London!

Oh London, how we love thee! Why were we excited to be in London?

1. We love England. We would love to live in England.
2. The Olympics were happening in London! And we happened to have some tickets.
3. English is the primary language in London. Don't get me wrong, the Austrians, Germans, and Swiss were pretty accommodating to us single language speakers, but it was nice to be able to communicate clearly, read signs, and hear Olympic broadcasts in English. :-)
4.  A couple of our favorite places to eat are in London. Yum. We were ready for some good food!
5. Cath Kidston stores abound in London. *love*

Our first Olympic event, rhythmic gymnastics, was at Wembley Arena.

Here is the view from our seats

Adam was not that excited about this event, but the group portion was super cool. Here are just a couple action shots I took with my phone:

It was so neat just being in the city while it was flooded with people from all over the world. And I have to say that London had their stuff together. The airport was super organized... security and passport control a breeze. They had people stationed all over the city to answer questions and give directions. After the events they had pedestrian traffic diverted in multiple directions across various types of transportation (tube, bus, walking)... some serious crowd control. 

Our second event was the men's gold metal soccer match! It was in Wembley Stadium. Mexico vs Brazil. Brazil probably had more fans, but Mexico had a lot of Team GB fans pulling for them.

The weather was quite perfect. I was afraid we would have to sit in the sun, but we were shaded the whole time and there was a bit of a breeze. This pic shows the view from our seats during the medal ceremony. Mexico won! Woohoo!

Afterwards, we went over to check out the Olympic Park. Unfortunately, this pic is as close as we could get. A ticket was required to get past that pink fence.

And then Tower Bridge... How about those olympic t-shirts? A man from Afghanistan offered to take this picture for us. After he heard our accents, he asked where we were from and told us where he was from. He seemed to think it was ironic to kindly offer to take a photo of two Americans (since we're kind of at war and all). The power of the Olympics bringing the world together...

The next day we were headed home. Our time in London was too short... Thanks for following along on our trip! We had a blast and it's been fun sharing it with you.

Our Last Swiss Cities

When I think of Lucerne, the first thing that comes to mind is the Chapel Bridge. The beautiful wooden bridge, decorated with flowers spans the lake.

We took a lot of pics of it, because it's just so picturesque!

From the bridge:

The roof of the bridge is lined with paintings that show the development of the town as well as it's two patron saints.

And there were swans everywhere.

We also visited the Lion Monument. It is a 33 ft long by 22 ft tall sculpture carved into the cliffside overlooking a reflecting pool in a peaceful park. It represents the Swiss mercenaries who were killed defending the French king in the French Revolution. The inscription reads, "To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss."

There's just something about that lion... Our pics don't do him justice. Rick Steve's describes it this way: "The mighty lion rests his paws on a shield, with his head cocked to one side, tears streaming down his cheeks. In his side is the broken-off end of a spear, which is slowly killing the noble beast."

This side of the lake is where the hotel boom happened in the 19th century. It caused this city to be nicknamed the Monte Carlo of Switzerland.

After a couple nights in Lucerne, we took the train to Zurich where we spent the day walking around the city before catching our evening flight to London. This is a pic of Zurich from one of the towers in the Grossmunster cathedral.

And lastly, this is the funniest souvenir we saw on the trip- a can of Swiss air. Sorry I didn't bring you one back.

We were excited to be heading to London for so many reasons. You shall see! :-)

Adam's Fave

Ahhhh... the Swiss Alps. The air is clean and crisp, snow capped mountains line the horizon, and if you listen closely, you can hear the tinkle of cow bells in the distance. If you ever get the chance to go to Switzerland, go. God's beauty is evident everywhere you look. This was Adam's favorite stop on the trip.

We stayed in the resort town of Murren in the Berner Oberland. It is a car free town on the side of the mountain that you take a cable car or train to. Here she is:

We jumped in with a hike on the North Face Trail to Gimmelwald.

