2022 May Day 06 - Goodbye Lauterbrunnen, hello Geneva

 Day 6 started like the previous day….waking up in the middle of the night, staying awake a few hours, then falling asleep until around 7 AM.   I’m really not sure why this is going on.  Anyway, we got up, got dressed and went over to get our ‘included’ breakfast.  It was the same as yesterday except they had croissants today.   All good.

At 10 AM, Mike and family picked us up after we had checked out and off we went leaving spectacular Lauterbrunnen in the rear view mirror.  What an amazingly beautiful place.  So much to do and see.  Just bring lots of money.

We drove through Interlaken just to see what this little town was like.  It was a nice town that sits between two very beautiful lakes.  But other than that…nothing too different.

We then turned west to head towards Geneva.  Along the way, Riley wanted to stop in a ‘cheese’ town named Le Gruyére where here Paragliding pilot said was a really nice town to visit as it had an old, medieval, part of town.  So when we got close, we drove in and parked the car and walked around.  It was a nice town, with people going about their daily stuff.   It had a castle like structure and garden in the center of the town which we walked to and visited.  Mike and group bought some meats and cheeses to snack on.  Honestly, I was not hungry as it felt like we had just had our breakfast.  So we did not buy anything.

Upon leaving Le Gruyére, we traveled down some crazy, winding, roads to get to a chocolate factory.  It is called Maison Cailler.  It is a chocolate that dates back a really long time.  Anyway, we paid the 15 franc entrance fee (per person) to take their tour.  The tour was pretty interesting.  They took you into about 8 different rooms where they ‘showed’ you the history of chocolate making and then how today chocolate is grown, acquired and turned into the many types of chocolates that you can buy.  At the end, we became ‘tasters’ and we all filled our pockets with chocolates.  They then dropped us into their ‘store’ and of course we had to buy a bit to take home.  Pretty fun times.

Our next stop was our ‘hotel’ in Geneva which is really in a French town named Segny.  Again, we drove quite a while on small narrow roads to find this place.  You feel like you are not close to any city like Geneva.  Upon parking the car and going into the front desk area, there were two ladies in a kitchen area chatting away in French.  I tried to communicate with them that we had 3 rooms.  It began about a 15 minute episode of confusion and concern by these two ladies as the ‘host’ lady was at the market and not expecting us until later.  One of the ladies was quite old.  Turns out she is the mother of our host.  She and her friend did their best to figure it all out even getting us to the rooms that we would be in.  About that time, the host arrived and she spoke pretty good English and even though I had booked a triple room and 2 double rooms, she said it was for only 6 people.  I told her that was a mistake and that it was for 7 people.  Anyway, I think once she realized that Denise and I would not be eating breakfast in the morning, everything was ok as she was going to give us 2 triple rooms and 1 double room anyway.  

Once we were all in our rooms, Denise and I had to do our Covid testing.  That went just fine with us both testing negative.  We then checked into our flights and headed out where we could hear the Hunter clan gathering.  We were hungry.  Apparently someone had intructions on how to get to a big Walmart type store nearby that we could walk to.  So off we went walking the streets of Segny.  It was not too far and it had lots of stuff.  Denise and I settled in on Sushi, a strong lemon aid type drink and chocolate covered pamier cookies.  Once we found our stuff, we looked all over for the Hunter’s but could not see them.  So we figured they had headed back.   So we took off walking.  But when we arrive back at the hotel, they were not there yet.  Turns out they were a bit behind us and we had no idea.  Anyway, in the courtyard at the hotel there are some tables.  One had a cover that you could open up, which we did, to keep the rain off us as it was starting to sprinkle a bit.  We all ate and enjoyed our food.

To end the evening, we all gathered in Mike and Jenny’s room to play a game.  Josh had brought a game called ‘Coup’.  It is kind of a complicated game initially.  But once you got it…tons of fun!  We played for an hour or two and then off to bed as 5:15 AM was going to come pretty fast.  And with our sleeeping habits of late, we thought we’d get to sleep early.

