Musings of Amy

Saturday morning we packed up all our belongings, both old and newly acquired, and headed home.  We did make one last quick stop for a few more Mozartkugeln, though.

Chris took these shots from the store parking lot.  The area we were in was so pretty!

We couldn’t get over how the mountains would just shoot up from the ground like that.  In Switzerland there is usually a very narrow valley in between mountains, but not big flat stretches of land like this.  If there is an open space of land, then it gradually rises up in elevation.  These seem to just explode out of the ground.  We were happy to get home, but we were already dreaming about all the stuff we would do on our next trip while we drove!

Our last full day in Austria was spent shopping for more clothes and shoes for the girls while the boys stayed home and played soccer.

When we had bought all the cute stuff in the store, we came home, had lunch and then went as a family back out to Bad Ischl.  We wanted to take a tour of the Kaiservilla, the home where Kaiser Franz Josef and Sissi spent every summer together with their family.

The entire building is surrounded by gorgeous green lawns and thick forests.  The Kaiser was an avid huntsman, and Sissi spent hours on horses, so it would make sense that they would live somewhere that made that possible.  Unfortunately, peon visitors are not allowed to enjoy it.

Franz and Sissi were given the house as a wedding present from Franz’ mother, Sophie.  It was probably the only nice thing she ever did for Sissi!  Anyway, at the time of their marriage, the house consisted of just the one main building. Over time two more wings were added on, so that from the air the house forms an “E” for Elisabeth (Sissi’s real name).  Remember how I said that Kaiser Franz loved to hunt?  Well, he also loved to mount all his kills and label them with the date and area in which they were killed.  Most of the walls were covered, and I mean completely covered, with the skulls and horns of dead animals.   Sarah was not amused.  Fortunately, it was just the entrance and the hallways that were decorated that way.  So we would cover her eyes while we walked from room to room, and then let her know it was safe to look when we arrived.

We learned lots of new and interesting things about both royals.  Franz was a very spartan individual, his private bedroom and bathroom reflect that in their austerity.    He slept on a plain iron bed, with a simple mattress and covers, and arose very early every morning to begin working.  So it struck everyone in the tour group as very amusing that the first two electronic gadgets installed in the home were an electric cigar lighter and a device to call the servants.

Sissi was wild.  If she was alive today, she would be the top story on TMZ 3 days out of 5, I bet.  She had a tattoo of an anchor on her shoulder, she smoked in public, and she wore pants.  Sounds tame to us, but if she did that stuff back in 1860, what would she be up to in our day?  Boggles the mind.  She was also extremely beautiful and went to extreme measures to maintain that beauty and slimness.   No new portraits or photographs were allowed to be made of her after the age of 40.  If you see any that are dated later than that, they are actually “photoshopped” from earlier ones.  They would change the background, paint on new clothes directly on the negative, etc.  It is even rumored that her death mask was smoothed to remove wrinkles, as that is what she would have wanted.

To maintain that famous tiny waist, she basically starved herself.  She said that the smell of food cooking made her ill, but I suspect it actually made her hungry which in turn made it that much harder to not eat.  The kitchens were built away from the main building, with secret underground passages from them to the dining room.  This way the food could be prepared elsewhere and delivered piping hot to those desiring to eat.

Anyway, the house was left to their youngest child, Marie Valerie, when Sissi died, and it remains in private family possession to this day.  It is only open to visitors at certain times, when the family is not using it.  They have kept Franz’s quarters the way they were when he lived there, the original wallpaper can be seen slowly peeling off the walls in certain spots, but the areas where Sissi had her private rooms were redecorated for Marie’s family.

They still use the little chapel in the house where Kaiser Franz worshiped privately to baptize and christen all newborns.  Isn’t that lovely?

We could have stayed and wandered around the grounds, but no one was in the mood.  Probably because it was a thousand degrees outside.  The pond that was once Sissi’s private workout area, has been renovated into a public swimming pool, but we didn’t know that and didn’t have our swimming stuff with us.  Would have been perfect.

All those chimneys belong to the royal kitchens.  You can see them best from the bridge leading to the parking lot.

Just a little last minute silliness before we said goodbye.

I loved that these are the original gates that mark the entrance to the property.  They are beautiful, but not too ornate. After a bit of wandering around in search of a) a bathroom, b) an atm and c) a place that would give us small change in return for the large bills the atm gave us, we were able to pay for our parking and leave. 🙂

We spent all day in Salzburg, visiting more favorite haunts, and discovering some new stuff.  We got a very early start since the city was starting a new environmental measure that blocked the city to all cars between the hours of 10 and 3.  Sounds good in theory, but as we read in the local paper, it really meant that lots of local businesses were losing tons of money due to no customers being able to reach their stores.

Anyway, we were determined not to have to park out in the middle of nowhere and be stuck taking a shuttle that would come who-knows-when to take us who-knows-where.  But due to some construction traffic a bit outside the city limits, we were over the cut off by a few minutes.  Fortunately, the road was still closed, we have no idea why, and we were able to still drive to right downtown and find a great parking spot. Whew!

All along this bridge there were locks attached to the posts with peoples names carved or written on the backs.  Apparently it’s supposed to be some sort of love declaration, and you toss the key to the lock in the river.  All I could think of is how many people break up within a year of renewing their vows, and what the chances were any of these couples were still together.  I’m so cynical.

Since we were on the other side of the river already, we decided to stroll up the Kapuzinerberg.  Noah especially loved looking at all the statue scenes from the life of Christ that were placed all along the trail.   It was a bit steep for a few little legs, but everyone made it eventually, and the view was fantastic.Don’t you just love the roof-top garden?

