We woke up casually and went down to the docks and the spectacular Lake Geneva. Katie and Ashley rode the carousel and we walked along the lake for a while before we met Fabienne and Pascal, a couple who are colleagues of my dad, for lunch. We had a wonderful meal, although Heather and I spent most of the time entertaining Katie and Ashley, so we didn’t get as much of a chance to interact with the other adults. I know my Uncle Bryce had a great time discussing the various French plant species with Pascal. I spent the few hours playing My Little Pony with Ashley to try to keep her occupied. Considering the time we were at lunch, the girls did great, although we did have to take a couple of walks for a change of scenery. This was actually interesting as the restaurant was up above the lake surrounded by vineyards, so the landscape was wonderful to view. We left lunch late afternoon and we immediately made the drive to Geneva. We did stop briefly back at the coast of Lake Geneva in Lausanne since my mom promised Katie a ride on a park ride that was closed in the morning, since she had been so good during lunch. Geneva is less than an hour from Lausanne, so we figured it would be a relatively quick trip. We got there rather quickly, stopped off briefly at the UN European headquarters, but then hit serious traffic trying to get to the lake and the fountain. By the time we got there we were all too tired to get out and enjoy the lakeside festivities that were going on. It turns out the traffic was so bad because they had blocked off many of the roads that led to the lake to make room for the different booths and stands. We already regret not getting out and participating, but at the time it was late enough in the day all of us were ready to just get back to Lausanne and go to bed, which we did. We woke up, packed the van and checked out of our hotel, and went to church in Lausanne. Of course it was all in French, so it was hard from that perspective, but it certainly was the friendliest European ward that we have come across. It took my parents and my Aunt and Uncle ½ hour to get out of the lobby because everyone was so friendly! After church we spent a lot of time debating what to eat for lunch. We decided on Chinese and put a restaurant in the GPS but once we arrive there we found out it was closed. We saw Ali’s Pizza and Kebabs next door, so we figured that was worth a try. It turned out to be quite good and one of the few Swiss items that was not that expensive. We continued back towards Zurich but not before stopping at Oberneuenforn, where my great great grandfather lived. He was working in Zurich where he met the missionaries and was baptized. We saw his house and took a few pictures. I had visited there with my dad in 1989 or 1991 (can't remember which), but it was nice to be back with my children. We went back to our hotel in Zurich, cleaned out our stuff from the van and loaded our car back up prepared for an early departure for Paris in the morning.
St Bernard, Switzerland August 3, 2007 We drove from Sion to Lausanne but on our way we decided to stop at St. Bernard and drive through the Great St. Bernard Pass, home of the monastery of St. Bernard, the saint that initiated the breeding of the Swiss dogs to help travelers cross the Alps (hence the name St. Bernard dogs). It was pretty cold, but Ashley and I took a brief walk anyway and actually ran into a few of the dogs being walked. They licked Ashley’s neck over and over and she LOVED it! I have to admit they are beautiful dogs and MIGHT be a dog I would consider to own if the weren’t so big and if Heather were not allergic. They seemed super friendly, at least the ones at the monastery. After buying Katie and Ashley stuffed St. Bernard dogs, we continued down the mountain towards Mont Blanc, a spectacular drive. I am really glad that my dad was driving this trip and I actually got to enjoy the views that Switzerland provides, which normally I would not have been able to enjoy since many of the mountain switchbacks are extremely tight and I would have a hard time navigating the roads while still maintaining the view outside. We stopped briefly in Chamonix to take in the view of Mont Blanc. Chamonix was the site of the first Winter Olympic Games (1924) and where the International Olympic Committee is located today. It seems like a nice city, but perhaps a little too retro at first glance, as if the last update happened 25 years ago. We drove from Chamonix through Montreux and ended in Lausanne.
