Christmas Day turned into Christmas night and I stayed up changing loads, hanging laundry, packing suitcases and chatting on the phone with Lori. I didn't sleep a wink. We got a really great deal on airfare but the airline is really strict about baggage so we had to fit all our things into six items. Six items period. No personal bag/purse/backpacks allowed above and beyond your one allotted piece of luggage. So packing required strategy. We brought three small suitcases, two bags and one backpack. (And one suitcase was just our snow gear.) It was actually quite satisfying.
At about 4:15am I woke up Richard and we dressed ourselves, packed the car, and then dressed and loaded our zombie children. I was so sleepy that I slept nearly the entire one hour drive to the airport. But then my adrenaline started pumping when we left Richard at the check-in with the car-seats and the kids and I ran to our gate just in time.
I was so sleepy on the plane, and the kids were really good, and the flight went really fast. (Just over an hour I think.) We landed in Switzerland around 11:00am, because of the time change, and sat around waiting until our rental car was ready. We flew into the Basel - Mulhouse - Freiburg airport, which is on the border of Switzerland-France-Germany and it is a small airport. There was one small cafe where we ate some lunch while we waited.
One thing we did not realize when planning our trip was that the 26th of December is Boxing Day (we realized that) and everything, except major shopping centres, is closed (we didn't realize that).
At last our car was ready and we drove the 1.5 hours to our chalet, where we were staying. I slept most of this drive, but woke up intermittently and looked out the window and the beautiful greenery. I think the kids were all a little confused because everything was so green and we were all expecting snow. I didn't take any pictures of the beautiful green scenery because I was so out of it- much to my later regret. Because it snowed that night, and every day after that, and Switzerland became white. Which was what we came for- but I was still sad that I didn't capture the pre-snow views.
We relaxed for a bit in the chalet, settled in, and then decided to drive to Zurich (about 40 minutes away) to buy some groceries and get dinner. The drive to Zurich was also more beautiful green countryside. We drove around the city of Zurich, casually at first, and then began an earnest search for a place to eat. Since it was Boxing Day we had the hardest time - and I had my heart set on fondue and raclette. But no such luck- and we finally found an Italian Pizzeria which turned out to be really fantastic. The kids devoured their pizza and we had to order more. It was really good. We ended up buying some breakfast foods at a petrol station and then making the drive back to Rekingen.