We must have hung out here for at least 15 minutes, just chatting and enjoying the scenery.  Then Chris noticed a little trail that went across the mountain a ways, so we decided to follow it.  Nick and I had a good laugh at the sign warning visitors that “this was an alpine trail and could get very steep and dangerous at times.  Please proceed with only proper walking shoes.”  Um, we had just been on an actual alpine trail that was very steep and dangerous.  This was not even comparable.  I handled it just fine in my flip flops!

The trail followed the Salzach for quite a while.  In fact we could have followed it to another castle about 3 kilometers away, but we wanted to see more stuff in town, so we turned up the hill for a bit and made a loop.  Just before we turned off the main trail, we saw a rather sad, and also ingenious sight.

   Someone was obviously living there, as they had cardboard and blankets covering up the window openings.  There was also a grill spot and some laundry hanging out to dry.  My kids were fascinated as to how the person got into the locked tower and also, how the chair was transported to its current location.

Definitely not the kind of setting one normally associates with sightseeing in downtown Salzburg!

We wandered back down the hill, across the river and into the Mirabelgartens.Recognize these famous steps? 🙂  We almost have enough kids to stage the same shot from the movie, but I wouldn’t put them through that.  Not anymore. haha  Every time we come here, this particular patch always reminds me of Christmas. All that beautiful dark red against the bright green, and then little splashes of white.  Just gorgeous!

They were having some sort of display dedicated to remembering those Austrians who helped save Jewish lives during the Holocaust.  There were many stories printed on large canvases, set up all all over the lawns.  Each was very moving, and we all kind of got separated because some wanted to read more intently than others.  But we all found each other pretty quickly. 

The best part about this whole trip is that every one truly enjoyed themselves for most of the time.  There were lots of opportunities to take great shots like this one, they just happened so frequently.

On our way to the Mozarthaus, we saw a catholic church for Croatian speaking people, and it reminded us very much of one of our churches.  It was simply decorated, and one of the knaves was turned it what we dubbed the Primary room.  There were smaller chairs, in a semi-circle, set up and a large poster with all the kids pictures and names on it.  They also had dioramas all along one wall with scenes from Christ’s life.  The kids were fascinated and studied them for quite a while.

The Mozarthaus was very interesting.  I had only ever been to the Geburtshaus, which is kind of boring in comparison.  This was where he lived for most of his life with his family, except for when he was traveling around giving concerts, but even then, he always came home to this place.  Once he was married, he of course, lived in different places, but this was his childhood home.  They had lots of original music pieces from his early compositions, books from the family library, and other memorabilia.

I think everyone’s favorite part of the tour was the many pieces of his music they played during the commentary on the audio guide.  Did you know many of his pieces were written as piano lessons?  He taught piano to many wealthy ladies and their daughters, and when they were ready to give a little concert to show off their hard work, he would write pieces especially for them to play, geared to their skill level.

I thought often while we were there, how much more successful he would have been if he could have lived in our day.  If he had access to Itunes and Youtube to promote his stuff to the entire world?  Wow!  Of course, Chris rightly pointed out that he was very good at writing music that was popular for his day, but would we like it as much if it came out new in our time?

I suppose now would be a good time to point out something fun that Chris did for our trip.   He always fills up an SD memory card with lots of different music, sometimes an audio book as well, for us to listen to while we drive on long trips.  For this trip he brought lots of Mozart music.  Said it seemed appropriate.  🙂  The kids honestly enjoyed listening to it, and even now, when I turn on his music they get all sentimental and say it reminds them of our trip.  Aww!

We briefly considered taking the kids to a marionette theater, since they were showing “The Magic Flute”.  But then we looked at the prices and decided to wait until the next trip, so we would have time to get them familiar with the story.  Hopefully then they would appreciate it more.

From there we walked over to the big Dom.  It was really beautiful. I honestly can’t recall if I have ever been in here or not.  I have walked past many times, but nothing inside seemed familiar to me at all.  The detail on the ceiling was really impressive;one giant art piece. Many of the paintings were done with bright, light colors as well.  Not the usual dark, somber ones I have seen in many other cathedrals.

We also went down into the catacombs.  Well, first Nick and I went down, because the other kids were too afraid there would be actual skeletons and stuff down there.  When we saw that it was pretty tame, we went back up to get everyone. There was one little room that had us all laughing, though.  It was just so unexpected.  To evoke the feeling that people expect in a room full of graves, this macabre little exhibit had been set up. It was hard for Chris to get a good picture of the thing on the right.  There was a tin cutout of a witch on a broomstick that was on a rotating base.  There was also a light shining directly on it, so as the base spun, the shadow of the witch “flew” around the room.

The last thing on my list of stuff I wanted to see was the Residenz, so we meandered over there, not quite sure where the entrance was.Along the way, we passed this huge screen set up in the open plaza.  The week we were there they were having the Festspiele, where they perform lots of operas and plays in the open air, all over Salzburg.  We also saw lots of people going to them in the evenings, all dressed up in Tracht and Dirndls.  Gorgeous!  This area is for those who want to watch the plays, but don’t have the money for a ticket.  You can come early, get a seat and watch a live video of the action.  Would have been cool, but our kids are still too young to stay up that late.

So we finally figure out that the Residenz Art Gallery and the Residenz house are the same building, just different directions down a corridor.  Whew!  We tell the lady how many tickets we need and Chris whips out his magic money card to pay for them.  She looks at him, shakes her head and hand at the same time,then says “Nein, Baaaahrrr!”  while rubbing her thumb and forefinger together up in the air.  You know, the universal sign for cash.  We couldn’t help it.  We were tired and a little punchy.  We laughed right in her face.  It was just so over the top dramatic.  Of course, we had no cash, and so this meant we would have to go find an atm and then come back to the museum.

