A quiet weekend at home

As much as I love traveling, weekends at home in Switzerland are pretty good too. I know, you're probably thinking "Of course weekends are good when you live in Switzerland." It's true, but sometimes it's really nice to have a normal weekend, where you do boring married people stuff and enjoy the weekend days as they roll by.

Switzerland in general is really into wellness and health, so Friday night Basel had a company run for all of the major employers in the area. Being the team player he is, BK ran four miles with his team. I cheered him on, then we enjoyed visiting with his team and hanging out for the evening.

Saturday we slept in...sort of. It was forecasted at a 90 percent chance of rain all day, with the exception of from 6am to 7am. So being the dedicated pet parents we are, BK and I got up at 6am to walk the dogs hoping that we would avoid the rain. All that to say, it rained the entire time we walked in the morning, then didn't really rain any more all day. On the bright side we were able to go back to sleep and have a slow start to our day. We had lunch together, ran errands, did a couple more dog walks and really enjoyed our day.

We went to dinner at a really unique place in Basel with some new friends who also recently moved over here. Acqua is an old water mill (or something like that) that has been turned into a restaurant/lounge. The food was really good and the ambiance and atmosphere was great. We really enjoyed the company as well. It was fun to hang out with fellow Americans who have also just relocated...it's nice to compare notes and share our experiences. Somehow BK and I ended up staying up until around 2am, which is quite abnormal for us, but we were able to talk and FaceTime with family, so that was fun and nice to catch up.

Acqua dining room

Sunday was somehow very typical of a Sunday in the US. We went to brunch with our neighbors, then enjoyed the our afternoon lounging around catching up on shows that we like. It seems like we should be outside doing something active, but sometimes it's nice just chill out.

Ahhhh...nice and relaxed. Time for a new week :)

Amsterdam: not the city you think it is

So I've gone a couple days without blogging and I have guilt about it, but I have to get over it and move on. It's a work in progress.

BK and I ventured off to Amsterdam last weekend for a long weekend. A four day weekend in most places seems to be the perfect amount of time for us as we visit new cities for the first time. We're making the most of living in Europe and are pretty much traveling to a new country or place every three weeks or so. I'm really excited about our next trip because it's with BK's sister and brother-in-law.

Amsterdam was probably our favorite city we've traveled to so far. I feel like we say that about every new place we visit; maybe that's because we're settling in to traveling so much? Amsterdam was great- extremely walkable, beautiful architecture, and lots of stuff to do.

We started our weekend out with, what else, but a tour. We did a tour of the Red Light District Friday night when we arrived in Amsterdam. This was a great way to hear about the history of the city and kind of get the lay of the land upon arriving. The tour was good, and I found the whole Red Light District very interesting. The Red Light District is a very small part of Amsterdam, but it's probably not what you picture. The girls are all behind windows and if you want to go in, they have a bed and sink in the window area. Kind of weird. We heard that it's about 50 Euros for 15 minutes. After we did our tour BK and I staked out a place at a local bar and did some good people watching.

Red Light District

The next morning we headed out on a "Cheese, Clogs and Windmills" bike tour. We biked around Amsterdam, then headed out of the city to view some of the old levies, house boats and Dutch farmland. We also stopped at a great little family-run farm that makes Gouda cheese and clogs. It was a bit touristy, but the cheese was really good, and we bought a pair of clogs as a keepsake. The only downside was that it rained the entire time, but luckily the bike company had rain gear for every one on the tour.

House boats on our bike tour

Aging Gouda cheese

After our tour we went for a massage, then had a great dinner on a canal cruise. I'm always a little unsure about set dinners, but this tour was really good. When we placed our dinner order they placed it at a local restaurant then stopped by when it was ready, and we got it directly from the restaurant. The cruise lasted around three hours, during which we saw many of the canals and various parts of the city. It gets dark around 10:30 or 11:00, so there was plenty to see, including a very pretty sunset.

