A view up the valley from where we were staying near Verbier.

The town had some newer chalets and some that had been refurbished, but it also had some old ones giving you a good view of what the town looked like in the past.

There is an old watermill on the edge of town that was used primarily for sawing logs.

Mitzi liked the mangy cat that visited us.

Ahsley loved exploring around the chalet.

Ian liked playing with the sword and shield he got at Burg Eltz.

8-4-10 Wednesday
Not much happened today. I think we were all tired from traveling the last couple of days. We went to Verbier and drove through the town and went and found a grocery store and bought some groceries, and that was about it. We are staying in a really cool chalet, although it is a bit small for our family. The couple who’s chalet we were staying in greeted us last night with an apricot tart, some gifts, and were super nice.

On to Switzerland

Heading onto Switzerland to our final place to stay. Going to stop in Bern on the way.

I went to the Frankfurt temple in the morning before we hit the road.

Brad has been great with Mitzi.

They moved the bears (the symbol of Bern) from a pit that we saw when Kindra and I went here about 10 years ago to a nice river-front pen.

Mitzi rode on the little piggie.

Bern has a beautiful bridge that looks over the river.

Everyone but me in front of the fountain with the bear and in front of the famous Bern clock-tower.

Kindra catching a drink in the fountain.

Ashley and Ian getting drinks.

Most of the fountains in Europe you could drink out of or fill your water bottles.

Brad helping Mitzi some more.

The famous Bern clock-tower.

Brad loved this Swiss Army Knife, but it probably wouldn't fit in his pocket.

And Megan loved this BMW motorcycle that was enclosed.

8-3-10 Tuesday
I went to the Frankfurt temple early in the morning, as I had selected the hotel to be close to the hotel, then it was on to Switzerland. We decided to stop in Bern which was about 1 ½ hours from our final destination in Sarreyer which is near Verbier. We went to the bear pits, and they had modernized them from when Kindra and I had got to see them about 11 years ago. They now were able to walk more freely on the hillside. The bears have been the symbol of Bern for centuries, and they’ve had bears there for a long time. We then walked across the river and up the main old street towards the famous clock tower. We watched the clock go off, which is a little anti-climactic, as not that much happens. A couple people dance around while a mechanical guy strikes a bell. They do have some really neat statues and fountains down the main old street that are pretty neat. Then we went to our destination. We met the people whose chalet we are staying at, and they were super nice. They had bought us a big chocolate bar, and some other souvenirs. They were so kind trying to make us feel at home. The problem is their chalet isn’t nearly as big as I thought it was going to be. We are doing a non-simultaneous home exchange, and they want to come to Utah the fall of 2011. On the home exchange website, they had listed their chalet as 4 bedrooms 2 baths with a loft area for kids. It sounded great. The problem is they really had 2 very small bathrooms (1 with a tiny shower, and the other with a shower/bath, but the bath was only about 1/3 the size of a normal bathtub), a queen bed in one half of a sitting/office kind of room, a very small living room that had a couch that folds out into a bed, a small kitchen/dining room, and the loft was about 3-4 feet tall with a blow up mattress and 1 small mattress on the floor. I guess we’ll make it work the best we can. I feel like we’ve had fabulous places to stay up to this point, but this is going to push us a little s we weren’t prepared for it to be this small.

Leaving the Netherlands we stopped by Burg Eltz in Germany on our way to Frankfurt for tonight. It's a great castle that was occupied up until just recently.

The family waiting for the tour of the castle. Unfortunately you couldn't take pictures inside the castle itself.

The courtyard inside the castle was pretty cool. The was a very narrow/tall castle.

Afterwards we grabbed a meal.

On the way out we got a great picture of the gateway/castle.

Brecken helped Mitzi on the way back to the parking lot.

Ian was already to play knight after visiting the castle and getting his own shield and battle ax.

Once we got to Frankfurt and checked into our hotel for the night, Mitzi, Ian, Brad and I went across the parking lot to McDonalds to grab a bite to eat.

Brad even gave me a smile, although it took about 10 pictures to capture the smile.

Ian had a great time in their play area. They had balls, baskets, bikes, a maze, etc. It was alot of fun for ian and Mitzi.

8-2-10 Monday Since heading to England, we are off the Saturday to Saturday stays and travel schedule. Today was a travel day. We are heading from the Netherlands to Germany near Frankfurt on our way to Switzerland. We drove to Burg Eltz which was a remote castle not too far from Koblenz. It’s a very different castle. Three different Eltz families lived in the castle, and the castle is kind of build in a triangle around a center courtyard with each side of the triangle being for a different family. They gave a great tour in English that was really interesting. It was neat to see some of the features of the medieval castles. They way the toilets were built to dump out the bottom of the castle were pretty interesting. They had a neat treasury and armory as well. After we finally made it to Frankfurt and checked into the hotel, Brad and I took Mitzi and Ian across the parking lot to McDonalds. They had a spicy burger made with Tabasco sauce that was really good. The play place had a small indoor basketball court, a climbing play-place like McDonalds back home, and a race course/obstacle course for kids. It has a timer so they can race against their previous time. Ian kept doing it and going for a better and better time. Mitzi loved playing with the balls and climbing in the play-place.

