Edinburg

December 28-December 30

We headed to Edinburg for a couple of days while our family was in town. Edinburg is a beautiful quaint city and I wish we could have spent more time there! We went to Edinburg Castle, Camera Obsura Museum(highly recommend for kids!), and the Roslyn Chapel.

Germany

December 15-December 21

We went to Germany for Parker's Birthday and an early Christmas celebration.  We went to Cologne, Nuremburg and Munich.  In each city we explored the Christmas Markets and also toured some churches. Each city had a Christmas Market with food, drinks, and toys. Each towns was a little different and served different things.  It was so fun just wandering around each city's market trying new foods and drinking wine!

Germany is incredibly kid friendly! We even went to a pub that had a child play area in it.  We need places that like in Chicago!

Air BnB vs Hotels:
I get asked often where we stay when we travel. We almost always stay in hotels.  Michael travels for work and so we usually have points that we use. When we are out of points we look at available hotels in the area vs Air BnB. I know Air BnB tends to be more popular with families with kids. Unless the AirBnB has a much better location and price we tend to prefer hotels. For a few reasons..
-Hotels always have food available. We don't need to worry about finding snacks, milk, dinner as soon as we get into a city.
-Hotels always can provide cribs-this means one less thing we need to travel with.
-Hotels are almost always stroller friendly--the one AirBnB we stayed at had a huge flight of stairs making it nearly impossible for me to come and go with the kids alone

The downside to hotels is size--you can often find an AirBnB for a similar price that give you more space. Our kids are pretty good at sleeping close to each other and not waking each other up so being in one room isn't generally a problem!

Switzerland

September 10-14

Switzerland has easily been our favorite trip so far. The views are just breathtaking and unlike anything I have ever seen.  We flew into Zurich and used Zurich as our home base. From Zurich we did day trips to Lautnerbrunner, Bern, and Lucerne.  We were only there for 4 days and saw a lot. You could easily spend over a week in Switzerland and not get bored!

Our Trip:
Flew into Basel and stayed overnight at the Zurich Hilton Hotel. We stayed at the Marriot in Zurich for the remainder of our trip.
Day 1: Drove to Lautnerbrunner in the AM Drove to Lucerne in the PM
  -In Lautnerbrunner we saw Staubbach Falls (a waterfall that you can walk behind) and planned to see The Valley of 72 Waterfalls but got there and they said they did not allow kids. Had lunch in Lautnerbrunner and then headed to Lucerne. In Lucerne we walked around the city and saw the Chapel Bridge--a bridge that was built in 1333. It was destroyed in 1993 by a fire and rebuilt but some of the original pieces remained.
Day 2: Drove to Bern in the AM Drove to Rhine Falls in the PM
  -In Bern we saw the Crying Lion and had lunch and then drove to Rhine Falls. Rhine Falls was amazing!
Day 3: Stayed in Zurich
  -No set plans in Zurich we just explored the city and went to one museum.
Day 4: Flew out of Basel (explored Basel a bit before leaving)

We are not huge planners. We read about each city before we go and have an idea of the main things that we want to see but we don't plan out our trips to the minute.  We basically chose one activity for the AM and one for the PM. We have found its best to be flexible with our plans! One thing I am sure to always scope out before we go is playgrounds! I like to have a few marked on Google Maps so that when the kids have had enough of traveling we can stop and they can blow off some steam.

Trains are a very common way of traveling throughout Switzerland but we prefer to rent a car so that we can have flexibility. We always try to drive during naps so that the kids are happy!