Fun Travel Trivia for Kids

Looking for a quick fun game to play with your globetrotting children, family and friends, try  Hugo Yoshikawa's "City ABC" water color series.  He created the city alphabet (see below) for an exhibition in London but they are perfect for travel trivia.  

Yoshikawa's intricate and enchanting drawings of landmarks and monuments weaved together seamlessly to create alphabet letters is both mesmerizing and fascinating.  Here are some game ideas to play with your children.  

Let your child(ren) selects a letter. S/he has a choice of the following tasks to complete.  If s/he gets the right answer, s/he will receive points.  If playing with more than one person, the winner is the one with the greatest total points.

Guess the City:  (5 points) Using the landmarks, identify the city where they are located

Guess the Country:  (7 points) Same as Guess the City but a player must identify the country as well

Guess the Continent: (8 points) Same as Guess the Country but a player must identify the continent too

Name the landmarks:  (3 points for each correct landmark) Identify five landmarks for each letter.  Increase to "name all" if you are a geography wiz.

Find the Country Flag:  (2 points) There are some tricky ones.

Can you think of other games to play using these letters?  Please send a note with your ideas.

Click on the letter to enlarge

To view the answers, select "More..." below.

Until the Cows Come Home! [Désalpe]

  
34th Annual Désalpe in Charmey, Sept. 28, 2013

The English idiom "until the cows come home" can be defined as a long wait, perhaps even an indefinite wait, for something to happen.  But in Switzerland, this idiom is lost.  Waiting for the cows to come home is inevitable in this part of the world.

Every year between September and early October, after a long summer spent in the Alps, the cattle are brought down to the valley and returned to their rightful owners in a celebratory welcome home parade known as Désalpe, in the French speaking part of Switzerland.  Adorned in a flowery head-dresses reminiscent of Carmen Miranda and weighed down by elephant-sized bells, the cows march obediently alongside their armaillis (herdsmen), sometime up to three hours, from their grazing ground to their Winter home one to two towns away.  If you happen to find yourself sharing the road with the heifers and the bulls, well, guess who has the right of way.

Endless Reasons Why You Should Visit Basel

Welcome to Basel all new expats.  There are many things to do in Basel in the summer.  Here are just a few.  (Repost of the write-up submitted to the Expatsblog.com)

Basel - a charming Swiss city located at the intersection of Switzerland, Alsace, France, and the Black Forest of Germany – is often overlooked by international tourists, who often go straight to the more popular Zurich and Geneva.  But don't disregard this city based on its looks and quiet demeanor.  Basel is a hidden gem, a culture-filled city offering a plethora of festivals and cultural events throughout the year.  The third largest city in Switzerland, Basel offers ample historic landmarks and 37 museums focused on everything from fine arts to regional history to children's interests.

Cyprus Holiday: It's not all about the bailout

Confession:

We don't own a bank account in Cyprus.  We did not come to invest.  All we came to do was have some fun, sun, and relaxation - and guess what folks, we found it!

We arrived in Cyprus in the midst of their financial turmoils.  We were on pins and needles the weeks leading up to the bailout - no bailout, no tropical vacation for us.  Well, the bailout did happen and so did our Mediterranean holiday.

We looked forward to clear blue sky, full sun, and balmy breezes on our arrival.

Muppet Adventure in the French Alps (Chamonix, France)

Having done the Fasnacht thing last year, we decided to forgo "Drey scheenschte Dääg" in Basel for "Un semaine magnifique" in the French Alps.  Les Alpes françaises était belle!

We found a lovely chalet to rent in Argentiere, one of the villages in the Chamonix-Mont Blanc region.  Before we knew it, another marvelous snow adventure awaited us.  

Argentiere Centre-ville

Argentiere (1252 meters) is one of four ski zones in the Chamonix Mont Blanc area.  This unassuming, yet charming, ski village is well situated between two major ski zones - Domaine de Balme (Le Tour/Vallorcine) and Les Grand Montets.   The only noticeable landmark in Argentiere, aside from Supermarche U, is L'eglise de St. Pierre, the town church which was built in 1724 to accommodate parishioners during the Winter, so they do not have to make the treacherous journey to the town of Chamonix and endure the high risk of avalanches.   