Canals of Amsterdam

Saturday seemed to be the day that I had scheduled everything, so Sunday and Monday were more laid back. We did a lot of wandering around the city, shopping and seeing random sites around the city.

The one thing I did have planned on Sunday was a visit to the Anne Frank Museum. I would highly recommend this museum. There's not that much to it, but it's a bit surreal to be in the place where the Frank Family was actually in hiding. I only say that there's not much to it because the house is actually empty. After the family was discovered and sent to concentration camps everything in the house was taken by the Nazis. When the house became a museum, Otto Frank's wish was that it remain empty to signify the void that was left by what was taken from the family (including everyone's life). It's a powerful statement and one that definitely has an impact. The museum also displays the original diary and a number of writings from that time. The one piece of advice I have for this museum is to buy tickets ahead of time. If not, you will wait in at least an hour long line; whereas I had purchased tickets before, and BK and I walked right in.

Like I mentioned, Sunday and Monday were much more laid back. We did some shopping in the 9 Streets, which has great boutiques and shops. We also did a lot of just wandering around enjoying the sights and sounds of the city. I captured this picture one afternoon, which I felt like got a lot of Amsterdam- bikes, bridges, a canal and houseboats.

Bikes, bridges, canals and house boats

I have no doubt we'll go back to Amsterdam before we leave Europe, and probably even after that. We would love to ride bikes more around the city, and there are also a number of great museums to go to as well- we didn't see any of those. I honestly feel like we just scratched the surface on this one, but at just an hour plane ride away, I'm sure we'll have more time to explore here.

And they say you can't do anything with flank steak...

Today was a normal day for me. I was excited to hear all the news from the US, but for me, my day consisted of German class, lunch with BK, walking dogs, German homework, groceries, walking dogs again, then dinner. I need to post about Amsterdam, but today's post is about grocery shopping. I used to be the annoying American who couldn't speak German. Now I'm the annoying American who tells everyone that I'm learning German, so bear with me as I try to tell you what I need and/or want.

Today I went to Migros, the local grocery store in which I like to shop. I found a recipe on Pintrest that I knew I wanted to make to give us a little taste of home: Grilled Steak with Roasted Jalapeño Chimichurri. This involves both flank or skirt steak, as well as jalapeños- I wasn't sure if I could find either of these things here.

When I got to the meat counter I saw flank steak and knew it was what I needed, but the butcher was not convinced. I showed him the picture of what I wanted to make and he then tried to convince me that it was filet. Um, no...not buying filet in Switzerland. Meat is seriously expensive here. The butcher tried to explain to me that with skirt steak you have to soak it in water and do all these other things to make it edible. So not the case. And yes, I totally told him that I was from Texas and knew what I was doing with it, so it would be fine. They laughed at me and said okay.

I'll be honest, because of them, I doubted myself on whether or not I had purchased the right thing, but it all turned out great! It was something new and different to try here, and we pan seared it in our apartment, which was also very different from the US. I am still not sure what kind of pepper I bought, but the chimichurri turned out very well, and had quite a kick.

Here are my results. Yum!

I am tempted to take this picture back to Migros just to let them know that yes, you can in fact do other things with flank steak, besides make soup. The Swiss are missing out as far as I'm concerned.

Some of the hardest things

I've reached the end of my day today and haven't posted yet. I think it was trying to catch up on mounds of German homework, trekking out to get the pups and trying a new recipe for dinner that seemed to consume my afternoon. Nothing to complain about, but the day just seemed to slip right by me.

This post is not about any of those things, but about some of the things that hard to be away from. We are loving living in Switzerland, but sometimes it's hard to be away from your family and friends, especially during their times of both joy and concern. 

For example, it seems like about 10 of my friends have recently popped out a baby. I often feel like I am updating BK on a daily basis on who has recently delivered, what they had and how they are. Not that I would be there for delivery or anything, but I like to at least be able to make a visit at home and perhaps provide a meal. From here I pretty much just have to let them know I'm thinking about them and will visit next time I'm in town.

