Boccia al bosco trail

The boccia al bosco, or BoBosco for short, trail is an ingenious marble run made of chestnut wood along side an amazing hiking trail. It runs through the Verzasca Valley alongside the Verzasca River. To say this area is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been is an understatement.

We had heard about the trail from some friends after they went and the girls and I quickly became obsessed with watching YouTube videos of people on the trail. This beautiful river path has a dozen elaborate “boccia” ball run activities for kids (and at least two 40+ year olds I know) along way. The runs are mostly made out of materials from nature but somehow the balls shoot up, glide along, and roll down the tracks with relative ease.

Our first station was a slingshot up to an overhead circular slide down

The full trail is 5.5 km. We started with a lot of enthusiasm and though we were all exhausted by the end, I'm so glad we did this one.

We loved showing off the boccias every chance we got.

Each new station became our favorite station. Some were active where you could shoot the ball across the run, others were more of a puzzle to figure out how to get the ball through the maze, and some allowed you to walk with nature while you watched your ball float down the stream.

I'd be remiss if I didn't also talk about how beautiful the hike itself was. I already mentioned that it was along the river, its mostly in the forest, sometimes you're right up next to the water, sometimes you're a bit higher up.  Believe me, I felt all of the 700ft elevation change the next day.

Olivia walked 85-90% of the 5.5km (3.4m), but there were a few sections we
decided she needed to be carried...you know, like next to the raging waterfall...

Did we have a good time? Yes. Yes we did.

Traveling Friends

Everyone has friends who like to travel. For our sake, we have been blessed with a couple who absolutely love to travel (or at least likes to visit us every time we move somewhere exotic)! Amanda and I met Ginny and Richard through our church's young married group ironically a few years before they tied the knot and well before we started our first European Adventure in 2011. In the early years of our friendship, we often talked about the places we had all been throughout college and places we hoped to go in the future.

When we moved to the UK we received many visitors over the three years, but none more frequently than the two of them. So when we moved to Liechtenstein there was little question as to whether or not we would get to share Central Europe with them. And thankfully this was the year they decided to come see us. With three kids between us, our visit looked a little different than 10 years ago, but we still managed to pack in some highlights.

Over their two week stay, we visited a chocolate museum and factory:

Enjoyed the cool spring weather on numerous hikes:

The 6-year-old pouting is due to the fact that she could not hug the statue for the photo

The angst was short-lived when she could use her binoculars for the next one

Toured new places and ate ice cream

Not the Liberty Bell

And played on lots of playgrounds:

It was a great couple of weeks to catch up about what is happening and share what it has been like living in this remarkable place. It was a great visit!

Is it Spring?

Here in Central Europe we get these time periods throughout the year that are apparently called "seasons". Coming from Texas this doesn't really make since to me but I do enjoy the varying weather conditions each new time of year brings. And if you had to make me choose, Spring is probably my favorite. 

Here are just a few reasons why!

For the record, there is another person in the family who really like spring too...