Sunday, August 24, 2014

Bern, Switzerland & back to Frankfurt

Saturday, August 23rd 
Seriously I wish I could wake up in Switzerland every day! Russ and I had to drive to Frankfurt today, the others all the way to Barcelona! So we were all trying to leave by 9. Russ and I were up first so I jumped in the shower. By the time I was dressed look what Russ had whipped up:
What a gem that guy! We had bought groceries together with Chelsie so he had made it for all of us. It was fun to take Chelsie breakfast in bread! I mean if this is what you're seeing in the first 2 minutes of your day, it's going to be a good day! 

We all got out the door on time for a long day of travel. We said "see you in Utah" to the others and hit the road.

Russ and I were first headed to Bern, Switzerland which is a little less than an hour away. I was feeling really sick so I slept pretty much the whole way. 
Our destination in Bern? The temple! 

When first planning our trip we knew we wanted to go to a temple. Bern was the one we chose because my Grandma Mitton sang at the dedication of the temple in 1955. It was the first temple in Europe. She was invited to be the soloist for the Tabernacle Choir (kind of like they do with their Christmas concerts now) for their tour of Europe. 
My favorite picture of her on that tour is this one in front of the Eifel Tower, she's the one in the big white dress. You can't miss her:

Here she is at one of their concerts in Zurich, Switzerland:
I love those old pictures! 
That little history connection made it fun to go to that particular temple. I've heard her talk about some amazing experiences at that dedication my whole life so going there was great.


We did initiatories, which I always love. But it was especially interesting how many languages they use consistently in this temple! It's in Switzerland so of course they have German and French. But it is also the closest temple to Italy and France. There were a ton of people speaking Italian! So half the time the  ordinance was in French and half the time in Italian. So diverse! The cutest little old Italian lady was helping me, she was so sweet! Her Italian was really clear and easy for me to understand because of my Spanish so that made it extra fun.

Being in the temple feels so good. Once again I love how it's the exact same spirit all over the world. I am incredibly grateful for the gospel and the temple. We are so blessed to live so close to one! 

Russ' initiatory was all in French, which he was of course hoping for German! 
We loved visiting the temple! 

After a few hours in the temple it was back on the road. It's about 3.5 hours to Frankfurt (where we will fly out of). It went by really fast, was beautiful and we had a good time together :)

Here's yet another castle we passed by:

The majority of our drive was on the autobahn. That's always fun because there is no speed limit and some super nice cars just go flying past you! 

Russ got up to about 180 which is roughly 113 mph

We are staying in a Holiday Inn really close to the airport. We got there around 5:30. We had until 7:00 when we had to be in the city so we took a much needed nap! 
We met up with Max, a member who was in one of Russ' cities (Minden) during his mission. Max was about 18 at the time, now he has been home from his mission 2 years, is married and lives in Frankfurt. We had missed seeing him when we first flew into Frankfurt but luckily could see him tonight! 
He took us to a restaurant in downtown Frankfurt; "Urban Kitchen". If you are ever in Frankfurt, go there! It was so good! 
It had a cool atmosphere too, definitely a happening place. 

Even the bathrooms were cool!

The menu was so diverse. I ordered chicken teriyaki with veggies. Well when it came out it was beef, but I didn't really mind so I just kept it. Oh my goodness. It was delicious! So tender and flavorful, without being overwhelming. Mmmm!

Russ had a coconut curry, he was also ranting and raving about it. Way yum! 

Check out this dessert, it's vanilla icecream in a coconut crusted ball, sitting in delicious berry sauce. Looks cool, tastes even better. Love that coconut!

It was fun to get to know Max, he served in Dick and Brenda Miles' mission so it was fun to talk about how great they are as well. His English is really really good.
Later on his wife was done with work, she was so peppy and full of life! They showed us around downtown Frankfurt for a little bit. Lots of fun with them!

It has been the best getting to know people from Russ' mission. I'll never get tired of that! 

We can hardly believe that tomorrow we have to get on a plane and leave for home :( Definitely not ready, this trip has been too awesome! I am not ready for real life! 

Flying in Switzerland

Friday August 22nd
Talk about waking up excited for the day! Also waking up more rested and refreshed than usual, Russ and I shared the bottom bunk and it was so comfy! 
We got up early enough for breakfast and a quick workout for me before driving back to Interlaken. We had to be there by 10:20.
The morning drive was great! 