Flat Stanley in the Land of Lederhosen (Munich)

How many of us grew up loving the story of Flat Stanley, the famous flat character in Jeff Brown's childrens book series?  Flat Stanley, flattened by a fallen bulletin board in the middle of the night while he was sleeping and who miraculously survived only to take on a new versatile two dimensional form, used to solve crimes and set about on all kinds of adventures.

Born in 1964, Stanley is approaching his 50th birthday, yet he still retains the same physique -  thin and pliable (wish I can say the same for myself).  He has gotten smarter with age, and the conglomerate that is Flat Stanley has been transformed from a static children's story to an international literacy project connecting children from all over the world.  As if that wasn't enough, Flat, my endearing name for him, even developed an iTunes app to teach our children about the 50 U.S. states!  

So, it's no surprise that last May, we opened our mail to find Boston Flat Stanley dressed to the nines and ready to shadow our family for a couple of weeks as we journeyed around Europe.  Boston Flat Stanley is part of a literacy project the kids' cousins created to show different places around the world.  The timing of Flat's arrival was perfect as we were about to embark on a trip to Munich, capital of Bavaria ("Bayern" in German).  We were all excited to have Flat along for humor and to keep our boys engaged.

The ABC's of Basler Fasnacht

2013 Silver Basler Fasnacht bragadde

On the brink of the 2013 Basler Fasnacht, I thought I should blog about Basel's famous carnival.  I don't know what happened last year that kept me from writing this post.  I suspect it was the exhaustion of attending three consecutive parades in less than a 24 hour period.  I did blog about Chienbaese and Morgestraich, but some how the Cortège fell to the wayside.  Here is my attempt at redemption.

Basel is not just known for its Basel World, its Basel Art, and its biotech/chemical industries.  This Swiss metropolitan center is also famously recognized for its celebrated carnival - so legendary that even USA Today wrote an article about it.   Basler Fasnacht is the biggest and only Protestant carnival in Switzerland.  Baslers, or "Bebbi" in Basel dialect, look forward to this festivity every year and plan months in advance for its arrival.  

A salute to Davos

Skiing is an extremely popular Winter activity in Switzerland and accommodations need to be reserved months in advance.  Last minute booking is penalized with outrageously high prices at ridiculously sorry-looking locations.   Of course, we, the planners, fell in this trap.  We made the error of waiting until two months before the trip to make our travel arrangements and were faced with shoddy accommodation that were shamefully overpriced.  Out of desperation, we tried to use Starwood Hotel points to mitigate the high hotel costs.  Lucky for us, it turned out that there was one, only one, Starwood hotel in all of the Swiss ski resorts.  The Sheraton Waldhuus is the second highlest ranked hotel in Davos.  We depleted all our hotel points (which is a lot given all my husband's travels the last couple of years) plus had to purchase additional points to reserve a three nights stay for us.   Swiss Alps here we come!

Halloween Basel Style

Basel, like the rest of Switzerland and most of Europe, does not recognize Halloween as a holiday - surprise!  So, how do American expats ensure their children have the opportunity to celebrate this well-loved holiday while they are abroad?  Well, it's complicated and here's why.

American expats (and other expats who celebrate Halloween) don't live in the same neighborhood, making it difficult to organize a neighborhood trick-or-treat.  Since the Swiss don't celebrate this holiday, most Baslers are not inclined to participate in this old American tradition, nor are they willing to open their door to sounds of children screaming "trick-or-treat" on Halloween night.  For the expats who do live in a couple of densely concentrated expat neighborhoods, they reap the benefit of a neighborhood organized trick-or-treating.  For the rest, they are left to find a way to bring this bit of America to Basel.  Last year, in order to fill this gap, a couple of American expat moms came up with the idea of "Trunk-or-Treat".

What is Trunk or Treat?  It's like this.  On Halloween evening, you find an obscure empty parking lot somewhere in one of the suburbs of Basel, invite your expat friends to come and park their decorated cars there, then open the car trunks and hand out treats.  When I think about it, this sounds a whole lot like a family style Halloween tailgate party.  As the adults enjoy wine and beer, the kiddies parade up and down a row of cars asking for treats.

Last year, on a very cold but fun afternoon, I picked my boys up from their afterschool activities and drove them to a discreet parking lot.  At 5 p.m., the Winter gloom in Basel encircled us and added to the dark Halloween ambience.  When we arrived, the festivities had already started.  My boys joined in the trick or treating procession seamlessly.  We brought two big bags of candies to share and returned home with four full bags!

