Switzerland!

Continued from Italy!

 WEDDING DAY!

The next day we woke up really early because we had to catch three different trains to get to Switzerland. On the train rides we saw heaps of beautiful blue lakes and really snowy mountains, even though it was quite hot and sunny! We must have been going through the Italian Alps! After hours and hours we finally got to our stop and woah! it was really hot! I thought Switzerland was meant to be cold! Marian's parents met us at the train station to pick us up. Which was lucky because Mumma and Dadda's phones had stopped working. They drove us up to the hotel where the wedding was going to be. When we got to our room on the third floor the view was amazing! So many snowy mountains and glaciers.

When we finally stopped looking at the view Esther, Mummy and I went down to see Marian and her bridesmaids in her room. Marian looked really pretty! We couldn't stay for long because she had to go test her dress :) It has a long train! We went back to our room, but where was Dadda? We looked everywhere and finally found him. We had locked him out! The wedding didn't start until 2pm so we went for a walk around the hotel. It was beautiful! I was starting to get very nervous so we went back and quickly got changed. We went down and found our seats for the ceremony. It was really hot in the sun! A man gave a really long speech in German! When the speech finished Stefan came in on his motorbike! and then Marion walked down a long bridge to meet him. She looked beautiful in her long dress. The man gave another speech and then asked Marion & Stefan some questions, they gave each other rings and then kissed!! Then we all go up and grabbed these little bags of petals and as Marion & Stefan walked towards us we threw the petals at them! 

After the ceremony Esther and I made some friends. I played with a little girls called Mara. She was about 4 years old and she took my hand and we ran up and down the hills. After playing and two softdrinks! We went inside for dinner. On the way we saw that Stefan was doing an obstacle course on a toy bike with a blindfold on! While being guided by Marion! Dinner was a delicious buffet with all these different types of sauces and everything you could think off. We had our own keychains on tables. After dinner it was time to dance!!!!!! Leoni, Esther and I were the queens of the dancefloor and we danced until midnight! When Mummy told us we had to go to bed so the grownups could have a go! 

DAY 10:

Luckily we didn't have to get up early and we could sleep in! We went downstairs and found an amazing buffet breakfast with everything you could want! Lots of salamis, cheeses, breads & pastries, hot chocolates and delicious eggs and sausages. It was delicious! After breakfast we played with our new friends while Mummy & Daddy helped pack up the wedding stuff. Soon everyone had left for home and we hitched a ride with Marion and Stefan back to their house (about 1.5 hours away). When we arrived at Marian & Stefan's house we discovered that Marian's friends had been there while Marian was away and had left them some gifts but also played some tricks on them! The whole kitchen and dining room were covered in pink post-it notes and the door to the toilet was completely blocked by a full wall of toilet paper!! Luckily there was also an upstairs toilet and that one wasn't blocked! Marian gave us a tour of her lovely house and showed us that we had our own bedrooms and bathroom! 

It was a really hot day so Marian lent us her car and we drove to a nearby lake. The water was really blue and there were lots of people lying on the grass around the lake and cooking delicious lunches on wood fired bbqs. We had to work up the courage to go for a swim because you had to jump off a dock to get into the water and it was too deep to see the bottom! But we jumped in!!! It looked cold but it wasn't (about the same as the sea at Conil), but it was strange to swim in water that wasn't salty. We even swam out to a pontoon where all these teenagers were sunbaking!

We when got back home we met Ava (like Aba)! Marion & Stefan's dog, home from puppy school. She is lovely and very quiet with soft ears! She had a bandage on her leg because she had scraped her leg playing and Stefan had to keep telling her not to try and bite it off.

DAY 11:

Today Marion & Stefan had planned a big mountain excursion day! But first breakfast! Marion & Stefan set a breakfast like the hotel with lots of different breads and cereals and spreads! Delicious! After breakfast we drove to a Mountain called Pilatus near the town of Lucerne. It was really exciting because instead of walking up the mountain like we would normally have to, we caught a cable car!!! It was awesome! mummy, daddy Esther and I were in one car and Marion, Stefan and Ava were in the car behind us. I loved it! The cable can had lots of stops with different activities at each stop. We got off at the first stop and went for a walk through the forest. It was very different to Spain and Australia. All of Switzerland is so green! and very neat! Even the forest. Ava loved it!

Next stop was the adventure stop about halfway up the mountain. This was the most exciting stop because it had a ropes course, a toboggan run and a dragon flying this where you fly down through the forest. Esther wanted to do the toboggan but I really wanted to do the high ropes course! It looked so cool! So dadda went with me it was awesome there were so many courses and fun obstacles like walking across ropes and zip lines I didn't want to go but everyone else was waiting so we did the hardest course and left for the summit. We had to catch another, bigger cable car. When we got to the top, it was freezing and there were heaps of people. We quickly got outside. WOW the view! Fog coming up the mountain from the forest, little towns scattered along the mountains and some lakes. It was beautiful! We saw the lake that we swam in yesterday! Then we saw some wild goaties climbing along the mountain. Cuties! When we had stopped taking pictures we went on this walk around the mountain. It was beautiful. Esther was a bit scared because it was so high. When we got back to the start we went inside again and found this gift shop. Then Esther came running inside to tell us that there was a Capricorn (boy mountain goat)!! Dadda was face to face with it to get pictures... it had huge horns! It was pretty special because Marion had never seen one like that before. Then we went back down the mountain in the cable cars, then into the normal cars and back home for a delicious BBQ dinner. 