I’m writing this at 6 AM on Tuesday the 24th.  We’ll leave in a few minutes as Mike is going to drive us to the airport which is about a 20 minute drive from here.  It has been a good trip.  It will end really good if we get Polaris (1st class) seating on the plane.  It looks pretty good believe it or not.  Wish us luck!

We just arrived at the GVA airport.  Small but very clean and nice.  Easy to get through everything and we are now sitting in a very nice lounge (love that feature on our credit card).  Our flight will leave in a few hours.  So it is nice to have this.  We will get on this flight easily.  However, from EWR, I think it might be an adventure.  Seems like it always is when coming off an international flight.  But in the end, we get home.

This will be it for this trip.  The trip will have so many great memories.  Traveling with Mike, Jenny and 3 of their 4 children will always be a highlight.  I hope we get to do it again.  Normandy and Lauterbrunnen were something to behold.  Will never forget the sacrifice of our soldiers in Normandy nor will I forget the amazing beauty in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.  So glad we made the trip.  Well worth time and money to see both of these places.  Until the next trip!!!!

Pictures:

This is outside our hotel in Segny (Geneva).  They had a nice courtyard where we ate what we bought at the supermarket fairly close by.  

Denise roughing it out in the lounge at the GVA (Geneva) Switzerland airport.

Mike trying to gnaw off a chunk of the sausage that he purchased in Le Gruyère…however you spell it.  I think he eventually succeeded!

A picture showing off all the pretty windows in this airport.  It really feels quite new or remodeled.

Chocolate factory…..

My breakfast….Pan de Chocolate and a couple of doughnuts (although the doughnuts are making the trip back to the USA).  

A nice castle we saw as we were driving.  We actually pulled off the road to get pictures of this one.  We saw a number of castles as we drove.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending upon your perspective) we did not stop and go into any.

This is a great photo to end this blog.  Mike and Josh…joined at the hip.  These two have a special bond like no other.  They respect each other.  They lean on each other.  They enjoy each other.  Pretty special.  Since I walk toward the back always, I saw this view often on this trip.  I hope they keep this relationship their whole lives.

Chocolate tasters….Riley and Denise.

Chocolate factory audio tour…the whole group.   It looks like they all just lover their phones.

Castle like building in Le Gruyère France.

Garden behind castle in Le Gruyére, France.  At least they turned on the fountain, unlike the Palace in Versailles.

Chocolate heaven!

While traveling today, we stopped to figure out where to go.  It was a rest stop.  So, of course, the senior citizens in the car needed to use the bathroom.  We have NEVER seen a high tech bathroom like this.  You have to pull the seat down if you need to sit.  The buttons to the left shoot out soap, then water, then flush the toilet.  And when flushing, look out, an amazing swirly!!!  It was amazing.  It even had a button in the right side for drying your hands.  Way cool!!!

Dense and I got home great.  All flights connected.  But while we were traveling, this young man (Zachary) received his mission call to serve a mission in the mountains of Peru…the Limatambo Mission. This mission is quite close to Cusco, where Denise and I were recently.  He’s a wonderful young man with such a big loving heart.  I know he will love this people like no other missionary before him.  I worry, however, that they are not ready for such a caring young man and the world there will stain him.  But I know the Lord will protect him.

2022 May Day 05 - Beautiful Lauterbrunnen!

 Day 5 began really early.  At about 4 AM, Denise and I both wake up due to the heat in this little hotel room.  We have windows that fully open to the side Denise is sleeping on and because we are on the downside of the mountain, they open into the hill almost…about a foot below the window.  I wanted to just open them but Denise was afraid Bigfoot come through the windows and sleep with her.  But in the pitch darkness, I noticed solid outside shutters.  They had to be the ‘screens’ that you can use to keep large animals out yet air in.  So at 4 AM, I figured out how to use them.  Slowly our room began to cool down.  As of now, we have not shut our windows and just had these shutters in place as they do lock fairly well.