Another not-so-happy example would be that our nephew had surgery for something that could have been major. Thankfully it turned out to be minor, but not being in the same time zone to get updates and see if there was anything we could do made us feel very far away.

I think the hardest one has been that my mom unexpectedly had to have surgery yesterday at around 6pm. At that point I wasn't even still awake, as it was 1am here. She had her hand operated on, thanks to a cat bite, but is staying in the hospital for two nights and is then going to stay with my sister. At least she didn't resist that idea. There's not much convincing I can do from over here over the phone. CMH and I pretty much just have to plot, then both make suggestions and hope that it goes the way we want it to. I can't help thinking that things would be a little easier with me in Fort Worth...at least I could provide some support to both of them, be it a place to stay, meals, driving mom to doctor appointments, etc. 

I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned here somewhere. Perhaps I need to learn how to provide support without physically being there? Usually I like to step in and actually DO things. I guess I need to work on this, and hope that everyone back home knows we're thinking about them and will do anything possible to help out from across the ocean- whatever that may be.

Do you hear that ringing?

If you're in Amsterdam you better hope you hear the ringing, because if not, there's a good chance that a bike may run right over you. Bikes rule the road here, hands down, no questions asked. They'll even yell at you if you don't respond to the bell. I sometimes forget that I need to snap out of my Swiss world when I come to other European counties- pedestrians don't rule here.

It's estimated that there are over 1.2 million bikes in Amsterdam, and with a population of a little over 800,000, that means that each person here has more than one bike. Apparently there's also a significant bike theft problem. It is supposedly perpetuated because the Dutch want to buy cheap bikes, since there's a likelihood of them being stolen, meaning that the demand for older, cheaper bikes is met by reselling the stolen bikes. It seems to be a vicious cycle.

Another funny thing we learned about bikes in Amsterdam is not to leave them unlocked or locked to something that is not bolted to the ground. We've heard that apparently drunk Dutchmen think it's really funny to stumble out of bars after a long night of drinking and chunk bikes into the canals. I think this is pretty funny too, but mostly because it just seems so random. We also learned that each year approximately 20,000 bikes are pulled out of the canals and eventually shipped off to China for scrap metal.

Bikes being pulled out of the canals

Kudos to Amsterdam for being so bike friendly (a serious under statement). BK and I did a bike tour yesterday and it definitely made me want to get BK's bike tuned up and finally go buy a cruiser for myself. We'll be cruising around Basel in no time!

P.S.: I wrote this to post on Sunday, but due to technical difficulties with BK's computer and the iPad, I was not able to post it. I'm back on my daily posting schedule now that we're back home.

The familiar sound of golf

In case you live under a rock, last Sunday was Father's Day. It was kind of weird for BK and I not to see either of our dads. Usually we see both of our dads, spending time with BK's family out of town, then usually back in Fort Worth for dinner with my dad. And there's always golf.

The US Open is one of the four majors in golf, and it is always held the weekend of Father's Day. In Texas our Saturdays and Sundays in spring and summer were always full of whatever tournament was on that weekend. For majors it also usually involved being at a parent's house as well.

I don't think it ever dawned on me how familiar the sound of golf is to me. When we turned the US Open on last weekend, I was immediately struck by the familiarity of what it sounds like on TV. Hearing the announcers talk about the leaders performance thus far and various golf legends throughout Saturday and Sunday brought me to the realization of how many of my years (all of them) have been filled with the sounds of PGA golf on Saturdays, and especially Sundays, the final day of tournaments.

BK especially liked this year's US Open because he has played on the course it was played on this year, Marion.

For the next major, the British Open, I'm excited because BK's sister and brother-in-law will be in Basel with us. It will be fun to enjoy a major with family again when the familiar sound of golf once again fills our apartment in Switzerland.

