The Dragon Cave with p.s. from T

Today was the girls' half day of school, so we met R at Stadelhofen station and went to look for

the dragon's cave. 

It was a very nice walk, mostly along the river. This is the start of the trail. We've had some rain, so everything is very green, The kids were taking tons of pictures. Sometimes I can't tell who took what, but there are some giveaways. Usually pictures of the ground or of people smiling are taken by T. S always sees things that no one else notices. Also, she frames things so well I never want to crop her photos.

Pictures by T and S

We know we're on the trail because there are suspicious water fountains.

L insisted on walking. If we suggested the stroller she would shake her head, say, "Myself!" and run off as fast as she could. That was fine for a while, but we couldn't let her walk the whole way. It would take forever. At the first trail sign we found out that it had taken us an hour to do what should have taken 20 minutes. And L had been in the stroller for lots of that time. Worse than the slowness, though, was her excitement. She was running and stumbling everywhere, getting way too close to the river. 

L decided it would be nice to hold hands.

S grabs L by the scruff of her neck to keep her dry and keep her moving.

L was a fast learner. 

Here she is grabbing T by the scruff of his neck when he was too busy to hold hands.

There were plenty of things to see on our way to the cave. There were countless waterfalls. There were a few fire pits, including this awesome picnic place with big log benches. We haven't made a fire yet, and the girls aren't happy about it. Really the point of a fire would be to cook over it (see the grill stand) and the girls won't eat the little sausages that are traditional. What can you bring for a vegetarian to cook over a fire? But I think I have a solution now. Pizza dough on the end of a stick, like we made at the Basel Christmas market. So I'll carry matches and dough from now on, I guess. There were lots of bridges. The one the girls are on has two rails, but most only had one and were only a couple of inches wider than the stroller wheels. There were also rocks of geological interest along the way, since we were on a glacial moraine or something. This rock was 15-20 feet tall. R said it looked like magnified sand.

Another S picture. Having the tree there is her style. 

The rest of us are in the picture. See how far ahead she got.

Eventually we got L into the stroller by bribing her with a chocolate. She fell asleep immediately. It worked out perfectly because she would have wanted to go up to the dragon's cave and that would have been impossible. I really don't mind her walking, but I do like to be sure of finishing a walk before dark. Also, the littles get bored after a while. As it was, the walk took almost two and a half hours and when L woke up on the way to the train she was pretty cranky. 

Finally, we made it to the dragon's cave.

 

P.S. from T: I liked the dragon cave. It's hard to climb up. R and S helped me. We went inside the cave. I did see a dragon. I saw some burned wood. There was a dragon who breathed fire. There were rooms in the cave. And that's all.