Yoga, Birthday, Lucerne

We are approaching our date of departure, August 24. We are headed for the Washington, D.C., area for a week, then we fly back to California on Labor Day. Here are some of the things we've been doing as we finish up our visit.


Yoga
I have now taken more yoga classes in German than in English. Ok, so I'd only had one class in English before I came here, but still. Our neighbor, Susan, teaches yoga upstairs in this apartment. Her view of the river and the hill behind it is amazing.



My Birthday
We celebrated my birthday last week by attending a pipe organ concert in Zurich's Grossmunster church, followed by a dinner out that included a tasting of Zurich's famous and delicious veal dish with rosti. Here is the organ that we heard played. Sorry for the bad photo quality - we took this picture with my cell phone.



Back home, I was sung to by the Star-Lack men.



Lucerne/Luzern
The next day, we went to Lucerne to visit the Transport Museum there. It is truly amazing. There are areas dedicated to rail, auto, communications, air travel, space travel, etc. They have Razor scooters of all sizes for kids to use for free - kids can scooter from one exhibit space to another. They then park them outside an exhibit hall and other kids can use them. It's like a city bike model - there are so many, there's always one for you to use. Included in the price of admission is a ride on the flight simulator. This contraption lets you roll and spin in any direction. I don't know why I let Russell pilot the aircraft. I must love him a lot. Maya was too short to ride this time. If there's a next time, she's going with Josh.



The auto section of the museum lets kids improve upon the design of well-known cars.

Maya's car



Russell's cars





I asked the kids what part of the museum they liked best. Russell liked everything. Maya liked riding the little train in the garden.



On our brief visit to Lucern on the way home from the Alps, we took this picture of the famous crying lion that commemorates the loss of 700 Swiss Guards in Paris during the French Revolution. The Guards died protecting King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It's a very moving monument.



The kids and I decided to take the boat on Lake Lucerne back from the museum to the train station.