The shoes are in the bag

Today is the first day that I'm really not sure what I want to blog about, so I'm just going to go with the most recent happenings. We've had a bit of a frustrating start to our trip to Amsterdam. It took me much longer to take the dogs to the kennel than anticipated (thanks to traffic on the bus, not to me being late), I needed to stop and get Euros, we needed o finish packing and I was met at home by a frantic BK who was certain we were going to miss our flight. Not how I like to start any trip.

BK was funny because he wanted instruction on what to do with all of the items to be packed that I had laid out on the bed. From the tram (almost home), I told him the one thing to do was to put the shoes on the bottom so that our suitcase didn't fall over every time we stepped away from it. When I arrived back at the apartment he had put his shoes at the bottom of the suitcase...AND THAT'S IT. Having already organized everything, I packed the suitcase, got an additional bag we needed and we were on our way. On that note, let me just say that it irritates me when I can't fit all of our stuff for a long weekend trip into ONE carryon. I'm not sure why, but it just does. I blame the tennis shoes needed for our bike tour tomorrow.

Of course, all turned out fine, and we made the flight, but not without a couple of additional frustrations on the way. Airport security gets me every time. Even if you are not a frequent flier, surely you watch the news and know that your computer has to come out of your bag, your shoes have to come off and your liquids need to come out of your bag. It gets me when I'm stuck behind someone whose bag is about to go into the x-ray machine and they haven't taken their liquids out. At the time I'm thinking "you can't be serious with this!!" I just don't understand. Those rules are for everyone- even you, the clueless one.

Then I made the mistake of forgetting about the fact that BK would be bringing his work backpack along with us. We're flying EasyJet. They're cheap because they get you with the little fees. So upon boarding our flight, we were informed that BK would either need to fit his backpack into our carryon suitcase or pay 50 Euros to check. No fitting the backpack, so we had to pay the 50 Euros. My bad on that one. I've now been informed that I should pay more for an airline with better service. Lesson learned for this budding travel agent.

So that brings us to now- in the air on the way to Amsterdam. We arrive a little before 9pm and are then heading straight to a tour of the Red Light District that starts at 10. Hopefully the rest of this trip goes a little smoother...scratch that- BK's Pepsi just overflowed on his tray. Maybe we'll start looking up when we land. Just heard that we'll have an early arrival. One step forward.

Ich heisse Frau King

It's amazing how much faster the day, and week, goes by when you have something challenging to do. Specifically for me right now that challenge is intensive German lessons. Not that training the boys was not challenging, or that doing work for groups in the US was not challenging, but I appreciate the opportunity to get up, get out of the house and do something. Now when I come home from class, half my day is gone and I still have lots of stuff to do, including homework.

Monday I started intensive German classes. I am enrolled at a local school and am in class with three other women who are also expats. One is from the US, I'm guessing around my age, and moved here around the same time we did; one is from South Africa, is a little older than me and has been here for around nine months; and the other is from China, around the same age as me, and has been here for four-and-a-half years. I'm not quite sure how she's survived that long here without speaking the language, but she's been working on her PhD in Chemistry and they only use English in that environment. I've about had it with not knowing the language and we've only been here for 12 weeks.

In the time that I've spent getting us settled in, I underestimated how much I value being able to get out and meet new people. The first day I went to class was exhilarating- a new subject, new people to get to know and lots of new knowledge to soak in. BK is very excited that I'm meeting new people and has already suggested that we invite a couple to go to dinner. I need a little more than four days for that. I'm an extrovert, but he takes it to the extreme sometimes.

Being in class for just four days, I've also realized how much I love learning. I'm not sure that I would have described myself as such before, and it's not necessarily that I have a passion for the language, but I really enjoy learning new and different things. I think part of what makes learning German exciting as well, is that it opens up a whole new world for me here. After learning the language I will be able to volunteer and get involved in the social work community, which is where my heart really lies and what I'm eager to do. I'll also be able to communicate with neighbors and other community members at a basic level.

