Monday, Oct 31st
After school today all the dorm kids and staff went to Herbstmesse which is a fun carnival type event that takes place in Basel each year. There are many plaza areas within blocks of each other and each of these places gets filled with rides of all shapes and sizes. BFA had 2 buses that transported all the grade 11's and 12's. The rest of the kids went in dorm vans. We took Caleb and Connor in our own van. Once there, all the kids are "set free" to roam and ride in groups of 3 or more. Everyone meets up at the bumper cars by the end of the evening.

We took the kids to McDonalds for supper. Some things are still hard to get used to...no ketchup unless you ask for it and pay for it, no refills on pop and each McD carries different food items. We sat outside to enjoy our supper.
















There is a HUGE ferris wheel...the biggest I've ever seen. It had the most incredible view from the top. It was more of a gondolla type carrier that sat 6 people.















The highlight (as it is each year) is the bumper cars. The kids had so much fun on these crazy cars. Connor met up with a couple of his friends from his class and they did lots of crashing. Caleb had lots of fun here too

Mark and I spent the day in Lucerne, Switzerland which is less than 1 1/2 hours from here. It was another sunny day and very picturesque. The kids all stayed home as they had homework and there was a big carnival at our dorm with all the girls dorms. We left after Connie and Al left this morning.
















The city is beside a large lake and the old part is all a pedestrian walkway. There is still part of the walled city left where we climbed to the top and walked along the wall.





















We stopped for lunch at NY Food Company...or something like that. They had the best pizza I've had since arriving in Europe. Mark had one of their subs and it even tasted like home. There are almost no places here for fast food that make subs. No Mr. Sub or Subway! They even had ice for the pop!! But of course, no refills. Actually the only place we've ever seen free refills is at IKEA.















We spent all day walking and exploring the different areas in the city. The pedestrian bridge is made of wood and 12 years ago it almost burnt down. There were many pictures in the roof that were hand painted from hundreds of years ago. They lost many of them in the fire, but there were still some left.

After hiking back from the castle, we stopped at a Kebap place and picked up some supper then headed up to this picnic area about 10 minutes outside of Kandern. It was such a beautiful area up on a high spot which gave an amazing view around the area. Gary and Bearnice had been here a number of times before. There was a little play area for the kids, a soccer field and picnic area.





















As the sun started to go down we got an amazing sunset. Reminded us of Saskatchewan sunsets.

We finished off the evening with a game of charades. This was a fun time for all. Jake just got back from a tournament in Frankfurt. They won the tournament so he was pretty excited. Tiera and Jake were both so busy with homework and sports that we didn't get to spend much time all together as a family.

Near Kandern...















Hiking through this area was so interesting. The pictures don't show the amazing formations and size of this canyon type place.
















Caleb with his home made hiking stick...something that everyone has here if you go for any type of walk or hike. THis was on our way to Lorrach Castle.




































Up in the castle ruins...

We came back to the apartment for lunch and then we met up with Hildebrands in the afternoon and hiked over to Lorrach Castle. It was much different this time compared to when we went there with Derksens. This time the leaves were scattering the ground and everything was in shades of brown, yellow and red. Jaqueline (Hildebrands daughter) was so excited to have her friends from Prague here.

We were watching our kids climbing up a steep ridge wondering if they were going to come crashing down.