Welcome to Lochli

We left Luxembourg on Saturday morning to drive through Germany to get to Switzerland.  Along the way, we stopped to eat lunch with some “friends” who are stationed at a U.S. military base in Germany.  I put “friends” in quotes only because we hadn’t actually met these friends before we ate lunch with them--but they are friends now (the kind without quotes).  It started when a good friend of mine in Charlottesville introduced me to her sister living in Germany via facebook, and it turned into a very, very appreciated lunch invitation/rest stop on our journey south.

Once again showing how small the world the world is, my new friend had worked for a year for my uncle and was a mission companion to one of my roommates from college.  

We continued south, and I came to love and appreciate something I’ve always heard about: the German Autobahn.  My GPS shows me the speed I’m going next to the current speed limit.  Once we hit the Autobahn, it only showed my speed...because there were no speed limits.  Okay, sometimes there were, but only as you pass by towns and through tunnels.  The only bad thing about going so fast is that the scenery was so beautiful that I didn’t get to enjoy it as long as I would have liked.

It’s a little surreal to be going 85 miles and hour and have someone blow past you.  Those “someones” were consistently  driving a BMW, Audi, or Mercedes. But I don’t think I was ever passed by another 8-passenger Peugot Expert Tepee (the fancy wheels we have over here).  I owned the passenger van category.

We made it to Switzerland in the evening, and attempted to find the house we’re staying in.  I thought I had it programmed in, but when our GPS said “you have arrived at your destination” she was very wrong.  We were nowhere close to a road that lead to a bridge that you had to walk across to get to a house.  And those were all the directions I had to go on beyond what I thought were the cross streets.

These are the hiking trails behind our house. We're staying in "Lochli".

Luckily we had a phone number to call, so we pulled into a gas station and were able to get a hold of someone who said they would come to where we were and we could follow him to the house.  And it’s a good thing he did, since there’s NO WAY we ever would have found it otherwise.

It’s off a side residential street, and then back into the woods on a narrow dirt road.  We were able to pull up close to where the bridge is, and took out our luggage.  Then we drove about 1/4 mile back down the road to where we could leave our car.  

I found this house on a website called HomeAway.  It was the only house with 4 bedrooms, and was surprisingly affordable.  Probably because it’s a solid 5-minute walk up and down hills and across a bridge to get to your car every time you want to go somewhere-- and not everyone is into that.  But we took a gamble, and once again our gamble paid off.

The house is older, but has been renovated.  Mostly straight out of IKEA, but still has plenty of personality.  My kids love: the red spinning chairs in the kitchen, their awesome bedrooms with fluffy duvets and cool doors that can double as windows and have views of the yard, the wood-burning stove that heats the house, the koi pond and fire pit, and the waterfalls that we can walk to straight from our house.  

I love that the entire upstairs is an open master bedroom, there is a washer and dryer (that took me about 30 minutes to get to work, and I’m not entirely sure I’m doing it right), there is a fence that goes around the whole yard keeping the kids from falling into the river below, there is beautiful scenery, and I have a big kitchen.

Ryan also loves the house, but would have appreciated it if the ceilings were about 2 inches taller on the main floor.  It’s kind of like when we drove our van into the underground parking structures in Paris, except he actually scrapes the ceiling when he goes under the beams without ducking.  And then there are a couple of really tricky spots where the height goes down to about 5’7”.  Perfect for smacking the forehead of someone who is 6’0”.  It has happened a few more times than he would have liked.  

It’s fine when you’re paying attention to where you’re going.  But with kids, you’re often reacting to something you hear going on--and if you’re not thinking about the ceiling, it can catch you by surprise.  And since you’re already kind of annoyed that you’re having to break up a fight or something like that, having a smack on the head takes the whole thing to a new level.  And it isn’t pretty.  

Luckily the upstairs has open, beamed ceilings that are far away from the top of Ryan’s head.

We went to church in St Gallen, and appreciated the fact that there were people willing to translate for us.  We even got little headsets.  There’s nothing like arriving a couple of minutes late to church to find that the only row of 7 seats available is the front row and then having someone bring up a box of headsets to you to make your presence fully known.  

After church, we explored the “nature preserve” that our house is located in.  There are a couple of waterfalls and stairs that lead up to a “magic meadow” that will be perfect for soccer, frisbee, kickball, etc.  It’s still early spring here, so a lot of the trees are just now getting leafs on them.

Hauling the $100 of groceries back to our house.  Luckily you can fit $100 of groceries in just 2 bags when you buy things here.   And we were just buying food to last us the weekend.  It wouldn't have been so expensive if  all the grocery stores weren't closed (it was 6:00 on a Saturday evening). So we had to buy everything at a gas station.

 This is the side and back views of the house.  The door above goes into Katie and Chloe's room.  We used the firepit on the first night, and Katie insisted we dine al fresco on the picnic table.  The chain link fence overlooks a drop off down to the river.

 This is the pathway down to the house.  You go down the hill, across the bridge, and up another hill.

 The kitchen.  Pure IKEA.  My kids love the chairs.  I love the beams and the brick wall behind the stove.

 The other side of the kitchen, including our wood-burning stove.

 The upstairs.  Having a real house again after 3 weeks of being cramped has been heaven.

Up in our "magic meadow" at the top of the trail behind the house.

 Crossing the bridge on the way to the car.  It's a good 15 feet down to the river from the top.

And then again on the way home.  

 Every field around us has stacks of wood and a bathtub for good measure...

 Our store of firewood.  It should keep us going for a while.

Ryan will be going into the university tomorrow, and I’ll be doing some real home-schooling with the kids.  I think we’re all looking forward to a day at home where we aren’t tripping over each other.  Wish me luck with the home-schooling thing.  I have had many friends who rave about how much fun they have with it.  I've never imagined myself being one of those people. But I'm willing to give it a try.