Switzerland is for Children

 When I knew I wanted us to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary by offering the family a trip with UnTours, I polled the UnTours staff for the best location for children.  Their response was Switzerland. Our two weeks there proved them so right.  

Here's how Switzerland is for children.

Gondola and cable car travel to mountain tops.  Here we are headed to Alpen Tower which looks down on the valley where Meiringen is situated.

Snowballs to throw on mountain tops.

Toys!  Even Dan had fun.

Tree houses and play grounds.

Even Emily had to try this one.

Grills everywhere to warm you up when you're cold or make lunch.

Very fun trails like this Maze Trail. Everyone got a ball to send down the mazes along this trail.

Lakes and pools to swim in.

Here at Thun Lake on a warm day but the water was still very cold.

Ruins to explore like Resti Tower. in Meiringen

And caves, too.  This was St. Beatus Cave.

Castles like Oberhofen.

This one had a special activity for kids to find a mouse hidden in the castle and different places.  There was also a ghost.

Boat trips on the lakes.  This trip across Thun Lake was from the castle to Speiz to catch the train back to Meiringen.

Special hikes in the rain like the one through the Aare Gorge.

Learning about cheese making - a favorite food of granddaughters at Ballenberg Swiss Open Air Museum.

More toys and Matt had to try this.

More gondola rides to the top of Schilthorn.

And more playgrounds.  I think the granddaughters tried every one of them in town.

Bouldering walls.

And of course ice cream sundaes!

So as you can see we made lots and lots of memories.

Another Postcard from Switzerland

Sorry I mailed this one too late for you to get it before I got home. Ha ha!

Here are street scenes from Zurich. The city was packed with people and we found out why on Wednesday the 10th - Taylor Swift was in town doing concerts on Tuesday and Wednesday. People on board the flight back to Boston had traveled to Zurich specifically to attend her concert. 

An Anniversary

 Yesterday marked 4 years since we moved to New Hampshire.

We first lived in an apartment.  We arrived before the furniture so Emily lent us an air mattress to use.  We got here on a Friday and furniture was delivered on a Sunday.

The only photos I have of the apartment complex are these day lilies.  There was quite a wide variety planted on the grounds.

No regrets on making the move from Maryland to New Hampshire.

In October of 2020 granddaughter spied the for sale sign on this house we now own, and the rest is history.

Where we stayed in Switzerland

 

This was our fourth trip with UnTours, the others being to Scotland, Barcelona, and Southern Spain. 

Our apartment was in Meiringen and as I shared before this was the view from the backyard. 

And to either side. 

We walked along here to get to town center, train station and shopping. 

This different sort of grill we used twice. Once for steaks and another time for wurst. 

The street side of this house was unassuming. 

We met the owner who lives in Basel. He grew up in this house that was his grandfather’s before his father’s. 

There is quite a collection of antiques including the carriage below. 

Peter, the owner, is responsible for converting the house to three apartments. We had the ground floor apt with kitchen, living room, bath and one bedroom. Our daughter and family were one flight up with more space including a sleeping loft. Another apt was above that. 

He told us the ground floor was once where the animals lived. He had to shovel it out. 

It really felt like home for our two weeks.