Here are our highlights from Switzerland and Germany
- Oohing and aahing at the beauty of Switzerland together - such jaw-dropping beauty around every bend!
- Enjoying time with Tal and Anita, fun in their pool, delicious barbeque with all the traditional Swiss sausages, gentle hike above a breathtakingly blue lake to a beautiful overlook
- Going to church - singing in German, attending Anita's great lesson in YW about women and the priesthood (she was kind enough to say everything in English as well as Swiss German), meeting some great people
- Spending some time with old friends from Boston - Nancy and Dave Michaels. So great to catch up with them and enjoy another tasty barbeque plus
- Visiting Lucerne and meeting a social media friend who has reached out to me so kindly over the years - so fun to talk in person; strolling around the beautiful town and picturesque lake and checking out the medieval bridge there
- Getting so excited together when we saw the Lauterbrunner Valley for the first time - waterfalls everywhere, huge cliffs, snow-capped mountains in the distance - it was so spectacular and we were in awe that we were going to actually be able to stay right there (in a cute little mobile home at the Camping Juangfrau campground)
- Walking along the Lauterbrunner valley floor surrounded by intense beauty on a perfect cool evening and hiking up to feel the mist and power of a couple different waterfalls, watching paragliders like birds above us and watching them land in a field nearby
- Eating dinner on the deck of our little mobile home with a spectacular waterfall right there, so nice to enjoy a homecooked meal (simple pasta and sauce with cheese and canned beans but so nice to have a sit-down dinner after all the bread and cheese and cucumbers and grab-and-go sandwiches that have been our staples)
- Hiking and riding the tram at Issenfluh - relatively inexpensive tram ride to fields of amazing wildflowers (we hit the peak of wildflower season!) then a one hour steep-but-gorgeous hike to get to a mountain lake and then an absolutely amazing view of the three main snowy peeks of the area - Eiger, Jungfrau, and Monche.
- Paragliding - after weeding people's yards, washing people's dogs, and doing all sorts of jobs for anyone and everyone and saving up for months and praying (literally) every night that the weather would cooperate (they'd heard stories of how people were prevented from paragliding the whole time they were in Switzerland due to weather issues), the twins were beyond delighted when everything worked out perfectly for them to paraglide right off the edge of the cliff above Lauterbrunner and enjoy the feeling of flight plus the amazing scenery (strapped to an expert paraglider, of course). As it was almost Father's Day, we all chipped in to make sure Jared paraglided as well (he really wanted to go but was worried about how expensive everything was turning out to be and he's always so selfless, insisting everyone else go first or get what they want ahead of him). And even though Eliza hadn't quite saved up enough money and wasn't thinking she'd be able to paraglide with her broken arms and all, it turned out that there was no problem with her paragliding (when we asked, the guy said "it doesn't take any arms to paraglide!"). So we added to her savings a bit to make it work for her to paraglide - after her toughness through her injuries and her inability to do a lot of things she'd wanted to do on the trip, we were so happy to make sure she got a chance to do this very exciting thing she really wanted to do and COULD do with two broken arms!
- Swimming and picnicking at Lake Thun - we made our regular lunch of cheese and salami on crusty bread with cucumbers and carrots and cookies while sitting on a bench in a very nice semi-deserted campground right on the edge of this beautiful lake. It was such a gorgeous and peaceful setting and the boys had a great time swimming in that very cold refreshing water!
- Floating the river in Bern - took a while to find the right spot where you can jump of a pedestrian bridge and float to a safe place to get out, but we found it and the boys and Jared had SO much fun jumping and floating repeatedly while Eliza tried not to be too sad that she couldn't join them - it was not very fun for her! That river is just such a cool color and it was fun to do something that seemingly all the locals do all the time in the summer - we were surrounded by so many fun-loving Swiss people.
- Wandering through Bern Old Town on a lovely summer evening - so very charming! And we got to see the old clock strike the hour accompanied by automated little wooden people coming out to strike bells and do other little actions. Luckily we saw about 100 Asian tourists standing on the street looking up above an ancient archway so we knew to stop and look up ourselves!
