The Events of Saturday, July 16, 2011

                This morning, we awoke for the last time in our lovely basement apartment in the suburban city of Kaufering. Truly feeling ready to move on after spending nearly a week in the same spot, we packed up our suitcases and drove towards Liechtenstein. Mom had planned for us to travel diagonally through Liechtenstein, in order not to just dip in and out again. However, as we followed our GPS, we did exactly what we hoped not to do. In doing so we accidentally crossed into Switzerland. This was a rather serious problem, as Switzerland’s highway system actually requires a specific sticker. Though we attempted to purchase the said sticker when we passed into Switzerland, the border station offices were closed, so we drove on without the decal. Luckily, we managed to avoid any fines and soon reached our destination: Liechtenstein.

                Liechtenstein’s capital city, Vaduz, is very small, with a population of only about five thousand. As we drove around, following our GPS to a parking garage, the place seemed practically deserted. After parking, we walked across the street to the Tourist Information Office. There, we took some pictures with things that said “Liechtenstein” as proof of our actually being there. We also found some nice clean restrooms; we have now at least gone to the restroom in twenty countries.

                Spotting an interesting-looking church steeple, we headed there to explore. This place of worship’s interior simply radiated peace, displaying spectacular modern stained glass windows and wooden carvings of the Stations of the Cross. As we departed, the church bells began to toll twelve noon, so we decided to find a place to enjoy our picnic lunch. Lindsey, our Liechtenstein tour guide, led us through a lovely orchard of young trees. Among these trees, we found three low yellow-green benches. Upon sitting down, we discovered them to actually be really comfortable couches! While they looked like hard plastic, they were actually made of soft foam! We gladly ate lunch in total comfort and style. We did not, however, enjoy the company of scores of yellow jackets buzzing around us throughout the meal.

                Eager to leave these annoying insects, we ate our dessert while strolling up the main pedestrian drag, Städtle. This street is lined with modern art sculptures, restaurants, and souvenir shops selling atrociously overpriced chocolate – more than $5 for a king-size bar of the world’s most famous chocolate. Before long, we came to the pathway that led to the Prince of Liechtenstein’s striking castle, a twenty-minute hike above Vaduz. We wandered up to the first bend, and then decided that there was really no point in going any further; the castle is not open to the public. Instead, we headed back to our parking garage and drove through Liechtenstein towards Switzerland. After filling our car with diesel, we got lost, which totally confused both us and our GPSs.

                Once we finally turned ourselves around in the right direction, we drove along a fun little scenic stretch of the Rhine River before entering Switzerland. Soon after crossing the border, we stopped at a service station to obtain the necessary highway sticker and allow Dad to inflate our car’s tires. That was a good thing to do, given the next segment of our journey. Our trusty Destiny subsequently climbed two incredibly steep mountain passes and zoomed through dozens of tunnels. As we whizzed past breathtaking Swiss Alps scenery, for awhile, the only conversation in our car consisted of “Wow!”, “Awesome‼”, and the like. The wonderfully snowy peaks of the Alps reaching towards the sky, the misty, cool waterfalls cascading all the way down the mountainsides, and all otherwise awesome scenery were, in a word, awe-inspiring. As Daddy put it, no scenery in the world even comes close to being as spectacular as Swiss scenery.

                For awhile, a French tour bus in front of us inhibited our speedy progress. However, in slowing us down, the big bus gave us a wonderful opportunity to absorb more of this fantastic, amazing Alpine scenery all around us. Once we had become considerably annoyed, fortunately, the massive tour bus pulled over, and we sped by on our way to Interlaken. Before long, we arrived in Interlaken Valley and drove by two gorgeously blue lakes before arriving at our new accommodations.

                We quickly formed a chain to take all our luggage from the trunk of the car up the driveway to the stairs that led to the private entrance to our apartment. I had the most fun running up the driveway pushing our rolling suitcases, and then letting them go to see how far they would roll along on their own. It gave me some much-needed exercise, too.

                This lovely apartment feels somewhat like our condominium by Lake Tahoe. For the next week, we will live in the second story of a typical steep-roofed, four-story Swiss farmhouse. All the windows have charming forest green window shutters and quaint flowerboxes overflowing with red blossoms. It’s lovely. The only problem is the low ceiling beams, hovering at about 6 foot, 2 inches. Daddy and Ben will need to spend this week slightly hunched to avoid smacking their heads.

                Once we had moved in, we began to prepare dinner. Soon, we sat down to a fantastic meal of spaghetti and meatballs with salad, and chocolate-covered waffles for dessert. We competed to see who could give the most compliments about the food.

                After dinner, we turned on the TV to ensure that we would be able to watch the final game of the Women’s World Cup tomorrow. Besides three channels showing the same exact men’s soccer game in three different languages (Italian, German, and French), we found a CNN report (in English) about the closure of Los Angeles’ 405 for repair. Showing in German were Euro Sport, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Men in Black. It was fun to watch these and try to guess what was happening. Another channel was showing a concert series in Munich. During our time exploring Munich only a few days ago, the preparations for this particular event had slightly inhibited our sightseeing. As the image on the TV panned out to show the city’s skyline, and we recognized several landmarks we had visited.

                Soon, however, it was time to head to bed so that we could be energized for our first day of sightseeing in Switzerland tomorrow.