Geneva

Our next stop was Geneva, Switzerland in August. It was kind of an impromptu trip...the main reason we went was to get Swiss army knives from Switzerland for my sister-in-law. :) But Switzerland was on our list, so it was a good excuse to check it off!

We drove down to Geneva in about 7 hours. Germany is nice that we don't have toll roads, but driving anywhere else, you pretty much run into needing Vignettes to be on the road. It's a pretty easy experience (just stop at a gas station close to the border and pay the fee to get a sticker to put on your windshield). Switzerland operates on a yearly vignette so the fee is pretty high. Other places like Austria and Czech Republic let you choose between weekly, monthly, or yearly fees.

Arriving in Geneva, we discovered that the city was hosting a festival along the shore of Lake Geneva, so we wandered around looking at all the local crafts and delicious food. We were very tempted to try a bunch of things, but we resisted with the promise of Swiss fondue later. :) Geneva was a really pretty city to walk around, and we really enjoyed just strolling through the pedestrian area. We did find our Swiss Army knives for the boys, along with the biggest Swiss army knife I've ever seen! (We did not buy it...)

Our fondue dinner was really good! It's a little different from the Melting Pot back home, as in Switzerland they only serve bread with the cheese (no veggies or apples), but the chocolate was as I expected...delicious! Side note: food in Switzerland is suuuuuuper expensive. We stopped at a Burger King on our drive down (in Switzerland), and spent $40USD for two burgers/fries/drinks!! Crazy!

The next day, we went for a little walk from our hotel down to Lake Geneva, had burgers for lunch, and hiked up a mountain. It was really beautiful weather and great to be outside enjoying the gorgeous scenery!

On our return drive to Germany, we took the long way back and stopped at a really cool castle. It was amazing to see the architecture and how they built it so close to the surface of the lake.

After touring the castle, we continued our drive and stopped at a really high walking bridge. Then we checked something off of Tyler's bucket list...driving through Furka Pass. Not for the faint of heart! I couldn't even look out the window. It was so steep and so many switchbacks! We just drove to the top of the pass, got out to look around a little, and drove back down.

Our last stop on our drive was a castle in Lichtenstein. We didn't go inside because it was already closed, but we crossed off Lichtenstein from our "to-see" list. :) We also ate at the closest thing to Chick-fil-a I've been able to find here! It was delicious!