Switzerland

    Thursday we packed our bags, ate breakfast and hit the road again. We drove to the ferry so we could cross a huge lake and eventually make our way into Switzerland. 

We went into Zurich and walked around the city. The boys tried some real Swiss chocolate and we had a blast in the city. We went and saw some stained glass windows by Marc Chaegall in a church and they were really pretty. I kept thinking how much my mom would love to see them because she loves Marc Chegall.  We went to another buffet for lunch and spent 35 euro again… The worst part was, we weren’t even hungry and just got a little bit.  We were learning quickly that hungry American don’t do well when put in a room full of delicious food!  Once we had lunch we were on the road again to the most beautiful villages right along the prettiest lakes in the world. There were steep cliffs with massive waterfalls falling down everywhere.  It was like a dream between the steep mountains and rolling green hills.  We drove through Luzern and then through Interlaken.  We retraced Preston’s steps from when we stayed in Interlaken on his way home from his mission 40 years ago.   The water was so blue and the landscape so rugged and green. The little hotel we stayed in was dreamy, overlooking the Thunersee. We were on the mountain with pasture on one side and then the lake on the other, we felt like we were in the perfect place to do advertising for bottled water.

We went into town for dinner to this little Italian restaurant right on the shore.  We ate overlooking the water and it was so fun to relax there and chat while enjoying amazing food.

Everything in Switzerland is WAY more expensive and we just keep telling ourselves, “When in Rome…” or Die Schweiz..

    Friday we woke up and had breakfast, I of course had the hotel heat up some oatmeal. They cooked it wrong but it was still amazing! Today was a day where we could get out of the cities and be in the mountains and it was a much needed change. We started off driving up a little canyon and going to the coolest slot canyon, they have an elevator going up the canyon and then you hike around to 10 different waterfalls coming from a glacier.

Looking out at the beautiful valley while hiking around the waterfalls

It was so cool to see the amount of water that is coming down at the start of fall, we can only imagine what the spring run-off looks like. We had a blast there and then it was off to hike the Alps, no big deal… We went to the cutest little town and then took a train up to a village really similar to Park City. We walked through the town to our next ride, a gondola, it was like taking the tram up to the top of snowbird and hiking around. It took me back to hiking down from the tram at Snowbird with my family every year since I was young. We hiked at the base of the Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau Mountains and wow were they beautiful!!!!

While we were standing there a swiss guard helicopter lander right by us.  Christian told us how lucky we were to see one up close and that in all the years he's been coming up there he'd never seen one.  It was pretty amazing to see!

 Pop doing what he does best!

We were walking along the trail and off in the distance you could hear cowbells clinking as they walked and ate in the mountain pastures. We threw snowballs off the Alps just to say we did, and Pres hit Blake right in the face with one…. I guess I know where Blake gets his mischievous side, from Pop!

I could not get enough of the cowbells!  The locals could not believe the cows in America don't have bells!  The sound carries for sooo long and its the best!  I NEED SOME MORE COWBELL!!

 We then hiked down to a little lodge where we sat out on the balcony and enjoyed some typical Swiss food. It was a perfect day where we could enjoy the sun and bright blue skies against the backdrop of the incredible Swiss Alps. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. We continued on our hike once we finished lunch and had some good chats with even better company. We even saw a helicopter drop cement for a chairlift in the backcountry. Once we were down we drove to the lake we overlook and the boys put their legs in the bright blue water. Blake decided to roll up his shorts and go Euro style!

 We got back to the hotel and packed our bags for our flights the next day. We went to dinner at 7 with Christian’s parents at our hotel, sitting on the patio overlooking the Swiss mountains and Thunersee. This is not a tourist hotel.  This is where the locals stay and so nothing was in English.  The sweet owner of the hotel knew some of us didn’t speak German and that we were planning on dinner there that night, so she used google and translated the entire menu for us, what a sweetheart!  Christian’s parents are the sweetest people in the world; his mom has lead the primary music for 15 years and his dad has been the bishop, twice.

 

    After dinner, they stayed down at the restaurant and wanted to have alcohol-free beer. We were too tired and went up to bed.  Blake was brushing his teeth and needed to take the power converter back down to the front desk and I was feeling very very curious.  I wanted to try alcohol-free beer just to see what it tastes like and I am glad I don’t drink that because I think it tastes….as Blake would say…..like pee!