We had a great last week of summer vacation!
It was a pretty quiet week and we spent the time getting caught up on rest after our busy weekend before.
On Wednesday, Matt had his first day of school. He is attending UMGC that has a campus on base and his first class was online.
Brooklyn also had a big milestone when she walked to base by herself and went shopping at the Px. She had been asking to go buy an iTunes gift card all week and finally we said she could if she walked herself there.
Thursday, my friend Beth planned a night out for the moms in our group. Da Marcos, the Italian store in Weil der Stadt, closed for the evening and they cooked a private dinner for about fifteen of us. It was so nice to be in female company for a few hours. Matt and the kids stayed at Beth’s house and the husbands enjoyed their own dinner and a few drinks.
Friday was another busy day. I had a hair appointment in the morning (thank goodness) and the kids had Middle School Orientation. It definitely made them feel more ready to start school.
After all the activity in the morning, we headed out to Switzerland. We were originally supposed to take this trip back in July but had to reschedule when our furniture showed up at the last minute the weekend we were supposed to go.
The drive took about five hours with stops and we were so happy the dogs did so well. We only stopped once to let them out and the view was amazing. Switzerland is truly a beautiful country.
We arrived in Interlaken at about 7pm and instead of going out, we hung out at our Airbnb. It had a huge balcony overlooking a park where paragliders were landing. We could also watch all the horse and carriages and people in the park so it felt like we were a part of everything.
Saturday, we woke up and headed to Grindelwald, a village in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. The 30-minute drive was stunning. We got so lucky as the town was packed but we somehow got a parking spot right in front of the cable car station we were taking.
We chose the Pfingstegg cable car because it had “family friendly” activities at the top of the lift and we could take the dogs, who surprisingly did great on the ride up.
At the top, there were hiking trails, a toboggan, a zip line, playgrounds, a restaurant, and other stuff for kids to do.
We started with the toboggan, which was so much fun. There are lots in the Black Forest in Germany so we can’t wait to try another closer to home. We each took two rides and took turns watching the dogs.
After the toboggan run, we hiked a little ways to a spot Matt could set his drone off and he had fun flying it around for awhile.
The kids played some on the playground and got Ice Cream and then we did the zip line. It wasn’t that fast but it was a good first try so we know we are ready for next time.
We went back down the cable car and had a car picnic. We have noticed that Germans take sandwich fixings with them and have picnics everywhere, road rest stops, museums, parks, etc. We decided to try it out and Matt made us all sandwiches in the morning. It was delicious and saved us so much money.
After lunch we headed to the other side of the valley. The valley is shaped like a “U” with Grindelwald on one side and the town of Lauterbrunnen on the other.
Lauterbrunnen is famous for having the waterfalls that fall down around the town. Because all the town’s parking was full, we did a driving tour and drove through and all the way to the end of the valley. The valley itself is nicknamed, “The Valley of 72 waterfalls.” We lost track of how many we saw but there were definitely a lot.
We stopped at Trummelbach Falls, some falls that are inside of a cliff, but dogs were not allowed so we will save that for next time. We were able to check out Staubbach Falls (the ones behind the town) from the car. We decided to try and get up early the following day and come back and do the cable car up to the town of Mürren and then went back and took a nap at the Airbnb. We had pizza and kebabs for dinner and watched more paragliders from the balcony.
The rain wasn’t supposed to start until after 10am on Sunday, but when we woke up at 6, it was already pouring. The rain wouldn’t normally bother us but visibility up the mountains was really diminished so we decided to save the Mürren cable car for next time and hit the road.
We took the long way home and stopped by Liechtenstein on the way home so we could cross the country off our list. Liechtenstein is the sixth smallest country in the world and we drove across it in about five minutes. We let the dogs out of the car for a bathroom break and drove by all of the major sights in the pouring rain in another ten minutes.
As soon as we left Liechtenstein, it started raining. We kept driving north past Lake Bodensee, which goes on forever, and finally got back into Germany, just in time to refill the gas tank with our Esso card, (we can only get gas with that card in Germany) and then we were home by three.
We spent the rest of the day getting ready for the big day on Monday: The First Day of School!
Links:
Pfingstegg Cable Car http://www.pfingstegg.ch
Gilcrests Abroad 