First siting of the lake today:

We waited for a car to pick us up at the little stand where we had made our reservation. Meanwhile we couldn't help but notice the people already up in the sky! Eeeee!! So excited! 

A nice guy picked us up and took us to the outdoor "office" of Twin Paragliding. There we met the pilots and got the gear we needed. Once again we had to wear their special hiking boot shoes haha I swear these Swiss and their shoes! (Even though the pilots we were wearing shoes a lot like the running shoes I had on. . . ) We were a group of six; the two of us, a young guy from Canada & 3 Chinese men who spoke basically zero english. It was fun to watch the pilots try and communicate with them, haha so tough! 

We all got in the van, as well as the pilots & drove up the mountain for about 15 minutes. Just the drive to a higher point was beautiful! We each selected our pilots on the drive. Russ was with Patrick, a really cool guy. I was with Nicole, the only girl pilot and the lightest, making it easy for the two of us to catch the up draft winds. Higher the better for me! 
Each pilot has all the stuff packed into a huge backpack. You fly tandem, so they have the harness/seat for both people, helmets and the parachute. We got to or take off point, not a bad view. 

Now I was really getting excited seeing people up above us! 

Here's the take off point:

Suited up and ready to fly!

They check each parachute before hand (don't worry to both our moms - safety first!)
Time to FLY! (Any "Hook" fans out there?)
Later I'll add the pictures/videos we have from this, but for now I dot have much. 


Basically they get the parachute all laid out, you and the pilot attach to each other and then you start running. Wind fills the chute and that slows you down for a second and then you start sprinting again. Before you know it your legs are still trying to run but you're up in the air!! Awesome! It's like you're wearing a big backpack with a little seat hanging off the bottom. It's actually really comfortable! The pilot is behind you.
For the last week or so it has been cloudy every day. But today was perfectly clear and gorgeous! We lucked out! Plus all the pilots were talking about how there were really good winds today.

It was SO fun being up there! Literally breath taking. The mountains and the lakes just make it so your head is constantly on a swivel trying to take it all in. I really loved how you could see the city tucked in perfectly between the mountains and the two lakes what a place! 

At first we kept going in big circles as we caught the updraft wind. At some point Russ' pilot estimate we were rising at about 3 meters per second! Higher and higher we climbed, the view just got better and better!

Later Nicole let me control it a little bit. So cool! It would be really fun to learn how to fly those! She was really fun to talk to. She used to do paragliding competitions. There are either distance or acrobatics. She did distance, the furthest flight she ever did was 113 kilometers and it was 7 hours! Crazy! She also told me about a marathon that they do in Interlaken and end near the Jungfrau . . . That would be amazing! 

The view was gorgeous the entire time, so fun to be up in the air! My favorite was when she would do tricks and spins, butterflies in the stomach! Ah!! So awesome. I would do it again in a heartbeat! 

All in all we were in the air just over 29 minutes, and every second was awesome! I had taken off before Russ did so once we landed (which was super smooth) Nicole pointed out to me which parachute was Patrick & Russ. There he is up in the sky!
 
Patrick is apparently really good at the acrobatics, it was so fun to watch him do one last set of those before they landed. Lots of spinning! From the ground I could hear Russ yelling like a little kid having the time of his life! So cool! 
Preparing for landing.
This was such a wonderful experience. My only complaint was that my face really hurt . . . Because I had been smiling so big the entire time! Absolutely loved it. We had a blast. 

We stuck around in Interlaken for a while, haha about an hour later we drove past the field where we landed and saw that both our pilots were right there and had just landed. Nicole said that I was her third flight that day and she would do 7 or 8 more, that's a ton! So many times I was like "you have a pretty awesome job!" 

