Hoogeveen Vacation - June 13

HAPPY 30th ANNIVERSARY to my parents! Without their marriage and love, I would not be currently writing you this blog post. My mom and dad are amazing parents who have sacrificed a lot for their children because of their amazing commitment and love for our family. I think they have both been great role-models for us and will continue to do so for their grandchildren. Thanks for being so great Mom and Dad!

Mom and Dad on their 30th anniversary :)

We spent the morning relaxing and getting a few things done, like laundry. The afternoon was more excited because we went to the Zurich Zoo! Andy and I have never been there, although it's been on the list of things to do for a while. And more importantly, this was Carsten's first time at a zoo, although, I think at times, he felt a bit like he was in a cage too for a couple of reasons: 1) we put him in his stroller and let him cry until he took a nap (yes, I was that parent pushing that poor crying baby), 2) after his nap we put him in our kangakid backpack, and 3) it started to rain, so we put a raincover on the backpack that kept him dry, which he tolerated but did not like. Even though we walked around in a downpour for the last part of the zoo, we still had fun. Here's a few photos from the zoo:

llamaface!

This bird was imitating me - pretty funny :)

Siblings and baby!

He really enjoyed getting to touch different plants.

Raincover 1: only covered his torso.

Raincover 2: covered the entire backpack and baby :).

Happy baby!

A bit soggy...

Enjoying the scenery :).

We went home and had some supper, and then after Carsten went to bed Ashley and Luke manned the fort while Mom, Dad, Andy, and I went out for dessert for our anniversaries. The desserts were pretty good except for Dad's, which was some lemon-lime liquor-ice cream thing. We took a couple of photos of our double date:

We had a great day and enjoyed Mom and Dad's anniversary. Thanks for celebrating it in Switzerland!

Hoogeveen Vacation - June 12

We woke up around 7 and got everyone going so we could catch a train. We had a long day of train rides ahead since we wanted to go via Montreaux (on Lake Geneva in SW Switzerland) to see the Castle Chillon. The Castle is reported to be very popular and my friend Corrie said she loved it (and she's seen a lot of Europe so that's a rave review :) ). It was a beautiful day and was less cloudy than the previous day, so we got a glimpse of the Matterhorn as we were riding the train from Zermatt. Carsten did pretty well on the train, and here's a few photos of our us on the train, and I should add that Carsten has been making a lot of faces lately, especially when we try to take pictures of him:

funny face :)

very cute :)

 We made it to the Castle Chillon around lunch, so we had our lunch just outside the castle and admired the beautiful scenery. The Castle is built on an old island in the lake, so it's really in a beautiful location with the lake and mountains behind it. Here's pictures of us in the castle:

Ashley made a new friend :)

Andy did not approve as he seemed a bit hard-headed so he fought him!

I think they must have been shorter back in the day... Andy rarely fit through doorways and in this case, the room :).

beautiful

amazing

I took this one, and I love it :)

All of us at the castle!

haha....

He fits!

We really enjoyed the castle, and even thought it was a bit out of the way to go there, I'm so glad we got to stop! On our way home, Andy, Carsten, and I continued on home ahead of the rest of the group so we could get home in time for Carsten's bedtime. We left everyone else in Lausanne to go see a beautiful cathedral, and they joined us about an hour later at home after Carsten was in bed. To those of you who come to Switzerland and who make it to the SW side,  you simply must see Castle Chillon. It was definitely one of my favorite things we've done so far in Europe. And it was perfect to have my whole family there - thanks for coming everyone! :)

Hoogeveen Vacation - June 11

Zermatt! We were hoping for a few things in Zermatt: 1) views of the Matterhorn; 2) taking the cograils or gondolas up to see glaciers and do some hiking; and 3) enjoy the town by eating good food, namely pastries and chocolate. The good news: most of us got to enjoy all of these things except the Matterhorn which was typically shrouded in mystery. The bad news: Carsten was too young to go up any higher than Zermatt due to an increased risk of elevation sickness. We did not know this when we originally planned our trip, and thankfully, the ticket booth folks let us know. So my mom, Carsten, and I spent the day in Zermatt while the rest of the crew got to take a cograil up the mountain to see some glaciers and occasionally mountains, and then they did a bit of hiking down the mountain. It was a pretty cloudy day, so mountain sightings were rare unfortunately. Here's what the view of up top looked like:

glacier meltwater is so pretty!

pretty interesting sign :)

love this!

