A Visit by Our Swiss Cousins

Yesterday our Swiss cousins, JJ, his fiancee Romy and Chris came to Lenk for a visit. Dad wanted a picture by the Lenker Bench:

I think we took about a hundred of them.

Then we left for the Kuspo and lunch. Though we had a lovely table outside by the playground, once our kids discovered this toy nook inside they didn't want to leave. So we ate with them while the rest of the family ate in the sun.

I was expecting Elisabeth to have black eyes this morning. I wasn't expecting her face to be so swollen. If you know who Odo is from Star Trek then you might see a resemblance.

Poor little sausage. The only complaining she's done is to pick at her nose quite frequently. It must feel strange to her.

Mnnnnn Linzer Torte!

Hazlenuss Torte und Milch Kaffee!

Ellie on her quack quack.

Then we took the Metsch Bahn up the mountain and walked to the Egge.

Well, some of us walked. Some of us have personal porters.

Which makes me wonder why a certain little girl would be in love with JJ instead of Dave...(actually I understand. I was in love with him at age 3 too.)

Watching Veggie Tales on Gross papa's laptop.

Hike to the Siebenbrunne

One of my favorite places in Lenk is at the foot of the waterfall "Siebenbrunne". The hike is about a 45 minute one, with some very steep sections and some not too bad sections and a leisurely stroll (right at the end, thank goodness) of gorgeous terrain through the forest. We decided to attempt it with the kids, fully accepting that it might be beyond them - and that we might have to turn around without making it to the falls.

Well, luckily we had Uncle Dave along and he helped Tinker when the going got tough.

And she managed to walk a good portion of the hike too.

The scenery was stunning. I only wish that I'd gotten better pictures. I need to get Dave to help me figure out my camera. It's like the settings are off slightly and everything is washed out.

But I guess you get the general idea. Along the way there were lots of places to stop and play in water. Tink loves these little hollowed out logs.

At the falls we stopped for a picnic lunch, then dad and Rob had a snooze while the rest of us played.




Dave was kinda scared to cross this bridge. I think Davey came back and helped him across.

Ellie did really good on the way down. But as we hit a flat patch, she went tearing off, missed a step and landed on her face. She must have skidded along scraping up her nose and cheeks, filling her mouth and nose with gravel, and bouncing to scrape up her head just past her hairline too. And she scraped up her hand. She was very sad for the rest of the trip down, until we got to the playground. Then she alternately played and checked out her owies.

Once home, the kids broke open a box of granola bars and ate them in their favorite place - in front of the foot massager and behind the front door.

Later, we helped Grossi pick berries in the garden. Davey ate most of the raspberries.

Anitca Posta

Since we arrived in Lenk, Dave has wanted to go to the Antica Posta, an Italian Pizza and Pasta restauran in town. Last night was our opportunity. Dad babysat for us and we headed into the village. This is Andrew's pizza (tasted a lot like eating raclette. SO good. I'm a big fan of Fontina cheese now):

My Calabrese (YUM)
Dave's Volcano pizza:
And Rob ordered "Fruits of the Sea". Which didn't appeal to me to begin with. And then it came...

Oh lordy. How on earth do you get your lips around that? Apparently Rob had no trouble.

Yes, that's a tentacle hanging from his mouth.

And a 'mini octopus on his pizza...

Yeah, he was the night's entertainment.

The service was terrible, the place was kind of smoky. The pizza was amazing (Rob even liked his!) and the gelato afterwards....MNNNNNNN.....

Friday in Gstaad

First stop was Saanen which was a really beautiful and really old town with tons of antique stores and interesting buildings. According to a sign at the train station, the first building was erected in 960. We saw quite a number from the 15 and 1600s. Very interesting, though very narrow and scary streets!!

While we were waiting for Anny and Dad, the kids found a cat.

The Cat Whisperer persuaded it to come for a snuggle.

Anny, back from the doctor's.

After that we headed to to Gstaad and looked in shop windows.

Davey found a thirsty cow.





Yeah, lots and LOTS of good pictures today. This time next week we'll be almost home and I'll spend some time uploading the best and most interesting pictures to my swiss blog. For now you've seen a bit of what we were up to today. Tschuss alle!

Just Another (Rainy) Day in Paradise

Listen, there are five of us adults and only one laptop. So imagine how hard it is to get online. Plus the internet is unimagineably slow, so uploading pics is insane. I'm just posting people pics for now, but for all of you who could give two figs for the people, I'll show you some of Switzerland when I'm back home with my real Internet.

Meanwhile...Today Anny came to the dorf with us to do the day's shopping. Tink enjoyed playing chase with her up and down the hill.

She has taken over ownership of this lightning mcqueen coat while we're abroad.

When we got back from the dorf, while me, dad and Anny made lunch, Grossi and Davey coloured and did activity books.

I think he really enjoyed spending time with her. He is picking up some swiss german and his pronunciation is dead on. It's amazing. Both the kids are really good at repeating swiss phrases. If we had 8 more weeks here I swear they'd both be fluent.

After lunch we Canadians went for a train ride to the next 'big' town (Lenk has a population of about 2000. Then there are several smaller villages before Zweisimmen which is slightly bigger than Lenk).

We wandered around the shops, then stopped for coffee. The kids had a scoop of ice cream each.

Tink was VERY impressed. "I like the ice cream!!" she said. I think she meant the presentation.

Then again, maybe not.


A gorgeous backyard.



Tomorrow we are taking Aunty Anny to an appointment then continuing on to Gstaad. Apparently there isn't that much to do there, but I've never been and it's where all the rich foreigners live so there must be something good about it. Anyway, looking forward to sharing more of that with you tomorrow night!!