BK gets to learn too. Right now our apartment is labeled in German words to help me learn. There are various colors of stickies to remind me of their gender- pink for feminine items, yellow for masculine and orange for neutral. The German language is built on these articles, so let's hope I can get and keep them straight.

After this class is over I will have gone through levels A1 and A2, and hope to keep going for a couple more levels. We'll see when the time comes. BK and I are headed to Amsterdam tomorrow night. As always, there are more adventures waiting to be had.

In case you're wondering, the title of this post translated into English is My name is Mrs. King. And no, I don't go by that, it was just for effect.

And Now On To Transylvania...

After the wedding fun subsided, we all recovered on Sunday, including a post-wedding dinner/happy hour type event with L&V's friends from home. Transylvania was our next destination, and L&V so graciously offered to take us there on Monday and Tuesday. Don't worry...we didn't barge in on their honeymoon or anything. They go to Italy in August to celebrate.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Romanian geography (I wasn't, and am still a little foggy) Transylvania is a region of Romania, not a specific city. The region is northwest of Bucharest and boasts a lot of countryside, mountains and small villages. I believe the biggest town in Transylvania is Brasov, which is in the southern part of the region.

Before we got to the mountains we stopped at a monastery. It's famous because legend has it that when it was being built, the builder would build during the day, go home to sleep at night, then the next morning everything would be undone. One night in a dream, the builder had a vision that he needed to build his wife into the monastery and it would solve this problem. So the next day he did, and there she stays to this day. V said they learn this as a love story in school. Not sure what to make of that.

Romania has two or three highways (debated between L&V), but after you get off the highway, or if you want to take the scenic route to the top of the mountain, here's what you have to drive through:

I won't lie. I spent much of the trip to the top of the mountain laying down/sleeping in the back of the car, only to rise when something really interesting happened. We drove for quite a few hours, but the reward was awesome, and somewhat unexpected. We ate at a great diner-type restaurant and enjoyed views of the mountains, a lake and lots of sheep being herded on the mountain side.

I believe when we made it over the top of the mountain, we were officially in Transylvania. From there went through some other small villages, then made it to Bran, which is where the castle is located. We stayed a great little resort called Club Vila Bran. I'm under the impression they do a lot of business around Halloween, but there were still a fair number of people there. V made sure BK and I had the room with the view:

In the evening we relaxed, enjoyed the views and had another traditional Romanian dinner. Each time I mention dinner we were usually trying new things we had not yet experienced.

"Dracula's Castle" is actually Bran Castle and was obviously made famous by the story of Dracula. The story was inspired by Vlad the Impaler who ruled in this area long ago. We toured the castle the next morning. It was not at all scary and was really your typical European castle, furnished with period pieces throughout.

On the way back to Bucharest we briefly stopped to view the residential palace, although now that I think about it, I am not sure who lives there since Romania is not a monarchy. I was raining again, so we just viewed from afar.

The only bad thing about the trip was that BK had to change his flight to go back to Switzerland a day early, which also happened to be our 8th wedding anniversary. Unfortunate, but not the end of the world. I spent the evening with L&V hanging out in Bucharest, relaxed the next morning, then went to see the Village Museum. I would recommend this stop. It's an open air museum in which they have brought in homes from the different regions of Romania to illustrate the various cultures and architecture.

Romania was an extremely interesting trip for us. As I previously mentioned, I found the push and pull between their past and their future very evident, but that is also mixed with people who are very proud of everything their country stands for. Many thanks to our friends L&V for their hospitality throughout our entire trip!

Oh yeah, and one more thing. When you hear that Romania is full of gypsies, don't believe it. There are gypsies in Romania, but no more than any other European country. A long time ago, Romania just happened to be the only one who didn't kick them out as soon as they arrived.

Romania: Bucharest, a wedding, Dracula's castle and more!

Before I can move on to my daily posting, I figure I need to finish updating the blog with our latest travels. BK and I had the pleasure of setting off to Romania a couple of weeks ago. This trip came after BK had been back in the US for a couple of weeks, so I was really excited to get to meet him in Bucharest. We were also really excited to be there for our friends' L&V's wedding.