Since I was awake, I thought I’d see who was texting from the USA since it was only 8 PM in Utah.  What I saw was an email from United telling me that our Tuesday flight might be cancelled or severely delayed due to lightning and thunder in the NYC area….where our plane out of Geneva originates on Monday.  So I laid there thinking about all the alternatives at my finger tips to catch a flight home.  I’ve monitored the NYC weather and the flight today from EWR and everything seems to look just fine.  Nothing odd other than hotter than normal temperatures.  I’ll continue to watch this as we get closer to Tuesday.  The plane needs to fly Monday at 5 PM’ish from EWR for us to be able to get on it here in Geneva Tuesday at 9:30 AM.  And you have the whole Covid testing bologna that the US Government continues to put us all through.   All other countries in the 21st century value vaccinations and the fact we’ve been vaccinated and boosted.  The USA does not seem to care.  Big money grab it is by big Pharma making us all test.  Anyway, we have to test the day before flying….but if you don’t know if you’re going to fly until the door closes and you have tickets, you might be testing multiple times as a standby flyer.  Stressful it is….but I eventually fell back asleep awaking around 8 AM.

This mornings activities began at breakfast where we had a free breakfast with our hotel room.  It was the usual Euro fare of bread, cheeses, various hams, some cereal, yoghurt, etc..  Lots to choose from.  All very yummy.

After eating, we headed to where Mike and Jenny are sleeping to see their ‘hobbit’ hut.  We eventually found it after wandering a bit and yes, I have to duck down after every beam supporting the floor above them.  But it is a nice clean unit.  On another note, Mike got pinged by the owner of the BNB in Paris saying that they had broken a bathroom door, a toilet seat and that we had left a pile of sheets in the living room area.  The first two items are not true…the door was broke when they arrived and the toilet set swiveled already too.  As for the sheets, the instructions asked us to strip the sheets from the beds…which we did and we piled them there thinking it would be easier for the cleaning team.  All in all…he wants $600 more euro.  I think not.   So Mike will be taking this up with AIRBNB folks.  This guy is trying to grab money.  But we’ll see.

After seeing their flat, we headed to a waterfall nearby named Staubbach Falls.  We had to do a climb, following a path of switch backs that took us to the back of the waterfall…or so we thought.  But in reality, it got us close but we were not totally behind the main water.  I suspect if it was flowing harder, that would be the case.  It was really fun nonetheless.

After seeing this waterfall, we headed to a UNESCO Heritage site called Trümmelbach-Fälle.  We jumped on a bus that took as about 1.5 miles up the river here to the entrance point.  We paid 25 euros for both of us to get in.  This was amazing.  It is a waterfall that cuts in and out of the mountain.  It is a glacier waterfall.  And to get up to see it all you have to take a funicular….a train that goes up the mountain.  Once you exit, you starting walking upstairs into the mountain seeing many vantage points where the waterfall is blasting through the mountain.  The air was so fresh…so wonderfully cool.  The water was the color of water we saw in Banff Park in Canada of a lake there as it too was fed from a glacier.  The power of the water coming down was amazing.  We then took all the steps down the mountains seeing many different views of the water hurling down the mountain.  We did not use the funicular to come down.  Most folks did it this way.  Very fun, not overwhelming.  It probably took about an hour to do.  Maybe more.  It would have been fun to walk the trail along the river back to Lauterbrunnen but we had other plans to get done today.  So we caught the bus back.  At that point, we split from Mike and Jenny.  They were going to get ready to go Paragliding which is a sport going on here constantly.  You see Paragliders coming off the mountain and then floating for about 15 minutes down to the beautiful valley floor.  It must be amazing.  I hope all the Hunters get to do this today.

Denise and I returned to our room to quickly shower and get cleaned up.  We then went to the tram near us and paid tickets to take us up the mountain and with a train ride up there over to Mürren…a little town perched on the mountain that has hotels, eateries and other trams to take you way up the mountain to some crazy view points.  We stopped at Mürren to walk this little town and to just enjoy the beauty of the earth that amazingly is surrounding us.  It is amazing.  Our pictures won’t do it justice.  High peaks with valley glaciers towering over a valley so green, full of flowers, with a glacier river running through it.  It is quite unbelievable.  You can see why many James Bond movies have had parts filmed here and the Amazing Race has been here a number of times too doing such things as Paragliding.  You’ll have to look up all the names of the peaks here.  But one stands out in my mind called the Eiger.  I remember a movie with Clint Eastwood in it called the Eiger Sanction.  I think I saw it on TV.  It was about a company scaling this mountain…kind of.   Anyway, I have to pinch myself to tell myself that I’m really here.  After walking through Mürren, we stopped at a restaurant in the edge of a cliff (with a spectacular view) to have some ice cream and apple strudel.  Pretty wonderful.