Chris was willing to do it because he knew how much I had been looking forward to touring this place, but honestly, my feet were hurting, and I could tell the kids were about 5 minutes from losing it completely.  Although they had been excellently behaved up until this point.  I told him we knew we would be coming back again someday, we could visit it then.  Let’s just go home.  The look of relief on his face was priceless.  What a sweetie, though, to not say anything until I made the call.

The outing did end on a high note, however.  We passed this totally bizarre statue on the way out of downtown.  The kids immediately dubbed it “The Doom of Salzburg”. They decided it was a close cousin to a Dementor, since it had no face.  We still laugh about it and the “BAAHHHRRR!” lady all.the.time.

Last time we were in Austria, I bought some new desert plates at Gmunder Keramik to use on holidays.  I just love them, and have been hoping to add to my collection ever since.  The factory was about 30 minutes from where we were staying, so we called ahead to book a tour, and spent a very happy morning there.

My pattern is the red swirl on the right.

The tour was really informative, but not too long or too boring, which was perfect for the kids.  After the guide explained a brief history of the factory, and how the different pottery pieces are made, we got to go on the actual floor where the artists were working.Look at all those piles of dishes waiting to be painted!

And then lying out on a table was these cute Christmas patterns.I LOVE the reindeer with the bows!  I have Chris mostly talked in to them for our next trip. heehee

Each piece is hand painted.  Some don’t turn out, which they sell as seconds on site.  They are still gorgeous, they just aren’t perfect.  My collection consists of these. 🙂 An outline of the reindeer are first stamped on, and then painted in.  The kids all got a reindeer stamp on their hand, which they thought was pretty cool.

At least now we know exactly why they are so crazy expensive!

There are three different areas where you can buy plates, as well as the factory itself.  And in the middle of them all is a lovely playground, perfect for children who are tired of being very careful not to break stuff. 🙂

The girls really loved these fun plaques on the bathroom door and took several photos of them both.  They are rather charming.

I left the factory a very happy girl with my new dinner plates and two serving dishes.  Happy birthday to me!

By now we were getting pretty hungry, so we drove to a local shopping center that had a grocery store to get some lunch.  The kids and I ate at the food court, and Chris went and bought himself things to make a sandwich. (food allergies bite)  We walked around the mall a bit, and ended up buying a bunch of new school clothes for the kids, since the prices were so much cheaper than in Switzerland.

On the way back to the rental house, we passed through Bad Ischl, so we stopped just to have a quick look around.  It was hot, but very charming.I love that in Austria, people still wear traditional costumes in every day wear.  I hope that never changes.

Noah kept complaining about being hot, so Chris was a good dad, and did what he could to cool him off.That looked great and all the kids started splashing themselves with water.  I am sure the natives were shaking their heads at the “crazy tourists”, but at least we felt better! We had no idea where we were going, we just picked a street and started walking.  Isn’t that the most fun way to explore a new city?I loved all the pretty colored buildings and fun little shops.

There was also this gorgeous fountain.

There is a reason this place is called Bad Ischl.  It was built on healing springs, and there are fountains celebrating them all over the place. This large building in the background is the Kongresshaus, built in 1875.But it was really too hot to care about that.  It was time to splash some more of that water on ourselves.

Only this time there was a slight complication; Noah’s crocs floated right off his feet!  So of course, he had to wade in and get them.  Hmm, I wonder….:)

We also found this crazy chain dog waiting to be pet.

That post office is painted, what I believe is, Kaisergelb, or emperor yellow.  It was a color made popular by the use of it on the facade of the imperial palace, Schoenbrunn in Vienna.

During our stroll we stumbled on this really fun dirndl store.  Everyone who was shopping inside, as well as the ladies working there, were wearing a dirndl.  I picked up some fabric and a pattern to make the girls dirndls, and naturally had help picking out some matching buttons.  I can’t wait to get started!

Just as we were about to go home, we saw this neat little church and decided to go in.  See the sign on the right, dedicating the church to St. Nicholas?  Well, that inspired the children to search every painting in the place, to find the one of St. Nicholas.  And they continued to do it at every single church we visited for the rest of the trip.  I thought they were just developing an appreciation and reverence for religious art. sighAt least it kept them quiet and interested. 🙂

Monday morning, just as we promised, we didn’t go anywhere.  Well, the whole family didn’t.  Chris and I left the kids watching tv and went to do some grocery shopping.  It is always fun to buy food in a foreign country.  They just have so many different things than we do, even though the border is only an hour from our house.  Chris was especially happy about the Golden Grahams, and naturally we bought lots of Mozartkugeln. 🙂

So, about the rental house.  Chris started looking for places to stay back in March.  He found what seemed like the perfect one, on the river, walking distance to downtown, and large enough for our whole crew.  He emailed them about the availability of dates, and then heard nothing for three months.  By the time they got around to telling him they were booked, most of the other places in Salzburg were taken as well.  GRRR!  He briefly considered spending an obscene amount on a different house, but I talked him out of it.  We could have flown to America for just a little more, and I couldn’t justify a one week vacation with that kind of price tag.

Instead, we widened our search. Rather than looking near Salzburg, he just went with the region.  Then he looked even further outside and found the place we eventually stayed at.  Only problem is that when we arrived late Saturday night, we discovered that the last time it had been renovated and decorated was circa 1974.  And there was some sort of funky natural gas smell emanating from the basement.  In short, the kids and Chris were less than impressed.  I thought it was fine, and the smell in the upstairs part totally reminded me of my Grandma Lasko’s apartment in Coronado.  Not bad, at all, just unique.