Zermatt/Sion, Switzerland
August 3, 2007
As it poured rain outside we packed our things to check out of our Lauterbrunnen apartment. As usual with our vacations, it rains only when it is more or less convenient, so we can’t complain. Lauterbrunnen was great, as were the surrounding areas that we visited in the Bernese Oberlands of Switzerland. We drove back to the town of Kandersteg, the small little village that we visited yesterday and is a relatively popular jump off point for some beautiful alpine hikes. As Heather mentioned, it was probably more crowded than normal as we ran into the many groups of boyscouts who were celebrating the 100th anniversary of scouting. I remember celebrating the Diamond Jubilee (75th anniversary) when I was a Boy Scout, which makes me feel old again. Anyway, we came back here to board the tunnel train that took us through the mountain to the southern part of Switzerland and saved us a couple of hours not having to drive around the mountain. It was fun to be in the pitch black for a bit, knowing we were inside the mountain. Once we drove our car off the train, we continued south to Tasch. This was the closest city to Zermatt (no cars!) that we could drive to, so we boarded a train (pedestrian this time) for the ten minute journey to Zermatt. Although it had been raining/drizzling for most of the morning, by this time it had at least stopped raining, although it was still a little overcast. Zermatt is a beautiful alpine town with the view/access to the Matterhorn. It has long been a car free zone to prevent pollution from damaging the view of the Matterhorn any more than nature does on its own. Only electric maintenance cars are allowed, except in May, when it is “construction month”, when trucks lumber through (fortunately it was not May!). We walked through the village, enjoying the stroll and taking in the mountain view and window shopping. Once we came close enough to the view to the Matterhorn it had cleared up a little bit more, allowing us to see the Matterhorn in the distance, although not in its entirety. We decided it wasn’t worth the $100 or so to take the cable car up closer considering the overcast and lack of visibility we would have. There was a cemetery behind the church in the village with the gravestones of many of the climbers that died trying to scale this mammoth structure, some as young as 17 years old. We took the train back to Tasch and drove to Sion, Switzerland where we spent the night.
Lauterbrunnen/Interlaken/Grindelwald/Bern, Switzerland July 30 - Aug 2, 2007
We arrived at the airport still earlier than my parents’ flight was arriving, so we cleaned out the Volvo and packed the van up with the stuff that we would need for a week driving around Switzerland. We picked up my parents, dropped the Volvo off at the airport Zurich Ibis and then drove to our apartment that we had rented in Lauterbrunnen, about 15KM south of Interlaken in the Bernese Oberland. It is not a very long drive and very scenic as you hit Interlaken and Lake Brienz (the Eastern Lake of Interlaken, which means “between the lakes”, which are Brienz on the East and Thun on the West). Heather didn’t see much as she suddenly got a terrible headache and just had to endure with her head in her lap until we made it to Lauterbrunnen. Our apartment was great. It had 2 bedrooms and a kitchen for my family and my parents and then my Aunt and Uncle stayed across the street in the hotel, so everyone was pretty comfortable. The Horner Pub/Hotel/Apartments are very comfortable and relatively inexpensive. The Richards family stayed here a few months ago and recommended it. The lodging is just a 5 minute walk from Staubach falls and we have an excellent view of the falls. The restaurant has a grill going across the street so we ordered some steak, bratwurst, and chicken before going to bed. We woke up early and Aaron took the girls for a walk around Lauterbrunnen to look for a bakery while I got ready for the day. Around 9:30 or so we all piled in the van and drove the short distance to Stechelberg to ride the cable car up to the top of the Shilthorn. We actually had to take four different cable cars to make it to the top. One of the stops was in the town of Murren. This is a “no car” town which we wish we would have taken some time to explore. We also passed through Gimmelwald (not to be confused with Grindelwald) and Birg before arriving to the top. It was amazing to see the houses and farms all the way up the mountain side. We could only imagine what it must be like in the winter for the occupants of those houses. I imagine that they would all be completely under snow, but I guess they work something out so they don’t have to hibernate all winter. Once we got to the top of the Shilthorn we couldn’t believe the view. It is almost 3000 meters high, and is the location where they filmed the 1969 