St Moritz

Our final stop in Switzerland was St. Moritz.  We had planned lots of hiking but the weather did not co-operate.  We spent a day shopping and eating and took a bus to a town called Soglio, one of the most beautiful small towns in Switzerland.

Kite surfing in St. Mortiz

Cozy flambee dinner on a cold, rainy night

Bus ride to Soglio.  Our bus driver had impressive driving skills.  Our hotel room came with bus passes.

We stopped for lunch in Soglio and our restaurant had the most amazing garden.  There were a pair of these amazing trees.

It was a cold, rainy day in Soglio.

Lucerne

We continued on to Lucerne.  The nice thing about traveling around Switzerland was that our drives were less than two hours.  It was really hot in Lucerne!   I think it must have been unusually hot because our hotel did not have AC.  We had a couple of adventurous days.  On the first day we did Fox Trails again.  We did it last year in Zurich.  You follow the trail of a fox around the city.  It really is hard if you are not at all familiar with the city.  We met a group of wood carvers from Lichtenstein who were also doing the train so we teamed up with them.  The next day we went to Mt. Pilatus.  We took a boat to a cog wheel train which took us to the top of the mountain.  From the we hiked a wild flower trail that went to the very top of the mountain.  It was really fun.  There were hundreds of different flowers that were labeled.  To get back down we took a cable car.  It stopped half way down and we rode a summer bob sled and then continued onto another cable car.  Finally, we took a bus to get back to our hotel.

The woodcarvers

Boat to the cog wheel train

Cog wheel train

Top of Mt Pilatus wild flower trail

That red speck over there is the cog wheel train.  Amazing Swiss engineering.

Cable car on the way down.

Summer bob sled ride

They attach you to cable and you get pulled back up the mountain at the end of the bob sled ride.  Loved going by the cows and listening to their bells.

Grindlewald

Our next stop was Grindlewald.  This is a great place to stay in order to take the train to the Jungfrau Joch (the highest point in Europe).   The train ride to the top is only 2 hours from Grindlewald.

We stopped for lunch in Interlaken on the way from Monreux.  This river really is this color!  All of the lakes and rivers that we saw were this amazing shade of green.

The view from our hotel in Grindlewald.

Train ride on the way to the Jungfrau Joch.  The green was so lush and as your looked out you could see lots of ski area.  I really wish that we would have hiked part of the way down.

We had lunch at the top and I had this special beer hell.  Not bad!

There was a lot of snow at the top and it was really cold.  This was a tough trip to pack for but I was so glad we had our puffer coats.  

This an ice cave at the top also.  The floors are ice, I thought for sure I was going to fall and break something.  

Polar bears and penguins.

One night when we set out for dinner we noticed a festival going on.  It was all locals-no tourists, except us.  We ended up spending the evening, listening to music and eating and drinking.  It was a beautiful, fun, very unexpected evening.  

Montreux

Our second stop was Montreux.  We had a room with an incredible view of the lake.  The main reason we went to Montreux was to take the Chocolate Train that leaves from Montreux and stops in Gruyere and Broc.  The Chocolate Train did not disappoint and K declared that it was one of her favorite things on our trip.

Views of the lake from our room in Montreux.

The charming town of Gruyere.  Our stop here included a tour of a cheese making factory.

We had lunch in Grueyre.  K out ordered me and had delicious pasta arrabiata.  I had never had raclette so decided to give it a try.  They brought out this thing that was kind of like a curling iron but 100 times hotter.  The heat coming off of the thing was about to kill us!  I was then given a bowl of boiled potatoes, onions and pickles to dip in the cheese.  I can say I have tried raceltte.  

The chocolate train was a vintage train that was so cute and the ride was scenic and relaxing.  

Summer Vacation-First Stop Zermatt

Our summer vacation really should have been three separate trips so it is going to take a while to get this blog caught up.  The first part of our vacation was in Switzerland.  We loved everything about it.  Our days were filled with hikes through crisp mountain air.  It was pure heaven.  Our first stop was Zermatt.  There are no cars allowed so our hotel picked us up at the train station in a golf cart.  We had a view of the Matterhorn from our room which took our breaths away.  I don't have a lot of pictures because I had my cell phone plugged in to charge and it slipped down next to my seat and when I reclined my seat I crushed my phone.  Our wonderful hotel got it fixed for me!


We took a train to the top of a mountain and hiked down to a lake for an iconic photo of the Matterhorn reflected in this lake.  The clouds did co-operate with our photo but it was a great hike!

A room with a view

Around Here

Spring was a blur.  K studied like crazy, often I would wake up at 2 AM and go into her bedroom and tell her to quit studying.  All the hard work paid off.  She made honor roll and met a couple of other criteria and was exempt from spring finals!

Harrison came to Atlanta for 2 weeks to interview with the big 4 accounting firms for an internship for next summer.  We loved having him here.

We've had numerous other foster kittens and Emma came back to visit while her mom was out of town.

K is babysitting and pet sitting a lot.  She will be working at a camp for underserved children and then attending a 1 week cam at SCAD.  She just had her wisdom teeth out.  

Emma and the foster kittens

Awards Ceremony

Bert helping himself to Harrison's milk

I help K babysit when she takes this little guy to the neighborhood pool.  She is afraid he will hog tie her and end up on the high dive.

Bert making himself at home on K's food tray