Ebenalp

We did it!  We went traveling again!  This trip went MUCH better.  We again went to the Appenzeller region of Switzerland, but this time we made it UP a mountain.
  Saturday was not as beautiful as I was led to believe, but it wasn't raining and sometimes that's all that counts. We had a lazy morning- letting kids sleep as much as they wanted ( it could have been more) and got started around 10:30. We just missed a train headed up to Appenzell because of a pointless stop at the Post Office. But this gave me plenty of time to enjoy my 8 CHF pumpkin latte from the train station Starbucks.

 Yep, that was for a small one-Splurge!
Our train left at 11:37 and an hour and umpteen games of "I Spy" later we changed trains at Appenzell and headed for Appenzell.  Our final train stop was Wasseraun where we headed up the mountain in a luftseilbahn (gondola? cable car?).

 It's a good thing I claimed a seat on one of the 2 benches- my tummy does not travel well, especially in the air. 
   Like I said, the weather wasn't the best, but when the clouds did clear, wow!  what a view!  We enjoyed watching the parasailors flying through the air (with the greatest of ease).

    We did a short, "easy" hike down to the Wildkirchli caves.  Excavations have uncovered ancient bear skeletons and bone tools from the Stone Age.  There are also altars that hermits used in the 17th-19th centuries.  Doing this hike with a 2 and 4 year old made it nothing short of terrifying.  I'm not afraid of heights, but I was feeling some vertigo. Much of the path was up against the face of the mountain with a sharp cliff on the other side of us.

  Beyond the caves is a little restaurant/Guesthouse where we stopped and ate some of the most delicious Rosti...probably because it was warm, turns out that it is colder up in the mountains.

This is the Rosti- shredded potatoes, fried with cheese melted on top- and Kenny's kirsch tea- tea with cherry liqueur.

 By the time we were ready to head back to the Luftseilbahn, the kids were cold, except for Eli, he was snug as a bug in the Boba carrier.

 Instead of try to make the kids hike back up the mountain, Kenny took it upon himself to move them up there the fastest way he could come up with.

   We were heading back down the mountain by 4 and home by 5:30.  I am totally encouraged by this trip and looking forward to more.  Maybe to Germany to do a little shopping- Kenny's pants are about to fall off of him.

An update on the chocolate bar: It took us a a week and a half to finish the 400 gram bar. A little longer than I expected, but we did buy other chocolate in that time frame, including a nifty little candy bar that is like a kitkat made with nutella. Whoever makes Kitkats should get on that.

One other note: we have a new neighbor in the house. She is a professor from Wisconsin, here on sabbatical doing research at the University. A lovely woman who says it is always nice to have children around- good to hear!