Is that Subtle Subliminal Advertising?

Two kids in the same room at night, each waking the other crying, has it's challenges...mainly, no sleep for mom and dad. So was my last night. Every time Declan cried he woke Dashel, then Dashel would cry and wake Declan. Once Declan asked me at 4 am, "Mommy, please ask Dashel to stop crying. He's waking me up." So the morning began with one tired mom. Oh, did I mention we had to wake up early at 6am because our 7:12 (no kidding, exact, right?) AM train leaves on time. No ifs, ands or buts about it. We had to be in Zurich before noon because Dave was catching a flight out for a meeting in Amsterdam, after which he was flying back to Zurich. We were going to stay in a hotel near the airport while he was gone for about 7 hours for his meeting.



So, we stayed up late packing so we could wake up "late" at 6am, eat, and head out to the train. Overnight it snowed about 5 inches, so we were going to have to plow down to the train station on foot through a blanket of white. And cold. We saw the owner of the hotel on the way out and he asked if we were going for the train, we said, "Yes, the 7:12" to which he replied, "Oh, let me check the train schedule. It may be leaving at 7:13". NO JOKING. You just can't script these things. We should have a camera following us around. It made me laugh. Anyway, we get to the station, get down to the car in Lauderbrunnen, and start to make our way up to Zurich through the snow. The way back is half by way of mountain two lane roads. One going, one coming. The snow had forced 3 big trucks to pull over and put on chains, which caused a traffic jam going up hill, in snow (always tricky). And everyone was passing one by one and watching for oncoming traffic (going downhill, in snow, also always tricky). It was white nuckle driving for awhile. And we had a two wheel drive car. Also tricky in snow. But the upside was we had navigation in our car. It kept rerouting us because of current traffic reports being signaled to it. It did get us to Zurich in time for Dave's flight, which was the plus.

So we check in to Park Inn Hotel by the airport. It had a McDonalds as it's hotel restaurant. And funniest of all, when we got to our room, David noticed that the headboard appeared to be in the shape and color of the McDonald Golden Arches which could be seem from our window. Hmmm, subliminal advertising???



Dave headed off to the airport, we ate McDonalds, and I piled the boys in the car to go find tape. Yes, packing tape. I was told they sold it at a store called Obi, so I asked the front desk for the closest Obi and headed on another adventure. Me and my GPS. What ever did we do before GPS in foreign countries? Actually read maps? So, to my GREAT surprise, it's only 10 minutes away, and just happens to be in an area with LOTS of places to shop. Wish I had known about this place when we first got here. So I get tape, some decongestant for the boys (for the plane--their ears), and head over to the HappyBaby SuperStore (the real name). I find these socks I've been looking for since our last trip to Zurich when Declan was 16 months old. The entire bottom of the socks are covered in a rubber that sticks to the floor like shoes do. But they are socks. I love them and have been unable to find them in the US, so I stocked up on them here. Also found Declan another lion. He had lost his lion in the train from Lauderbrunnen to Wengen, and the train people never found it. So this store just happened to have the SAME lion. It was great. Anyway, got home, at McDonalds for the third time on this trip, which is funny because I don't eat at McDonalds in the US. Declan was melting down and I wasn't about to sit in a restaurant with two kids by myself dealing with Declan's melt down and a hungry infant. McDonalds to the room. Hmm, maybe a McDonalds hotel restaurant isn't such a bad idea after all.

Back in the room I was educated in an other minute detail of cartoon translation into German. Spongebob Squarepants is "Spongebob Schwamkopf" which I'm guessing is "swimpants"? And Curious George is called "Coco". Is it really that hard to call the monkey George? I mean, really? Declan kept asking me "Who is Coco, mommy?". Funny.