Spring break with family and friends across borders

Each year, the boys get a two-week break in the Spring. This year we decided to take advantage of this time to travel to Germany and Switzerland to visit friends and family. Our tour included - on the way in : a visit to the temple in Bern-Switzerland and a stay in Munich (Germany) with my sister Marie-Eve and her family, and on the way back : a stop in Bavaria to visit the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles, in Zurich to visit our friends from Boulder Nichole and Thomas, and in Lausanne-Switzerland to visit Em and Don.

1500 km (almost 1000 miles) round trip in my old tiny Clio

 First stop in Bern. We spent some time around the temple with our ward friends:

 Next stop: Munich! It was the boys’ first time in Germany and they loved it. Marie-Eve took us to the coolest places.

First this incredible Tiergarten (Zoo) :

William’s favorite thing about this zoo was the brass scuptures that children could touch and climb on. The next best thing was the incredible play area:

Cousin time means board games, fun and lots of outdoor play. Marie and Luc have a gigantic 4 story house but nonetheless we tried to spend as much time as possible outside the house !

On Friday, Coraline joined the party (coming from Frankfurt) and Luc watched the kids so we could have a girls night out:

Munich is a gorgeous city. We were lucky to be there during Frühlingfest (the equivalent of Oktoberfest in the spring) so we got to experience the local folklore.

On Saturday we hit the bowling alley:

And Frühlingfest again (this time with the kids):

 

On Sunday we said good-bye to Marie, Coco and the rest of the family and left right after church heading over to Bavaria for a lightning fast visit to King Ludwig the II’s famous castles. I had been dreaming of seeing the Neuschwanstein castle for real since I was a little girl.

Sadly the weather did not cooperate and it was a bit of a disappointment. But I’m glad I got to see it and cross it off my bucket list.

Hohenschwanger and Neuschwanstein castles in Bavaria

We arrived at our friends in Zurich in the evening after an unexpected detour to their in-laws/parents (because I forgot to update their address in my contacts!) Fortunately I had met their in-laws in Boulder so we knew each other and they lived only 30min or so from Nichole and Thomas’ new address.

We went to bed tired and happy after a delicious mexican dinner.

Monday was a regional holiday in Zurich: "Sechseläuten" an equivalent of our french spring carnaval where we burn a giant cardboard statue to symbolize the end of winter.

Lars, Yanik and Nichole were off school as a result so we got to spend the day with them. We visited Zurich, went to the museum, took the funicular and had a sweet snack at a cute restaurant.

We didn’t attend the entire Sechseläuten celebration but we got to admire the giant snowman and watch the builders erect the 10m high bonfire. Apparently the head of the snowman is filled with fireworks. Once lit up, the tradition is to measure how long it takes for the head to explode as a prediction of how nice the summer will be. If it happens quickly, the following summer will be nice, if not...bummer.

We didn’t stay long enough to see the result of the bonfire/prediction. Apparently they broke a record this year... unfortunately it’s a record for the longest time.

After spending a fun-filled day with our friends we hit the road again heading to Bern where we spent the night. This time I unexpectedly bumped into my good friends Jean-Charles and Virginie whom I hadn’t seen since Joshua was 7 months old! It was a sweet reunion.

Later in the day, we drove to Lausanne and stopped by Em and Don’s place for a quick visit. Em made us a delicious leaks quiche and the boys picked up their silly games where they left off.

Old friends reunited

That was a pretty crazy spring break but we were so happy to see so many friends and family members in such a short time. It was worth every minute spent in the car.