DAY 12:

The next day we headed down for another delicious breakfast and this time we got hot chocolate! Delicious. We also had scrambled eggs. When we had finished our amazing scrambled eggs we setoff on our adventure of the day. Lucerne! A really pretty town on a lake. And there we saw it. A WHITE SWAN! They are huge! They look like we could ride them! Fun fact: Did you know that all the swans in England belong to the king and queen? Anyway, back to Lucerne. When we walked past the swan we saw this old wooden bridge with ancient paintings on it. Unfortunately not all the painting were there because the bridge burnt down a couple of years ago! Oh no! But anyway, the managed to save some. After the bridge we went on this mission to find us a pocket knife each. After looking in millions of shops (okay, maybe it was three) we found the perfect one! It was red and original, plus we got it engraved with our names. Marion got one too - it was the Sydney pocket knife and it was all colourful! Wow! After getting the pocket knife we went up to the city walls which had these towers with bells and views of the whole city. While we were there Stefan spotted a sign that said 'Farmers Market'. We thought that sounded good for lunch so we left and walked to it. When we got there the cafe was closed but we bought some bread, salami and juice. While we were there we saw some chickies and a piggy! Then when we went out the back we saw more piggies and some goaties! I even fed one that was a mix of brown and blonde. Then we walked back into town and got some lunch at this bakery place (a delicious cheese pie thing) and went to the cheese shop next door and got a HUGE bag of cheese for our fondue for dinner tonight. Real Swiss fondue! I am so excited!!!! After getting the cheese we went for a walk around the lake and it started to rain so we went back to the car and headed home. At home we had the delicious, steaming, bubbling fondue with bread, apples and pears. It was delicious. It was amazing! The cheese was perfect! We ate it all up. Sadly there wasn't anymore, so we went to bed. 

DAY 13:

Today Marion, Esther, Dadda, Mumma and I woke up and went to Bern, the capital city of Switzerland (Stefan wasn't coming). We went to the train station to buy a ticket to Bern but it was SO expensive so we drove Marion's car instead. Then we caught a bus from the carpark to the city. When we started to walk around the city we saw these really old, really fancy buildings like the Bank of Switzerland and the government building. Near the government building we saw a market where we bought was was soon to be our lunch. Then we kept on moving and we saw this huge fancy clock. Wow. It told the year, the star sign and it also told the time in roman numerals. We didn't hang around for long because we were on a bear hunt! So we kept on walking and we found this big enclosure and we saw 4 bears! Wow! Four actual bears walking around in there. They must have been feeling squished in there. They were just pacing around... well actually two bears met and had a little bit of a fight. We loved seeing the bears, especially mumma. But after a bit it got boring so we sat on a bench near the bear enclosure and had our lunch. Mmmmm, olives, delish! After lunch we said goodbye to the bears and went back into town. We bought a could of things at the shops. I wanted to buy more but I didn't want to use my money and no-one would give me their money! While we were shopping we noticed there was a tower thing up ahead. We headed straight there. It was the cathedral (munster). Mumma, Dadda and I went up. Esther and Marion waited at the bottom because they don't like heights. Going up there was awesome! We saw all the detail on the cathedral. We counted all the step.. I have forgotten now but it was like 500! When we got to the first stop there was an amazing view of the whole city. We saw Esther and Marion on the ground and they took pictures of us. We met a tour guide who showed us where things were in the city and where we could meet. At the next level (the top) there was an even better view. It was even harder to get Marion and Esther's attention because we were so high! Marion was sitting down and Esther was doing gymnastics on the building wall. When they finally spotted us and we had taken all our pictures (including a sort-of family selfie without Esther) we went back down. After that we went home (stopping at a couple more shops) and went home to have delicious rosti for dinner. 

DAY 14: 

Today we went up another mountain were we court a cable car half way up the mountain  and did a little walk along  the cliffs edge to a hut where bears hyenas and leopards used to live! But we had to keep on going an then we found our destination  . . . A CLIFF SIDE RESTAURANT with    . . . 

CHICKYS!  THE DARLINGS WERE ADORABLE! 

OOOHHH they're going into the restaurant, we better go too. Inside was cosy and we settled ourselves at a corner table where we ordered spaghetti bolognaise with.... APPLE SAUCE???????????????????? Wow  this is a new thing! But I think we will have to give the apple sauce a pass! Marion got it though.We ate our lunch and then continued on our journey. 

We said goodbye to the chickens and said hello to some goaties!!! But like with the chickens, we couldn't stay with them forever so we headed off down this path through a light forest. It was very steep! Then, after about 5ks we found some cows! Just resting on the path! Wow! We gave them a quick pat as we went past and kept going. After about 10 minutes we found these cottages. That meant that we were close to our destination! So we went a bit further and there it was! A beautiful lake with a restaurant where Marion and Stefan got a coffee. Esther and I played in the water, making boats and testing them out. 

Then we left the lake and walked to the car. On the way we saw more mountain goats! It was a reaaalllly long drive back. One of the reasons it took so long was because Ava kept on eating her bandage and throwing up! Oh no! Luckily we had wet wipes. Finally, after swapping Ava to Stefan and Dadda's car, we made it back to Marion and Stefan's house, ready to spend our last night in Switzerland. Waahh. 

In the morning we had to get up pretty early and say goodbye to Marion! Boohoo!!!!!! The we had to go in the car with Stefan and drive to the airport... in France! The airport was right on the boarder with Switzerland, France and Germany. This was the second time we had 'technically' been to France, but it was just the airport! We said goodbye to Stefan and went home. After a long day of traveling (we had to go from Malaga to Jerez for Skateboarding) we made it home to Conil! 

Word of the week: pais = country