Today was a great relaxing sightseeing day, with the help of the Grunenenfelders, my relatives. We slept in a little, in the most comfortable beds we've been in since leaving home. We slowly got up, showered, ate breakfast, and around noon decided it was time to set out, finally.

Off we went in the little-white-VW-Golf-that-could. Ursula took us first to the ski town of Einsiedeln. The first thing we saw was GIANT ski jumps (no snow now) that are used for international competitions. I dared Nina to do it, and she turned a nice shade of white just thinking about it :) The town itself was cute, kinda the Truckee of the Alps. Well, except for the huge church slash monestary slash school in the middle. We went into the church and were blown away by the paintings and sculptures all over. The floor had incredible tiles in intricate patterns. Too bad no one will ever believe us... we couldn't take pictures in there :( But we did find horses in the back and a baby pony the size of a dog! We found a cute bakery and cafe and had crepes (of the dessert variety) and coffee.

We next went and met up with Nicole and Anja, my cousins, in the adorable town of Rapperwil, on the banks of Lake Zurich. We walked up to the top of the castle, almost going deaf from the church bells. In an instant, a crazy hurricane started with incredible blowing wind. We ran for cover as we watched paddle boats hurrying for safety. We got into a coffee shop just as it began to rain. We'll see Rapperwil another time.

After a quick stop at a market, we went back home and Ursula made us an amazing chicken and rice dinner (with cheese in the sauce, of course!) and for dessert we had Swiss chocolate cream which I dreamt about that night. I will be dreaming about it for days to come, I think. I like Switzerland.

-Tiff