There was a bit of complaining and mumbling for a day or two, and then they all got used to it.  It wasn’t so bad that it ruined our vacation, but it certainly wasn’t as nice as the place we stayed in Provo last summer.  Want to see what all the hubbub was about?

This was the living room, with it’s small tv and old fashioned furniture.  But as you can see, the size of the tv didn’t stop anyone from watching it. 🙂  And Noah lined up all our shoes so beautiful there, so we weren’t tripping over them in the entryway all week.  Thanks, buddy!

These stairs originally must have had no handrail at all.  Because the one that is there now is made of PVC pipe, seriously.  The people that own this house, also own a large, very nice hotel in the village.  We think this was their actual house, and when they made it big, they decided to keep it and rent it out, after they made a few, very small alterations.  We are just glad our apartment doesn’t have death traps, I mean stairs, like these.

The view out from the balcony and down in the yard was gorgeous, though.  It was such a lovely area, we never got tired of it.

Chris never got over being skeeved out by this bathroom, either.  ha!  The bidet on the other side was a nice touch , though. NOT!  The kids found it first when they explored the house while we unpacked the car.  They thought it was a little kids’ sink, like at IKEA.  Um, no, and please don’t go near it ever again.

This is the girls’ room, down in the basement.  We asked about the gas smell, and they said that they were aware of it, but the repairman said it wasn’t dangerous.  We just kept the door to the heater room closed, and the windows in their room open a lot.  No one died, so I guess it was okay.

There was this fun table in the boys’ room that was very convenient for day long gaming sessions.  There was almost always a game of Settlers going on for the entire week we were there.  Like I said, a perfect vacation.

This house also had some unique art on the walls.

That evening, we had had enough of staying indoors and decided to drive over to the lake and take a little stroll.  We don’t really do hikes, but we do enjoy leisurely strolls through pretty scenery!  As we got closer to the water, we heard beautiful classical music.  Turns out a youth orchestra was visiting from England and was giving a concert.The music, combined with the amazing scenery was absolutely magical.And then it got even better.  Up ahead we spied two darling little girls in full on Dirndls, just walking along and being cute.  What a perfect Austrian moment.Do you see them up in the left hand corner?  We didn’t want to take a closer picture, it seemed too paparazzi-ish.

After we had walked for a bit we found a public entrance to the lake.  Of course, we decided to just put our feet in to cool off.But the water was so refreshing, and the lake stayed shallow for so long, that soon, the kids were soaked up to their waists.

We only got them to finally come home, by promising that we would come back the next day. Better prepared with swimsuits, this time. 🙂

We spent a beautiful, relaxing week in the Salzkammergut area of Austria this summer.  Our little rental house was in the town of Strobl am Wolfgangersee, if anyone wants to Google it.  It was about 40 minutes southeast of Salzburg, and absolutely gorgeous.  Everything you want in a family vacation; sleeping in, time to laze around and read, a few short strolls, some sightseeing, lots of eating out, shopping, playing games together and just having fun together.  Thank you so much, Chris for organizing it all.  You did a fantastic job, even if you hated the house. 🙂

We drove up on Saturday and stopped quickly at a small Spar/gas station place in Salzburg to pick up some groceries for the morning, before driving out to the rental house.  The next day, Sunday, we decided to go to church in the Mondsee ward, as lots of people Chris knew from his time as a missionary in Salzburg now attend that ward.  It was a bit of a drive, but it was a lovely building and everyone was very welcoming.  Chris did see quite a few familiar faces, and was very happy to be able to catch up with them all.

The kids were most excited to tell us that they had Jause during Primary.  I had seen several little signs in front of restaurants advertising “Jausen”  but thought it was some sort of organized game, like Jass here in Switzerland.  🙂  Turns out, it is their word for “Znueni” or mid-morning snack.  So in Primary they handed out apple slices and bread to all the kids for Jause, and it was the highlight of Sophie’s day.

It was also Sarah’s birthday, so after church, Chris asked her where she wanted to go for her birthday meal.  She smiled and said in a hopeful voice, “Stiftskeller?” and we said YES! So off to Salzburg we drove. At first they tried to seat us inside, which is very fancy and lovely.  But Sarah took about three steps in and turned right around, because of the dead animal heads on the walls.  We had never been to that part of the restaurant, it has many different wings, and didn’t know to warn her.  Chris explained to the hostess that Sarah was afraid, and could we please sit somewhere else, perhaps outside in the covered garden where we sat a few years ago?  It was her birthday after all, and there was no sense in putting her through that emotional anxiety.

The kids were very well behaved and kept reminding each other in hushed whispers to use their “fancy manners”. 🙂 It worked, because no one spilled anything, broke anything, or got shushed by anyone. Most of us ordered the Schnitzel, mmhhmmm, but Nicholas likes to be adventuresome with food, so he had some sort of soup. Shoot, I cant’ remember which kind, but he really liked it.  We were originally going to order a Salzburgernockerl for dessert and share it, but we were all very full, and Sarah really wanted a banana split as her birthday dessert, so we skipped it.  Another time…

Then we went out to get reacquainted with one of our favorite cities in the world.  It didn’t disappoint.  There was this way cool street performer. I gave Sarah some money to put in his little tip jar, and he came to life, and handed her a little postcard from a hidden stash underneath the top cover of the piano.  I still can’t figure out how he  was staying up there.  There were no strings or supports besides that pile of books anywhere!If anyone has any ideas, please let me know so I can stop wondering and get back to more important things.:)

Then we stumbled across this strange hole right in the middle of the Marketplace, that I swear, in four previous trips to Salzburg, I have never, EVER seen.  We were all stumped and mesmerized at the same time.  There was seriously a lot of water rushing down that hole, and the sign said it has been there for over 100 years.  What?!?  I think they built it last week, honestly.