Even in this festive mood, my boys and I felt something amiss...the knocking on doors, the pretend surprised expressions on the givers' faces, and the cacophony of voices calling out "Trick-or-Treat".  But, this was as good as it gets on October 31 in a country where Halloween is not observed.  Sometime you just have to make the most of a given situation.  I can't wait to find out what the craze to celebrate will be next year.

Happy Halloween y'all!

Trunk or Treat

A hike in Buchs, Switzerland

Maybe I am a country girl at heart.

Maybe I am more outdoorsy than I give myself credit for.

Maybe I love nature, but will never admit it.

Maybe I just down right appreciate what Mother Nature has created here in Switzerland - a remarkably beautiful Swiss country side teeming with fresh air, and trails with gorgeous views that climb so high you can almost touch heaven.

Maybe I'm all of this and that's why hiking Switzerland is my favorite past time activity. Thank goodness I have a family who appreciates the same thing I do.

So, when I say Liechtenstein, as charming as it was, could not compare to the mountain side villages across the river...I speak from the heart. The view across the Rhine beckoned us to visit throughout our drive from Vaduz, Liechtenstein to Fedrick, Austria, and back, and we couldn't wait to explore the hiking trails there. (See Liechtenstein post)

Basler PapierMuhle

Basel Paper Mill Museum

The Basel Paper Mill Museum is housed in a 500 year old paper mill in the historic part of Basel known as St. Alban. The museum is dedicated to papermaking, book printing, and writing. This facility is both a museum and a working paper making and printing site.

The museum is perfect for children who love learning through hands-on activities. Kid friendly activities are abound, including making paper from scratch (see pics below), printing the old fashioned way, and creating interesting artworks.

Each of the four museum floors are designed around a theme.

Triberg, Schwarzwald, Germany

Triberg, Germany

Disneyland anyone?

We stopped over in Triberg for a few hours as we made our way to Baden-Baden. We opted for a detour to Triberg so the boys could visit the world's largest cuckoo clock. As we discovered, there are more than just one cuckoo clock in this area. Everyone claimed to have either the biggest, best, authentic, whatever cuckoo clock that will attract eager and naive tourists like us. See my Cuckoo, Cuckoo Clocks post.

Cuckoo, Cuckoo...Clocks in Schonach

World's First Biggest Cuckoo Clock

Schonach, Germany

Try googling "World's largest cuckoo clocks" and Google will return pages of web links showing cities from all over Germany, South America and the U.S.A, all proclaiming to have the largest cuckoo clock in the world. Perhaps they have validation to support their claims, but to see the "real" world's largest cuckoo clocks, one must travel to the Black Forest ("Schwarzwald") in Germany where this kind of timing device originated and is still produced there today.

The World's First Largest Cuckoo Clock in Schonach, not to be confused with the current World's Largest Cuckoo Clock in the neighboring Triberg village, was built 32 years ago by a watchmaker by the name of Josef Dold who wished to educate others (a.k.a tourists) on the inner workings of the cuckoo clock.

All about science - Technorama

We ventured to Technorama, The Swiss Science Center in Wintherthur, with friends at the tail end of our children's Fasnacht break. My eldest has a school field trip planned for Technorama, so we thought it would be fun to visit this place prior to the school trip. We knew very little about the science center other than it's located a little more than an hour from Basel. Upon arrival, we were surprised to discover an amazing learning facility with endless hands-on science exhibits (around 500) for ages from 7 to 99 years. Every exhibit is equipped with information sheets in French, English, Italian, and German explaining the purpose of the exhibit and related scientific theory. In addition, museum staff ("Technorama Crew") walks around each floor answering questions and offering assistance to visitors.  These individuals are multi-langual which is fabulous for us English speaking visitors.  Our children had a wonderful time.

Paradise for Kids at Europa Park

This photo is courtesy of Wikipedia.com

If there's one amusement park you must take your children to while living in Basel, it's Europa Park.  This park, located just 1.5 hours from Basel in Rust, Germany, is a gem.  We took our eldest here to celebrate his first birthday in Europe this past summer.

All of us were excited by the prospect of visiting this highly lauded amusement park.  Our plan was to spend the weekend at one of the hotels in the park.  As we quickly learned, it's August in Europe (most of Europe is on vacation), so every hotel was booked for weeks.  Last minute, we made the decision to make it a day trip as it is only one and a half hours from Basel.  