Andy!

We all found ourselves back in Zermatt for the afternoon where we got to try crepes, and spent quite some time searching for a restaurant. Since we were close to Italy, we wanted pasta. We found a good and appropriately priced (still amazing to me!) restaurant where the only bad food was mine. The seafood pasta had a bit more interesting seafood than I wanted (I was thinking shrimp and I got octopus). Carsten was having a rough meal, so Dad graciously finished feeding him and took him outside so the rest of us could enjoy our meal. Thanks Dad!

Crepes! YUM.

Swiss Andy Huisman?

Father-Son time :)

I should mention that Mom and I were given the chance to head up the mountain later in the afternoon without Carsten, but by the time we reached the transport up they weren't sending anything up anymore, so we called it a day. Sad part was the ticket lady still remembered us from this morning and I think she did feel bad giving us the news that we couldn't go up twice in one day... :)

We stayed in Zermatt again that night and at this point I should mention that Carsten no longer seems to sleep well in his travel bed. It's sort of a tent pop-up bed and I think the problem is that it rustles when he moves, which causes him to wake up. Needless to say I lost about 2 hrs of sleep from 1-3 am each night and Andy lost a little less, but we were both feeling a bit groggy when it was time to get up in the mornings :). My parents brought along our pack 'n play at our request, so now we have another travel bed as an option for later trips. Thanks Mom and Dad!

All in all, I think we all had fun in Zermatt and enjoyed the Alps. We could have wished for a bit clearer weather, but the company was great so that more than made up for it :).

Hoogeveen Vacation - June 10

In order to spend some time with Andy, and to take a fun trip, we planned to take the Glacier Express, which is admittedly the slowest express train in the world :). It goes from SE Switzerland to SW Switzerland where it ends at Zermatt (~5 hrs where we started), which has views of the Matterhorn (on a clear day anyway). We had 6 seats together, and the seats were not only facing each other, but had tables as well. The train cars also had nice big beautiful windows, so we got better views than a regular train car! We had gotten up pretty early to make the 11:30 am train from SE Switzerland, so we traveled about 7 hours on the train that day. Carsten did pretty well, although I will admit that at times I was frustrated with him (like when he wouldn't go to sleep immediately like I wanted him to - silly me :) ). Here's a view of our train:

And here's some photos from the train ride of us and of the scenery:

It wasn't as cold as we were fearing in Zermatt, so that was quite nice. Also, our hotel was right next to the train station making it both easy to find and convenient. The hotel was quite nice and included a sweet basement with a large kitchen (for cooking your own food), dining area, lounge, and laundry. I'm not sure if this is standard with a lot of Swiss hotels, but if it is, I'm in! Once we got settled in, we walked around the quaint town and found a restaurant which was recommended for its fondue. The fondue was GREAT and we demolished 4 pots just fine :). We tried regular, gorgonzola, mushroom, and pear (regular fondue with pears to dip in) where the main thing to dip was bread and potatoes. We also tried raclette which is an appetizer dish containing a melted slab of cheese with pickles and potatoes to eat with the cheese. All in all, our experience with fondue was great, and what we found even more exciting is that living in Zurich makes all other places (even in Switzerland) seem cheap. As in, 'the fondue is only 24 CHF per pot?!'. Seriously, we're going to think everything is so cheap back in the US :).

We went back to the hotel and put Carsten to bed in his travel bed. My family graciously agreed to keep an eye on him while Andy and I had a date night. We got to walk around the town, take pictures, and just have some 'us' time, which was quite fun. We even managed to find a little shop with 2 pieces of backlava left, which we bought :). When we got back, we played cards! Here's some photos of Zermatt:

Most we saw of the Matterhorn :(

Our hotel and its balcony.

If you're wondering why this barn is on stilts with big flat rocks, it's to keep out mice. Spent a long time thinking about this before we found out what it was for.... :)

Date night!

Corrie, is this the Alpen Rose you're having your reception at in October? :) Sign me up!

fondue!