Of course we had to go over to the famous horse fountain.And then strolled down Getreidegasse in search of an ice cream parlor for Sarah’s banana split.  We didn’t find one, but did come across a gelato shop with about 50 different flavors, one scoop-one Euro.  Oh, how I love cheap EU prices!  So we got the kids double scoops and promised Sarah we would buy the fixings to make banana splits the next day.  She was fine with that, it meant she got ice cream two days in a row!

Of course, just before we reached the car, we found a great ice cream parlor specifically advertising banana splits. Doh!  There was also this hilarious statute, sitting in the middle of an unusually-named plaza.The kids still laugh about it over a month later.  For some reason it just really tickled their funny bones.

By now we were all starting to get a bit tired of walking, so before anyone got too frustrated we called it quits and went back home.  Noah stopped to take a little break on this fun bus stop bench. It was a great first day of our trip, and a memorable birthday for Sarah all in one.  However, after two days in a row filled with lots of driving, the kids did ask if the next day could be a “no going in the car” day.  We told them yes, it most definitely could.  It was a family vacation after all, not a whirlwind European tour.

Chris worked from home the week I was up in the mountains.  This meant that he was available to put meals in the oven, supervise chores and clean up any blood, but wasn’t really able to entertain the kids much.  He did put them to work cleaning up their rooms, which ate up some of the time, they did get to watch lots of tv and movies, and he also made sure they went outside for long stretches every day.  He didn’t care what they did out there, just as long as they weren’t in the house.

Obviously, he gave them, or they asked for, the camera to amuse themselves with.  This is some of the silliness I found when I went through the photo files later.

There were also several silly movies that they made using the camera.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/KiW3QskWAeE[/youtube]

Then Sarah got Alexandra to film her trick.

[youtube] http://youtu.be/i6bgZbCqWXk[/youtube]

Thy also spent lots of time playing with their Playmobil upstairs.  They love to set up intricate little scenes, and then leave them like that for a while.  Which is why they get so frustrated when other kids come over and touch their Playmobil.  But I am mean and ignore their cries, because then it forces them to start over and I get a few more hours of peace and quiet while they rebuild. 🙂

They survived the week just fine, and were very happy when Nick came back early, since he always thinks up fun things to play.  Thanks family, for allowing me to go and have such a good time.

The first week of vacation Nicholas and I headed up to youth camp with the Stake.  As soon as I was called to be a counselor in Young Women’s I asked if I could come help out at camp.  It was the only part of YW I liked back then.  Usually, only the stake leaders and a few volunteers are at camp.  They say that the ward leaders do so much throughout the year, this is their week off, so to speak.  But they were more than happy when I said I wanted to help out.  However, if I had known exactly what we were going to be doing, I may have been less eager. 🙂

This was also the first church camp Nicholas had ever attended.  He was NOT happy about us making him go.  We kept telling him it wouldn’t be like school camps, these were all church kids.  There would be standards of expected behavior that would be enforced.  It would be great. He was still refusing to go.  Finally, I had to promise him that he could go home after he had stayed two full days.  I figured by then he would have gotten comfortable and would opt to stay the entire time.

Anyway, we left early Monday morning, with Chris driving us down to the train station.  The camp was located in Brienz, more specifically, high up on one of the mountains above Brienz.  It was called Planalp, and was about halfway up to the top.  To get to camp, we rode a cogwheel steam powered train.  It was quite a sight, since all the youth, leaders and equipment took over the entire thing, except for one two very bewildered tourists.  It was a gorgeous area.  Absolutely breathtaking.  But I didn’t bring my camera for fear it would be lost or broken, so I don’t have a single photo. Sorry about that.

The first day we set up camp.  For me, this consisted of carrying my bags to my quaintly decorated room in a lovely house, hanging my clothes up, and testing out the fluffiness factor of my pillow.  It was excellent!  For Nick, on the other side of the field, it meant trying to find a place flat enough to set up their tent.  It was him and the two other boys from our ward.  Unfortunately, three older boys joined their group, who weren’t exactly the most well behaved, shall we say.  They ended up having to first remove several cow patties, some of which were not all the way dry, before they could find a spot that was only moderately slanted to set their tent up on.  Much swearing and foul language ensued on the part of the older three boys.  Nicholas HATES that with a passion and it made him really uncomfortable, on top of his regular anxiety.  He was very upset by dinnertime, and it was all I could do to talk him into staying one more day.

But the food was excellent.  All moms know that food always taste better when someone else has done the cooking.  The ladies in charge of the kitchen were amazing.  They had a wood and gas stove to work with, and a barbecue grill.  They churned out some truly delicious meals.  And fancy desserts, too.  Raspberry tiramisu, chocolate fondue, chocolate mousse and homemade waffle cookies, lasagna, crepes, mashed potatoes and fleischkase, and salad with homemade dressing every night.  There was even yellow cake with chopped up candy bar chunks mixed in the second night, which also happened to be my birthday. So awesome!

