An added bonus to serving a mission for the LDS church is all of the missionaries that you meet and through social networking we can stay in contact with them more easily. Such is the case with Matt and a sister missionary who lives in Zurich, Switzerland whom he met as a missionary in France. Dani graciously allowed us to stay at her apartment while she was away for spring break with her husband. Not only did she have the beds all made for us, but she also allowed us to use her computer, got the kids Easter baskets and a bunch of chocolate for all of us to share. And all that she asked for us to bring her was some baking soda from the states!

We had very full days while we stayed at the apartment.

6 apartments in this complex. We stayed at the middle one on the right

You can’t go to Europe without going to a Chocolate Factory! My favorite chocolate is Lindt and the factory just happens to be in Zurich. The factory wasn’t open for tours, but the store above the factory was open and all ready for Easter.

chocolate, chocolate everywhere

Then we walked around the town of Zurich and saw some cool buildings and interesting people.

Grossmunster church on the river Limmat

Taking a break near the Grossmunster. On the other side of the river is Fraumunster with its church tower

This guy kept trying to talk to Matt, but neither one spoke a language the other could understand. He was a little crazy...and he was rolling a joint

We ended the day with going to the Zurich zoo since our family loves the zoo and TripAdvisor places it as the #1 attraction.

Jungle Book Family

More photos of Zurich

On our way to Zurich, Switzerland we made a couple of stops. First to the castle in Chillon which lies on the Lake Leman.

Chillin' at Chillon

The oldest parts of the castle have not been definitively dated, but the first written record of the castle is in 1160 or 1005

People use to sleep sitting up and then would take care of their bathroom business next to their bed

From Chillon we went to Gruyeres where we felt like we were in the Disney story “Beauty and the Beast.” The historical town is placed on top of an isolated hill north of the alps, in the foothills of mount Moléson. This city of Gruyeres is also known for its cheese, although I don’t know if we tried it or not.

Belle should be at the fountain singing while a sheep comes up to her

The Gruyeres castle, one of the most prestigious in Switzerland, towers majestically above the medieval town.

More photos of Chillon and Gruyeres

We arrive in Geneva with still plenty of sunshine. Our hotel was on the 3rd floor of a building where we had to walk through a little cafe area. One of the funniest sayings we heard was when a lady asked my 25 year old brother, “Are you waiting for your daddy?” Robbie stayed with the car since we unloaded in a “no parking” area.

The Jet d'Eau...the cities most famous landmark. Shoots up 459 feet

All of the tulips were in bloom in Switzerland

Switzerland is known for making watches/clocks. They even make them out of flowers

The Cathedral of St. Peter. They wanted $25 a person to enter...we didn't go inside

The streets literally lights up at night with various sayings in different languages

The United Nations of Geneva

One of the conference rooms at the UN ... important people make big decisions here

Human Rights meeting room...seriously cool ceiling

Robbie promoting peace at the UN in Geneva

Broken chair in front of the UN...with protesters there when we visited

Fountains in front of the UN kept Mason busy and wet

Red Cross was founded by a Swiss business man

Red Cross / Red Crescent museum is across from the United Nations

More photos of Geneva

After a good nights sleep, we were ready to explore Toulouse. Our first tourist spot was the Church of Les Jacobins. It was just at the end of the street that our hotel was located, so it was a short walk.

The Church of Jacobins is the burial grounds for Saint Thomas Aquinas

Cool mirror around a pillar in the Church of Jacobins

Beautiful stain glass windows all around the church

Our next stop was the Saint-Sernin basilica (the largest romanesque church in Europe). The floor plan is in the shape of a cross and it had parts that dated back to the 4th century. But most were from the 11th & 12th century.

This Romanesque building is considered to be the biggest in the western world

Toulouse has the 3rd largest university in all of France. So we saw many college students walking and riding their bikes or scooters. We let the kids run around in front of the Capitole de Toulouse a bit after they had to be quiet inside the churches and before we drove an hour to Carcassonne. Our first place to visit in Carcassonne was the castle.

Farleys in the front with our castle in the back

This castle was not like any other castle that I had visited. There was an outer defense wall with a mote around it and then a whole town inside. There were lodges and stores all along the street until you got to the actual castle. There was also a cathedral within the walls of this fortress where some priests were singing and they sounded amazing.

Map of the Carcassonne castle

After walking to and from the castle, we were all ready to have some lunch. We found the plaza and devoured our sandwiches and then let the kids run around and enjoy their time in Carcassonne.

This is how Mason enjoyed spending his time

We all loaded up in our car again and headed for our next location (3 hours away), Grignan, France

See more photos of Toulouse and Carcassonne

Getting to Europe was a headache! Our first flight to Miami went well. My brother was with us and everyone did well. We were suppose to leave at 5:30pm to go to Madrid and my brother was to leave on a direct flight to Barcelona a couple of hours after us. Well, our plane had some mechanical problems and after an hour delay, they decided to put us all up in a hotel for the night. That was fine until the morning when we called the front desk to see if they had any news on our flight and we were yelled at to leave since the flight was suppose to leave 15 minutes ago. Why didn’t we get a phone call? Not sure. But, we made our flight and got to Madrid, Spain around midnight. We were put in another hotel in Madrid, but this time we knew when our next flight would be. Finally we arrived in Barcelona, 24 hours later than what was planned. Luckily my brother was on a separate flight and was able to tell Matt’s sister what happened with us.

Mason made friends with the guy sitting next to us on the plane

Once we got to Barcelona we got our rental car, picked up our siblings and drove for 7 hours to Tarbes, France. We had a dinner appointment with a mother & daughter that Matt taught the gospel and baptized while he was a missionary there 11 years ago. I met them 5 years ago on our last trip to France, and it was great to see them again.

Mother & Daughter with "their" missionary

We had a wonderful evening in Tarbes. A full French dinner with many different courses for the meal. Chips, Salad, Meat & Potatoes, Cheese, Ice Cream, Herbal Tea…in that order. We then loaded up in the car and drove 2 hours to our next destination…Toulouse, France.