Castles, Cruises, and Quesadillas

On Sunday, we woke up, had yet another fabulous breakfast at the hotel (surprise, surprise). We walked to the Chateau de Chillon, which  is a castle that overlooks Lake Geneva.

 We were given a tour of the castle by a little curly-haired Swiss woman, who ended all of her sentences with "hm?"  She informed us that the castle was over 1000 years old and showed us the banquet halls, bedrooms, bathrooms (which was so much of a luxury that the Duke actually invited guests to the bathroom with him to discuss business matters there....hm?), and the prison.  On the wall of the prison, was the signature of the British poet, Lord Byron, who was imprisoned there for 6 years.

After the tour, we were given some time to explore the castle on our own.  Most of us climbed the billion flights of tiny little wooden stairs to the top of the castle, which overlooked the lake.  Most of us were sore the next day from all those stairs. I'm amazed that people in the Middle Ages climbed that often AND in 50 pounds of armor.  I'm impressed.

After our tour, we went a short little day cruise on the lake, enjoying the beauty of the surrounding mountains of France.

Our bus was waiting for us on the other side of the lake and we loaded up and drove to the Rhein River falls, which is an incredible huge waterfall on the Rhein River.  We were able to walk down around the waterfall, which was partially terrifying and partially awesome.  Mostly awesome though.

(photo cred: Sarah Hammerle)

After that, we loaded the bus (yet again) and drove through the Black Forest (which is less treacherous than I had originally thought).

We arrived in Freiburg, Germany, which is a pretty good-sized college town.  And quesdaillas were sounding very good to us and so a few of us found a Tex-Mex place right by the hotel, which was surprisingly good! But it was obviously a challenge (ordering Mexican food...in Germany...yeah. But don't worry, when our food FINALLY arrived, all of our orders were correct AND delicious). 

Afterwards, we just walked around the town and, of course, got some delicious ice cream. Ice cream....that's always a good way to end the day. Amen? Amen.