Nature at it's Finest
Trip Start
Jun 02, 2010
1
3
13
Trip End
Jun 28, 2010
Where I stayed
Campsite in the valley floor
Lauterbrunnen, Bern, Switzerland
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The bus left at 8am, which means we had to pack the tent at 6:30 am, ouch! I'll have to get used to this. Anyhow, we got on the bus and drove all the way to Lauterbrunnen. We left at 8 am and arrived at about 5 pm. We drove nine hours, but the time passed quickly due to the introduction interviews we all gave on the bus. Each person was handed questions and used the bus' microphone to answer them. They were simple enough, with a few quirky ones to entertain everyone and it was neat to get to know everyone. Speaking of the getup were traveling with, laurel and i are loving it so far. Everyone is really friendly, and it is cool that we are 2 of the only 6 Americans on the bus. The group of 20 is made up of Aussies, Kiwis (New Zealander nickname), Saudi Arabians, S. Africans, Canadiens, and an Irishmen. I am so relieved that we aren't merely country hopping on an american filled bus, because we have gained so much in conversations with everyone here.
After arriving in Lauterbrunnen, I started to set up camp by first picking my jaw up from the ground. This area is the most beautiful alpine canyon i have ever seen. It was formed by glaciers, so instead of the normal canyon formed by a river eroding rock and forming a V shaped crevasse, a huge block of ice literally pushed a rock apart leaving a U shaped valley. This makes for a wide flat valley floor perfect for farming, and giant sheer cliff faces jutting up on either end. As if that wasn't pretty enough, the snow capped Swiss alps are the backdrop to the end of the valley, and everywhere you turn there is a waterfall that spans the whole cliff. Needless to say, i am so happy to be here. Every pine tree is so vividly greed and the wild flowers are picture perfect, like the sound of music these hills are alive.
So we set up our tent and then had dinner with the group. Guess what we had... Never mind you won't.. We had chicken cordon blue, while camping in the Swiss alps. The food is just awesome, I will come home a bigger person, internally and definitely externally! After dinner, some of the group was going to the bar that is on our campsite (European camping is much different, most campsites have bars, markets, paid wifi in the buildings, and I've heard some have pools) so Laurel and i thought we'd like to join in and hang out. Well that was great, but when we started dancing Laurel was pleased even more. As she was dancing, several of our new friends asked laurel if she has trained in dancing because they noticed she could move. Red faced and grinning she humbly admitted it, and then kept dancing. We took the night pretty easy though, as we were not about to ruin our day tomorrow. I can't wait to explore this place!
June 9th
Oh my goodness. Can my family and friends reading this put their houses on the market, give two weeks notice, and do whatever else you have to do and move to Lauterbrunnen with me and Laurel? Everytime i turn my head i find something new to gawk at. This place is nature at it's finest, it's almost too perfect. Our day consisted of renting mountain bikes, riding to a gondola, going up the gondola for a view worth dying for, then hiking backdown to the bikes and drinking coffee in town an hour shy of dinner, I can't wait to show off these pictures, words don't do it anything near justice. Another high point of the day was doing all of this will Ryan and Fizz, who i mentioned are from S. Africa. They are two awesome people, and I think it is kinda funny that the first people we really have hung out with are the only other couple on the trip! Anyway, we've gotten along great, and it is so interesting to compare our very different experience and finding our similarities as well.
I'll spare you the details of the pictures i took. If most are with a thousand words, than these photos will give me carpel-tunnel! Dinner was great again, we a vegetable risotto. Afterwards we played a few drinking games and darts at the bar I mentioned yesterday. What a place this is though, they should film a Planet earth scene here or something! Time for bed though, we'll be in Avignon tomorrow evening! I will miss Switzerland, but we have a ton to look forward to!