- Visiting the lovely medieval French town of Colmar (HOT and sweaty but interesting to wander the city for a while and find some good lunch)
- Visiting Gengenbach - after lots of Google searching for the perfect little German town to visit in the few hours we had in Germany, we finally found something that was relatively on the way to Reims where we were headed for the night and that sounded like it might be a fun place to visit. We hit the jackpot! We drove to the outskirts of the town, parked the car, then walked for a few minutes to the middle of town where we were greeted by awesome live German folk music being played by a band in the amazingly charming storybookesque town square. Turns out the town was celebrating the Corpus Cristi (google if if you want) and there were all these interesting displays everywhere. We had a lovely couple of hours exploring the little town's back alleys, checking out the ancient town wall that still stands, seeing how the old mill there works, and eating some of the best gelato ever for just one euro a scoop. It was so good we had to go back for a second round!
Here's Ashton's Video of Switzerland (and our final day back in London before heading back home):
- Paragliding - after weeding people's yards, washing people's dogs, and doing all sorts of jobs for anyone and everyone and saving up for months and praying (literally) every night that the weather would cooperate (they'd heard stories of how people were prevented from paragliding the whole time they were in Switzerland due to weather issues), the twins were beyond delighted when everything worked out perfectly for them to paraglide right off the edge of the cliff above Lauterbrunner and enjoy the feeling of flight plus the amazing scenery (strapped to an expert paraglider, of course). As it was almost Father's Day, we all chipped in to make sure Jared paraglided as well (he really wanted to go but was worried about how expensive everything was turning out to be and he's always so selfless, insisting everyone else go first or get what they want ahead of him). And even though Eliza hadn't quite saved up enough money and wasn't thinking she'd be able to paraglide with her broken arms and all, it turned out that there was no problem with her paragliding (when we asked, the guy said "it doesn't take any arms to paraglide!"). So we added to her savings a bit to make it work for her to paraglide - after her toughness through her injuries and her inability to do a lot of things she'd wanted to do on the trip, we were so happy to make sure she got a chance to do this very exciting thing she really wanted to do and COULD do with two broken arms!
- Swimming and picnicking at Lake Thun - we made our regular lunch of cheese and salami on crusty bread with cucumbers and carrots and cookies while sitting on a bench in a very nice semi-deserted campground right on the edge of this beautiful lake. It was such a gorgeous and peaceful setting and the boys had a great time swimming in that very cold refreshing water!
- Floating the river in Bern - took a while to find the right spot where you can jump of a pedestrian bridge and float to a safe place to get out, but we found it and the boys and Jared had SO much fun jumping and floating repeatedly while Eliza tried not to be too sad that she couldn't join them - it was not very fun for her! That river is just such a cool color and it was fun to do something that seemingly all the locals do all the time in the summer - we were surrounded by so many fun-loving Swiss people.
- Wandering through Bern Old Town on a lovely summer evening - so very charming! And we got to see the old clock strike the hour accompanied by automated little wooden people coming out to strike bells and do other little actions. Luckily we saw about 100 Asian tourists standing on the street looking up above an ancient archway so we knew to stop and look up ourselves!
- Visiting the lovely medieval French town of Colmar (HOT and sweaty but interesting to wander the city for a while and find some good lunch)
- Visiting Gengenbach - after lots of Google searching for the perfect little German town to visit in the few hours we had in Germany, we finally found something that was relatively on the way to Reims where we were headed for the night and that sounded like it might be a fun place to visit. We hit the jackpot! We drove to the outskirts of the town, parked the car, then walked for a few minutes to the middle of town where we were greeted by awesome live German folk music being played by a band in the amazingly charming storybookesque town square. Turns out the town was celebrating the Corpus Cristi (google if if you want) and there were all these interesting displays everywhere. We had a lovely couple of hours exploring the little town's back alleys, checking out the ancient town wall that still stands, seeing how the old mill there works, and eating some of the best gelato ever for just one euro a scoop. It was so good we had to go back for a second round!
Here's Ashton's Video of Switzerland (and our final day back in London before heading back home):
1 comment:
How did Eliza break her arms?
I hope she's recovering OK. x
Post a Comment