James Bond movie, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. We spent an hour or so on the terrace, taking in the view from all sides, then took the cable cars down to the bottom and returned back to the apartment for a quick lunch. After lunch we drove to Grindelwald. We drove through the fabulous little town to an area where there are hiking trails and a path to the glacier. Aaron and his parents had also been to some ice caves there a number or years ago. We were hoping to see those again, but we found out they had melted 7 years ago. So Joe and Penny took the girls for a little stroll while Aaron and I climbed up the mountain to the glacier. There were stairs that had been built on the mountain to take climbers up, and we scaled all 840 of them! And when we got to the top we discovered that most of the glacier had melted too! It was a beautiful view and we were glad we went up. We’ve decided we have to do these things while we still can… we aren’t getting any younger! And it was nice that we had someone to watch Katie and Ashley, because there was no way we would have brought them up the narrow and incredibly steep staircases! From there we took a stroll through the town of Grindelwald while Penny and Joanne watched the girls at the park. Then we drove back to the apartment and Aaron made us a fabulous spaghetti dinner with garlic meat sauce and garlic bread. Then we called it a day and the girls watched movies until they fell asleep. We stayed up and talked with Penny and Joe until 11:30 then turned in. We woke up earlier the next morning, so I decided to go out for a run. Aaron went with me and we ran along a path past the waterfall and past some absolutely beautiful Swiss Chalet homes, cows and gardens. I could have run along there for hours, but I knew we had another big day planned, so we turned back. We also saw a cute playground we wanted to bring the girls back to later. After we all ate breakfast and got ready for the day, we headed out to Bern, the capital city of Switzerland. We first went and saw the Temple in Zollikhofen, a suburb of Bern and walked around its grounds for a bit. It is a beautiful temple and the first to be built in Europe (dedicated 1955). The Angel Moroni was added in 2005 in connection with the Temple’s 50th anniversary. We discovered that it was Swiss Day, which explained the extreme pride of the Swiss in their flag, as we saw Swiss flags everywhere we went! It was a little disappointing that there were so many things closed for the holiday, including grocery stores (where we need to go and buy bread for the sandwiches we were supposed to have for lunch with all the turkey and cheese we had in our cooler). But we really enjoyed Bern and walked through the town center, over the bridge, and saw the Bern Bears. Aaron went into a little restaurant that was opened and asked to buy some bread, and they agreed, so our lunch was saved. After waiting almost an hour for Joe to go and get the car to pick us up (he had trouble getting back to us with many of the streets blocked off for the holiday), we started to head out of town. We pulled over to make our sandwiches and we ate in and around the car. Then we drove to another little town, Kandersteg. It was about 20 kilometers from Interlaken, so not too far out of our way. Kandersteg is a gorgeous alpine town, which is the starting point for a lot of great hiking paths. There was a huge scouting event going on, with the street filled with scouts walking everywhere. Before we left town we were sure to stop for some delicious ice cream, and some apricot jelly filled donuts that were made and filled at an outdoor stand. They tasted really, really good. We discovered while we were in Kandersteg that there is a take off point for a car bearing train that runs through the mountain. And since it went to where we needed to go the next day, we made plans to return there. We got home from our day in Bern and Kandersteg around 5:30, and while everyone else took a rest, Aaron and I took the girls on a hike up to the waterfall. There is a path that leads behind the falls, which the girls loved. It was a nice little hike, and since there was a couple up there when we got there (we ruined their nice romantic moment) there was someone there to take a picture of our family. When we came back down we decided to take the girls to the playground that we had seen while we were on our run earlier that morning. The girls have been so incredibly well behaved, I think it’s only fair to give them a few minutes to run around and play when there is a good opportunity. They went on the swings, slides, merry-go-round, and had a great time. I had just told them we had to leave in 2 minutes. They decided they wanted to go on the big slide again. It was this very cool (and VERY fast) slide that went through a tunnel underground and came out at a lower part