Enjoy the pictures.
Me, Mandi, Wendy & Eric. Our day started at 5:30am to get on the 7:00am train.
Thun. This is a Swiss-German part of Switzerland.....Mandi and I stopped here and Interlaken while Eric & Wendy went on ahead to ski the Alps for the day. The birds in the picture swarmed us, literally. Guess they are used to getting fed!
221 stairs later we made it to the top of the city to see a castle. You might want to check it out in the Spring though, since it is closed in the winter and at 8:30am in the morning. The outside was nice though.
Church in Interlaken we stopped in for awhile. There was beautiful stained glass and it was a welcome quiet spot to rest for a bit. We walked around the town here for 2 hours before getting back in the train bound for Grindelwald.
Welcome to Grindelwald! Ski resort central of Switzerland. Don't get too excited about the "World Show Festival" it was just an ice sculpture exhibit.....interesting but a bit of a letdown when I was expecting a huge winter festival. There were some loud American teenagers there so Mandi & I decided we were only going to speak French for awhile. ha ha
The above mentioned ice sculptures. Each country did some sort of theme.
The epitome of "Swiss-ness" the cow with the bell around it's neck. Granted they are much bigger in real life and not with the name of a town on their side.......hopefully I'll get some "real" cow pictures later in the year.
This amazing cafe' we found (it was Mandi's "find" actually) named "C und M." A Good Swiss-German name, eh? The black forest torte was even better than it looks and I had my first cup of chai tea in months. It was worth the 10 francs!
Mandi and I cheesing for a picture. We had some great laughs at ourselves that day!
This is an Alp, in case you forgot what one looked like from my previous blog post. We think we walked on one in Interlaken. Sounds impressive to say "I walked on an Alp," doesn't it? We thought so.
Mandi and I watched some local high school hockey for awhile since we were exhausted from walking around all day. Notice the high ropes course in the rafters. A good use of space, although I'm not sure they have the best safety practices from what I saw! A bit scary. Maybe that's just the nurse in me coming out and my previous work with the ropes course at GYC.
We rendez-voused (that's a French term, did you know that??? but my English spelling of it may be a bit off) with Eric & Wendy for dinner. They had quite the adventures skiing! After a filling dinner we took the train back home (2+ hours) and I hit the hay at 11:45pm. I very long day, but very worth it!
3 comments:
I have forgotten what I was going to say.
Ah yes, the world snow festival. The real one is in St. Paul Minnesota. They have had to scale down in recent years due to budget crunching, but on a good year they make a huge ice castle that can be up to 13 stories tall.
They have ice carving contests (of course) and a general celebration of a ton of different winter sports. This year they are hosting the world ice racing circuit. It's like sailboats, but on ice. There are TWO parades for the celebration, one at the beginning and one at the end. The first one celebrates the reign of the ice king (whose name I have forgotten) who reigns over the first week and a half of the festivities. Then he is overthrown by Rex Vulcanus, the king of fire. This battle traditionally takes place in front of the ice castle, but this year it will have to take place on the steps of the library since there is no castle. In order to maintain peace and harmony, the ice king agrees to go elsewhere (perhaps Quebec?) until next year and the city turns out for a parade to celebrate Rex Vulcanus and his promise of melting the snow for spring.
Where on earth did somebody get this idea? Long ago (120 years?) The NY Times accused Minnesota of being as uninhabitable as Sibera. St. Paul decided to prove them wrong by creating what is now one of the oldest festivals in the United States.
Wow, I might have to check that out when I'm back in the States......
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