Just when you went into the open air museum, there was a bunch of little gnomes.

There were some beautiful grounds.

On older lady was demonstrating lace making.

Megan and Ashley had a good time at the open air museum.

There was a fun playground.

Going to the open air museum was one of the highlights of visiting the Netherlands.

They had a square with old fashioned games, toys, rides and then shops and such around it.

We had lunch with everyone getting to try the little pancakes that they put butter and powdered sugar on.

They had some canals, windmills, bridges, boats, shops, etc. all to give you the feel of how life had been like in Holland in years past.

Megan playing a hoop game.

Ian rode one of the little push/pull cars.

Ashley on the high wheel bike.

I even roade the high wheel bike, but I don't think I'll be riding it in LOTOJA this year.

Some of the shops.

A beautiful view over one of the ponds.

One of the many windmills. They probably had 8-10 windmills here. Some were huge.

One of the goats that came up and said "HI" to us.

8-1-10 Sunday We got up and got the kids all to church today. We went to church in Gouda. I ran into one of my old mission companions, Michael Jansen. Come to find out, his wife is the sister of the man who’s house we are staying at. I didn’t even look him up, but just ran into him ½ way around the world. Sometimes it’s a small world. After church we went to an open air museum in Arnhem. They’ve transported a lot of historic buildings from around the Netherlands and set up a museum/park around them. They have a bunch of windmills, old stores, farmhouses, and have recreated an old fishing village. They give demonstrations on some of the traditional Dutch way of life. We watched an old lady making lace, a blacksmith creating things, and some people playing some type of traditional Dutch game that’s kind of like croquet, but they roll the balls with these big paddles. They also had those mini pancakes with butter and powdered sugar. The kids loved them. This was a real neat area that allowed the kids to see lots of traditional crafts, trades, buildings, etc. all in one place. Everyone liked going to the open air museum and I think it was very culturally enlightening for the kids. I think eveyone enjoyed it and learned alot.

The Netherlands Temple.

Haarlem town square and market. Haarlem is on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

Another shot of the market.

The guide at Corrie Ten Boom's house.

The kids listening to the guide talk about how the Ten Booms hid people during WWII.

The hiding spot in the closet.

Grabbed dinner at McDonalds.

Kindra in front of some flowers. Some of the flowers in Europe were amazing.

7-31-10 Saturday I got up and went to the temple this morning while everyone else slept in. I was hoping that they’d be ready to go by the time I got back about noon, but we didn’t finally leave the house until 1:45. Very typical leaving the house late. Kindra read a story by Corrie Ten Boom about the house they had in Holland and where they used to hide Jews during WWII called The Hiding Place, and she wanted to visit it. They’ve turned the house into a museum, and it’s a little bit like the Anne Frank house, where you can see the hiding place they used to hide the Jews. We made it there at 3pm, and the last tour was at 3:30, so the girls went shopping while I took me, Mitzi, Ian, and Brad and explored the market at the town square that was going on. We got some fried fish that was fantastic. Then went back to where we were going to meet the girls. They weren’t there, and I sent Brad to get them as they were starting the last tour of the day. We barely made it. It was very interesting hearing about Corrie ten Boom and her life. They estimated they helped and hit about 600 Jews during WWII in their home. They finally got turned into the Gestapo. They were arrested and her dad died in prison shortly thereafter. Her sister and brother died in concentration camps, and she’s the only one who survived. She went on to write a number of books about her experiences and her faith in Christ. It was pretty interesting. After the kids were starving so we stopped at McDonalds. They like McDonalds because it’s something familiar and easy. Especially Ian and Mitzi like it. We did a little more shopping and then headed back to our place. We left some food for the kids, and Kindra and I went out to dinner in nearby Gouda. We are staying only about 5 minutes from Gouda and it’s the closest larger town. I love Gouda. It’s large enough to have really neat churches, townhall, buildings, etc., but small enough to be very manageable. Although I love seeing some of the major sites in the big cities, they are a little overwhelming, especially trying to drive in them, find places to park, and managing with 6 kids. We found a Mexican restaurant, and Kindra loves Mexican food, so she wanted to go there. It was really quite good. After dinner, I’m using some of the time to try and catch up on the blog.