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Oh, I haven't talked about our hotel yet, have I? I was very pleased with our choice, the Hotel Duquesne Eiffel. It's located on Ave. Duquesne, a short walk from the Ecole Militaire metro stop in the 7^th. It's also right around the corner from the Invalides and Rodin Museum. Very pleasant neighborhood. Our room was small, as is to be expected in Paris. We had a triple room on the fourth floor, with a gorgeous view of the Eiffel Tower. Every night after we'd gone back to the hotel, I'd watch the clock. As soon as the top of the hour came, I'd announce, "It's Twinkle Time!" We'd all stick our heads out the windows and watch the sparkly show. Even lying in bed we could see the ET's spotlight on our ceiling. It was kind of hard to sleep knowing what was going on outside. The beds did not contribute to this sleeping problem, though-they were extremely comfortable.

View from our hotel room

The best part about the hotel, IMO, was the staff. Estelle greeted us cheerfully and checked us in at 9:30am. The staff seemed to anticipate any issue or problem we might have and took care of it swiftly. Everyone seemed to know who I was and what room I was in. I greatly appreciated the friendly, efficient service. I really tested them, too. On our third night, DD got sick. She had a high fever and complained of neck pain: alarming symptoms of meningitis. At 2:30am I went down to the front desk and explained the situation. The gentleman there (I never got his name) called a dr for me. He told me in detail what to expect, and told me that if the dr wants to do more tests they'll take us all by taxi to the American hospital. He assured me this is the best hospital in the city and we would be well taken care of. The dr came up to our room about 30 minutes later. He did a thorough exam and concluded DD did NOT have meningitis, but wrote some prescriptions for symptomatic relief. He charged 120 Euros and wrote a note that I could take to my insurance company. I was so very grateful for the dr, the hotel staff who handled everything so well, and of course grateful that my daughter was okay! In retrospect, I'm sure she was just exhausted from the jet lag and all the walking and excitement. She'd hardly slept at all in Paris and we were logging 12-13 hours days with little rest time.

Our next stop was Landstuhl, to meet up with DH. Landstuhl is a small German town that hosts an American military hospital. Ramstein AFB is just across the way, so there is a large American military presence in the area. I'd mentioned in an earlier post that this area feels like a German/American border town. I am insanely jealous of my DH, having the opportunity to live here. He has a sweet German town right outside his door and he can travel throughout Europe on the weekends, yet the military base feels like any other in America. The commissary at Ramstein has Skippy peanut butter and Kraft mac and cheese and anything else from home he might crave. What a great setup.

While the kids and I were here, DH joined us at the Hotel Christine. The location was very convenient, on the main street, a block away from the train station. Our suite was large, new, and convenient. It was not part of the main hotel; rather, it was across the street and up a hill. I imagine in good weather this wouldn't be an issue, but when it was raining and/or snowing, it was a bit of a pain to bundle everybody up, go down the hill, wait for the crosswalk light on the busy street to get to the hotel just to have breakfast. Not their fault-it's obviously a popular hotel and needed to expand. The issue I DID have was their checkout policy. Checkout is early, 10:00. When I found this out, on our first night, I called the front desk to politely ask if there was a way we could stay until noon, when DH could pick us up. Logistics were tough-long story. The woman I talked to at the front desk said there was no leeway. 10:00 is checkout time, and if you stay past 10:00 you pay for another night. I explained the situation and asked if we could pay a smaller fee to just stay an extra two hours. Nope. Our room was not reserved for the following night or anything, that was just their policy. It kinda ticked me off. DH had to call around to find someone who could pick us up before 10:00 and entertain us until he could break away from work. Maybe I should have fed my kids lots of caffeine and sugar and hung out in the lobby for those two hours instead.

So, what did we do in Landstuhl? Cursed the weather, mostly. We quickly learned the local motto. "Landstuhl: we'll suck the sun right out of your day." Indeed. Actually, there is a very nice castle in Landstuhl called Nanstein. You could easily walk up the hill from the town center, but we drove because of the weather. The castle is mainly in ruin, and our kids had a blast, climbing up and down all the steps, exploring every corner. We were the only people at the castle that day so we felt okay letting the kids have the run of the place. Some of the walls were made of sandstone. It looks like they carved part of the castle right out of the hillside.

