2nd week in Switzerland

We had great weather most of the week so we enjoyed the outdoors. Alana and Addy love to walk outside and pick the wild flowers around our house. We have a fresh cup of flowers in the center of our table. It is so green here! All the snow from the tips of the mountains has melted now. We go on a mountain hike every day, it’s great exercise and beautiful. I would have a summer home here if I could afford it! It’s so peaceful and quiet up on the mountain, much nicer than the busy city life.
We took the gondola ride to the top of the mountain and the kids played at the playground and we hiked down. It’s a bit easier to hike down than up. The cows, goats, and sheep around here wear big bells around their neck so you can hear their bells ringing from far away. A playground is good motivation to get the girls to hike up the hill. They are willing to hike if they know there is a fun playground at the top.
We had our weekend all planned out but when we woke up Saturday morning we were in a thick fog. We couldn’t see very far so Brett had to slow way down on our drive. We drove through several mountain passes but couldn’t see the beautiful scenery. It was pretty intense driving on steep, narrow mountainous roads. It started to clear up a bit by the afternoon so that we could see a little scenery. We drove down to Zermatt which took about 4 hrs to get there. Zermatt sits directly below the Matterhorn, a peak of 14,688 ft. This town is car free so we had to park our car in Tasch, 3 miles down the valley and take the shuttle train. We had planned to take a cog wheel mountain railroad to the top for the best view of the Matterhorn, but decided not to because of the thick clouds. We couldn’t see the top of the Matterhorn because it was covered in clouds. So we walked around the little resort town. I love the wood cabins here with the bright flowers in all the windows. When we left Zermatt, we had to drive another 2 hrs to our hotel in Lausanne. This town is right on the huge Lake Geneva. We toured the city that evening and then found some food- we had a giant family size pizza - yummy! ($40US for a large pizza!)
On Sunday we drove over to Geneva a big city at the end of Lake Geneva. We saw the Jet d’Eau fountain in the Geneva harbor (one of the world’s largest fountains). We drove around the lake, half of which is in France. The weather was nicer with more sunshine. We enjoyed the scenic drive through the mountains. We stopped for dinner in a beautiful little town near Interlaken, right on the lake. The lake was surrounded by mountains and it was peaceful and quiet. We ate outside on the lake, I would say this was just as beautiful as Luzern and less touristy.
Now I am planning our trip to Germany. We will be leaving Switzerland on Thursday and staying in Munich for about 10 days before heading to Italy.
The kids are all doing great, they are good travelers. They adjust to new places very easily because we try to keep up the same routines and schedules (at least during the week). Alana is at the age where she is asking hundreds of questions a day, she is always learning. Addy is learning and growing every day, she also loves to play outside and do everything Alana is doing. She gets very excited about playgrounds, they have trampolines at the playground here and she loves that! Allden is crawling around and pulling himself up on everything. He gets into everything! He loves to swing and go down the slide at the park. He is almost 1 yr old! Time flies when you're having fun!