of the park. I thought I saw Katie go in head first, so I yelled to the girls a couple of times, “Feet first!!” I waited by they bottom of the side and Katie came shooting out, followed my Ashley, who was turned head first, on her back, and landed right on her head. She started to cry, and would have been fine after a minute or two, had she not been wearing bows in her hair with metal clips. The metal clip was pushed right into her head when she fell on it, and her head started to GUSH blood. I probably could have taken a cup of it in my hands. We took off her shirt and applied pressure while Aaron carried her home (We have attached the video of her slide!). Fortunately Ashley isn’t one to really dwell on her injuries, and was in fairly good spirits. She noticed some blood on her finger and told Aaron that her ow-ey was on her finger and she needed a band-aid. Katie and I ran ahead to get Penny and Joe ready for Aaron to come back. Unfortunately we had to wake them up from a little nap, but by the time Aaron got back, the bleeding had stopped. We could see the cut was about 1/8” and didn’t need stitches or anything. Aaron put her in the shower with him and they washed the blood off of both of them… and she was fine. Thank goodness!! So we had a late dinner of pizza and the very yummy bratwursts from the Horner Pub across the street. Since it was Swiss Day there was a big parade that came through town at 9:00, and we got a front row seat right outside of our apartment. The girls and Aaron went to bed, but at around 10:00 there was a big fireworks show that Joe and Penny and I enjoyed. We just sat in our pajamas on a bench outside our apartment and watched the show right next to the waterfall. With every firework that boomed, it echoed even louder against the mountains… it was a loud show! It was a very eventful day, one that ended with a bang as well!
Bregenz, Austria
July 30, 2007
We picked up the van without any issues and Heather followed me in it and we made our way to Zurich where we were going to pick up my parents and Aunt and Uncle. On our way my dad called me from London and told me they were delayed an hour, so we decided to make a quick detour to Bregenz, Austria, just at the Swiss/Austrian border and sitting on Lake Constance (Bodensee). The Begenz music festival was going on right now, so we thought we would stop and see what we could while we had time to kill (at this point my dad had called again conveying an even longer delay in London). We drove down to the lake and parked the car. We walked along this beautiful lake, past a wonderful swimming facility, which I wished we would have had time to stop and enjoy. We made our way to the floating stage, but since it was just early afternoon the events had not started for the day. We walked around the amphitheater and then walked back to the car and continued the drive to Zurich.
Innsbruck, Austria July 29-30, 2007
We made the 3 hour drive from Duernstein rather easily, arriving late afternoon to the city. I had found a couple of apartments about 30 minutes outside of town but we didn’t feel like staying so far away, so we found a small hotel just a few blocks from the old town, dropped off our stuff, and walked around Innsbruck. In the Winter I imagine this place to be even more crowded, as the skiers embrace what this city has to offer. This afternoon it was not nearly as crowded as I would have expected and we enjoyed strolling the old town, including viewing the "Golden Roof", built in 1500 for Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emporer. We ate a quick dinner and then headed back to the hotel to sleep (although not before letting the girls play a few minutes on a playground that we passed on our walk back to the hotel). Our hotel is just down the street from St. Nicolas church, which we didn’t realize rings its bell every ½ hour ALL night long! So it wasn’t a great night’s sleep, but we survived. We woke up casually in the morning and then walked to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. We then walked back to the old town and enjoyed a quiet stroll before there were too many people in our way. We wanted to go up the clock tower, which we purposely waited until this morning to do but we found out that it did not open until 10AM and we wouldn’t have time. So we walked back to our car, stopping off at a grocery store before driving up the hill outside of town to the Schloss Ambras, commissioned in 1563 by the Archduke Ferdinand II to transform a medievel fortress into a renaissance castle for his wife. We walked around the castle grounds and ran into a few peacocks that the kids played with for a while (at least they followed one around for a bit). We then drove back into Innsbruck to pick up the 9 passenger van that we rented to drive us plus my parents, plus my Aunt JoAnne and Uncle Bryce through Switzerland.
