July 13th - Visit to Meersburg

Meersburg is a lovely little German city at the north-western shore of Lake Constance

Amanda was already in Finland and I'd been slaving like a farm animal at work so we needed some change of surroundings - if at least for a while. 
So we headed our way to Constance - a German city at lake Constance (Bodensee) right at the border to Switzerland and an hour's drive away from where we live. I actually wanted to see some water - but it was so d...ed hot so we couldn't take it at the lakeshore. However, there happened to be an Austrian boat leaving from the harbour further around the lake towards north and east. We simply had to board it!
Here's Anton cool on the deck of the boat (he selected these sunglasses). 

At Meersburg it was of course very hot - what else during this heatwave. After walking around for an hour in the city, all our juices were spent. This concerned especially Anton, who was getting increasingly in need of rest and food. After this picture we went eating big and tasty pizzas and Spaghetti for Anton. After this the little guy cheered up considerably.

July 5th - Basel Zoo

During this day we visited Basel Zoo. This zoo is considered, together with Zürich Zoo, the best zoo in Switzerland. Here together with the Flamingos - Welcome to Miami Beach...

Weekend, June 28-29th

During this weekend we spent Saturday at Halwillersee. We ate at restaurant Seerose (in the picture) and went walking along the shore. We also stopped to have a swim at the northern shore of the lake. Actually only Amanda and I went swimming. Anton played on the shore and Anne enjoyed the seaview.

On Sunday we visited a small animal event in Fislisbach - this was actually kind of a rip-off as it was organised by the local rabbit-club (can you imagine adults actually running such a club!) and thus there were only different sizes, colours and races of rabbits.
It wasn't actually that bad after all. The kids loved feeding the little jumping rascals while the adults had the chance to enjoy excellent rabbit-stew (just kidding - I had a bratwurst)

June 22nd - Sempach

This was a very hot weekend (as every weekend lately, by the way). We went to a small town called Sempach (at Sea Sempach) just to see what the town looks like. We very soon found ourselves walking along the beach, but weren't prepared for swimming - which was a very big problem for Amanda. However, most problems have a solution. Amanda went swimming anyway and had a "splash".

There was a playground at the shore as well. One "gadget" there was a real boat. This was like a magnet for Anton - I see a future sailor man here!

Sailor and a Mermaid

On Wednesday, June 18th, the kids went to the birthday party of Laura Frey. The theme of Laura's party was the ocean. Anne made quite nice dresses for the kids. Anton was a sailor / pirate and Amanda a mermaid. Check out the tail of the mermaid - it's stuffed and contains metal wire so you can twist and turn it around almost any way you want.

June 16-17th - Arrival of My Sauna

Monday, June 16th goes into the Grannas family history. This is the day our sauna was delivered!!! In the picture you can see it being built. I'm actually quite happy I ordered it including assembly. The guy was sweating the whole day until 6 P.M. putting it together.

We had to postpone the electrical installations to Tuesday morning.

Here it finally is - ready for bathing in the basement with lights and all.

Here's a picture of it inside. I'm quite sure that after 1 week of using it at least once a day I'm going to have a serious discussion with Anne about how to put the priorities on quality time around home. So far it looks like I'm mainly going to spend time there with the kids (at least they are very happy about it)