Murder and Mayhem at Lenzburg Castle

Besides hiking in the most stunning mountain range in the world, the one other thing that Charlie came to Switzerland wanting to do was sampling fresh-from-the-cow milk.  And one of the first things that Torrey and Claire asked us for was directions to the Meyer Obstgargen.  I may have oversold it a little.

But this morning, Dennis and Alex took Charlie and Claire and Torrey all to the farm, where they got us two large bottles of milk and a large bag of little green pears, besides.  The lady who sold them insisted that they were ripe and needed to be eaten right away, but they're awfully crunchy, still.  Yet, Alex loves them, and that's good enough for me.

After a tall glass of Milch, we packed our bags and a to-go lunch for the kids and took ourselves to Lenzburg Castle, which has the merits of being wildly fun for the kids and reasonably interesting for visiting guests. The kids were thrilled that we got to go back: Ella was hatching plans of spending all afternoon in the kiddie playroom, holding court in her dress-up clothing.  She picked this morning's outfit carefully, so that it would tuck nicely inside whatever gown she chose from the racks.

We made them wait, though, while we had our lunch in the garden.  The kids were far from abused, however: they had the joy of eating our last package of Fasnachtschüechli (the sugar-covered puffss sold only at Carnival time).  Fueled with sugar, the kids ran around the garden: Princess Ella tried to get newly-crowned prince Joey to save her from the terrible dragon Alex. 

I was all set to take the kids to the attic for the afternoon, but then I noticed a sign that the museum was holding some sort of mystery scavenger hunt for the kids.  After getting distracted by the hands-on school area briefly (where Alex made himself a second game of dice and Ella learned about crime and punishment, fueling the next week's nightmares, I'm sure),

we went up to the gift shop, for questing instructions.  The incredibly kind man at the desk asked if the kids would prefer to hear their marching orders in the local dialect, or in High German.  Aarau, we discovered, though it is only about 50 kilometers from Zürich, has a completely different dialect of Swiss German.  We stuck to high German, and Ella did a decent job of following.

The kids were given a choice of disguises for their adventure: Ella chose to hold out for her princess clothes, but the boys were thrilled.  

"Welcome to the big search in Scloss Lenzurg. 400 years ago, Peter Bucher lived in this castle. As governor, he had to perform many tasks: he had to catch murderers and scoundrels, and hold and and interrogate them. Thus, we're going to find a murderer, his secret writing, his weapon, and the governor himself!

Disguise yourself as a detective. The hats, glasses, ties, in addition to the cash-shop you search out a piece of clothing!

1. Search the castle for the murderer. He has been caught and is called ____

2. The bailiff office awaits governor Peter Bucher. In addition to his work, holding court, collecting money, and caring for the castle, he often goes into the forest to _____

3. In Geschichtstalier you learn something about the riddle of the killer. The secret language of rogues is called ___

4. A supervisory dame has a flashlight to find the weapon of the murderer. In the bottle is ____"

The kids were excited at the outset and figured out the secret language and Peter Bucher's hobby quickly, but then they lost interest just as quickly. The castle was just a little too interesting and distracting.

Ella, doing her best bear-rug impression

Joey, especially, was entranced by a shadow puppet show that explains the legend of the animatronic dragon that lives in the castle dungeon.  During our last visit, Joey loved the dragon and was right there, roaring back at it.  But, after watching this show three times, he decided that maybe dragons were a little more scary than he first though.  He kept his distance.

I taped the show for Joey, who apparently would watch it all day: it's about five minutes long, and it's interestingly done. Kind of funny, but also surprisingly gory, in the fine tradition of European fairy tales.  

I also wanted to record just a little of the projections that have been installed, to add interest to the museum exhibits. I've never seen this done in museums before, and I thought it was kind of genius.

But, best of all, there was that glorious playroom in the attic.  So the kids and I retired there and commissioned Daddy and Charlie to carry on with the murder investigation, finding the prisoner and the Supervisory Dame, whoever that might be.

Holding court in the castle tower

We had a anxious moment when Ella couldn't find the lovely golden gown that she wore during her last visit.  But she ultimately pulled together an outfit that was even more sophisticated, and she was quite satisfied with herself, flouncing past her father, tossing coy glances, until she got the compliments that were her due.

Alex found his way right back to the kitchen that he so loved the last time we visited, and he cooked me a sumptuous meal. I watched carefully, so that I could recreate his masterpiece some fine night, and learned that Alex's secret is lies in heavy spicing. He shook many, many bottles into a cauldron, while whispering "Spice-spice-spice, spice-spice-spice, spice-spice-spice."  Come to think of it, I don't think he added any ingredients but spice.  He may have served me a large bowl of paprika and oregano.

Ella, meanwhile, practiced being a femme fatale.  With a little practice she became alarmingly good with a crossbow. And she spent the balance of her time decorating a little cardboard shield for Alex: she didn't quite have time to make him the dagger and sword she had planned.


Dennis and Charlie did fine work and retrieved the final two answers of the scavenger hunt for the kids.  When Ella returned the sheet, she told the docent immediately that she'd had a lot of help from Daddy--she cannot tell a lie--but he told her, sweetly, that living in Switzerland and trying to decipher a new language was detective work, in and of itself, and so he gave all three kids a prize, anyway: tiny flashlights, decorated with the Swiss flag.

We had a little bit of time left to walk around outside the castle, to see how the gardens had evolved and to run around the playhouses.

Hey there, Charlie!

Because it was so late in the day, we did our best to keep Joey awake on the ride home, feeding him chocolate and poking him periodically, but he passed out anyway.  Being a valiant prince and a detective takes a lot out of a little fellow.

We'd invited Torrey and Claire over for dinner: too late, I discovered that we had the wrong kind of cheese for the fondue feast we'd planned, and had to run to two different grocery stores to get the right mix. (And I learned that some grocery stores are closed by 5:45 on Saturdays!) But, in the end, we had our bubbly pot of cheese for dinner, to go with our lovely company.