Ballenberg Open Air Musem

Today was Connor's 10th birthday! Everyone was up pretty early and we checked the weather to decide what to do. The weather was looking pretty lousy everywhere so going to the Schilthorn was out. We decided to go either to the Transportation Museum in Lucern or the Ballenberg Museum. We decided on the Ballenberg even though we knew it would be rainy. The museum is outdoors but you walk between buildings so it is actually an OK thing to do on a bad weather day.

My dad decided to stay back at the apartment and relax and do some grocery shopping. The store would be closing at 5:00 and would stay closed all day Sunday so we needed to get any food in that we'd use before Monday.

My mom, the kids, and I got on the 8:00 train, we took 3 trains and a bus to get to Ballenberg. The trip took just under two hours. I know that sounds like a lot but it is just so easy when someone else is doing the driving. You just hop on the train and don't have to worry about anything!

The birthday boy on the train

We arrived at Ballenberg about 15 minute before they opened, it was perfect, just enough time for everyone to take a quick bathroom break before we got started. The bathrooms were very clean and free. We stopped at the admission kiosk, our admission was free with our Swiss Pass. Having a Swiss Pass made everything so easy!

We headed to the first house in the museum. There were a few other families there but it wasn't crowded at all! I think the rain kept people away. The house was beatiful, Ali and my mom especially liked the exhibit of traditional Swiss costumes from around the country. The kids also loved the room where they showed traditional musical instruments.

I really love the Swiss cows

Ali and traditional Swiss clothing

Ali loved this part with the outfits from the different parts of the country

Trying out the instruments

Playing a song

Aren't these bells fabulous!

This headpiece was amazing!

Ballenberg is an outdoor museum where old homes from all over the country have been moved. There are examples of architecture from all the different regions of Switzerland. The museum is huge, it would be hard to see everything even if you stayed from open to close. There are two enterances at two different bus stops. We enjoyed seeing all the old homes and my kids really enjoyed seeing the farm animals. We have lots of farm animals near where we live in Wisconsin but it sure is more fun seeing them in Switzerland. I love the cows with their bells! We ate lunch at the museum, we chose one of the take away restaurants (fast food). My kids had German hot dogs, my mom had something similar to quiche, and I had a salad. I thought the prices were pretty reasonable.

We stayed at the museum until 3:00, on our way to the bus we stopped at the chocolate shop, my kids really enjoyed seeing the huge pots of chocolate. We also did a bit of shopping at the gift shop. Connor thought perhaps he should get another Swiss Army knife, I told him one was plenty. Ali, with some guidance from my mom, chose a wooden cow with a bell.

More Swiss cows, I love the bells

Inside of old barn

Connor pumping water

Medicinal garden

The pigs were a little stinky

Ali trying to pound a nail

Connor was fascinated by the water powered grain mill

We got back to Frutigen a few minutes after 5:00. We were pretty tired from all the walking, I'm pretty sure we put in 3 or 4 miles again today and there was plenty of up and down. My dad told us that he'd been to the grocery store 4 different times. People in Europe shop more frequently, but 4 times in a day seemed like a bit much. I went and laid down for a bit before dinner. It wasn't long before a very quiet boy came to me with a bloody finger. What happened? I'm sure you guessed, he cut himself with his new knife. He had tried to take care of it himself but he couldn't get the bleeding stopped. It wasn't a bad cut but a sharp knife will definitely make the blood flow. I know that he was holding it together because he was worried that I was going to fuss at him and take the knife away. We got the bleeding stopped and put a bandaid on it.

Today was Connor's 10th birthdy and my dad had looked at every bakery in town for a cake but couldn't find one. He decided to make one himself. He bought a mix and had to translate the directions into English. The cake tasted good but it wasn't very pretty. Connor didn't care though, he was happy to have cake and ice cream on his birthday. I'd brought a few gifts for Connor to open here, he'll get his big gifts when we get home. After he was done opening gifts there was a knock on the door. Esther brought up gifts for both Connor and Ali, both kids got chocolate and Connor got a Swiss baseball cap. It was so sweet of Peter and Esther to get him a birthday gift!

Connor and his gifts

Look at the cool bag from Peter and Esther

Connor's new hat

Originally we'd planned to go to the transportation museum tomorrow but I knew that another 9 hour day was going to be too much for everyone. I decided to look in my travel books for things closer to home. Untours had given us a flyer of things to do with kids. I found a cave to visit that was closer to home and it seemed like a fun thing to do with the kids. I decided we'd sleep late and take it easy with a visit to the St. Beatus caves.

Ballenberg was great and I'd highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Switzerland. It was a long day but definitely but worth it!

 

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