Saturday night Jamis and Marcie had to give back their rental car, so some of the kids got to ride on the train with Papa to church. It happens so seldom, it’s a real highlight in their life. That afternoon we had tentative plans to meet up with Aunt Ursula in Luzern, but it was raining really hard, making a tour of the city less than desirable.
We put it off until Monday, which meant we couldn’t see Urs as she already had other travel plans, but we enjoyed the day nonetheless. We walked along the old city wall, but a big section of it was being renovated, so that lessened the experience somewhat. The kids liked going up the big clock tower, though. And the lion statue really impressed them. They couldn’t get over how real it looked and all the details the sculptor included. We also spent an hour at the totally touristy gift shop next door. So fun, though, and they had some gorgeous things. I bought myself a fun little bag that says Switzerland all over it in several different languages. It’s my new church bag. 🙂
I won’t go into a lot of detail about the whole waiting-on-the-wrong-bridge-for-each-other incident, except to say that the kids were real troopers and we learned to always give our guests a cell phone, No.matter.what!
On Wednesday we went to Zürich for most of the day. It was an absolutely perfect day for city wandering; sunny and no breeze. We looked in both main churches, showed them the healing fountain, did some window shopping, did some real shopping, and saw the old Roman bath remains. The kids were disappointed we didn’t make it all the way to FCW, the big toy store on the Bahnhofstrasse, but we did spend a considerable amount of time in Pastorini, the other toy store in town. They have the cutest wooden toys; doll houses, animal figures, boats, etc. Plus there was a really nice game and book section that the kids enjoyed looking at.
I need to get a guide book for the old part of the city and memorize it so I can give slightly better tours when people come. I know a few things, but I bet there is so much more I am not even aware of. And I am sure I got a few of the stories I do know slightly wrong. And I can practice on the kids. haha
Sadly, the time for them to go back home to Texas had come. Thursday morning all the kids woke up early to hug them goodbye and I drove them to the airport. But the kids didn’t stay sad for long. As soon as I got back, we loaded up the car and headed off to Playmobilland! Woohoo!