March 12-13, 2019 - Munich, Germany to Jacksonville, Florida

Tuesday we spent the morning with Paul before making our way back to Zurich.

Our journey took us through the Austria and Liechtenstein before entering back into Switzerland. The scenery was AMAZING! We didn’t get chains for the car, but fortunately, the roads were mostly clear.

If I didn’t mention it before, we drove through the Alps on our way from Munich back to Zurich – and I do mean THROUGH! There are so many tunnels going through the mountains it seemed like that was our only sight for quite a while. One was 10 KM long! (6.2 miles)

Most were completely enclosed, but there were a few that had one side of the tunnel open.

We did have a little excitement coming back into Switzerland at the border crossing. They asked for our passports then they asked for Tobey’s license. We were then told to pull over and wait – and wait. We didn’t know what to expect. The guard even used a magnifying glass to check Tobey’s license! About 20 minutes later, he came back and handed our documents back and wished us a good day. I am glad that was all that happened!

After our sight-seeing drive back to Switzerland, we filled our now-dirty Audi before returning it to the airport.

BUT, the adventure didn’t stop then. I accidently left our document pouch in the car and didn’t discover it was missing until we had checked into our hotel. We had a slight panic-ride back to the airport and fortunately, it was still in the front seat. We were lucky. It also had the key to the RV in it!

On Wednesday we had our return flight to Jacksonville. We both watched movies, A Star is Born and Green Book. Both were great. I also watch RBG, a documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsberg. I thought it was very well done. The flights home were uneventful (always a good thing) and our little RV was ready for us after our European adventure.

March 10-11, 2019 - Erbach to Munich, Germany

Sunday we continued our trip and went to Munich to see our last school year student, Paul. The drive was nice except for the wind which about blew us off the road!

We stayed at his mom’s house and he cooked dinner for all of us. The wind continued all night and we woke to SNOW in the morning. AND MORE SNOW!!! (and Monday morning rush hour traffic)
We went to Paul’s for breakfast and they the weather started to clear so we walked to the Olympic Park, the BMW museum/showroom and back to his house.

The Olympia Park is located in northern Munich where the 1972 Summer Olympics were held.

Yes, it was cold!

We continued by car to Munich city center and went by Marinplatz, the central square in Old Town. The Glockenspiel is in the tower balcony of the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall). It is a clocktower which has figurines representing stories of Munich’s history. They twirl and chime on two levels every day at 11am, 2pm and 5pm. We, unfortunately, didn’t see it this time we were here, but have on a previous trip.
We spent some time browsing in “Eataly” which is a HUGE store selling mostly items from Italy. They did have a section devoted to Nutella and you could get crepes made with Nutella. We opted for a photo instead.

We stopped to see the Angel of Peace. The golden statue sits on top of a pillar temple on the Prince Regent Terrace. The complex is a memorial to the 25 year peace after the German-French War of 1870-71.

After a full day of sightseeing his mom was home from work and the four of us went out for dinner.

We are so blessed to have such great relationships with our boys and their families.

March 9-10, 2019 Lucerne, Switzerland to Erbach, Germany

Saturday everyone checked out and headed to Stephan and Ashley’s apartment in Zug. We visited for a while then took a leisurely drive to Erbach, Germany.

Our route took us east from Zug to Bad Ragaz, Liechtensein then north, skirting the edge of Lake Konstanz. We continued on through Biberach and arrived in Erbach around 5pm.The ski lift trams were heading up the mountain as we were heading THROUGH  the mountain!Tobey and I spent the night with Bernhard and Marlies, Stephan’s parents. We went to a traditional Swabian restaurant for dinner. YUMMY!!!

Sunday we continued our trip and went to Munich to see our last school year student, Paul. The drive was nice except for the wind which about blew us off the road!

March 5 to 8, 2019 - Jacksonville, Florida to Zurich, Switzerland

We put the RV into storage and flew to Zurich, Switzerland to attend the wedding of our second exchange student, Stephan. Our flight from Jacksonville was late so we missed our connecting flight in Newark. UGHH. Fortunately, they booked us on another airline and arrived only four hours later than scheduled on March 6.