That second day we went higher up the mountain to work.  We had been told we would be repairing hiking trails that had gotten damaged in the winter storms.  I thought we would be removing debris, maybe repairing some wooden stairs, that sort of thing. Ha!  First, my group had to hike for about 2 hours up the mountain.  We were pretty much right at the top.  This wouldn’t have been quite so bad except we had one girl with us who was severely afraid of heights.  Like frozen solid, can’t move, shaking with terror, in tears, afraid.  And the path up the mountain was this teeny, narrow walkway that had been washed out in places, with nothing but a sheer drop on the other side.  Not exactly a great situation.  The other leader I was with did an amazing job with this girl, talking calmly to her the entire time, encouraging her, pulling her along.  I was really impressed.  And to her credit, she did not give up.  She kept on going forward, slowly, to be sure, but she did it!  What a testament to her bravery, I was so proud of her.  Oh, did I mention we were carrying our backpacks and heavy pickaxes and shovels on this tiny goat trail?  Cuz we were.

When we finally made it to the top, up where the avalanche barriers were, there was no visible trail to repair.  This is when we realized we would be building the trails from square one.  Fortunately, it had rained quite a bit previously, so the ground wasn’t rock hard.  But it was definitely rocky!  Nothing like the feeling of swinging a pickaxe as hard as you can and having it bang into rock, shaking your entire body.  Even my teeth would rattle.  Oh, and it was sunny.  Not so much hot, but we were definitely closer than normal to the burning rays.  Good thing I had brought sunscreen, but I had to give my hat to Nick since he couldn’t find his and I didn’t want him to suffer any more than was necessary.

Basically, we were standing on a very steep slope, trying not to slide down the mountain, while simultaneously swinging a pickaxe into the side of the mountain, trying to pull away enough dirt that you could make a flat trail.  It was insanely difficult.  Several kids, and our boss, slid down at several different points.  Fortunately no one was hurt.  You had to stand sort of sideways, so as not to slip down, and then twist your back in order to get the pickaxe to go the right angle.  When you had finally built a little path to stand on, it got slightly better as you didn’t need to worry about slipping down anymore.  But now the degree to which you had to twist your back intensified.  That phrase “backbreaking labor” now has an entirely new meaning to me.

We worked hard all day, stopping for about 45 minutes to rest at lunch time.  Nick was amazing, and did a great job.  I don’t think our group would have done half as much as we did without him.  Finally we were able to stop for the day and as an extra bonus, we were able to leave the heavy tools up on the mountain.  Of course, this meant that we had to hike back up there the next day.  I honestly didn’t know if I could.  Hiking back was less strenuous than hiking up, but more painful since every step pushed my toes further and further into the front of my boots.  I ended up with three blisters each on both feet.  Ouch!  but after I popped them and put bandages on, if felt much better.

Nicholas, however, had had enough.  He was exhausted from not sleeping due to the angle of the tent, the hiking, the working, and the emotional anxiety of having to be near a boy who wanted to do nothing but cause trouble and shock others as much as possible.  So he packed up his stuff and headed home.  I was just glad he stuck it out the whole two days, to be honest.  That kid was seriously a negative influence.  So bad, that he ended up going home the next morning.  Which made me sad for Nick because maybe he would have liked camp better without him there, but the damage was already done.

At dinner, someone must have given a signal, although I didn’t see it, because all of a sudden everyone burst singing “Happy Birthday” to me.  It was awesome!  I love that kind of thing and felt so touched that these kids would go along even though some of them didn’t even know me.

The second and third days were much better, as we got driven up part of the way, the poor girl with height issues got to do something else, and we didn’t have to carry up the tools.  It was still hard work, we were still exhausted by the end, but we also had lots of fun laughing, talking and being silly.  I got to know some of the girls in the stake very well, and I liked every single one of them.

In the evenings, I would work on the quilt for Johnny, my friend Mary’s son.  They would all gather around and chat with me while I stitched.  The other favorite past time is what I dubbed “stump Amy time”.  It was shockingly easy.  These cute little 12-13 year olds would tell me riddles, and laugh hysterically as I only figured out about 2 of probably 15 that they told to me.  I am just not good with that sort of thing, at all.

I also had fun hanging out with the kitchen staff. There were a couple of nights where we sat outside after everyone had gone to sleep, munching on whatever leftovers of dessert there were, and chatting.  Super nice ladies, and one hysterical young man.  I would go camping again with them anytime.

After dinner, there were always dishes to be washed.  Whichever kids didn’t want to sing in the choir were assigned washing up duties, and I would go down and help them.  It was purely selfish, as it was the only place that had music! 🙂  We would wash and sing and dance and have a great old time. Soon a little game developed, where I would wash the silverware and just toss it into the rinsing sink, without looking where it landed.  Sometimes I hit a target, sometimes not.  But it made them pull out the silverware to dry it a lot faster. bwahahaha!

The last night, I was in the middle of playing a card game with some of the girls, and missed the kids being sent down to wash.  Well, a few minutes later Conchita came over to me and said I had been requested down in the kitchen.  One of the boys asked specifically, “Where is Amy?  Can she come help?  It’s so much more fun when she is here.”  Aw, they like me.  They really like me. (Of course, I immediately got up and ran down to the kitchen to help.)

Saturday morning, everyone took the train down to Brienz.  Then they got on another train to go to Interlaken for the day.  I waved goodbye and got on another train to go home.   We were leaving for Austria on Monday morning and I knew I would have a ton of laundry and packing to do before we left.  I wanted to avoid doing it all on Sunday if possible.  It was a great, though tiring, experience and I hope I will be able to attend other camps in the future.  Just maybe not ones where we work quite so much. 🙂

When I arrived in Affoltern, everyone came to pick me up at the train station.  They were super happy to see me, and I was super happy to see them.  I walked in the door and this is what I found waiting for me.  Gorgeous, beautiful birthday/welcome home flowers.  Aw, so sweet!   Thank you, Chris!