Unfortunately we weren't able to get in touch with the others in time to meet up with them (we had such a hard time finding wifi!) we weren't sure if they would be doing something in Adelboden or going to Interlaken. Turns out they stayed in Adelboden and did these awesome scooter trails! You ride the tram up the mountain and then they have these heavy duty bike type scooters with tons of trails you ride down! It sounded so fun! I was wishing we had made it in time to go with them  . . . Buuut it was probably god that we didn't spend more money! Seriously if I had endless time & money there are so many things I want to do in Switzerland! Skydiving, canyonering, river rafting, helicopters, getting to the peaks of those mountains, the list goes on and on! We headed back to Adelboden, once again enjoying the beautiful drive, made lunch and rested a bit. But how much can you just sit in such a beautiful place?! Just 10 minutes away there is an amazing waterfall so we decided to check it out! 

Seriously do these pictures not look fake?!


These falls we're super old even from far away.

You can pay like 30 francs to take a gondola up to the top, but we opted to just hike a little bit.


There was a lady just sitting on a bench at the bottom eating an apple, I figured she would be there a minute so I wanted to ask her to take a picture of us once we went up higher/closer to the falls. Well of course right when we turn around to ask her she is getting up to leave. We asked her anyway and took off running up the rocks for her to take a picture. She was a good sport to do it. I'll have to load those pictures later.
We only went up a little ways for her I take a picture, after which Russ was nice enough to run down to get the camera from her. Since I was a ways up already I just wanted to keep going. With all the mist from the falls the rocks & moss were slick and muddy. But luckily no messy falls! 
Here you can see (if you look close) Russ down below me on his way up.
Did you find him? 

We had a lot of fun at these falls.
Also check out the beard this man has going. It is crazy how multicolored it is. Lots of reds and browns and even a few white hairs, it's the craziest thing. Who knows maybe we will have red head kids! 

Once we hiked right up to the base of the falls the view was even better! I always feel like the views look fake. I mean "is this real life?!" This picture is a good example; it looks like the first layer is real but that the second layer is just a painting. I feel like I'm looking at the set of an old movie or something, but it's real! Absolutely amazing. 

We're not rock climbers, but climbing up this boulder was fun! 

As we got back to our B&B the view was even better than usual.

Here's the outside of our place; with my acrobatic husband haha

That view though! How about those misty mountains? When we got back I seriously just sat on the grass and stared at it for a few minutes. 


A few minutes later the others got back from their scooter adventures for the afternoon. It sounded super fun! We watched some videos they took and those scooters really got going fast! 
The only down side was Tom took a little spill. He just scuffed up his hands a bit, no fun! Luckily (really thanks to Robbie & Angie) we had brought a first aid kit and put it to good use on Tom's wounds.

The 6 of us decided to head into "town" of Adelboden and find some dinner. 
We did some walking as we looked at different restaurants, which of course included some pictures.

I love this place!!

Everything in Switzerland is so expensive! It was hard to find a place where every option wasn't at least $20 a plate. Luckily we found this little place in the town square that wasn't too expensive. Food was good, most people had these pizzas:

But the highlight was the cute Swiss atmosphere! We ate outside (they even provided blankets since it was chilly) and there was a trio playing music; 2 accordions and a string base. It felt like quintesential Switzerland haha 

Then just when I thought it couldn't get better this whole brass band in uniforms and everything came to this other stage right by us. Icing on the cake was the dancers in traditional clothing and everything!  
It was great!

The rest of the night we just hung out, haha we played "would you rather" for a whole and I have never seen Logan laugh so hard in my whole life! His laughing so hard got all of us going, Russ was even crying! Good times with great friends. 
We're all bummed that tomorrow is the beginning of making our trek home :( it's been an amazing time! 


Saturday, August 23, 2014

Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Thursday August 21st
**Disclaimer for this whole post: PICTURES DO NOT DO IT JUSTICE!**
I was so excited to wake up this morning. The first thing I heard was Russ saying "wow" as he looked out our window. I quickly made my way over to see this:

My jaw literally dropped. I was so excited!
 I love the mountains so much. So I hae even extremely excited about this part of our trip for a long time. 
It was just after 7:30 and Russ and I went outside to walk around and just see the views before the others got up. 
Loved it! It was so fun doing that early in the morning. Everywhere you turn is a cute building and amazing view! 
The town is so tiny. This is our place, Pension Gimmelwald. On the left side of the building connected to Pension Gimmelwald is "The Honesty Shop". It's a small shop of souvenirs & snacks. No one works there. Each item has a price and there is a box for you to put your money in. Hence the name, Honesty Shop! So cool. Russ and I bought some fruit there for breakfast.