What first stuck me about Romania is that it seems like a country that's struggling to let go of its past, but so badly wants to hang onto its culture and heritage; is trying hard to move forward and be a modern Western nation, but faces many internal challenges that limit how far they've come. We were in Bucharest for the beginning of our trip, which is the capital city, and where L&V's wedding was held. 

Romanian Athenaeum

This was our first trip to a post-communist country, which was quite intriguing for me, especially considering that Romania is a relatively young democracy (1989). I also found it very interesting that L's parents were part of the Romanian Revolution that led to them now being a democracy. The city is full of great historical architecture, that surprisingly was not destroyed by the communist regime.  On the flip side of that, there are also many buildings that have become run down, with owners who essentially have decided to let them fall down (literally) so they can then sell or rent the valuable land, while incurring no renovation costs themselves. It's really a shame, but is also a prime example of not changing old rules that would benefit the revitalization of the city.

We arrived on Friday and had that evening and pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday to wander around and explore. Keep in mind we also had to rest up for/recover from the wedding. The Old Town part of the city center is very charming and has many outdoor restaurants and terraces to enjoy. Of course, like anywhere else BK and I go, it rained, but only part of the time. Friday night we had traditional Romanian cuisine at Caru cu bere, which was a great way to really get into our experience. L&V also arranged a great hotel for us, the Grand Continental Hotel. Another note about Romania in general...it's super cheap.  They use the Romanian Leu, and are part of the EU.

Here are some of the sights from around the city:

Bucharest boasts the largest administrative building in the world- this picture doesn't do it justice

Sculpture built after the fall of communism

Romanian king (from hundreds of years ago)

The big event we were there for though, was L&V's wedding. It was a great time, and the longest party we've ever attended. We were there for about 12 hours- from around 5pm for the church service (Romanian Orthodox) until 5am when we left the reception. We didn't make it as long as the Romanians- they stayed until 6:30am! The church service was very interesting for us, and quite traditional for Romanian weddings. There are no seats in the Basilica, so no falling asleep for church-goers here.

From the church service we headed to the reception hall. It is the job of the wedding party to check off guests as they arrive and show them to their assigned tables. While they are doing this, L&V were off taking pictures after the ceremony. It's quite the party, but not incredibly different from US weddings. There was both a band and DJ, with dancing starting with L&V's first dance- a waltz. Then the dancing starts for everyone...and there is a lot of dancing. BK and I did dance, but not nearly as much as some of the other guests. We were pulled into one Romanian dance, the Hora, but I think he and I were pretty much just running around in a circle, as opposed to trying to complete any steps.

Traditional Romanian dance

So what did we do until 5am you ask? Danced, of course, but also ate lots of tasty food. I think there were about five courses before the wedding cake was served at 3am. Essentially the first one starts around 9pm, then every hour-and-a-half or so another one comes out. Another tradition that L&V did was the "stealing of the bride." L's friends take her somewhere away from the wedding, then call V to tell him what he has to do to get her back. This is usually very embarrassing for the groom. V didn't have it too bad- he just had to get the whole reception to do Gangnam Style and the Harlem Shuffle. 

The beginning of sunrise- to prove we were still awake

The success of the wedding is judged on how late your party goes. Based on theirs, I'd say it turned out pretty well! More about Dracula and our trip to Transylvania tomorrow...

An Idea Inspired by "The Happiness Project"

No I'm not doing my own Happiness Project, but I am reading the book and it has inspired me to set a new goal for myself. When I started this blog I initially wanted it to chronicle our travels before moving abroad with the ultimate goal of blogging about our lives while living in Switzerland. I've decided that blogging four times a month isn't really accomplishing that goal. I am posting about our travels, and of course the dogs, but not much other than that.

So here's my goal: TO BLOG ON A DAILY BASIS.

Yes, you read right, I want to start posting on a daily basis. They may not all be long, and they may not all be earth-shattering, but they'll be about something happening in our daily lives.

