Another Swiss Day trip.

First up, the Chateua de Chillon. We drove our way to Monterux and the Chateua de Chillon. The whole city was again charming and adorable, but not in traditional swiss way, but rather old French style way. It was funny how a short drive made things so different. The mountains and lake genevea and the archetcture made it another unforgettable site. The picture above is from google. For some reaon Jeff wouldnt pull the car over this time when I asked to take a picture. Perhaps he didn't like the idea of his wife outside the car on a one lane road winding around lakeside cliff?

We didn't know before our visit, but it is famous for gruesome reasons. The witch hunts of Europe started in this area in the 1400's before spreading all over the world. The
chateua seemed very authentic as in how you may have pictured ancient French
countryside. Monty Python lines kept popping into my head.

There were so many little rooms and pasageways. There was no guide, and without a map we could have easily gotten lost. We even went through a secret, dark passageway. Somehow we found ourselves at the very top of the chateau walking around old wooden walkways. It was a little spooky. A few times one of us would be reading the description cards outloud and would just stop as it approached information I am sure would be forever embedded in Kaylies imagination. It was a great chateua/castle to visit because of how much access they let you have to everything.

After we weren't sure what we were going to do on our way home. I had thought I had seen the temple as we drove through Bern so we decided to go and see it. After searching for almost an hour ( the TomTom totally failed us) we decided to call it quits. And as soon as we stopped looking for the temple we noticed that we were right by the Bear garden. It seemed like perfect place to get out and let the girls be out of the car for a minute.

How lucky we were to not have missed Bern. We were lucky too as we were going to drive away , the closest parking spot to the old town opened up and we slipped right in.Another adorable, incredible medevil city….cobblestone streets, old houses stacked side by side up and down, grand
cathedral, clocktowers.

We stopped and had dinner at a resturant near the river. It is abolutely springtime here and it is gorgeous. We had a spectactular view of the whole old town Bern. Audrey was cracking me up just eating. Picking up her noodles and being a bird. Blindly searching fro her straw with her mouth. Even just coloring her placemate while she waited, she was impressively naming all her colors.

We went and said good bye to the bears and then let the girl play in this little play area with bear statues. The city of Bern was started in the 1100's and was originally a village of hunters who hunted bears in the area. Every since then they have kept a few in a pit. Now they have a nicer home along the river, and what seems like a whole city that love them.

We even had a fortunate car ride home. Both girls napped almost the entire way and Audrey didn't loose her lunch. I think she must just be the car sick type. When Kaylie woke up she was talking German. First she said "Danke" and I asked her what that meant. She responded correctly "Dankashane, thank you". Then she continued to make up German words. She was totally making them up, but she has been hearing so much of it that she totally had the sounds down. We were cracking up at our three year olds impersonations.