Zurich City

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There is no better way to find out about a new city than with a walking tour.  Zurich is a small city with only 400, 000 inhabitants, a beautiful lake and river and a lovely city center.

It was surprising to learn about the woman of Zurich.  At some time in the 18^th Century all the men had left Zurich to fight, however Zurich become vulnerable to attack.  The woman dressed in men’s armour and lined the river bank, the enemy believed they had the wrong information and thought the city was heavily guarded and left without invading or attacking.  Other than this the woman of Switzerland were actually very suppressed, woman only got the vote in 1971.

Zurich has 1224 water fountains that Leo and Corban were very happy to drink from and play with along the tour.

After the tour we headed home to pick up the bikes and spent the afternoon biking along the lake.  Corban did really well biking on her own while Leo had a comfortable seat on the back of the bike. 

Home Exchange Zurich

We have a fantastic home exchange in Zurich.  Our apartment is located 4km from the city and is on the lake, we look out the window at the lake and rowing club.  Like always the kids are happy with new toys to play with, bikes to ride and trampoline. 

Our home exchange family welcomed us to Switzerland with a Swiss Fondue meal and Swiss wine.  It was very strong tasting, but we loved it and enjoyed dipping into the hot creamy cheese.

Liechtenstein

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Easter holidays are here and we are heading to Switzerland!  We decided to go through Liechtenstein on the way, so we could tick off another small European country. We have now been to Europe’s four smallest countries: Vatican City, Monaco, San Marino and Liechtenstein!

Unfortunately Liechtenstein didn’t turn on the weather or the charm, unlike the other small countries it doesn’t have very much to offer.  The Prince of Liechtenstein in the wealthiest man in Europe and his country reflects his wealth!   He even lives in the castle on the hill, meaning it is one of a few working castles.   

Everything is pristine, modern and well groomed.  It has lots of banks and after a little research we discovered that Liechtenstein is one of the world’s leading destinations for money launderers.  We were actually making jokes about this as we walked around, and were not surprised when we read about it online.

We brought some incredibly over priced souvenirs, the kids begged us to get back in the car and keep moving towards Zurich, we happily obliged.   

Kids Will Be Kids!

Corban got some glasses from McDonalds, it made it very hard to concentrate on our game of battle ships. Man bag vs handbag, yep Leo likes to carry his cars and dinosaurs with Corban's little black bag.  Very practical of him!

School Ski Trip

 

My most favourite school trip, which has now also become Allan's favourite school trip as well! The weather was perfect and Allan and I both had nice groups of kids that were good at skiing.  This year I skied for two days with the older children and Allan skied for 1 day with the younger kids.  Unfortunately no photo of Allan on the slopes, just one on the bus heading back to school. 

Book Group

For the past two years I have been attending a book group once a month where we have read and discussed some fantastic and not so good books.  

Each month we take turns hosting, this month Helena (cut off face on right) showed us how to cook traditional Swedish food.  We cooked our meats and vegetable on the hot plate while our cheese melted below.  Everything is put in a bowl with potato and bread, the melted cheese is then poured over the top; it's delicious and fun to make. 

Can't wait to borrow the hotplate and have a go with Allan and the kids.    

Climbing Door Frames

All kids love climbing door frames. 

Some climb them like this.

And others climb them like ... Spiderman!

BMW Factory & Krone Circus

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A trip to the BMW factory and museum were a must do while in Munich.  We had an early morning start at the BMW factory joining the first tour of the day.  The tour began with a short movie about BMW before heading into the factory. 

The factory was amazing; it produces 950 BMW’s per day to order!  Each stage of the production is fascinating; we saw the tools/moulds used to create the body of the cars, assembling the 3 layers of the body, painting, seats being made, electronics being fitted, motors and the final assembly. 

There were thousands of robots and the accuracy of the robots was astounding for example they place parts with a 0.04mm accuracy/tolerance.  Alongside the robots there are 7500 staff working in the factory.  The precision, detail and order of the factory is outstanding.   

We were not allowed to take photo’s or video, in fact you are not even allowed your mobile phone and there is video surveillance everywhere to make sure you are doing the right thing.

After some lunch we headed across the road to the BMW museum.  The museum holds 400 BMW’s from it’s just over 90 year old collection.

Another place we visited while in Munich was the Krone Circus.  The Krone Circus is 4 generations old and is probably the best circus we have been to.  Once again no photos allowed, we took a couple before the actual circus started. 

The circus had lots of amazing acts like trapeze artists, balancing acts, clowns, Asian dancers/strongmen/gymnastic type routines, horses and dogs.  They are also famous for their lion show.  The lion tamer had 24 lions and tigers, we felt a bit sorry for them although most of them had been born at the circus and hand reared by the tamer.

The weather has warmed up as the week has gone by, once again we have enjoyed another holiday and home exchange.  Off to Switzerland in 5 weeks!         

Neuschwanstein Castle

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A day trip to Neuschwanstein was a must do on our visit to Munich.  The drive through the countryside and mountains was absolutely stunning.  The castle itself is nestled in the mountains over looking a small village, Hohenschwangau castle and lake Alpsee.  Before heading to the castle we walked on the frozen lake and around the village.    

Neuschwanstein Castle is a relatively new castle in Europe built in the 19^th century, King Lugwig II of Bavaria built the castle with his own fortune and personal borrowing.  Only 1/3 of the castle was completed due to the death of the king and was opened for public viewing only 6 weeks after his death.

The castle was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s ‘Sleeping Beauty Castle’ and has been in many movies.  Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos on the inside; it was beautifully decorated. Corban liked the throne room and Leo liked the Kings bedroom.  One of the rooms had over 100 swans carved or painted; it even had swan door handles because swans were the kings favourite animal.  In English Neuschwanstein means New Swanstone Castle.      

We finished our day with a play in the snow and a walk up the road to take a photo of a white chapel in the snow.