Geneva -> Zürich

Feeling more optimistic with the morning's sunshine, Dennis and I made our plans for the day.  On our walk yesterday, we'd passed through a park with a playground and an adjacent restaurant that was open on Sundays and had outdoor seating in fair weather.

Our plan was actually to sit and enjoy breakfast while the kids played on the playground, but we arrived to find that they didn't open until their 11:30 brunch, and that the outdoor seating was not open.  So we shifted our plans and made a reservation, and the kids had two happy hours of playground time before we ate. 

Alex spent most of that time babysitting Joey, sweetly taking him around the playground and pushing him on the merry-go-round, while Ella took a little Swiss 2-year-old girl under her wing, see-sawing with her and then making her a sand castle to knock down.

Poor Joey, having gone more than 24
hours without toy cars, makes do
with a train-shaped sand toy.

One of each. And then back for more
yellows and browns.

The restaurant had glass walls overlooking the park, white tablecloths, and sparkly chandeliers: Ella noted all with approval, saying "Well finally! A restaurant that pays attention to its ceiling decoration!"And the restaurant earned further raves from the children as they surveyed the buffet: enormous platters of chocolate croissants and other pastries, and endless juice and cocoa.  Joey methodically stuffed himself with vegetable samosas, and I had more than one helping of bacon-wrapped dates. It was a fine, fine morning.

While we were eating, Ella's and Alex's attentions were captured by the dozen giant chess boards outside the restaurant, so after brunch, Dennis gave them a little lesson in piece movement while Joey quietly redistributed the board more to his liking.

Introducing the kids to the statue game

And then we wandered back to the train station, this time cutting through Geneva's old town, circling around the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre and bumping into the cannons and mosaics of Alexandre Cingria.

Les canons d'Alexandre Cingria and their
weasel-shaped handles. (Overheard: "Come on, Alex,
let's figure out how to shoot the cannons! Hmm. I think
they might be missing a string.")

Sure! Let's find out where this goes.

Horloge Fleurie.  Some Japanese tourists
tried to take pictures of Joey, who ducked
and dodged, explaining to them his
"No Cheese!!" policy.

Alex begins to lag on the home stretch.

All of our tromping around Geneva made for a very peaceful 3:00 train ride home, with Joey sleeping for most of it in Dennis's lap and the other two collapsing gratefully with some video game time.

Ella thinks big.

And when we got home? The kids, inspired by our hotel, spent the evening installing card readers on their bedroom doors. This is Switzerland, after all. We take our security very seriously.