Switzerland

With the Holidays just around the corner I figured I should finish my posts on our Europe adventure this past summer.  So here goes. 

Both Brett and I have never been to Switzerland and so this leg of the trip was a first for all of us.  When I hear Switzerland the first things I think of are the Alps, army knives, secret Swiss bank accounts, watches, chocolates, and fondue.  I’m happy to say that it was all that (minus the secret in the Swiss bank part) and much more.

Ok to be perfectly honest by this time I was ready to go home.  We had already been on 5 flights, 1 intercontinental, 2 international, and 2 domestics.  Add on a wedding, lots of sight seeing, and a one year old who just discovered a whole new world of independence, walking.  Don’t get me wrong I was having a great time but almost a month of sleeping on airbeds, chasing a busy one-year old-, and worrying about overstaying our welcome made me a little homesick.  Plus everything was SOOOO EXPENSIVE!

But as our plane started to descend I could not help but admire the view below.  Switzerland is breathtaking.  I don’t think any of our pictures will do justice and to be perfectly honest I don’t think any picture can, you’ll just have to see it for yourself.  As soon as we landed and met our hosts Auntie Rose and Uncle Heinz and tour guide Auntie Etha I got my much-needed second wind.  They seriously are some of the sweetest people in the world.  They took great care of us and we are so grateful for them and hope to see them again.  Anyways here are some pictures.

 There is a spot around the lake where people hang out and compete to see who can stack the rocks the highest.  Competition is tight.

 The Iron Man competition happened to be in town while we were there. 

 Kaia is a really good eater.  Here she is having a little bite before going into the Swiss National Museum .

 Here is a picture with Uncle Heinz and Auntie Rose after they fed us an awesome meal.  We had Raclett which is both a type of cheese and a Swiss and French dish based on heating the cheese and scraping off the melted part.  It was really good!

Lucerne

Kaia with Auntie Etha

 We couldn't go to Switzerland without visiting some part of the Alps.  We decided to visit Mt. Titlis.  Unfortunately there were lots of clouds blocking our views, making it really hard to get a clear picture.

 We got to go inside caves carved into the Glacier.

The water here was so clean that people even drink the water from the fountains.

Good Bye Zurich, London here we come.

Denmark

The next leg of our trip was Denmark.  Our friend Eline lives in Copenhagen with her boyfriend Emile, and they were nice enough to let us stay at their place.  The last time I came to visit Eline in Denmark was back in 2002.  That was when I fell in love with the beautiful land of the Vikings.  Almost 10 years later it was fun to visit a lot of the same places only this time I had my little family with me.

Denmark is a fairly small country and so we were able to take a road trip from one end to the other.  We mainly stayed in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, but had several days for a rode trip up to Skagen. 

Lunch with Eline's sweet parents.

Here are some pictures around Copenhagen.

Free puppet show.

Our home during our stay in Copenhagen.

The Little Mermaid

I didn't know this until we came to Denmark, but I guess Legos came from here!

So the original Christus is in Denmark.  It is so beautiful!  Brett took a couple pics here are some.

Rundetarn aka Round Tower

We couldn't visit Denmark without making a stop at Tivoli Gardens.  It's a famous amusement park and pleasure garden in Copenhagen.  It opened on August 15th, 1843 and is the 2nd oldest amusement park in the world!

For a lot of Danes, especially in Copenhagen, the bike is the primary mode of transportation.  

We thought it would be fun to do as the Danes do and so we decided to get around Copenhagen in our own bike.  Eline's brother was nice enough to lend us their family bike. 

ROADTRIP!!  Denmark is a really expensive country to live in and to visit.  We thought we would save money by camping.  

This campsite had a lot of fun things to do.  Here is Brett's favorite.

The beach was a short scenic walk from the campsite.

St. Laurence Church (The Sand-Buried Church)

 We went to this huge moving sand dune.  Kaia went crazy.  She absolutely loved it and couldn't stop running.  I think she thought we were at the beach and was looking for the water.

Face Plant

Ice cream brake.

The wind is so strong here.

Hans Christian Andersen's birth home.

The real Danish name of Copenhagen.

We started teaching Kaia some American Sign Language while were in Croatia, but I was only able to video tape her first sign in Denmark.  Check her out.

We wanted to thank Eline and Emile for their hospitality and so we took them to dinner.  They chose all you can eat rotating sushi.

We had a great time in Denmark.  We were sad to go but also excited to for our next leg Zurich, Switzerland.