This is a pic of Adam the gentle giant:

A mountain chalet on the hike:

Low and behold, what did we find in Gimmelwald? Rick Steves was going to be there! Alas, he was not there at that moment, but we thought this sign was funny. He's our guidebook hero.

We took a cable car back to Murren for the town parade in the afternoon. It started with these cows!

See those huge bells around their necks? And the flowers strapped to their heads?

The parade started with cow bells and ended with cow bells... But the cows were replaced with men at the end. They were ringing their bells in unison as they filed down the street. Those bells looked really heavy.

After the parade, we rode a cable car up to the Schilthorn. There is a revolving restaurant at the top where the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service was set. (It's an old one... 1969 in case you were wondering.)

The next day we hiked to Trummelbach Falls. The water here is clear! Here are a couple of views along the way. The water is all glacier melt from the mountains.

Here is a pic of the falls. Trummelbach is a series of 10 glacier-waterfalls that are inside a mountain. We had to take an elevator part of the way up before climbing stairs in and out of caves. The water is the melt from the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau mountains and our guidebook said it falls at a rate of 5,200 gallons a second!

After the falls, we had lunch down in the Lauterbrunnen Valley where it started to pour rain. The rain did not stop all afternoon and continued into the evening. This was the view from our room (which normally showed the mountains):

We couldn't see a thing! So, we ended up relaxing in the room catching up on the Olympics. Which was kind of funny because all of the coverage was in German. We really missed the in depth coverage and special athlete profiles you get here in the States. Anyways... we were supposed to leave for Lucerne the next morning, but since we missed half a day due to weather, we decided to take the late afternoon train instead. We ended up doing a hike on the Jungfrau side of the valley from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg. The cows and wildflowers were the highlight.

At the end of the hike, Adam made me take this picture with the fake cows. I was not excited, obviously.

This picture is straight out of a Rick Steve's video! Ha! We joke that is his arm sticking out of the train window.

Two more pics and then I promise to stop. This is the longest post ever. 

I couldn't decide which of those two pics I liked better. The first one is from the hike and the second one is from the patio at our hotel. 

Switzerland is sweet. You must get there some day. More Switzerland in the next post, but it is no longer the mountains... Lucerne awaits! :-)

Fairytales and Fun

Fussen is a little Bavarian town in Germany on the River Lech where the water is a beautiful, clear green color. Apparently, it is a popular summer tourist destination for Germans and Austrians. They were there with bicycles and dogs in tow. 

We did a little walking tour of the town and found this former castle with 3D paintings on the outside. Isn't that nuts? The wall is totally flat (besides the inset windows).

The main reason this place was on our itinerary at all was to visit King Ludwig's castles. There are two. The first one you visit is Hohenschwangau Castle. It is the boyhood home of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Here is a pic from afar... It's very fairytale-esque with the turrets and all.

And here are a couple close ups:

The funny thing is that this castle isn't that old. Ludwig's father built it in 1837. Growing up in a fairytale castle, made Ludwig want a fairytale castle of his very own. So he decided to build this one, Neuschwanstein.

This castle was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland. Part of it was under renovation, so you can see some scaffolding up, but it is still very dreamy!

We hiked up around the side to try and get a better angle or view, but it started to get foggy. Then the rain came. :-(   Boo. This is as far as we got:

After our day at the castles, we visited the Tegelberg luge. And it was AWESOME! "What is a luge?" you may ask. It's sort of like a bobsled. You sit in this sled. And pull the stick back to break and push it forward to go faster.

Here we are, ready to go:

You are pulled up to the top of the mountain or hill. See on the right, is the line of people being pulled up, and you can just see the edge of the track to the left. It is shiny & silver.

And then.... you get to fly down! And it is such great fun! Here is a video Adam took. (I hope it works! It's acting funny...) Adam almost ran me over. I wasn't speedy enough for him!

DE-lightful. Bavaria is beautiful. Someday, I want to go back and take a boat trip down the Rhine. Someday...

Our trip next took us to Switzerland! Woot! Woot! Mountains and cows and beauty galore! Stay tuned!