Switzerland

Disclaimer:  Long ago and Far away, before I’d learned about aperture and shutter speed and all that jazz, I had the privilege of going on a study tour in college with a few of my best buds. Armed with a point and shoot camera we got to travel five countries with a knowledgeable English professor and the lady who got me through college.

I thought I’d spend a few posts reminiscing  this trip via blog style.

Sit back and cringe politely to yourself, because yes, this is going to be worse than your great aunt Susan's 200 slides of the family ski trip. Wait, who am I kidding….who even knows what a slide is these days?….It will be worse than the  900 page photo album on Facebook of your friend’s first child.  Basically what I’m trying to say is, YES these will be boring for some of you but that’s why there's an amazing little thing to the left of your browser called the scroll bar!

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Onward we drove, round and round and round the mountains. Cows, Sheep and Horses lazily grazed as the cold mountain air blew through our open windows (pure joy on a bus full of 28 people).

INTERLAKEN

We reached Interlaken in enough time to walk slowly through the town and enjoy a picnic lunch. The water on mountain lake is like a mirror of glass and the little town full of shops. Because I’m a dork the only thing I could think was: This is the city of Dale the river men and Smaug lives in that mountain.”   (For all you normal people, that’s a reference to The Hobbit)

All together now: “Aww”

actually funny enough, three of the girls myself included thought to braid our hair for the day. Appropriate huh?

THE ALPS

From below, we went UP to the glory that is THE ALPS!!! Until you’ve experience the alps in person, you really don’t get a feel for how amazingly breathtakingly beautiful it is up there.

See that little edge of grass down there, that’s the drop off, Yikes right!?

Thanks to Sir Robert we had a fourth of the Sea Wolf Mutiny to serenade us while we had a picnic lunch.

From left to right our tour leaders <3 : Mrs. Davis- the sweet lady who helped get me through college, mentor and encourager and full of wisdom. Our bus driver; Mr. B is in the middle- our English professor from Austria; Mrs. W- basically my second mom; Dr. B- our college dean and the man who married Charley and I. 

We couldn’t have asked for better leaders!

Over the ledge that Charley and Zack are standing (they are still relatively far from the edge thank goodness)  is a sheer drop-off where a considerable number of people commit suicide every year. I forget the actual length to the ground, but as you can see t he crosses send a somber message.

This arch says something like “gate way to heaven” with a disclaimer that tells you hang gilding and bungee jumping are a sure way to death at that particular spot due to winds.

I thought Zack needed to test it out, just to be sure.

…….and thus formed the Fellowship of the Ring…..