We are now in our room just relaxing with the windows open, breeze blowing after a slight rainstorm wondering if all the Hunters launched themselves off the mountain (with pilots of course).  We’ve heard that 3 have gone so far.  I hope the other two make it.  We are not sure what we will do this evening…maybe find a place to chill and play cards or something.  We’ll see.  More to come.

Pictures….

We spent the afternoon in Mürren.  This is a photo they had on the website that shows the beauty, the train we rode and so on.  Beautiful area.

In Mürren, at the restaurant we had our treats at, they had a few of these statues carved out in wood.  We made a lovely couple.  So we took a few pics.

Denise and I before walking behind Staubbach Falls.

Denise’s new partner at the restaurant in Mürren.

Quick picture of us standing behind the waterfall…or almost anyway.  You probably can’t see the spray, but it was spraying a bit.

The entry point to Trümmelbach-Fälle.

Happy siblings.  It is great to be with Mike and his family on this trip.  Love them much.

Our small room here in Lauterbrunnen.

On of the fall shoots at Trümmelback-Fälle.

Kicking back on Mike’s deck prior to beginning our adventurous day.

The Swiss love tunnels…on their roads and at their tourist sites.  Me in the tunnel coming back from Staubbach Falls.

Our hotel entry and restaurant.  We ate there last night.

Our strudel….

Another shoot in Trümmelbach-Fälle….

The group without kids….

I’m looking out our bedroom window.  You can see how close it is to the ground.  Bigfoot could get in if he wanted to.

If the tram to Mürren fails, it is coming through our bedroom windows.  You can see how close it is to us. It is very quiet.  You never know it is moving.

Me dancing in the short lived rain….

The next pictures are intended to show the beauty of this place…so beautiful.

The yellow dot is a Paraglider floating down.  We are above them in Mürren.

Beautiful….

Beautiful….

Denise at Trümmelbach-Falle….

Happy girl in Mürren…..

The flow of glacier water that has hurdled down through the mountains.  So impressive.

The Alp peaks….

Part of our journey…Denise looking so good.

The valley floor.  Green and amazing with many flowers blooming beautifully.

2022 May Day 04 - See ya France, hello Switzerland.

Day 4 has begun.  We found our hotel in Le Mans last night.  I had booked this hotel not knowing anything about Le Mans or this hotel.  It turned out that it is right in the heart of the city, a fairly big city.   We arrived around 9:45 PM…still a bit of light out.  And although the listing said the hotel had parking, what that meant was that there was public parking down the street…at least you hoped there were spaces.  After unloading our bags, Mike and Josh took the van to the ‘public’ parking.  Only one level could accommodate a higher vehicle like this van.  And apparently it was full.  But fortunately, while looping around, a car pulled out and they were able to grab it.  I figured the cost was going to be expensive to have a car there over night.  We thought it would be 30 euros or more.  It turned out to be 4,80 euros.  I was amazed.  Anyway, upon getting our room keys, we were each on 3 different floors, even though I requested being put close to each other.  The triple room was on the third floor, and Mike\Jenny and Tim\Denise were on the 2nd floor.  No elevators, very hot hotel.  Our room was especially hot.  I played and played with the air conditioner control.  But no cigar, it was doing nothing.  The window in our room opened up to a very busy city street.  That was not going to work on a Friday night.  So I got Jeremy, the hotel clerk, to come look at it.  He agreed…too hot…and the control was not working.  So he put us in another room on the 1st floor.  This had two windows that opened to the back of the hotel, very quiet.  That room was already cool so we were happy.  By nearly midnight, we were asleep (at least I was).  I think Denise struggled getting to sleep.