Our first exchange student, Thomas, lives near Zurich now, so he picked us up and we spent the day with him and his lovely wife, Anna. We got to meet his beautiful children. We walked all around Schaffhausen and enjoyed dinner together before returning to our hotel.On the 7th, we  took a train back to the airport and picked up our car for the remainder of our trip. We booked a small VW Golf, but they didn’t have any. They wanted to give us an SUV but we wanted something small. We compromised on an Audi A5 which Tobey loved driving! Fast and lots of gadgets.We headed south to Lucerne where we spent the next two nights. After checking in to the hotel, we followed a self-guided walking tour of Lucerne. There are two old pedestrian bridges which were built as part of the city’s fortifications. This is the Chapel Bridge and Water Tower which were constructed around 1300 AD. There are painted picture panels under the covered walkway which were added in the 17th century portraying scenes of Swiss and local history. This is the Needle Dam which was installed in 1859/60.  The water level of Lake Lucerne is still regulated manually by the removal or insertion of its timber needles! On the left side of the dam is a chute, for lack of a better word, that used to contain a water wheel for grain millers. The wheel and mill are gone now, but they had some interesting signs explaining the history of the area.Looking back you can see the Jesuitenkirche (Jesuit Church) on the right with its two green spires. It was the first large baroque religious building erected in Switzerland.The inside of the church was as ornate and beautiful as the outside!The Museggmauer (Musegg Wall) has nine towers and forms part of Lucerne’s historic fortification. It was built around 1535.We enjoyed looking at the different architecture in the city. Many of the buildings have elaborate paintings on them.Of course, every city has its shopping districts. We chuckled  at the statue outside the store selling eyeglasses!You could pick out masks for many of your formal occasions here!The “Dying Lion of Lucerne” is one of the world’s most famous monuments. It is carved out of a rock wall and commemorates the heroism of Swiss soldiers who died attempting to protect the Tuileries Palace in Paris in 1792 during the French Revolution. Our last stop before heading back to the hotel was the Hofkirche (Hof Church). It is dedicated to the patron saint Leodegar and is the parish church of Lucerne. The altar below, The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is a side altar and has a relief panel dating from 1500. The carving was saved from a fire in 1633. We walked back along Lake Lucerne to our hotel. You can see sailboats out enjoying the day.This is a view of our hotel, high on the hill.We took a “funicular” tram six stories up to reach the lobby rather than walking up the hill.This is the view from our balcony looking out over Lake Lucerne. It was beautiful!We headed to Zug for a pre-wedding day dinner with Stephan and Ashley and their families.

Friday morning we went back to Zug for the wedding and lunch. Everyone headed to Lucerne after lunch and we enjoyed an hour long afternoon sightseeing cruise on Lake Lucerne. These are views from the cruise. The wedding dinner was at our hotel Friday night and was amazing. We are so honored to be invited and attend.

March 1-4, 2019 - Marco Island, Florida

After touring in St. Augustine, Tobey and I headed south to Marco Island to visit friends, Daniel and Susan. We had a great time starting with a sunset champagne toast to Tobey’s successful cross-country ride.We spent one day out on their boat stopping at different beaches and collecting seashells.Osprey nests were built on almost every channel marker.Tobey had an opportunity to captain the boat for a while bringing back memories of when we had one. I got lots of puppy kisses from Daisy, one of their Australian Shepherds.We had lots of fun and enjoyed our time with them before heading back to Jacksonville to catch a flight to Switzerland! When we went to leave, Susan noticed our rear tire was almost flat. Fortunately, there was a tire shop on our way and they could get us in. The valve stem was bad and had to be replaced. Unfortunately for us, they charged $65! It needed to be done, and an hour later, we were on the road.

This crane was hanging out by the restaurant we stopped at for lunch.Once in Jacksonville, we rented a storage unit to keep the RV while we are gone. Next stop – Switzerland!