sightseeing | The Diary of Sugar and Spice

Toblerone and I decided to take a quick little trip over to Switzerland the other day and it turned out to be really fun. We only live about an hour from the border so it’s silly for us not to go more often. Granted, Switzerland is about 15 times more expensive than Germany so what we do there is kept within reason. After we parked I actually made a comment about how clean the streets were and I literally could lick it and it would probably taste like candy. It was just sparkling.

Well hello there!

First stop on the agenda was the River Rhein. Just a quick bit of information for those of you not familiar with the River Rhein (spelled Rhine in English), its the twelfth longest river in Europe at about 766 miles. It runs from the Swiss Alps, through Germany, and empties into the North Sea on the coast of the Netherlands. It’s a pretty big deal this river and people come from all over to see it. Even little old me!

After visiting the stunningly blue river we decided to go on a search for food. Knowing that we wanted to be pretty careful about how we spend our money we went to the grocery store rather than a restaurant. I really wish they would just switch over to using the Euro but they’re still using their Swiss Francs and I don’t see that changing at any point soon.

In the grocery store I actually had a moment of pure joy. It was like home! (America home, not Germany home!) Everything was clean and properly organized. There were a million options to choose from and it just felt more like a store rather than a warehouse, like the German places. And…it wasn’t swarming with people that stood on top of you. Plus, check out this rockin’ way to travel with a cart! Your cart has it’s own escalator and it meets you at the top where all the cleaning and makeup supplies are or travels with you back downstairs to the cash registers! What on earth?!!

The second stop on our day trip was to a really cool town called Stein am Rhein. This town was a small fishing town for many years until the year 1,007 when an Emperor moved an abbey to this area and began to commercialize it. By the 15th century it was an up and running town. Even today it’s known for it’s historical landmarks kept from the medieval times. Most of the buildings or houses are painted and it’s just a typical Swiss town, in my opinion. I tried to get as many pictures as I could but some of the roads are so narrow so I was at really strange angles, so I apologize in advance! But, take a look!