stephanie & trent: Days 25, 26, & 27: Medieval times and castles, castles everywhere!

where are our recorders?

Location: Boeing 767 Flight 65 to JFK New York Airport

Hours of Travel: 145

Cleanliness: 5 (airplanes…)

Comments:

· On Sunday morning, Ian, Trent, and I went to church. This Sunday was stake conference, a day when a bunch of wards meet together and the leaders of the region speak. We felt very fortunate we came this week because they had translator headphones so we could actually understand!

· Side note- Ian drove to the wrong church first from a bad address :P

· After church we went to Zurich. It’s about a two hours drive from where Ian lives but stake conference already brought us half way there.

· Zurich is known as the financial capital of Switzerland, which is saying a lot since the Swiss are some of the richest people in the world. On Sunday, they close all their restaurants so we just walked around the empty city window shopping and comparing prices to the US

· After looking in a beautiful church called Munster Gross I noticed a ton of people in a public square. I dragged the men over and we found a medieval festival! I couldn’t believe our luck! The medieval festival was so neat not only because of the energy but also that it was located in a place that actually looked medieval! They had a man powered Ferris wheel, traditional shops for weapons and clothing, and a live chess game (like in harry potter).

man-powered medieval ferris wheel

· We walked to beautiful Lake Zurich.

· After the long drive home, Ian spoiled us with a delicious dinner complete with grilled chicken, salad, beans, rice, and MAGNUM ice cream bars!!!

· PS… I forgot my camera memory card that day so unfortunately I don’t have pictures with us in them :(

Funny thing- Ausfahrt means driving exit. I thought the word sounded hilarious.

· Monday was an incredibly active day. But we couldn’t have had the energy unless we slept. We slept for 11 hours that night and finally felt like we were catching up on our sleep.

· Ian road his bike to work and let us use his car! Trent was THRILLED. He gave us some suggestions for where to go. We started the day Wildpark in Feldkirch, Austria. Wildpark is a free zoo with native animals. It was super fun since Trent and I are such animal lovers (Trent especially).

view from Wildpark

Trent's like a 3-year-old when he sees animals. It's so adorable!

· Then we went to the Feldkirch castle. This may have been my favorite castle of all because it was what I had always imagined a castle to look like based on what I’ve learned (and of course see in Disney movies). The other castles we visited like Versailles are so famous because it’s not your average castle and I needed to see what a “normal” one was.

wind up entrance to the castle

short hallways. the ceilings were amazing though!

poop buckets. seriously, this is where the people went to relieve their bowels.

artillery room

· We ate at another kebab joint, walked around the beautiful city, and headed back to Buchs.

town square

· Ian prepared a very special night for us. We drove to another castle very close to his house. It is open to the public and has a couple BBQ pits! So we BBQed at an ancient castle.

castle ruins

walk up to the castle

goats we passed on the walk up to the castle. remember this cheaky face.

brudurz :)

· FUNNY STORY- We had the last bits of salad and Trent said that I should feed it to the goats close by. I was super excited about it! I slipped my hand through the fence and BOOM! Got electrocuted…

cheaky, stupid, little goat...

· Another side note- There are so many castles in this area that were actually fixated in a way that if there were ever an invasion, on of the castles could light a fire, others close by would see the flame, and set a chain reaction (LIKE IN LORD OF THE RINGS!!!!)

· After the BBQ, we went to Liechtenstein to visit a beautiful church and the castle where the King currently lives with his family. Liechtenstein is one of the few places where a King still rules let alone lives in the castle! The site was breathtaking at sunset.

Liechtenstein castle

· This was probably one of my favorite days of the whole trip. It was so active and so incredibly beautiful. Trent and I like the places where we can really see how people live in the country.

· Our last day Trent and I relaxed and did last minute things we knew we’d regret. We bought chocolate…

so much chocolate to choose from!

· And cooked tons of delicious food including hot chocolate, richlet (when your melt cheese in a pan and put it on potatoes…it’s like the opposite of fondue) and spetzle (egg noodle) with bratwurst sauce.