In the spirit of this new goal, here are a couple of things that happened today:

• It's really hot here. I know I was just complaining about the cold, but now it's 95 degrees outside. My fellow Texans should also know no one has air conditioning over here. You just learn to manage your sun shades well and keep the apartment closed off from the hot air.
• I started intensive German lessons at a school with a group of three other women. I go three hours a day, five days a week...there's homework and everything. I'm extremely excited about learning the language and feeling like we can move forward with our lives.
• I took my house cleaner for granted in the US. I cleaned our apartment today, and it doesn't take long, but it's also not my favorite thing to do. I am not someone who "likes" to clean, but I like to clean more than I like a messy house. Chaotic house = chaotic life.
• Speaking of cleaning...while I was cleaning today I was also doing laundry. Seems that I forgot to put the washer drain in the bathtub and when it came time to drain the washer, it drained all over the bathroom. Oops.  I knew this would happen at some point. I cleaned it up and moved on.
• The pups seem to be perpetually pooped. Exercising them three hours a day seems to be doing just the trick! As I mentioned today was really hot; Tobs took a quick dip and Tanner was involuntarily plunged in to cool him off.

That's about it for now. See you tomorrow :)

The beginning of something new?

I should absolutely be posting about Romania, but first I have to post about this weekend. It has been great! Summer seems to have finally decided to show up in Switzerland, BK is back home after about three weeks away, and the pups seem to have finally accepted that this is their home now.

As I've mentioned before, I realize that I post a lot about the dogs. I see this being reduced now that they aren't howling at the top of their lungs when I leave the apartment and barking at every little sound. While BK was away for two weeks I became the Swiss version of the Dog Whisperer. In addition to working with the trainer, I delved into two of Caesar Millan's books to help me get some perspective on what I needed to do to really fix this problem. The answer is exercise, discipline and affection.

BK and I thought they were getting enough exercise because we were walking them way more than in the US. Not so much. We're now really in a routine that seems to be working, and the first part of that is walking their little behinds off. Right now we're walking about three hours a day- an hour in the morning, an hour at lunch and an hour in the evening. They are typically so exhausted at the end of the day, they don't really care what we do. They also only get food after walks. Once they have walked and are full, supposedly their brain tells them that now it's time to rest, and I believe it. We've also changed how we give affection/attention. For one thing, it now happens on our terms, when we want it. And they pretty much get no attention (talking to them or touching them) until after they have had their morning walk and breakfast.

Toby enjoying a dip

BK brought the final thing we needed back from the US- the Sonic Egg.  It is a small device shaped like an egg that emits a high pitched noise only the dogs can hear, and don't like.  As soon as we set it up, Tanner got through about half of a bark, and then the egg shut him up. He wants nothing to do with that thing. It's also reassuring to know that when we're gone they won't hear something and just go on a barking rampage.

BK sometimes jokingly asks if certain things are allowed in my "regime," and my sisters refer to me as Caesar in their texts, but hey, if it works and I can have a life outside of our apartment, we're keeping it up.

I say all this to lead into the fact that we had a great morning on Saturday when we took the dogs to a park with a stream running through it. We successfully walked them without their leashes, they played well with all the other dogs there, Toby got in the water, and we walked up and down the stream throwing a squeaky ball for them- letting them get even more energy out. We were able to sit on an outdoor terrace and have lunch with the dogs waiting patiently, then come home and relax for a bit. We took them on another hour long walk in the evening, but then BK and I were able to go out to dinner for three hours, and the dogs didn't make a peep!  Woo hoo!

First night out!

This may seem insignificant, and when we look back on our time in Switzerland we'll realize what a short amount of time it took to settle the boys in the grand scheme of things. But for me, this has been a long journey, and quite a bit of it with BK traveling and not available to help. I'm excited and it feels like we can finally move on with our lives and start to live normally. It's been a great weekend and I'm now looking forward to more just like this!