Finishing up Switzerland and a touch of Germany.
We will celebrate my middle son's 13th birthday in Switzerland. He said all he wants to do is go climbing. My wife and I have been looking up places we think he'll like before we arrive and after. We talked to him about anything else he'd like to do and he mentioned a family fun center, if there is a place like that, or a climbing gym. I found a large outdoor ropes course near our hotel, but the ski lift that takes you up isn't operating. The forecast says it will rain on his birthday, so it may not matter anyway. Surprisingly, he expressed a bigger interest in an indoor place than something outdoor, so we found an indoor climbing gym.
We find one and talk to our son about it. He likes it, so this will be his birthday present from Tanya and I. Neither of his siblings wanted to go, and I didn't want to force them. I know my son would have more fun with someone near his age, but I didn't want them to ruin his experience by not wanting to be there. When he and I get there, I'll probably join him and do some climbing myself. I don't climb regularly, but I enjoy places like this. He also wants homemade calzones for dinner. Our plans for that day are to go to the grocery store for dinner ingredients after the climbing gym.
His birthday comes, and we let it be his day of whatever he wants. He games on his computer, and we play ping-pong outside before it starts raining. After lunch, he and I drive to the climbing gym. He is very excited when we arrive. We go in and see the one employee to check people is helping some people get their shoes and harnesses. My son goes to a window that overlooks the entire climbing gym and gets even more excited. This place has various climbing and bouldering levels along two walls, a ninja warrior course, a leap station, and different free-standing climbing walls. He also sees a bunch of boys his age running around.
He gets suited up, and I get a harness and shoes for myself. Our ticket is good for the entire day, so we could leave and return if we wanted. We go downstairs to enter the gym. The employee goes over the rules for the gym, safety, and how to use the carabiner. Every climbing station has an automatic belay to connect to. After he goes over the rules for the ninja warrior course, he says my son looks tall enough to do it. This news is huge to my boy because the website said the course was only 14 years old and up. He really wanted to do it, but we waited to see what the gym would say. Now that he has the "all clear," he is, again, even more excited.
We climb a few walls, and he tries the leap station. This is where you climb about fifteen feet to a platform, leap out to grab a punching bag, and hang on. You can move the bag closer or further from the platform with a rope at the station's base. Another obstacle is a set of padded poles in a circle, each taller than the next. He loved doing this one as fast as he could. We tried a couple of free-standing walls and climbed side-by-side. Next, he wanted to try the ninja warrior course.
I was proud of his effort. He was a little short for it because there were a few parts he couldn't complete, mainly due to his height. It took several tries to get up the warped wall at the end. After that, he needs to rest. I stroll around and look at other challenges I still need to do. I climb a couple of sections on the room wall, including free-standing ones. My son finds a boy who speaks English, and they start playing. I knew it wouldn't take him long. He has another kid to play with, so he is perfectly happy now. I sit down and watch the two of them try one challenge after another. I'm proud to say that my son is a great influence for the other kid. His friend is struggling with basic climbing, and my son encourages him the whole time. I'm sure the kid's grandfather was pleased another kid was helping him.
They had a great time together, trying different climbing challenges together. When it was time to leave, we got an email so the boys could stay in touch. After that, my son was tired and thinking about leaving. He wanted to stay until the place closed but wasn't sure at this point. His friend left, and he tried everything in the place. A group of boys who were playing earlier had left, and some of them came back in. I'm sure it was a birthday party. Four boys came back, and they were all brothers. They started playing tag; they called it wolf and let my son join in. I just got comfortable in my seat because I knew he wasn't going anywhere for a while.
They ran all over the place. Luckily for them, there weren't any other people in the gym. The other parents were also glad to see another kid having fun with them. Eventually, getting away from whoever was "it" meant they started climbing obstacles to get away. They still had to connect the carabiner to their harness, and it was funny to watch them try to do it quickly before getting caught. About thirty minutes before the place closed, I started looking up grocery stores. I quickly learned they close early on Saturdays compared to weekdays; oh crap. The gym closes at 6 pm; it is 5:30 pm now, and the stores I'm finding closed at 5 pm. I found one store by the bus station that closed at 10 pm. It's the only grocery shop open in town, so that's where we'll go.
When it was almost closing time, my son got a picture with the boys he played with. He and I went upstairs to return the climbing and leave. The parking lot was next to a row of trees and bushes, and a walking path cut through. I could hear rushing water, so we went through the trees to find the source. Just on the other side was a river. It's always fun to spend a little time next to a river. We threw some rocks in, stuck our hands in the ice-cold water, and enjoyed it for a few minutes. It was fun, but we needed to leave. I put in the address of the grocery store, and we drove to it. It would be small since it was next to the bus station, but I had no other choice. Luckily, they had the few things I needed.