As usual, I was ready to go fairly early.  So I left the Artyster Hotel and went looking for a bakery.  I wandered around the square nearby and then down a few blocks eventually finding a very nice bakery where I purchased two or three very fresh bakery items to take back to the room.  All were very yummy and my wife was a happy girl.

We left the hotel around 10 AM heading to Lauterbrunnen Switzerland.  It will be 8 hours in the car to get there.  Yesterday, to fill this van up, we paid 138 Euros to fill it.   Gas is not cheap.   The other driving thing is the tolls you have to pay.  It is going to be interesting to see how much we end up paying in toll charges.  Lots and lots of tolls.  Anyway, Jenny would like to try and see some castles along the way.  Not sure if our driver (Mike) is going to give in or not.  I’m in the back seat just observing with no opinions!  :-)  More to come later.

The  8 hour drive had a number of stops.  But all in all, it was quite fun visiting while Mike and Josh drove.  I’ve offered to drive.  But I think Mike is hesitant because I’m not listed officially as a driver.  Anyway, they did great.  We stopped 3 times I think to snack and empty (our bladders…at least that is all that I emptied).  At one stop, the mens bathroom was closed down.  So the men ventured into the womens bathroom.  The funny thing here is that in public toilets they don’t put seats on the toilets.  So…that would have been  an adventure had a #2 experience needed to occur for this old guy!  

As we were beginning our drive we discussed where along the way we would eat dinner.  I jokingly said we will stop at the first Burger King that we see….knowing that I had not seen a BK in France the whole trip thus far.  McDonalds everywhere…no BK’s.  Anyway, on our last stop as we pulled in low and behold staring in my one good eye was a sign for a ‘Whopper’!!!!  I just started laughing.  It felt kind of like I had reached nirvana until I went in and say that a Whopper meal was CHF 18…about $18.50!  So funny.

The drive across France was fairly flat, but green.  But as we got to the east side and approached Switzerland, we started to get into hills and beautiful valleys.  After crossing into Switzerland, the Alps appeared and the excitement began to grow.  Holy smokes they are very tall and everything around it so green.  We rolled by Interlaken where a city sits between two beautiful lakes.  Amazing how beautiful the terrain is here.  We headed into the valley of the Alps where Lauterbrunnen is found.  Our hotel…Hotel Steinbeck….was one of the first ones to appear as you roll into town.   Mike and Jenny and kids are about 10 minute walk down the road.  So after dropping us off, they all went up to their BNB.  Once they figured out how to park their van….since all their roads are very narrow with no where to park a car.  And this big van was an issue for them apparently.  The landlord eventually told them to park in a field next to his place that had knee high grass.  We all reconvened at our hotel to eat dinner.  The food was pretty good.  I went with the Fondue and Denise ordered a Reclet (sp?) plate.  All yummy.  Well, time to go to bed.  Tomorrow we plan to explore and have a mellow day just visiting places in the area.  Mellow day for a Sabbath day I hope.

Pictures (not as many today as we were in a car most of it):

Looking out our hotel room in Lauterbrunnen.  Just down the way a bit is a HUGE waterfall.  We’re excited to explore it tomorrow.

Funny, the building behind me is where we checked in at for our room here in Lauterbrunnen.  But our room is across the stree from where I’m standing.  They had to escort us up the street to the building that has our room.

My dinner….cheese fondue.  It was pretty good.

Denise snapped this shot as we were coming into the Interlaken area.  This is looking away from the Alps which are behind us I believe.

A Whopper…yum!  You just can’t get away from American hamburger places.

This is the small train station across from our hotel room building.  It’s possible that we will be taking a train to some locations.  But we will see.  Not sure totally what we will be doing here.

This was my contribution to the trip…cleaning the windows.  I didn’t get tipped much though.

Our small room in Lauterbrunnen.  At least I can stand up…unlike the BNB that Mike’s family is in.  I guess the boys can’t stand up straight because their ceiling is too low.  I’ll have to get a picture of that!

Denise’s dinner.  It had bacon, potatoes, reclet cheese and an sundry of other things.  It was pretty yummy too.  She also got French Onion soup.  That was very tasty.