in Europe. We saw a Bild Lilli which was the inspiration for Barbie. The lady working at the museum was very informative and showing us all the different things. According to her the Bild Lilli doll was discovered in Zurich by a Mattel executive though in my reading now online it could have been Lucerne, Zurich or Vienna.

Dom told us about Globi. It was an advertising character for a department store. We did see him outside of the museum.

We enjoyed the toy museum. It wasn't that big of a museum but it interesting and worth a short visit. The toys had so much detail. 

We went up one of the mountains near where we were staying. It was a cloudy day so we didn't get that many photos but as we were driving down the mountain we had to stop and allow the cows to wander home. All the cows wear bells. It is a nice pleasant sound.

We did quite a bit of walking while we were there. I enjoyed walking through the town and cities and looking at the buildings.

We did find a number of stores selling Swiss Army knives. Some of the knives are cute and ones that I would like. When we lived in Asia, my husband bought a Swiss Navy watch. We didn't see any Swiss Navy products.

We found chocolate. It was difficult to decide what chocolate to try.

On Friday we drove to Lucerne. We went to the transportation museum which was a great museum with lots of trains, planes, cars, boats, and other things relating to transportation. There was a flight stimulator and so I went for a flight with J. The first thing that he was a victory roll and then we levelled out and flew over the fields.

Friday evening Aunt B came to visit. She is working at a mission centre about an hour away. Aunt B has been a part of the children's lives so it was good for them to spend time with her. On Saturday morning after a leisurely breakfast we wandered through the old town.

We wandered along the river and enjoyed the view.

It was Saturday morning and there were vendors. We did have some wonderful bread while we were in Switzerland.

Miss K was excited to see cheese. There were a number of vendors selling cheese.

We walked across the medieval Chapel Bridge which is there in the centre of the town. It is considered one of the oldest covered bridges in Europe. The tower actually predates the bridge.

Miss K stood on her tip toes to look out and see the town. The top of the bridge had triangular paintings.

I know roofs might be an interesting thing to take a photo of but I think sometimes it is interesting to go to a place and look at the roofs. I think I have taken photos of roofs in Italy, China, and other places.

Sunday we went to church with our host and enjoyed watching and being part of the worship. How beautiful to know that around the world so many worship the living God. We sang 10,000 Reasons me in English and the rest in Swiss German. Just imagine what it will be like for people from every tongue and nation to be gathered at the throne singing.

The weather was almost hot. It was about 28 C and so we decided to go to the lake that afternoon. Our host loaned us a blow up boat which Kylie enjoyed and a few other things to enjoy in the water. It was so nice to sit and look at the water and the mountains.

This gives just a bit of the view we enjoyed.

It was a wonderful holiday and we were blessed in so many ways. Now we are home and getting back into the routine here.


Beth