First adventure: Schaffhausen

Life in Europe isn't always dreamy and romantic like a European vacation.  The thing about vacation is, you go back home to your friends that you can speak English with, get together with, to your extra extra large fully stocked grocery store with an entire aisle dedicated to cheaply priced cereals and tons of Mexican food options, to your cell phones that you can call family members on, to your larger kitchens and freezers, etc.  We don't have those things at the moment and today, I miss them.  I'm not trying to complain because there ARE dreamy and romantic things about living here for the time being such as traveling.

It is crazy hard to believe that in 30 minutes by car, we are in a dreamy European town called Schaffhausen.

(image from Wikipedia)

This little city in northern Switzerland sits on the Rhine river which is a beautiful shade of turquoise.  In the old portion of town, it looks exactly as what you picture Europe to look like, outdoor cafes, cobblestone, Renaissance era buildings decorated with frescos and sculpture, and an old canton fortress, the Munot, which is surrounded by a vineyard.  The city is almost minutes away from Rhine Falls, Europe's largest waterfall.  It dates back to 1045.  To get there, we drove through gorgeous farm country with rolling hills of fields and passing through small towns and a section of Germany with equally quaint towns.

(image from Wikipedia)

To top it off, we walked through old town during a farmer's market and there was a man playing the accordian.  I would have loved to sit down on the street at a cafe and drink a latte, eat a croissant, and people watch.  But we have 2 babies under 2, which means we have strict time limits.

The start of the stairs up to Munot

After strolling for a little while, we climbed the stairs up to the Munot fortress, checked it out, then headed back to the car to change diapers and feed hungry kiddos.

After a picnic lunch at the car, we drove to Rhine Falls.  Praise God for Bryce's phone and Google Maps or we would be completely lost.  At Rhine Falls, we grudgingly paid the 5 CHF (CHF=Swiss Francs) because everything costs here (even to use a grocery cart at the store) per person to go get a view of the Falls.  We took an elevator down to avoid the stairs with the stroller again.  Our day couldn't get any more touristy in Switzerland, until we passed a man playing the alphorn.  We pinched ourselves (not really but thought about it) thinking that we actually live here.

She was obsessed with these cow sculptures around the entrance to Rhine Falls

Since we drove through Germany to get there, we were able to go grocery shopping there (for the second time now).  Many Swiss go shopping for large and small items in Germany.  At the store, about half of the cars on a Saturday have Swiss license plates.  It's funny to think that as a US citizen, you travel to Europe and everything seems so expensive.  But for the Swiss, everywhere else in Europe seems cheap.  It will be hard not to go crazy at Walmart and Target when we come home to visit.

We were home by 3:30pm, in time to rest and get to bed early since the sweet little ones are still having trouble at night.

(**P.S. I want to use our blog to share both the ups and downs, the amazing places we get to visit but also the tough things we experience while living here.  I really strive to share reality with you all, not just the picture perfect.  I love being able to share our lives and what's going on with us since we can't just pick up a phone and call whenever. Maybe if I'm lucky, I can even convince you to visit soon!  xoxo)