That's a Wrap!

We're back! It feels great to be home! We had two very long days of travel going from Switzerland to Brussels and then from Brussels back home!  Today we got a chance to catch up on sleep, begin the process of uploading the hundreds of pictures from three separate devices, and basically unwind.  Looking back on our trip we couldn't be happier with how everything went.  It's hard to choose a favorite because they're all so different!  But I will say that we definitely prefer small towns to large cities because the smaller towns give you a better understanding of the culture.  Bacharach, Germany and the Swiss Alps were definitely highlights.  Florence, Italy was our favorite large city...I think we were both surprised to love Florence as much as we did!

Now to start planning our next trip, where should we go?  Some of the places on my wish list:

1) A tour of the Alps throughout Austria, Germany and Switzerland
2) The UK, particularly Ireland
3)  Portland, Seattle and Alaska
4) New England-- Maine, Vermont, etc.

What do all of these places have in common? Cool weather and nature!

***Check back on the previous entry, I've added some pictures!

-Sally

An Extra Day in Switzerland

Our second full day in Switzerland was one of those difficult days that sometimes happen when you're traveling.  From the moment we woke up that morning it was raining and freezing cold!  Our hotel was so high in the mountains that we were basically just sitting in a cloud.  So we planned some low-land activities in Interlaken and Lauderbrunnen and that went OK, but it just seemed like no matter what we did our plans were getting thwarted left and right, mostly because of the relentless rain.  By 3:30 that afternoon, we had no idea what we were going to do the rest of the day, and we hadn't even eaten the lunch we packed ourselves because the whole day it seemed like we were just trying to get somewhere.

So fast-forward an hour or so and we were in the town of Gimmelwald, wishing it was dinner time so we could have something (anything!) to do.  Trying to escape the rain and cold, we ducked into a cozy place called Pension Gimmelwald.  To make a long story short, there was a fire burning, the place had an old-dark-lodge-European feel to it, and the people there all made for awesome company.  In fact, we ended up sitting with three guys from the Netherlands for close to four hours just talking, playing games, and learning random Dutch words.  We stayed so long that we missed the last cable car going back to Murren and had to hike 35 minutes uphill but we didn't care because our fun night totally erased any stressful memories we may have had from earlier in the day!

And the best part is that the weather was perfect when we woke up this morning so we cancelled our day-trip to Paris so we could stay in Switzerland until 1 pm!  After a long train trip, we are now in Brussels Belgium.  Our plane leaves tomorrow morning at 10:45!  It has been a great trip but we are looking forward to being home!

I See a Mountain!

Well the dense fog certainly heightened the anticipation of seeing the Swiss alps! I'm happy to say that we did indeed see some Alps today.  It felt like Christmas waking up this morning.  I cracked one eye open....  Is that sunshine?   Sure enough, there was a single snow-capped peak shining through the clouds! I screamed, "Eric! Wake up! I see a mountain!"

Luckily for us the weather just got better and better as the morning went on...but not before we froze our tooshies off and bought a fleece sweater!  We hiked to a neighboring town called Gimmelwald with amazing views the whole way there.

About 1 pm the clouds started moving in, and by the time we hiked back to murren, it was raining and freezing again. We spent the rest of our afternoon in the Sportzentrum indoor pool (we got a free entry pass with our hotel).  Not how I imagined our afternoon in Switzerland, but I'd consider it a success! If we could have another day just like it, I would be a happy camper...but of course we're still praying for a whole day of sunshine!

The Grande Finale...Switzerland!

Whew, we made it!  It has been an interesting day of travel, but it could not have gone more seamlessly.  The day started with a jolt-- We woke up at 7:00...Five minutes after our reserved train departed.  We've been using our iPad as an alarm, and we didn't realize it was on silent mode.  Whoops!  It sounds funny now, but it was anything but funny at the time.  We just stared at each other for a solid 15 seconds and then flew out of bed, and were out the door in record time.  We got to the train station and were relieved to find out that there was another train to Milan (other than the one we missed) that would get us there in time to catch the second leg of our reserved train.  We were so excited that we would not lose any time in Switzerland!

Once in Switzerland we went from Spiez to Interlaken, and from there to Lauterbrunnen.  Although we were not in our final destination (up in the Alps in a town called Murren) we stopped in Lauterbrunnen to do a little sight seeing, because it can get a little pricey traveling up and down the mountains.  We went to see the Trummelbachfalle which is a waterfall that alone drains the run-off of the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau glaciers.  It was amazing to hear the roar of the water and to see the path that the water has carved through the rocks.  It was only fitting, after 2 weeks of marveling at man's creation, to end our trip marveling at God's creation!

Unfortunately it has been pouring rain since we got to Switzerland!  Although still beautiful, the fog has moved in and we can't see any of the mountains around us.  We're expecting another day of cloudy rain tomorrow, but hopefully we might get some clear-ish skies for the day after.  Say a prayer for our weather situation please!

Rain or shine, we are loving Switzerland and are thrilled to be here!

Our day in a nutshell...

Cinque Terre

I can't believe we're finally here, in the Cinque Terre!  The whole trip we've been looking forward to this stop and it did not disappoint! When we started planning our trip to Europe, lots of people who had gone on a similar trip recommended the Cinque Terre as a must-see.
Specifically we are in the town of Monterosso.  This is a great place to relax by the sea, explore the towns, and eat amazing food.  When we got in yesterday we just wandered around and hiked up to a cemetery that was built in/on a ruined castle.  There were some great views too:

For dinner we ate a restaurant called "Ciak" and ate prawns, squid, octopus, mussels, clams, and anchovies, all freshly caught that day.  It was so good!

Today we hiked to the next town over, Vernazza.  It was quite the hike, but so much fun!  For lunch we picnicked on monterosso's famous focaccia bread, salami and cheese.

 Probably the highlight of the day was picking up our bag of clean clothes from the launderer...

Tonight we're off to have more amazing food!  Lucky for us we still have a whole day here before we leave for Switzerland!

When in Rome

So....tired...

Today we made a day trip from Florence to Rome, Italy.  I've always wanted to go to Rome and see ancient ruins!  Correction to a previous blog entry: THIS stuff is old.  It was pretty surreal staring at the remnants of structures that have been around since before Christ, when people were walking around in togas and watching people duke it out in the arena for sport.

Guess what? Rome is HOT.  Thankfully there are delicious springs of water all over Rome because we drank water continuously, and we were still dying.  After lunch we managed to get over to the Vatican City, the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon and then called it a day.

Aer arriving back in Florence, we got our second wind...we love this city!  We went back to Leonardo's (the self-service cafeteria) because it was so good and frankly, we were so nasty.  We then ate the best gelato Florence has to offer in our opinion.  Here is a gross post-Rome picture of us eating our gelato on the steps of the Duomo.

And here's what a day of Rome will do to you (Disclaimer:  Neither Chacos nor Keens paid us to post this picture).....

We're looking forward to kicking back and taking it easy at the Cinque Terre for 3 nights!

-sal