Saturday, April 20, 2002

            This morning I was up and showered by seven o’clock. The rest of the group followed shortly thereafter.  We were planning on visiting Europa Park today.  It is an amusement part in Germany. It is about two hours from Zurich and we wanted to get there at a descent time.  While everyone was getting ready, Diana made another trip to the local bakery.  It is about one block away.  She brought back some tasty muffins and pastries for breakfast.

            We were finally on our way to Deutschland shortly after nine.   Deutschland is the name for Germany here in Europe.  It took us about one hour to arrive at the border of Switzerland and Germany.   Basel is the last city on the Swiss side.  As soon as we crossed the border, we stopped and fueled up the car again.  We had waited to gas up until we arrived in Germany because Jason thought that it might be cheaper there.  This wishful assumption proved incorrect.  This time it cost us 70 euros or about 63 dollars to fill up the car. Gas is very expensive here.  We had about one more hour of driving before we arrived at the theme park.  Outside, the weather was somewhat overcast with occasional sun breaks.  We were all hoping for sun. The girls were all in the back seat scouring Diana’s scrapbooks.  They loved seeing pictures of her and her friends from high school.   Both of my girls really enjoy Diana as does Lindsi.   Diana has been especially nice to all of them while we have been here as well.

            We arrived at Europa Park just before lunch time (www.europapark.de).  The girls were bubbling with energy.  They had been watching the huge roller coasters from a distance as we neared the park.   The Silver Star was an enormous roller coaster.  The biggest I had ever seen.  We all rode this once before day’s end; except for Kacie who didn’t pass the height restriction.  I think Kacie was relieved.  The park was very fun.  It was clean, reasonably priced, and the lines were short.  We had apple cinnamon and chocolate pudding crepes at least two different times during the day.   We also had a little MovenPick ice cream.  Madison was amazing again.  She didn’t complain or fuss the entire day.

            We left the park about five o’clock in the evening and headed back to Zurich.  Jason and Diana wanted to get back to Zurich for dinner.  They wanted to take us to the Crazy Cow restaurant.  We arrived there about eight o’clock only to be turned away because they were full.  This was yet another experience with the differences in customer service between our two countries.  The host just looked at us with a blank stare and said we were full without any effort to accommodate us.   We were motivated though and we hung around until we finally were able to get a table.  The problem was mostly that we had six in our party plus Madison and most of their tables only fit four.  We ended up having an enjoyable meal.   We had pork schnitzel, ravioli, and spaghetti.