Our fantastic adventure this past week was a trip to the Alps.
We spent Tuesday through Sunday in a little town in the Berner Oberland of Switzerland called Wengen. It sits on a beautiful cliff overlooking the Lauterbrunnen Valley and is only accessible by train or foot. We rented a chalet that was just finished being built last Fall. It was perfect for our kids to have space to move around and be loud ...which they are quite good at:)
We purchased a mountain train pass and traveled as much of the area as we could. We took a mix of trains and gondolas to the top of the Jungfraujoch (Highest peak in Europe), Grindlewald, Murren, Mannlichen, Lauterbrunnen, etc.
We also took a day to go back to Meiringen, where I lived the summer of 1995 as an intern through BYU. I kept trying to use my German to impress my kids; but, I am afraid I have forgotten a lot. Of course, when I did use it, they were very impressed but had no idea how many mistakes I was making.
We woke up Saturday morning to the sound of massive cow bells ringing through the valley. Herds and herds of cows were being led through town and past our chalet to the high fields to graze for summer. We also loved picking wildflowers, hiking to a waterfall, eating fresh Swiss chocolate and bread, and playing chess on the giant chess boards.
EuroCup 2008, the European football championships, is going on in and around Switzerland. The boys got Swiss jerseys and cheered on the National team. We spent a few hours on the last day in Bern where some of the games were being played and it was crowded with crazy fans. Our favorite was a guy who entered the fan plaza with a big red Swiss hat with cow horns coming out of it and a huge cowbell strapped around him with his face painted with a Swiss flag. He was cheering something at the top of his lungs and had a laugh that was contagious. We loved it!
Later that day we took a train to Zollikofen, a little town out of the city, to the Swiss Temple. The kids ran around the grounds for a while in the rain before we boarded a train for a two-hour train ride back to Zurich and our flight home to London.
3 comments:
Gretchen, What a fun time you are having across the ocean--the Tueller family is from Switzerland, so I felt happy you visited there! It looks beautiful, maybe someday we will get there!
Margaret
Oh, Gretchie, how beautiful it all is. And how wonderful to show that far away out of the way place that you have loved so long to Abe and your children. What wonders this earth shows. And to think you get to look at so many of them.
The pictures are priceless, as are the memories. Much love. Mutti
w-o-w, amazing pictures - what a dream to be there!
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