We visited another castle in a nearby town called Kusel (pronounced Koozel). The official name of the castle is Burg Lichtenberg, but I heard people refer to it as simply Kusel Castle. Either way it's fun to say. This castle has been restored. It houses a hostel and a very nice restaurant. We were there for dinner. It was far and away my best dinner in Germany. I had duck breast in port wine sauce with potato dumplings, similar to a gnocchi, and steamed vegetables. I tried a local red wine called Dornfelder. It tasted much like a Pinot Noir IMO and was perfect with the duck. The highlight of the meal, however, was the dessert: basil ice cream with strawberries. It had just the right touch of sweetness.

We had lots of good food in Landstuhl, actually. Twice we had dinner at the Rosenhof Hotel and Restaurant. We'd been told they have excellent schnitzel and spatzle, and it did not disappoint. We had another fine meal at Sickingenstube (just makes your mouth water, doesn't it?). It's attached to Rosi's bar. I had some mighty fine brats and sauerkraut here.

You know those pictures of quaint, crooked, half-timbered houses along idyllic pedestrian cobblestone streets, flower pots all around? There's a good chance those pics were taken in the Alsace. A few times, in my research, I saw Colmar referred to as "the prettiest town in Europe." Is it? I don't know. I haven't seen all the towns in contention, but that would be a fun project, wouldn't it? We spent two nights in Colmar. Colmar is a sizeable city, actually, with an impressively large old town. It's very walkable, with plenty of interesting shops to explore. Colmar doesn't have many must-see sights, it's more about the ambience. It really is a charming place. The cold weather may have had something to do with it, but our kids weren't really all that interested in Colmar. I must have looked like such a goof, walking around the town with a permanent smile on my face. Every time we'd turn a corner my smile would get bigger. It was all just so, well, cute!

We found a narrated tram tour, which the kids liked more than just wandering aimlessly in the cold. Part way through the tour, our English-speaking headphones told us "in this square, on the right, is a statue of Manneken Pis." A little backstory here: we have almost completed our backyard pool, and it has a very special fountain--a replica of Manneken Pis. When DH and I heard that there was a copy of the statue here, we in unison stood up on the tram and yelled "WHERE?!" Of course everyone else turned to look at these crazy Americans. We didn't see the statue, but walked back to that square after the tour, determined to find it. We searched every nook and cranny on the right side of the square, checking all the side streets, making jokes about how we would stink at The Amazing Race. Finally DH found it, on the left side of the square. So, those of you back home who think we're weird for putting in a statue of a little boy peeing into our pool, SEE, it really is European art!

Our home in Colmar was at the Hotel Turenne. At 115 Euros a night for a room that slept 5, we weren't expecting luxury, but it served our purposes just fine. The hotel is a block or two from the old town. Our door opened directly on to the main street, so it was easy and quick to pop in and out.

We also spent a couple of hours in Kaysersberg, a much smaller village only about 15 minutes from Colmar, but tucked up against the mountains. It has the same charming architecture, but is much slower and quieter. The shops are more craft-oriented whereas Colmar has a large assortment of designer stores. There was at least one small, rustic, unassuming wine-tasting room on each block in Kaysersberg. Ruins of a fortress sit above the village, and a creek rushes through the center of town. Many of the homes had their wood-burning fires going, adding to the rustic mountain town feel. Wow. I could really settle in and unwind here. The kids liked Kaysersberg better than Colmar. Could have been the weather, which was warmer on our Kaysersberg day, or the creek, or the playground by the parking lot. Whatever it was, I was glad that they were content to slowly wander the streets and just sit and watch the scene for awhile. Really a lovely place.

The food in the Alsace was fun. There were fantastic pastries, of course. We were in France after all. We also found lots of pretzel shops. Some of these big, chewy pretzels were sold plain, others coated in sugar, and some had hearty toppings like cheese and ham. They were all delicious. Another local specialty is tarte flambee, similar to a thin pizza. The one I tried was topped with crème fraiche, cheese, bacon, onion, and mushrooms. I had this tarte at Maison Rouge, a very warm, inviting, and popular place in Colmar. Our best meal of the weekend was here.

