A weekend for relaxing!

My amazing husband has been such a good sport about traveling every weekend while I'm here. Traveling can be exhausting! No problem for me- since I'm home every day, but he's working long hours every day! Friday evening rolls around and instead of sitting back and relaxing, we hit the road! That can be exhausting for a couple of homebodies like us! So I planned this weekend to relax. We went to Lake Constance, Switzerland, which is right on the border of Germany and Switzerland. We splurged for a fancy hotel and made an appointment for a couple of massages. It was wonderful! Saturday morning, we walked to town and rented a couple of bikes. (Switzerland is very proud of their bikes; it cost a fortune!!)

We road along the lake through four small towns before stopping for lunch.

"Honey? Why is there a piano in the middle of the lake?!"
Hmmm...one of these things is not like the other... :)

It was a beautiful, warm afternoon with amazing views! I'd forgotten how much fun it is to ride a bike! JC's trying to get me to agree to buy bikes when we move. I'm seriously considering it! We had a blast! We road 16 miles round trip and had fun doing it!

~Cute town where we stopped for lunch~

After our bike ride, we went back to the hotel and each had a massage. It was amazing! She knew right where the knots were and went to town on them! Then we took a nice, long nap before going back to town. We hung out by the lake and JC quizzed me on my German.

Quite by coincidence, we were in Switzerland on their national holiday! It was their 702nd birthday! (Can you imagine?!) There were tons of locals at the lake in boats and having picnics. Everyone was getting ready for the firework display that night. (Does every country celebrate its birthday with fireworks?)

We'd planned on attending Saturday night Mass so we could sleep in on Sunday, but alas...there was confusion about the times and we showed up at the wrong Church. Oh well... We prayed the Rosary, then headed back to get ready for our fancy dinner.

On the way to the car we saw this. We both started laughing but for different reasons. I was laughing at the sheer size difference of these cars. The one on the left is a SMALL car. So the one on the right? Flintstone size!! JC was laughing because of the 30 sticker on the back. A circle with a red outline and a number is the speed limit sign. He explained to me that when it's on a vehicle, it's that vehicle's personal speed limit! So buses can't go over 100 km/hr. This car can't go more than 30 km/hr! That's about 18 miles per hour!!!! Oh my!!!

We stopped at a convenience store and literally bought them out of Callier milk chocolate. YUM! (You can only get it in Switzerland!) I call this picture "HAPPINESS". :)

~Parkhotel Waldau~

Rorschach, Switzerland

I love the doorways!

A bathtub!!!!! YEA!!!!

The view out our window!

Our hotel was hosting a fancy dinner. They are the best restaurant in town, according to three sources, so we decided to make a reservation. They promised live music, food, and fireworks. This was the "live music." Are you kidding me? :) Early in the evening, a man and a woman dressed in black with red suspenders appeared and started asking people to dance. They are TAXI DANCERS!!! The hotel hired them to get the party started!! :) I hoped and JC feared they'd come to our table, but alas, they never did. I can't wait to take dancing lessons with JC when we move. I love dancing!!!

Dinner was good. It was very good. But it was not out of this world amazing- which is what it cost! It was by far the most expensive meal we've ever had, but it was slow and relaxing and we had a good time.

The altar of the church

Mural on ceiling

Organ

Chocolate and Cheese Train!!

Way too soon after going to sleep my alarm went off! My sweet husband got up with me and called me a taxi. There was some stress about the taxi not coming on time and me trying to cal the cab company and explain where exactly I am (like I know!) in German. But I made it to the bus on time! As soon as we started moving, I fell back asleep. When we stopped for breakfast, this was the view out my window.

They had a cow exhibit outside the restaurant.

How much do I love the chocolate train!!!Don't you just want to live here? This is a typical house in Gruyere, Switzerland. They speak French in this part of Switzerland (SW), so it was fun to practice that!It's true! Happy cows do make better cheese!

1. The cow eats 100 kg of grass and drinks 75 liters of water daily, creating about 25 liters of milk a day. (~220 pounds of grass and 16 gallons of water)

2. It takes 400 liters of milk to make one 35 kg round of Gruyere cheese.

3. This pan, holding 4,800 liters of milk, creates twelve rounds of Gruyere cheese. They make four batches daily.

4. 5.7 million liters of milk are processed every year in Gruyere! 2/3 is consumed in Switzerland and the other 1/3 exported to Europe and North America.

The outside of Gruyere's town

The town of Gruyere...

I'm standing on a balcony in the castle, looking down over the courtyard.

A pianoforte from 1835!

A sun dial from 1559~

The symbol of Gruyere- a white crane amidst a red backdrop... When explorers found this area, the sun was setting as a crane flew across the sky. They decided to stay!

The chocolate part of our tour! We went to a Nestle/Cailler factory. They're owned by the same corporation, but Caillers uses regional condensed milk and Nestle uses powdered. Caillers was unbelievably good. They do not export it out of Switzerland.

Trays and trays and TRAYS of chocolate!!! I would have paid good money for a glass of milk. After a while it was just too much! You couldn't possibly try it all! (But I had fun trying!)

Mixing up the chocolate!

This machine turns the powder into a paste while refining the taste and smoothness.

Don't worry- I bought more than just one!

I tried (in vain) to capture the beauty of the train and bus ride. Somehow scenery pictures are never as amazing as the real thing. It was an incredibly beautiful trip.