As soon as we returned to the hotel, I started on dinner. My son wanted calzones, and I was making them from scratch. I made the dough and ran into a problem. Despite flouring the countertop, the dough stuck to it after I filled the calzone. I couldn't get it off without mutilating the bottom, and this ticked me off, probably more than it should. Once it was off the counter, I tossed it on the pan in frustration and tried to pinch all the holes together that tore open. I wasn't going through that four more times, so dinner went from calzones to one big pizza. My son would have the calzone, at least. I was glad the kitchen had a baking sheet. When it was done, we had a huge square pizza, which was quite good. After dinner, we had a lemon cookie cake with white chocolate spread over the top that Tanya made. It was very good with ice cream. He opened some presents and was able to game with some friends in America before he went to bed. Yeah, he had a good birthday.
The next day was Sunday, and our church building was in another town but less than an hour's drive. We arrived early and talked to people before the service started. The service was in French since that's the predominant language in this region of Switzerland. One of the missionaries translated for us, and I had another help me during the Sunday school part afterward. We found out they were having a ward lunch after church. We were invited to stay and were very happy to. The younger kids found other kids their age and were having a great time. My family helped set up tables and chairs for the meal and did all we could since we hadn't brought food to contribute. It was a wonderful time socializing and spending time with these people. Several were fluent in English, which made it much easier. After lunch, we helped clean up and said our goodbyes. As usual, the kids exchanged information with their new friends.
We leave the following day, so we spent the afternoon packing. It's become a rule to pack everything, which can be the day before we leave. That way, we have time to look for anything that gets lost and check all around to make sure nothing is forgotten. Usually, the only things left out are toiletries, a charging station, and the necessary charge cords. We work on that and cleaning up after ourselves. This may be a hotel, but we've mostly stayed in Airbnbs, which will continue, so we keep it a habit to clean up what we can.
The next day, we checked out and drove to Lausanne to drop off the car. After the car is returned, we get on a bus that takes us to a FlixBus bus stop. This is another coach bus company, and we are taking it to France. While walking between bus stops, we come across a big bush of honeysuckles. We love these and haven't seen them for a long time. Everyone pauses and picks a few to get a taste. This was a nice pick me up. We reach the other stop over an hour early, pull out our phones or Kindles, and wait. Happily, the bus comes on time.
When it comes to these buses, people are used to the mentality that it doesn't matter where you sit on the bus, even though your ticket has a seat number. Tanya purchased five seats together each time so the family could sit as a group. We must ask some people to move and show them the seats assigned to our tickets. Along with an explanation of sitting with the kids, they understandingly oblige. This is the third time we've had to do this, but it's gone well each time. We get settled in to enjoy the ride to Colmar, France, with a layover in Freiburg, Germany, that lasts a few hours.
Crossing over the German border was an interesting experience. We pulled into a place specific for these large buses, and two German border patrol agents boarded. We sit at the back of the bus and see they check passports. When an agent gets to us, he checks ours and asks where we are heading. We tell him, and he hands the passports back, quick and easy. However, a couple of guys get questioned a lot more. One guy is fine, but they take the other off the bus and into a building. The bus leaves soon after without him. I still wonder what the problem was.
Our bus arrives in Freiburg at a bus and train terminal. We are here for around three hours and will leave on a train. We walk from the bus portion to the terminal so we know where to go when we return from a bit of exploration. Also, we must find the luggage lockers since we are leaving our bags here. We find the lockers, put our bags in, and then the train platforms. Before we leave the terminal, I find a currency exchange office and exchange my Swiss franc for euros. Now, we're off to see a little of the city.
The Freiburg Cathedral is in a nearby square surrounded by gorgeous German Tudor-style buildings. We indeed look like tourists taking pictures of everything. Since this is Germany, we want to try some bratwurst. There is a food stand with high ratings, and it is supposed to be in the square. We walk the entire square and don't see it. Another food stand selling bratwurst is open, but it was the more expensive of the two; oh well. We were looking forward to this the whole ride here. At least they didn't disappoint. There were several options, but we got traditional and curry brats. Both were delicious.
After our meal, we visited a few souvenir shops and looked at the different trinkets. One has a lot of cuckoo clocks in various sizes. Tanya found an ornament the same style as the one we purchased in Lauterbrunnen. It looks like blue porcelain with raised designs and rubbed white lettering. This one is in a different shape and has a different picture. We like it and get another Christmas tree ornament. This time, we walk around the square slowly and appreciate the unique buildings. The varied colors on different buildings, or on the same one, along with specific architectural touches, make it a place to be remembered. After the food, the shopping, and the exploring, we headed back to the train station.
Once there, we retrieve our bags and go to our platform. The train arrives soon after, and we are going to Colmar, France. I enjoy watching the landscape whenever we travel a longer leg of our trip. There are fewer mountains and more hills as we travel east. There is no lack of green anywhere we go. Whether it's been mountains, rolling hills, or fields, it's all been beautifully green. Of course, it's probably still springtime here since it's May. The France part of our trip is coming up.
Comments