Zurich is consistently rated the wealthiest city in Europe, and the city with the highest quality of life in the world. That's gotta pique your curiosity. It did mine, anyway. Actually, one reason I wanted to end my trip here is because the Swiss have a reputation for being efficient and timely. After our nightmarish experiences at the Lisbon airport last summer, I was banking (har har) on Zurich's airport being more organized, which it was. Viva la Switzerland!

I spent 2.5 days in Zurich with just the kids. It was the perfect city for what we needed at the time: a pleasant, easy, safe, clean, friendly, uncrowded small city with just enough to keep us occupied for two and half days with minimal effort or stress. It's a very pretty city, especially as you walk along the quays of the Limmat River. All of the public transportation I saw was electric. Everything seemed so orderly and quiet. We did experience a bit more of an urban buzz on Friday around 4:00 along the Bahnhofstrasse, often called the most expensive shopping street in the world. For the most part, though, the Zurich we saw was tame and easy to manage with the kids.

Zurich has great shopping, or in our case, window shopping. We did do a lot of damage in the Sprungli chocolate shop, though. It sure was fun to see how the chocolatiers had their store windows decorated for Easter. Ever seen a $900 chocolate bunny? The patisseries had some creative displays as well. Our favorite item was what we called "bunny buns."

We stayed at Hotel Adler, in the Niederdorf district. It's on a pedestrian-only cobblestone street, a short half block from the Limmat River. Oodles of restaurants are right outside the door. I get this sense this is the place to go in Zurich for partying it up at night. There were a few posters on some of the neighborhood bars I wished the kids hadn't seen, and things got kind of loud at night on the street down below our room, but overall I was very pleased with the location, and especially pleased with the hotel. We had a triple room, much more spacious than our triple in Paris. We also had a balcony with table and chairs that looked down on Niederdorf Street and the Hirschenplatz. Since we had quite a bit of rain while in Zurich, it was nice to be able to step out onto the sheltered balcony and watch the happenings below. In the lobby was a large basket of fresh fruit: apples, bananas, oranges, pears, plums, even kiwi. At each pass by the front desk we all grabbed a piece of fruit. Such a nice touch. The hotel breakfast, which was included, was very fresh and interesting as well.

View from our balcony

Since we enjoyed the hotel's breakfast so much, we decided to try their restaurant for lunch. Their specialty is fondue. For my daughter, who could live on a steady diet of cheese and bread, this was heaven. My son was not so sure at first. The fondue made the hotel lobby and stairwell stink, and he didn't think he wanted to eat whatever smelled like THAT. The final verdict from all was positive, though. We ended up returning the next day for another round of fondue. Too much fun to pass up.

We had one full day in Zurich without rain. We took advantage of it and took a tram up to Uetliberg, a mountain that sits between Zurich and the Alps. The tram takes you to a lookout point that has a playground and café. From there you can hike up the road about 10 minutes to the very tippy top, with 360 degree views. There's a nice hotel up there and lots of benches to sit and admire the views. We tried to climb up the (very tall) lookout tower, but about halfway up it got so windy we literally couldn't hold onto our hats, so we turned around and went back down. It was a fun afternoon at Uetliberg, playing in the snow and feeling like we were on top of the world.

Other activities we took part in…hmmmm…..we climbed to the top of Grossmunster cathedral for a nice view of the city, lake, and mountains. We also had a nice view from the ferris wheel (temporary? Not sure) near the lake. Believe it or not, the river itself was a destination for us. An odd collection of ducks and swans lived on the river near our hotel. They'd learned to beg for food, so whenever we stood at the railing, they would swarm towards us and look at us expectantly. It made for an easy, quick outing from the hotel: "Hey kids, you wanna go feed the swans our leftover pastry?" That always went over well.

We all felt so safe in Zurich that I gave the kids quite a bit of freedom. While in the hotel room, if one of them said they wanted some fruit, I'd let them go down to the front desk alone. I often left them in the room while I checked email and TTG at the hotel computer one floor down. We got so comfortable that DD once went ahead of me and crossed a main street by herself without thinking. I wasn't so concerned about her, but I was afraid that younger DS might go running after her without looking.

Overall I really liked Zurich. I'm sure it's a wonderful place to live. Is it an exciting city with an endless list of must-dos? No. It was perfect for what we needed at the time, though, and I'm really glad we got to spend some time in the city.