Switzerland, in the clouds

We visited Thomas's sister Steffi and family near Zürich on the last few days of the kids' winter holidays.  Jan. 3rd, we rented a car, and headed south west (with Thomas driving, since even if I were allowed to, I wouldn't want to drive here on the crazy German Autobahns...)
A couple hours later, we stopped in Lindau, a quaint Bavarian town on an island at the east coast of the Bodensee (Lake Constance).

Mini-model of Lindau -- the island is attached to mainland with a bridge.

In the "streets" of Lindau

Lindau has many narrow cobblestone alleys, but is most famous for it's harbor, looking across the lake to the Swiss and Austrian alps.

Lindau is very popular is the summer, and you can imagine how stunning the view would be on a clear day!

As we drove into Switzerland (via 20 minutes in Austria) we got more and more excited about seeing the mountains.

It's really too bad the weather, for the last month in Europe, has been grey and unseasonably warm (5-10C).  I wanted the clouds out of the way so I could see the peaks!

My favorite part of this drive was the Walensee, an absolutely gorgeous lake at the base of a chain of 7 mountains called the Churfürsten.

 

We arrived at Steffi and Rolf's house in a tiny town called Wolfhausen (which isn't on the map... and we didn't have a GPS... and Thomas didn't want to call.  But he found it.)  It's near Rapperswil, on the opposite end of Lake Zürich from Zürich itself.  On our second morning there, the adults left the kids at home (playing Uno) and went for a walk around Rapperswil, which has a lovely downtown and, as is quite common around here, an old castle which overlooks the lake.

Thomas with brother-in-law Rolf and sister Steffi

View from the Rapperswil castle over the foggy lake

The night before, Rolf and the boys had gone to the Zürich pro hockey game.  Joshua is a huge fan of the ZSC Lions, and gave Benjamin one of his fan hats to wear.

LUZERN

On our first full day in Switzerland, however, the four of us, with our niece Alena, took a day trip into Luzern (Lucerne), which, by the way, is where Thomas was born.  We spent the morning in the transportation museum (lots of cool trains) and then the afternoon walking around the city.  What a gorgeous town!  It lies on the Vierwaldstättersee ("Four-forest-place" Lake, or known in English as Lake Lucerne) and its famous landmark is the Kapellbrücke, a 170 m medieval wooden bridge.

The Kapellbrücke (Chapel bridge) lies across the Reuss river, which drains Lake Lucerne

I took way too many pictures, since I loved the town so much.  Here are some.  

 Switzerland is absolutely gorgeous.  I'm really going to have to come back when it's sunny!

On the drive back home, we made a very slight detour through the tiny country of Liechtenstein, which has a grand total of 61 sq. miles, and lies on the border of Austria and Switzerland.  This way we could say that in one day we drove through all of the officially German-speaking countries!

Thomas, Julia, Benjamin, cousin Alena, on the Chapel bridge in Lucerne