Duernstein, Austria July 29, 2007 The drive to Duernstein is beautiful as the road follows the Danube River for the length of the journey, passing tour boats, campers, and meandering through a number of different villages on the way. Duernstein contains the ruins of a medieval castle above the quaint Austrian village. We made the difficult hike up to the top of the ruins which required us to navigate “stairs” and rocks (difficult considering I am out of shape and we did it with a 2 and 5 year old!). The girls actually did great, especially Katie, who walked up the entire way without a single complaint. Ashley was a little more whiney, but still did a pretty good job twisting her way up to the top. The ruins of the castle also contain the jail where King Richard the Lionheart of England was imprisoned in 1193 by Leopold V, the Duke of Austria. It seems Richard and Leopold had some sort of dispute during the 3rd Crusade to have suffered this punishment. I am not sure this picture is of the actual jail, but part of the fun of it all is imagining that it was, particularly considering that this element of the castle is the only piece still not completely destroyed (most of the castle was destroyed by the Swedes in 1645, not the Turks this time). So Katie and Ashley were locked up in the same jail as Richard the Lionheart and who knows who else! The view from the top was spectacular and one could see for miles, with the Danube far below. We also witnessed a number of rock climbers across the river making their way up to the top of a rock wall. Standing up at the top, looking down at the village below and the neighboring villages in the distance reminded me of what I love about Europe. Although one could probably find a mountain overlooking a river with the same geographical landscape in the US, one can’t have this same vista overlooking a village of orange rooftops, a medieval church and tower in the center of each village seen in the distance, and a general feeling of history. It is just not the same for me. And it never gets old, even as many of these towns begin to look the same, they each have their own fascinating history and different appeal.After enjoying some ice cream and making some sandwiches for lunch, we drove back the same way we had come, back through Melk, and to the highway on our way to Innsbruck.
We woke up casually and went down to the docks and the spectacular Lake Geneva. Katie and Ashley rode the carousel and we walked along the lake for a while before we met Fabienne and Pascal, a couple who are colleagues of my dad, for lunch. We had a wonderful meal, although Heather and I spent most of the time entertaining Katie and Ashley, so we didn’t get as much of a chance to interact with the other adults. I know my Uncle Bryce had a great time discussing the various French plant species with Pascal. I spent the few hours playing My Little Pony with Ashley to try to keep her occupied. Considering the time we were at lunch, the girls did great, although we did have to take a couple of walks for a change of scenery. This was actually interesting as the restaurant was up above the lake surrounded by vineyards, so the landscape was wonderful to view. We left lunch late afternoon and we immediately made the drive to Geneva. We did stop briefly back at the coast of Lake Geneva in Lausanne since my mom promised Katie a ride on a park ride that was closed in the morning, since she had been so good during lunch.
Geneva is less than an hour from Lausanne, so we figured it would be a relatively quick trip. We got there rather quickly, stopped off briefly at the UN European headquarters, but then hit serious traffic trying to get to the lake and the fountain. By the time we got there we were all too tired to get out and enjoy the lakeside festivities that were going on. It turns out the traffic was so bad because they had blocked off many of the roads that led to the lake to make room for the different booths and stands. We already regret not getting out and participating, but at the time it was late enough in the day all of us were ready to just get back to Lausanne and go to bed, which we did.
a lot of time debating what to eat for lunch. We decided on Chinese and put a restaurant in the GPS but once we arrive there we found out it was closed. We saw Ali’s Pizza and Kebabs next door, so we figured that was worth a try. It turned out to be quite good and one of the few Swiss items that was not that expensive. We continued back towards Zurich but not before stopping at Oberneuenforn, where my great great grandfather lived. He was working in Zurich where he met the missionaries and was baptized. We saw his house and took a few pictures. I had visited there with my dad in 1989 or 1991 (can't remember which), but it was nice to be back with my children. We went back to our hotel in Zurich, cleaned out our stuff from the van and loaded our car back up prepared for an early departure for Paris in the morning.