Allschwil Fasnacht 2012

If slide show does not load, click here (Fasnacht Photos) to view photos from the parade.

After eight months of living in Switzerland, we finally hosted our first guests...dear friends from the U.S.  They surprised us by making a side trip to Basel while on their way to Madrid for their European vacation.  The timing could not have been better!

Given their short stay in Basel / Switzerland, I asked what they wanted to get out of the trip.  "A general flavor of Switzerland and Basel" was the answer, and this they did receive.

The timing of our friends' arrival was impeccable...Fasnacht season and great weather.  So, on the last day of their stay, we drove to Allschwil, a lovely and quaint city on the border of Switzerland and France and just 10 minutes from our house, to watch Allschwil's version of the Carnival (according to a friend, the second biggest celebration to the Basler Fasnacht in this area).  With a bit of luck, we found good parking just a short walk from main street.  Then, at my eldest's suggestion, we stood on the tram platform that runs down the middle of the street.  As the procession proceeded down one side of the tram platform and circled back on the other side, we had the pleasure of watching the parade twice by merely turning ourselves around.  

Not Just Another Castle - Rotteln Castle

While big brother enjoyed an afternoon with his friend at Acqua Basilica, little brother got to spend one-on-one time with mom and dad (a rare treat).  After meeting friends for breakfast at Fuenfschilling (delicious meals at affordable prices), we drove to Rotteln Castle for a hike through this well preserved castle built around the 12th century.  Wet and overcast sky made it not the best day for a walk around the castle ruins, but my youngest likes all things knights and medieval, so the visit was well worth it.

Rotteln Castle is a citadel situated on a limestone cliff overlooking the Lorrach valley in the city of Haagen.  Built in the 12th century by the noble Rottlen family, the castle has sustained damage from the 30 years war and again almost  destroyed by French troops in the Dutch War of Succession in 1678.  Since 1884, steps have been undertaken to preserve and restore the castle.  Rotteln Castle is the largest and best preserved castle in the southern Baden region of the Black Forest.  

A small museum located just past the ticket booth exhibited a small scale model of the castle in its original state.  Also on display are fossils and early artifacts found on the ground of the castle at the time of restoration.

Surprisingly, Rotteln Castle is an NOT affiliated partner of the Museum Pass.  That said, admission fee is barely anything at 1.50 euros for adults, 0.50 cents for children, and kids under six years are free.

For more information and history about Rotteln Castle, click here Rotteln Castle

Family activities in and around Basel

While waiting for my children to finish changing at the pool yesterday, I picked up a magazine lying on the front desk counter and began flipping through it. Although in German, I can tell that this journal is a GREAT find. This periodical lists a plethora of activities for kids to do around the Basel land area. There is a calendar of events listed by city and articles relevant to children and families. I discovered that the magazine has a website in ENGLISH (Web site: Hopp Kids Magazine). Now, I am quite excited. Happy exploring!

Puppenhaus Museum (renamed Spielzeug Welten Museum)

In a week, my eldest son will leave for a week long ski camp in the Swiss Alps organized by his school. Starting with the senior school (grades 9 - 12) after Winter Break, each grade takes turns skiing in the Swiss Alps. I know this sounds excessive and overindulging but I promise you there is a premise here, at least for the primary school (grades 3 to 5). This aligns with the school's principle of teaching the children independence at a very young age. Once there, the children and parents are not allowed to contact each other until mid-week. At that time, the children will be given the option to call home...one phone call per child. Held captive (jokingly), they are expected to take care of themselves while learning to ski in the beautiful Swiss Alps. Life could be worse.

Ski Feldberg, Germany

The changing landscapes

(Slideshow)

Living up to our motto, jet lag will never stop us from embarking on an adventure.  While in transit from the U.S. back to Basel, we exchanged emails with friends, and next thing we knew, we had a ski date the day after our arrival back home.

We managed our jet lag well on the first day back and were confident we would be okay to wake up on time for a 10 a.m. departure to hit the slopes in Feldberg, Germany.  As it happened, the boys woke up at midnight and stayed awake until 4 a.m.  Because I went to bed at midnight and my hubby went to bed early, he stayed up with them.  It was hard to drag our bodies out of bed, but guilt and a strong desire for fun propelled us out of bed and pass the door...and just 20 minutes late.