Destination: Heidegg Castle, Switzerland

(If you are looking for the recipe for chocolate bananas, scroll down to the end of the travel diary!)

Travel Diary:

It was a beautiful Saturday morning and none of us needed to go anywhere. No work, no school, no other distractions. Our little princess got it stuck in her head that she wants to go somewhere outdoors, make a fire and prepare some chocolate bananas… Yes, why not, indeed?

So we did. After mile long discussions we ended up deciding we’ll spend an afternoon at Heidegg Castle, which is a very cute small castle in Gelfingen. We knew from before that there’s a few fireplaces located nearby. And it has a little playground and a rose garden… well, naturally no roses around considering the time of the year, but it is a pretty place anyways. And on a sunny day one can spot million little lizards on the castle walls just chillin’…

The castle itself is a really cute one, and it seems like it is actually planned for the little visitors. However, this time we were not planning to go inside. We left the boys to start up the fire (to tell you the truth the smaller one was sound asleep in his trolley at the very moment…) and we girls did pay a visit to rose garden. Naturally we looked at the little lizards scurrying around the walls. And I wanted to take a photo of the princess on castle’s stone steps… well, what do you know. The little lady agreed to go to the steps for the photo, sat down and the next moment she’s screaming like somebody trying to kill her, in total panic… it took me a while to figure out what happened, but finally in between of all screaming she showed me her hand and it turned out she had some fresh, warm pigeon doodoo in her hand. Oh…. honestly, I had to use all my self-control not to laugh out loud, and I didn’t quite manage. Nevertheless, I promised her it won’t kill her and we went to wash it off with liquid soap (luckily there’s some well-equipped public toilets in the castle area!). Just to be sure she still wanted to use some hand disinfectant, which she knew I always have in my purse.

Meanwhile we were living through the doodoo-crisis, my husband got the fire going and prepared the chocolate bananas. So we continued our nice little Saturday trip by playing on the playground, shortly walking in the forest and of course eating the chocolate bananas. At some point a Swiss lady walked by with her Nordic walking sticks and asked what on earth is that we are eating. I felt like an idiot trying to explain it to her with my rather crappy Swiss German, and of course she heard it in an instant… she was speaking with a foreigner! And IN MY HEAD I was thinking she probably thought she’d run into some very special cuisine from another country, and I didn’t bother to correct that we learned this treat from a Swiss kindergarten teacher… Naturally I can’t know what she was really thinking… but in my desperate need to try to fit in, being spotted as a foreigner is not always easy. Too bad. I only have to open my mouth and it is clear to everyone within hearing distance… :) So better just live with it. However, completely unaware about the crisis IN MY HEAD she continued her walk and we continued eating the chocolate bananas. Played some more on the playground, cleaned up and headed home.

Tired but happy we unloaded our car, and it just happened that the box with firewood decided to retire at that exact moment. And the trunk was naturally a mess. What a nice evening duty, to clean it up! Happy day, anyway…

Chocolate Bananas

For Chocolate Bananas you need bananas, milk chocolate and a fire. Just cut the bananas open from one side and fill with pieces of chocolate. Then put them bananas above campfire and let them cook until the chocolate has melted and the bananas are soft from inside and almost black from outside. Oh, and let them cool off a bit before you start eating, unless you want to burn your mouth… easiest way to eat them is to use a spoon. Delicious! Enjoy! :)