IRELAND TRIP - Day 8....Going Home

Today is the day we fly home.

Hayden doesn't want to leave.

"Couldn't we just stay longer?"

"Don't you miss the family, aren't you ready to sleep in your own bed?"

"Nope."

It is hard to leave such a fun trip.

We really had such a fun time together, I love hanging out with this teenager!

We did a 'driving tour' of Zurich on our way to the airport.

It really is such a beautiful city.

I came here as a child, when my family lived in Germany, but have no real memories of Zurich itself from that time, only of a boat ride on the lake (and the loss of a certain favorite doll).

An overview of our travels in the past 8 days.

Once in the airport, we got Hayden a wheelchair, and checked out the Duty-Free shopping.

He found this Nutella jar that was as big as his head.

We thought of Ronan, and how much he would of LOVED to own that!

We flew home on Swiss Air, and they let us pre-board and get all settled in for the long flight back to NYC!

While I loved our trip, and had so much fun, and loved all the places we got to visit....it sure does feel good to land back in the USA!

There's something to be said for familiarity.

The Brooklyn Bridge, NYC

We still had a 3 hour drive to get home to Maryland, and we were greeted by 6 people who were very excited to see us!

Ireland Trip - Day 7..... Switzerland!!

When I first booked our trip, I knew we had a lay-over in Zurich, Switzerland, BUT I didn't realize that it was a 23 hour lay-over! Luckily I noticed well before we left, with plenty of time to make hotel reservations. We thought this would be a fun little 'add-on' to our trip!

The original plan was to have a nice walking tour of Zurich, maybe go for a boat ride on Lake Zurich, and visit the Lindt Chocolate Factory.

But, again the fractured ankle altered plans a bit.

We just rolled with it, I mean, we were in Switzerland, right? 

Life was still good!

New plan...rent a car, and drive an hour and a half south to Bern to see the LDS Temple there.

I kept going back and forth with this plan. We had such little time in Switzerland, did I really want to spend 3 hours of it in a car?? 

But, as Hayden pointed out, when would we get the chance to get the Swiss Temple on our temple wall again?? It's not like we find ourselves in Switzerland every day.

Our 'Temple Wall' is a wall in our kitchen that we hang a photo of every temple we have been to.

This is what it started as in 2011... 

And now in 2014...

We decided to drive down to the temple!

We met a nice couple in front of the temple who took our photo together!

We had to stop and get a bratwurst and schnitzel while in Switzerland!

On the drive back to Zurich, we took our time and drove through some villages.

Hayden had the camera, and just snapped photos as we went along.

I loved this part of the trip.

Driving through small towns in Europe is so fun!

We made it back to Zurich in the evening.

And enjoyed a quick drive around while going to our hotel.

Ready for a good nights rest....our last night away.