Residence Hotel Grindelwald

... werden we verast met een dik pak sneeuw!! <br>Een wandeling van Riederalp langs Blausee, vervolgens door de heuvel-bos-rug naar Rieder Furka was een wandeling van 4 uur, met onze schenen in de sneeuw, was een goede start van onze wandel vakantie:)<br><br>Zeer fijn waren onze mooie nieuwe waterdichte en dus warme bergschoenen!<br><br>De volgende dag stond ondanks de nieuwe sneeuw welke de nacht gevallen was, wederom de Eggerhorn op het ...

... zig-zag. Stones called schindles sit like heavy checkers on old rooftops, awaiting nature's next move. These stones protect the slate from the violent winter winds. Gimmelwald's biggest building is the school in which 2 teachers share one job. There's nothing but air between Gimmelwald and the rock face of the Jungfrau a mile or two across. Kick a soccer ball wrong and it ends up a mile below on the Lauterbrunnen Valley floor. Gimmelwald ...

... On Thursday I went begging for interviews. I went to Terre des Hommes (an organization that advocates for children's rights) and was able to secure one for Friday after being passed from person to person, trying to find someone who spoke english and worked on education. Begging for inteviews is a big deal for me, if you have ever been shopping with me you probably understand my fear of talking to strangers and asking for things. I also went to ...

... but was unceremoniously woken up by the hostel owner literally barging into the room and telling us to get out or book another night...we had again forgotten about check-out times! We threw all of our stuff in our bags, and the girls fell out of bed and we booked it out of there. We poor little nomads sat in the town center sitting on our bags trying to figure out a plan of action...Teresa and I took off for another hostel we ...

... did a small but nice hike in the mountains the next day. It&#8217;s crazy how you lose your hiking skills really quickly. I felt like i was going to fall over every step I took. All over the valley, we could see para-sailers in the sky, it would have been awesome to try except it the damage was at least $170 each... bummer.<br><br>http://picasaweb.google. com/lh/photo/_RXGGfa-cjNcaDADRk_4xA?aut hkey=Gv1sRgCMTOwqr-zZGObA&amp;feat=dire ctlink

... me heaps of tips on the UK, and I gave them some on Italy & Austria. It turns out that our plans are very similar for the next week or so, so we might be running into them again. The weather wasn't too bad when we first arrived, but soon turned very cloudy & cold ... we'd started to wonder if we'd made a mistake coming back for a hike or ride. But the next day was absolutely beautiful! We walked up into town to check out the price of hiring me a bike for ...

... I couldn't sleep much on the plane - the mood was too intense and angry. I thought I'd wake up to find someone beating a flight attendant or the plane plunging towards the Atlantic ocean. I didn't want to sleep on the train for safety reasons, but I found myself dozing off. After 1 ½ hours, I arrived in Fribourg. I expected to arrive on the cross streets of nowhere and nothing, but Fribourg has quite the bustling little downtown area. There were young folks ...

... a quaint little town....all practically being swallowed by the backdrop of mountains. We walked around in total awe for a while, just practically speechless (except for my repeated "oh my god" and "no one should die without seeing this place"). We ate lunch at a spot that was chosen for the view (the Rendezvous I think). It had a great deck right at the edge of the valley and with the mountainous backdrop of course. There were many paragliders that were ...

... that cost money. We rented a scooter. I've never driven one before, and my one experience on a motorcycle ended in humiliation (if my cousins are reading this, they'll no doubt remember) but this went quite well. Terri and I shared a scooter, and our new buddy Justin from Arizona got his own. We rode out to a mountain called Grindelwald, and up a path that was apparently forbidden to motorized vehicles without a permit ...

... for lunch. i might do one crazy thing while i'm here....no nothing like skydiving...but maybe white water rafting...on a warmer day of course. so loving switzerland...though wasn't expecting it to be all german...and i totally forgot about it being francs and not euros!! Hi to everyone back home....i'm enjoying this vacation\relaxing part of my trip...hopefully more scenic pics up sometime!...cant believe i've been gone 3 weeks already. love shelby