Wednesday, June 19, 2013

The Swiss Alps

Leaving Venice and heading to our next destination started off a little rough.  About 15 minutes after we left the campground Whitney decided that this was her day to get car sick.  We have no idea why.  We weren't doing anything out of the ordinary but she must have puked about 10 times from Venice to Frutigen. It didn't matter if we were going around winding roads or going steady and straight on the Autostrade.  It got to where she would throw up without saying anything and we would just roll our eyes and ignore it.  After we arrived and settled into our cottage she threw up one last time for good measure.  Since that day she hasn't thrown up again.  Thank goodness because we are out of barf bags. Good thing we go on a plane again soon so that we can swipe some more.

The entrance into Switzerland
The landscape changed drastically once again after passing through the border.
We were pleasantly surprised with the view in Frutigen.  It is located one valley over from Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen which is what we ultimately wanted to see.  Price wise Frutigen made a lot more sense as far as housing.  This is the view from our back yard.

And here is the view from our front yard.


It turns out that fish are not the only social creatures in Europe.   

We could really not get enough of these cows.  When we first arrived we thought that everyone had wind chimes in their yards.  It turned out that the cows were all wearing bells that sounded exactly like wind chimes in a breezy town.  Is it just me or is this not the most beautiful cow you have ever seen?

We went on a nice walk around our neighborhood the first night.  I'm sad to say that we didn't have our camera so I can't post any pictures of the cute red, white and brown houses with inscriptions written in German on the side.  I came away wanting my own inscription on the outside of my house.  They were really cute.

The next day we headed to Lauterbrunnen and took a gondola up to Grimmelwald.  From there we hiked over to Murren and back down the mountain again.








Playing chess while waiting for pizza

Our waitress

The hostel where we ate pizza
"The Honesty Store" in Grimmelwald.  No workers.  Just take what you want and leave the cash in this box.


There were parachuters everywhere.
A Bernese Mountain Dog in The Bernese Oberland

Us.  Can you guess who is who?
There were trains and gondolas to take you anywhere you wanted to go.


Not sure why we opted to hike down the mountain instead of catching a ride.  Maybe it was our Colorado pride.  However, we have never hiked a mountain this tall or this steep in Colorado.  It kicked our rears.

When we got near the end of the trail we found a sign warning us against landslides.  I guess they only care about the people going up because we saw no warning signs at the beginning of the trail.

When we first got there we were bedazzled by a huge waterfall and stopped to take multiple photos.  That's before we found out that waterfalls like this are about a dime a dozen here!

We LOVED this place.  Definitely one of our favorite places of the vacation.  







1 comment:

Unknown said...

This area was incredible. I couldn't have asked for a better fathers day except to be with my own dad. The kids are amazing hikers! Hopefully someday we'll recover the new camera I bought for this trip which someone left on the trail and that contains pictures of Bryton beating me at law chess in the town of mussell. A gorgeous location for losing my pride and my new camera. I'm optimistic someone will turn it in since the previous town had an honesty store with no clerk. Since it was spring it smelled like flowers and fresh cut grass, and there was still loIts of snow on the mountains which made for beautiful scenery. The weather was perfect. you could see the "top of Europe" restaurant which is the highest restaurant in Eurupe ans sits in the saddle between two of the largest peaks in the area.

The walk the night before was just as beautiful and more quaint. We watched cats sneaking through the cut grass finding mice, saw a sunset, watched a farmer cutting grass with a wooden scyth, and saw a rainbow over he top of the snow capped peaked. It was magical. The kidds loved the two donkeys that hey got to hear snee snaw.

Whitney is a good vomiter. I just goes in a bag, the girls hand her napkins to wipe her face, and then she hands up the bag to be disposed of later.

Bryton figured out how the plastic ribbon held the cows in when he grabbed it and got quota a jolt.