Noah’s teacher, Frau Nicollier, has grown up before our eyes.  She started out as an apprentice teacher, finishing up her degree, with Nicholas’ class when he was in second grade.  Then she became back as a full fledged teacher to replace Herr Rutsche, and was Sarah’s 1-3 grade teacher.  During that time, she moved out of her parents’ home and into her very own apartment.  Towards the very end, she met Christian, or “Chrigi” as the kids call him.

Now they are ready to get married.  The civil ceremony took place on the very last day of school.  (No, she didn’t teach that day, or the day before.)  It was arranged that the children would go see her after the ceremony and give her a present.  Many rode the train in, but that is just too cost prohibitive for me and my little group, so we drove in.  We arrived just a few minutes after the scheduled meeting time and saw no one.  Chris had gone down earlier and was waiting for us, and he said no one had been there and left, so we figured they were running late.  It is a beautiful old building right on the lake and the kids loved watched all the brides go in and out of the building.

It was a warm day, so they ran over to the nearby fountain to get a drink while we waited. Finally, I got a little concerned that we had gotten the time wrong or something, because it isn’t typical Swiss to be so late.  We went inside to inquire when the wedding was, and found out that we had the right time, wrong location!  Ugh!  Why do I always do stuff like this?

The new location was in a spot that I knew would not have good parking, and was pretty close, so we decided to go by foot.  The kids were awesome, even little Alexandra and we actually made it there just after the festivities had started.  Whew! She looked so gorgeous!  What lucky kids I have to be taught by such a wonderful, beautiful lady both outside and in.  She is so kind and patient, and really knows how to encourage the kids to do their best.

The guy in the suit is Chrigi.   There were too many people and I couldn’t get a better picture of him.  The book she is holding in her hand is the book of well wishes the kids made for them both.  Each child designed a page  and then one of the mothers had it professionally bound.  It was a cute idea, and the execution was gorgeous.  She took the time to speak to each child individually, which I thought was amazing considering how many of them there were, and thanked them all for coming.

I was so happy we had made it for all the kids, but especially for Sarah.  She loved Frau Nicollier and even gave up part of a birthday party she was invited to, to come to the wedding.  She would have been crushed if we had missed the whole thing. It was kind of funny, the last week of school, their teacher kept reminding the kids that after summer vacation they would have a new teacher, Frau Wolfer.  Frau Nicollier wouldn’t exist anymore. They are even having the theme of Wolves for this beginning quarter to help the kids remember her new name. 🙂

Then we were invited inside to the restaurant where the family was eating to have drinks before we left.This was especially welcome news to my kids, who had just dashed across half of old Zurich!

As we were leaving, the kids insisted I take a photo of this crazy candle stick covered in wax.

As we were walking back along the river to the car, I told the kids I was going to run ahead.  They are pretty strict about parking in downtown and I was past the time.  I handed them the camera and went to the car.  No ticket!  Double whew!  The kids came along a few minutes later, laughing and smiling.  They had had quite a lot of fun, looking at things and taking silly pictures without me.

Every once in a while I see a photo like this and I am filled with amazement and happiness that my children get to grow up in this beautiful place.  That they are surrounded by culture, history and beauty as a matter of course. Walk along the famous Limmat, on hundred year old cobblestones, surrounded by two hundred year old buildings?  Sure, no problem.Okay, those tiles are actually not all that old, but the iron railing probably is. 🙂

Usually Noah prefers to have his party on his birthday, regardless of what kids can come, since it is during summer vacation.  In the past I have accommodated him and it has always worked out.  But this year we had to change plans since his two very good friends were moving to the States as soon as school got out.  We wanted to have at one more last bash with them.  It wouldn’t have been a happy birthday without their silliness.We miss you so much, Tim and Ben!

He is really into Lego these days, and so it was pretty much a no-brainer that he would have a Lego party this year.  Especially after I found so much cute stuff on the internet.  Of course, the easiest thing would have been to take everyone to the nearest Lego store, paid them money, and let them do it all.  So jealous of those who have that option available.

Anyway, I made up some cute invitations that looked like Lego blocks.  They were green, since that is Noah’s favorite color.  And no, I can’t seem to find a pic of them anywhere.  The older kids were a huge help in getting things ready for this party, most especially Nicholas.  I really appreciate all the work they do, happily, for their siblings when it’s their party time.  I know part of it is they realize that they will get the favor returned when it’s their turn for a party.  And part of it is just because they are awesome!

Nicholas made this fun sign that we had up for the entire party. And several of them helped to build this cool serving bowl just for the party.  (Don’t worry I washed the Legos first.)

There were also a Lego themed birthday banner.  Originally, I wanted to wrap boxes in colored paper, suspend them with fishing line from the ceiling and have hanging Legos.  But I ran out of time.  And no one missed them since they only existed in my head. 🙂  And there were certainly plenty of actual Legos lying around to provide the perfect ambiance.

I had gotten several fun ideas for party games off the Internet, including some right from the official Lego site.  However, they all required mass quantities of Lego.  And I couldn’t easily buy them off of Ebay for a song, because again, I live in the wrong part of the world.  BUT we do have an awesome second hand store in the next town over, and so I went and asked her several months in advance to please let me know when she got in loose Lego so I could buy it all off of her.  She happily obliged, and I was able to pick up a huge plastic bag full of lots of different pieces, plus several mini-figures, for a reasonable price.

