Swiss food

The Swiss food is very enjoyable for us. Pictured is their mixed
salad, which is made with scoops of different salads (marinated
carrots, usually a marinated corn dish, always beets, cole slawish
something or potato salad, maybe tuna salad, cucumbers, bell peppers,
whatever) on top of what they call French dressing, but is more like a
runny caesar dressing, topped with butterleaf lettuce. This one had
sliced eggs around the top, too. We like them a lot, and usually
order one.

The Rosti are good, too. Rosti is a big round hashbrown topped
usually with thin ham slices, melted cheese and fried eggs. It is
built like a pizza, and is great- sort of a proper breakfast served at
dinner time. There are usually a few topping choices like just
cheese, no cheese, sausage, etc.

Bike riding

Sarah rented bikes for the boys, and we walked/biked a trail through
the valley below murren. The boys were incredibly cranky this
morning, but the bikes set them in a very fun mood.

The valley has some 12 waterfalls, all very pretty, each cascading
down some 2,000 feet.

Here are max and Sarah.

Dinner

Max enjoying some tomato soup

Swiss drinking fountain

The Swiss have these drinking fountains/cattle troughs (I think) all
over. They are all different, some quite interesting.

Early morning chess

The boys have trouble passing up a chess board.

Some mini golf

The sports center in town, in addition to a nice swimming pool (with
kiddie pool), has mini golf. Henry is celebrating a nice shot. The
mini golf area has a puddle problem, because in the winter, it is
their ice rink.

7 cable cars, 3 trains, and one bus today.

Schilthorn

Max and I took a morning cable car ride up to Schilthorn, a rotating
restaurant at 10,000 feet.

Sarah and Henry Shopped.

Dinner

Eating some tasty cheese fondue for dinner

The pool

At the pool when the rain started.

The mountains

A beautiful morning for hiking. We took a funicular railway up about
900 feet, and walked about 4 miles through meadows back down.

Hiking

Taking a break during our morning hike.

Our dinner spot

A tasty dinner overlooking the mountains. The restaurant, and most of
Murren, sit on the edge of a cliff. It is a 2,000 foot drop to the
valley below. Our dinner ended with a bit of rain. It was raining hard
when we woke up in Lucerne today. However it stopped and was nice all
day till dinner. But, we'll be hiking tomorrow, rain or shine.

Murren

We are now in Murren, about 5,000 feet above sea level. Lots of great
hiking trails in the alps here. We took 3 very scenic trains, and 1
aerial cableway to get here. Max is a big fan of the cable cars.
This is a view from the patio at our hotel. Our hotel room is very
tiny, but adequate. And we have a great view of the mountains from
our room.

In a tower

Henry and the view of Lucerne from one of the towers.

Lucerne wall

A morning walk to see the wall and towers that once protected Lucerne.

Bus

Not a bus I want to ride.

At the Swiss Transport Museum

We spent the day (a full 7 hours) at the Swiss transport museum.
Quite an incredible museum. In all the buildings, they have the real
things, models, interactive displays, elaborate dioramas and lots of
information. There is a building for Trains, one for boats, one for
planes, and a lot more things. They have scooters (Henry is on one in
this picture) to get from building to building on. For a while, it
was unclear if Henry and Max would get off the scooters and see the
actual exhibits, but they finally did. Sarah and I enjoyed some wine
while the boys played in a very cool "kids cargo" area. A fun day.

Max on the cablecar

Max checking out part of the aerial cableway section of the Swiss
transport Museum.

Henry and the crocodile

Henry in front of the famous Swiss Crocodile locomotive.

In Hergiswil

Sarah and the steamer after we disembarked.

Cog railway

Henry's agile footwork secured us front row seats for the trip on the
cog railway down (it is much steeper than it looks)

Final cableway

This is last aerial cableway, right near the top.

The view from one cableway

Mt. Pilatus loop

Well, it is hard to imagine a more enjoyable day. We took a bus from
Lucerne to Kriens, then an aerial cableway to a very cool playground
(a very long slide, a small stream to play in, a zip cord and lots
more), then a second cableway to a very cool 1.3 kilometer toboggan
run (which was very fast, riding little sleds down a steel bobsled
type run). Then a final cableway up to the top of Mt. Pilatus (these
cableway are all one after the other to the top of the mountain, with
a few fun things to do at the stops). We ate lunch at a restaurant,
hiked around a bit, then descended mt. Pilatus on a very steep (48%
slope) cog railway. Heading back to the hotel we took a steamboat to
another town. It had a glass museum and an awesome playground. Then
a train to Lucerne, a picnic in the park, and back to the hotel
(taking a bus 2 blocks because we're tired).

