$wiss $horts

Flikkema Family Creed #14: "If we go on a vacation, we go all out." That means we go to the top of each building / mountain / structure, ride every available form of transportation, and hire private tours. Gourmet dining is - sadly but understandably - excluded from this creed due to the existence of small children. This creed makes for more memorable vacations with fewer regrets. Until your credit card bill shows up, anyway.

$witzerland is painfully expensive. We've been there twice and are thinking next summer looks good for a third trip. Right after we get our (hopefully large) tax refund. Pretend you're in Chicago and you get your food and drink exclusively from the vendors at Wrigley Field. And you're staying at the Hyatt next door. And taking limos to VIP sites all over town.

• Cheapest Meal: approx. $42 lunch of brats, chips, and two shared drinks
• Best Find: hidden 40% off coupon (Kevin's addiction for brochure browsing finally pays off) for the most expensive Gondola ride in the area
• Most Ridiculous Price: $68 for a used, small cow bell (we declined to purchase it)
• Best Deal: for $5 parking we hiked and saw 7 incredible wateralls and 1 cool snake

The best anesthetic to the pain is, of course, Switzerland itself. All the Germans we know go to Austria. It's cheaper, plenty of mountains, and has hotels that cater to families. We may try it out in the Spring. But we love Switzerland. We went before the summer crowds (though we still had to run occasionally to beat out tour busloads) and after the bad weather.

• The Good: Mountain tunnels, waterfalls, the apartment, pool slide, watching paragliders, hiking, riding gondolas, summer toboggan runs, train rides and happy kids.
• The Bad: Steep inclines with the stroller (oops wrong turn), losing a hat, losing a pillow, losing a sweatshirt, losing a gondola ticket (sigh), bugs, clouded-in mountain peak.
• The Ugly: I had to wear my glasses the whole time and the sun was painfully bright. Eli's knees and hands after 4 days of hiking (tripping).

Our children were much happier here than they were in Prague. Coincidentally, we liked them better too. It's the one place we're willing to go back to. Though i'm sure repeat visits is against at least one of our family creeds....

Ahoiy! Bring on the Coleslaw.

You know what's great about Prague? We had to learn to share. Painful, yes, but we all did a little of what the others wanted and in the end it was a good lesson. I think. Kevin got his viewpoints (that means steps, folks, lots of 'em). Eli got his streetcars, subway trains, and taxis. Mary got her treats. And I got coleslaw. Cabbage, white cabbage, is a staple of the Czech diet and coleslaw comes with every meal. As my family is not as sophisticated as I am, I got 4 helpings.

Here is a slightly generalized breakdown of our activities, below. For more details, see captions of our pics to your right (that way --->).

The black light show was entertaining (Image Theatre) and the kids were rapt. Thankfully, as they were the only children in the large audience. And it seemed like in all of Prague. They are now able to stay up late a night or two, which is very nice, but still not fancy-restaurant-ready. We discovered two more great reasons to travel with your kids. You SAVE MONEY by eating at KFC / McD's instead of gourmet and going to only one show instead of staying out late every night at a club or theatre. Also, and this is important, you arrive VERY EARLY at all the popular sites (while other tourists are sleeping off hangovers) and never need to wait in a line. Plus no one wants to be mean to cute little kids so you get the best viewing spots and seats on the fullest of trams.

More learning for mom and dad. Eli and Mary are, strangely, not as interested in old buildings as we are. And this trip they let us know that. It's getting harder... looking for strange statues that might catch their interest, finding fountains that have fish in them, seeking out a snack shop or toy store for bribes. But they're still tough kids and decent travelers. And so we continue to torture them. We console ourselves with the thought that "one day they'll thank us for this" and trade off city tours with funner, kid-friendlier vacations. Next week: Switzerland. The bikes will be coming along (Mary now has a tricycle) and there are zero old buildings on the schedule.