August 1st - Happy 723rd Birthday, Switzerland!

After telling you about our July 4 I want to come through for my own country's national holiday as well. Switzerland turned 723 years old. It goes back to the Rütlischwur in 1291, an oath  that three representatives of the original cantons (states) took not to bow down from the Habsburgs. 

Swiss flag and Swiss red cross

There's a lot of that spirit left in my fellow countrymen's hearts. Still the majority of the voting population thinks it would be totally unacceptable for tiny little Switzerland to be a member of the European Union. Their capital is in Brussels, Belgium, and we won't take orders from them! We're neutral that way.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate benefitting from the goodies that life in Switzerland brings. I wouldn't mind to be a bit more of a team player within Europe, though. It's small enough as it is.

So anyway, I'll gladly take a day off, and I wasn't sitting on my butt all day. Look at the baked goods we made!

Let that dough balls rise!

Ahem - red scrambled eggs…? Nope. Stay tuned.

One dough needed time to rise, the other needed time to chill, but eventually we got there.

1. August Weggen = yeast bun

Sablés = buttery sugar cookies

Other years we would invite family or friends over for a BBQ. 

This year we decided to go out for dinner at a nice lakeside restaurant with my parents.

The youngster may wear the original Swiss jersey, but look who's drinking the original stuff!

The swans thought that red T-Shirts would look mighty ridiculous on them, and being mighty is for ducks, and so they went for the classic look.

As the sun began to set, the light would become golden first...

…pink later!

It was almost dark, when out of nowhere this ship arrived.

Time for some fire show! Can you tell little man is respectful toward the flames?

He'd rather grab Grandma's arm than hold a magic match himself.

All the excitement makes people hungry. Chocolate fondue, anyone?

Although the fireworks we saw were happening at the other side of the lake - about a mile away - I thought the reflections on the water made up for the distance.

Pretty! Love me some fireworks!

On our way home we stopped at the edge of the woods to enjoy our own little volcanoes:

They weren't all that little!

For those of you who put in a request to be a Swiss for a day: I was going to subject it to whether or not you are a proud owner of a red-and-white T-Shirt. But that sounds kind of unfair. So let's do it this way: you need to beat me in the "how Swiss are you" quiz. I only scored 50%, so this shouldn't be too hard. Go for it! 

Here's the link to the quiz: How Swiss are you really?