A picture of our lunch spot.

In Lucerne

Sarah and Henry in front of the famous water tower and chapel bridge
(built early in 14th century). We were on our way to dinner (after
the mandatory playground stop). We tried a recommended restaurant,
but the heavy smoke (even in the non-smoking area) was so strong it
stung out eyes, so we bought some picnic stuff at a grocery and ate in
a park.

The long trsin

Henry doing some legos on the train ride (9 1/2 hours, on 3 trains).

An early train

On the 5:20am train, this is as happy as it gets. We've left Ollie
early today, and will be in Lucern Switzerland this afternoon.

Max in the sand

Max, getting pulled out of the big hole Ollie dug. Max keeps jumping
in, we keep pulling him out...

Day at the beach

Spent today at oostende - a city on the North Sea. Played on a nice
sandy beach, and in some fairly cold water. Also rented the peddle
car seen here. Quite fun.

There are unhappy sounds coming from the bathroom, where Sarah is
trying to de-sand the boys

Tomorrow is a big train day, almost 8 hours of train travel to get to
Lucerne. I love Belgium and our wonderful hosts the Pommes, but it
will be nice to see mountains again.

Walking around the city of Ieper

A walk along the wall around ieper. Ieper is an old city, and the
wall shows how fortifications have changed from the 1400's (I think)
through WWI. Interesting to explore.

Making trees

Ollie and Max, making some trees out of sticks and moss

Henry and An reading

A little quiet time at the Pomme house

Exploring Kortrijk

Henry, Max, Ollie and I playing in a park in Kortrijk.

Our picnic spot

A hike around a lake

We took a nice hike around a lake, stopping for two cool playgrounds
and a picnic.

An evening bike ride

After a meal Gent is famous for (Gentse waterzooi van kip), we watched
some rather lackluster street performers at a the Gentse Feesten (Gent
Festival). The kids had a hard day, but it was enjoyable anyway.

Swimming and jumping

A little swimming and jumping at Ollie's cousin's house.

Henry steering Mark's new truck

Henry driving out of a parking lot

Castle tour

Here are max and henry just after we escaped from the neighborhood
castle tour. Lots of art in the castle, enthusiastically described in
great detai - in Dutch. So, the boys and I bailed about half way
through, and went to a playground across the way.

Ollie and Max

Ollie giving Max a push around the yard.

More seapark

The whale show

At Boudewijn seapark

After a good night of sleep (15 hours or so for the boys), we are now
at a nice amusement park and seapark. Cool kid rides and dolphin and
sealion shows. The dolphin show is about to start

Here is Ollie and henry on the Orca rollercoaster.

A day of travel

We are almost to Ollie's. Another 20 minutes. Kids have been
champion travelers. The flight arrived early, but we missed the train
we wanted because we didn't understand it was the right one. Most
Belgian cities have slightly different Dutch and French names. Their
on-line schedule lists the French names, but the stations use the
Dutch ones. We were looking for the train to Malines (French
spelling), It was listed as Mechelen. I also knew it was number the
9940 train, but putting numbers on trains or listing them in the
terminal is just not done, I guess.

On the plane at seatac

Pretty easy security check and boarding. We're ready for takeoff, a
meal, and then drugging the children so they fall asleep...which they
should soon anyway, since we wikenthem up at 1:30am.

Last day at home before trip

Woke up at 2:000am today getting our internal clock set to Europe
time. Here we are playing at the park at 6:00am.

More bicycling

Henry has mastered the basics of bicycle riding, and is now addicted
to bike riding. Sadly we have to bike in parks, as our house sits on
too steep of sreets.

Packing for Europe

We are all getting. Ourselves ready for Europe. Henry packed his bag
last week. He's quite excited.

4th of July

Actually, the 3rd of July Parade of Sail for the start of the tall
ships festival. Jason is loading his kids Matt and Luke as well as
Henry and Max in the wagon. The replica of the Nina is in the
background.

In the pipe

Max doing some exploring in the drain pipe (we actually walked all the
way through it). All part of a day of climbing, crawling, sliding and general fun at Point Defiance.