Those are all cow bells on the side of the house. Some of them are huge! 

The view from the patio of Pension Gimmelwald. Not too shabby eh? 


Russ and I knew that we for sure wanted to do this crazy hike Robbie and Angie did here last year, Klettersteig. You are on the face of the cliff with ladders, single wire bridges and amazing views. You have to rent a harness, helmet and clips to do this hike. I have been dying to do this hike for over a year now! 
Tom and Chelsie decided to do it with us, so the four of us left our bags at the hotel and headed out.
*sidenote - see that tiny blue backpack? That is Chelsies bag for the whole trip! Everything she needs! Amazing packing skills.*

For the hike you take the tram over to the next city, Murren. Then you hike back to Gimmelwald. 
We had a million scouts on board with us.
The views were awesome! If you look closely on the bottom left you'll see a gray line coming off the cliff...that's the skinny bridge we would be crossing! Eeee! We were getting so excited!

Once in Murren we set out to find the shop where you rent the stuff. We got there eventually and the lady told us we had to rent her special shoes as well. We knew that you don't have to have those shoes and that ours would be fine so we went to find another shop. 
Well the one other shop in town (which doesn't care about your shoes) is closed on Thursdays! WHAT?! You've got to be kidding me. Terrible luck. So we went back to the first shop hoping to convince te lady to just rent us the stuff. She wouldn't budge about the shoes. 
So the shoes would cost us double, plus we would have to go back and forth from Murren to Gimmelvald an extra one or two times, or carry our shoes on the hike. 
Terrible luck. To my dismay and sadness we decided not to do it. I literally needed a good 15 minutes to get over it. I was so bummed! A whole year of looking forward to it and then it didn't work out! So lame.  I guess now I have a good reason to come back to Switzerland! 

On the plus side Murren was a cool little town and the view was always amazing! 
I love seeing the para gliders everywhere! 

So instead of doing the most epic hike of my life, we took a different trail through the woods back to Gimmelwald. I must admit, it was still amazing! 
Cutest.

Just being up there was so cool! 
The hills are alive here I tell you what! 
We had a really good time just hiking around, and taking in the breathtaking view in all directions. Haha we also did some yodeling (how can you not?) and literally chased butterflies . . . Somehow it just felt right. 


I love how this picture of Russ and Tom gives you a better feel of how MASSIVE these mountains are!

Eventually we made it back to Gimmelwald, grabbed our stuff and headed down the gondola. Goodbye Gimmelwald, I can not wait to come back!

This is the view as we came down the gondola from Gimmelwald, we were really a long ways up!  

We next drove to Interlaken, about 30-40 minutes away.

Stopped for a minute to admire this waterfall. Just one piece of the constant view. 

We ate in the little Coop Restaurant in Interlaken and this little bird was just hopping around! It wouldn't surprise me if Switzerland also had singing animals like a Disney movie, everything else is already so magical! 

Interlaken is a city set in a narrow canyon and wedged between 2 of the most beautiful lakes you will ever see. The six of us went to walk around and see one of the lakes. 

See that little house right on the lake? There were some awesome houses like that all along the lake. How amazing if that were your summer home eh? 

Those sun rays say it all.


It's hard to see but there is a green parachute out on the lake of a guy kite surfing, he made that look fun! I couldn't believe how fast he was going.

Beautiful lake with my love.

I think he loves me ;)

We drove about an hour up another canyon to our B&B for the next 2 nights. It's in a little town called Adelboden.
We went further around one of the lakes, the mountains never stop! 
We just kept going and going further into tiny towns, I probably took a million pictures. Usually I blog while we drive or take a train, but lately the surroundings are too awesome to be staring to a screen. I've got to soak in everything around me, so amazing! 

We got to our place and it's got a full kitchen and living room, 1.5 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms. We got some groceries for the next couple days since we now have a kitchen. Also because restaurants are really pricey in Switzerland and we're in the middle of nowhere without many stores.

It was really fun to just have our own space, we finally played some Scum and other games.


Tomorrow Russ and I are heading back into Interlaken.
See what's in the sky in their welcome sign? 
That'll be us tomorrow morning! Paragliding in the Alps here we come. (I might be just a little bit excited)