Rhinefalls Switzerland

On one of our days in the Black Forest, we took a detour and drove to Switzerland to see the Rhine Falls. It was rainy again that day, but we forged on and found out, we would have gotten wet anyway.
If you look closely at the next picture, you can see a rock formation in the middle of the falls.
You can take a boat ride that will drop you off at this rock, along with a million other people, so that you can squeeze your way up to the top. It is a great view, having the falls on all sides. Here is Mark with McKenna making their way up:
This was part of the views from the top of the rock:
We took 3 different boat rides, one to the rock, another to the opposite side of the river to tour the castle, and then the last ride was a look down the river away from the falls.
These are what the boats look like:
On a side note (and I hesitate to even mention it because it reveals how massively cheap I am), here was our lunch in Switzerland, 3 butter pretzels and 2 Diet Cokes. I even resorted to letting my children drink Diet Coke because I refused to buy water at the price of gold. Totally my bad, I left our food in the car thinking that this would be a 1/2 day experience instead of a full day. Wanna know how much that was? After exchanging first from euro into Swiss francs, then adjusting for the crappy US dollar to euro exchange rate, it came to a whopping $22. What the?! Switzerland will make your wallet bleed green! Is it because they are neutral that they get away with it?? I'll not be bitter.
Plus, I have never met more rude smokers in my life. Standing in line to buy food on the outside of the door, puffing away and blowing it INTO the store. Yep, that actually happened.

I enjoyed seeing the falls, but this was not my favorite day of travel. First, it was super expensive and second, my mom has seen Niagara Falls. Bit of a let down. I wouldn't recommend this unless you happen to be driving through on your way to something more grand. But then again, we were in Switzerland, it is not like I can complain about THAT!

Lucerne Switzerland

While Mark was on tour on an island off the coast of Portugal, the girls got restless. So we hopped a bus tour and spent the day in Lucerne Switzerland.

We started out at the famous monument Lowendenkmal, the Lion Monument. This monument was designed and built to commemorate the hundreds of Swiss Guards who were killed in 1792 during the French Revolution. What is interesting is that the soldiers were mercenaries, hired to fight and protect the French leaders. At the time, this was one of the only ways a young man could support his family. Everyone wanted to hire them because they were know to be fiercely loyal, unlike the Russian mercenaries of the time. They would sway in a war and run to the winning side. No wonder the Swiss remain neutral with a history like that, their men were dying to defend other countries.
The lion is actually in the process of dying, with a spear impaled in his back, you can see from this photo the emotion the artist was able to bring out of the rock.
The most famous landmark of Lucerne is the Kapellbrucke, or Chapel Bridge. The first picture above is a shot of this bridge. The bridge was originally built in 1333 but had to be replaced in 1993 after a fire. The river cutting through the middle of the city is the Reuss River.
We were able to enjoy a market day in Lucerne. These are some of the booths and the goodies they were selling:
I have no idea what is in this bowl, but it looks like a pile of funky sealife.
Both my mom and I regret not pricing these babies! That would be such a cool piece of decor!
We were also able to see inside the beautiful Jesuit Church. It is a baroque church so it is light and breezy and full of natural light. I love baroque style churches and would choose them over a dark creepy Gothic cathedral any day of the week.
We found out there was a wedding schedule at this church in the afternoon, hence the decorated chairs.
Next we toured another famous bridge, the Spreuerbrucke or Mill Bridge. Built in 1408. This bridge is funky. All along the bridge are 17th Century plague paintings titled Dance of Death. The skeletons are in every painting and are there to remind us that everyone is at the mercy of Death.
But I could totally tolerate all these creepy painting if I get to attend church in a red chapel in the middle of the bridge!! It is so small you can't really fit more than one person in it. Maybe they thought if they covered the bridge with reminders of death, the chapel would be there to provided some sort of comfort? pull to repentance? I really don't know what, but what I do know is only one person can fit in there at once!
This picture was taken in the town square, it is the facade of a building. The next picture is of the clock tower.
After our tour we were cut loose to eat lunch and have free time. The price of items in Switzerland is shockingly high. Our little cafe lunch which consisted of 2 salads, 4 drinks, 2 baguette sandwiches and one pastry cost us about $100 once we converted currency. I about choked on it.

We burned off lunch by climbing the wall tower.

At the top!
At the end of the day, we took a boat ride. After drinks were passed out, the captain invited anyone who wanted to come drive the boat. Of course my girls didn't hesitate:
By this time the girls were spent. We had caught our bus at 4:00 am and they were hitting their brick wall. We tried to entertain them:
But in the end, this was the result:

Just one last photo to share. This is a sign in the women's bathroom of the Swiss watch store. Why is it the only languages they need to translate are English, Japanese and Chinese?? Why don't the French, Italians and Germans need to know that they need to sit down and put the paper in the pot?? I would be offended but I'm laughing too hard.

And last but not least, I included this picture just because I love it!