Nicholas divided them up by color into several bowls which we placed on the table for all the games.  I passed out cards with the name of an object, that the kids then had to build using the available Lego.  They had originally 5 minutes, but we ended up letting them have 10 because no one was finished.   Some of the objects were; a robot, a house, a dog, a chair, etc.  Then they put their creations on the table next to the paper that said what it was supposed to be.  We all walked around and decided which one we thought was the best.  That kid got a prize of his choice of a mini-figure.  They all felt like winners though when I announced that they could take their creations home with them to keep forever.  I handed out the Lego treat bags that I had picked up at Legoland the week before, and they all put them inside.  They had tags with their names on them, so no mix ups!

We also played a game where we used two long Legos connected with a rubber band to make chopsticks.  You used the Lego chopsticks to pick up other Lego pieces.  Each kid had a minute to see how many they could pick up and put into a bowl.  Again, the winner got his/her choice of mini-figure.

Then everyone got to choose two mini-figures to take home and they could use one for the Lego obstacle course.  (I told you, I was able to buy a crazy amount of Lego.)  The girls had helped me set it up.  I provided them with a few ideas, and they did the rest.  The kids had to make their mini-figure do the obstacle course, and it was hilarious watching them.

First they rode down the inside of a long wrapping paper tube, then they had to sit in a little boat while the child blew on the sail to carry them across the “lake”. We had to reconstruct the sail after the first attempt proved to be utterly inadequate.  But after that it worked great! Then they had to put the Lego man on a spoon and carry him across the room ,without dropping him, to the mini-trampoline.  They had to set him on the trampoline and bang with their hands until he had completed three jumps.  Then the best bit, they had to climb on the mattress and ride down the stairs with their guy. This is a favorite past time of all Noah’s friends that come to play , so I knew it definitely needed to be included in the party.  Most stairs in Swiss apartments/houses aren’t conducive to such a thing as they are spiral and way too narrow.  But ours just scream out to be slid down.

From there the mini-figures hopped on a wooden train and rode the tracks down the hallway to another kind of track.  This one had a little Lego car their mini-figure had to get in and ride to the end.Then the final obstacle, the zip line!It was so fun watching the little guys slide down.  Many children wanted to do it more than once.

While the girls supervised the kids during the obstacle course, I was in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on the cake.  I baked several cakes in my mini-loaf pan and then cut them to be more or less rectangle in shape.  I had several different colors of icing and two large bags of Smarties so I would have enough of the correct matching colors.  Noah loved it, as did the kids, and I thought it turned out pretty cute as well.Smiles like this are exactly what I like to see at a party.  What a sweetie. I had bought red contact paper to make large circles to cut out and put on the table to make it look like a giant Lego, but again, it ended up being unnecessary as the table was usually full of real Lego as it was.  The cute green cups and plates came from Ikea, and my awesome helper lives near there as well. 🙂Her daughter is the one with the cute red headband, and since it is a bit of a drive, she offered to stay and be a second set of hands.  It was wonderful!  She helped pour drinks, pass out cake, clean up messes and gave me a grown up to chat with when the kids were otherwise occupied.  Thank you, Cathy!

Oh, the drinks.  That was the best part!  While at Legoland the first time, Chris had bought a Lego block mold.  I used it to make lots of red ice cubes flavored with sirup, a Swiss version of Koolaid, kind of.  It is a fruit based thick liquid that you add a bit of water to to make it less concentrated and drinkable.  When added to the Sprite it not only made it a pretty color, it tasted great as well.  The kids loved the Lego ice cubes and kept asking for more and more of them.  Good thing I had made a big bag full!

After cake we opened presents, using a pencil to spin around to determine who would open what.  We tried to use a Lego piece, but it didn’t spin very well. He ended up with a very nice pile of loot, indeed.  I am always amazed by the generosity of friends to my children.  And I definitely try to repay it back at their own parties.

Afterwards I had everyone come back to the table for some more Lego building.  I had set out even more Lego pieces and wheels as well.  Everyone got several minutes to build a Lego car that we then raced.  I had seen very cool race tracks built by creative dads with access to cheap plywood and large garages in which to work.  But I didn’t have any of that, so we just put some masking tape on the floor for the starting line and had them push their cars as hard as they could to get them going.  Whoever went the farther won that heat.  Some were very quick, but stopped after a short distance, others were slower and some just spun in circles.

We had several different races and then I told the kids they could all take home their cars as well.  This inspired a few of them to quickly want to go add more to their cars.  We had so much Lego I told them to go right ahead.

Thanks again, second hand store!

The kids were pretty riled up by now, what with all the sugar racing through their veins and the excitement of a high speed chase, so I had them come back to the table for one last quiet game.  We gathered up all the Lego pieces that were spread out over the table into little piles in front of each child.  Then I handed them all straws and let them see how many pieces of Lego they could pick up using the suction from the straw and move into an empty bowl.  They weren’t allowed to use their hands, just the straw and the suction they created with their own mouths.  It was harder than they thought and got them all taking deep breaths and not wasting any air talking.  Evil genius I am! 🙂

Just before they went home, I passed out the treats.  I thought about doing a Lego pinato, talk about easy design!, but Noah wasn’t too keen on the idea.  So we passed and just made treat bags instead.  There were chocolate covered marshmallows that were supposed to be mini-figure heads.  They weren’t as great as the photos I was trying to copy, but the kids loved them. Also, using the same Lego block mold, I had made lots of chocolate Legos.  They looked so great, and were so easy!

My friend Julie had gone to the States at the end of June and very kindly imported several treats for me;Jelly Belly’s and a frog mold for Sarah’s party, miniature stuffed animals for Sophie’s party, and these cool Lego candies for Noah’s party.   You could actually stack them and build things with them!  The kids were blown away. Happy birthday, Noah.  Thanks for letting me throw you such a fun party. 🙂