Resurrection

Hi! I'm back. I think? I miss the blog writing and I want to do more of it. I still don't have a plan for when, though...which may well be the downfall of this project, but I think for now the best thing is to plow ahead and try again to post something every day.

Our spring break mini-trip turned out well. Neuchâtel was interesting and we fully celebrated the accent circonflexe by eating a lot of crêpes. I think we may have turned some kind of a corner with family travel: there was fussing, to be sure, but I didn't come back from vacation desperately needing a vacation, which is a very nice change.

It was also nice to have a little language break. My French doesn't extend much beyond bonjour any more, so in Neuchaâtel we just spoke English, which of course was fine. And after two days in Neuchâtel we went to an indoor water park in Basel and spent the night at the attached Courtyard by Marriott, which is so globally-branded I felt no particular pressure even to speak German. And they had a huge American-style breakfast buffet. Bacon! Yum!

Oh also the water park in Basel has a swim-up bar, and I ordered a piña colada. Because I could. It was awesome.

Here's the view from the "prison tower" in Neuchâtel. We went on a tour of the castle, which is only open for tours on holidays because it's also the cantonal seat of government. Lucky for us, May 1 was a holiday, and we got a private tour because no one else showed up.

The clock tower, not to be confused with the prison tower, currently features this great art installation - a nest and a huge egg made out of plastic birds. Better pictures here and here. 

Here the kids are fussing because we made them go for a walk after dinner. The horror.

Here they're happy because we are eating ice cream and crêpes and it's not even noon yet. Sometimes you gotta live dangerously.