Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Switzerland: Relaxing Extreme Sports

The small little town where the guest house we stayed in was located was a small mountain town...like Big Bear. Most everything there was pretty expensive, even in the grocery store we did not find many things we could afford. Chelsea and Joel bought swiss knives which were pretty cool because we were in Switzerland. I tried this amazing chocolate sample that was called 'Hell'. It was so good, the name did not suit the taste. We bought lunch at the grocery store, all I could afford was a baguette and some chocolate. It was so amazing and worth it. We walked up the street to take a gondola lift ( like the Tram in Palm Springs, but over the Alps!) because we bought tickets to go zip lining over the Alps!!!!! It was so amazing and beautiful. Everything was green and there were little mountain houses scattered everywhere and precious light brown cows with bells we could hear from our gondola cage. We rode up to the top of the mountain and we saw people paragliding off the Alps. It looked like so much fun. We hung out and ate lunch at the top of the Alps before taking our zip line down the side of the mountain. We relaxed and napped looking over the vast beauty of God's creation. Some of the mountains were very fierce and jagged while others were much more smooth and welcoming. There were was snow doppled on the top of the more jagged mountains and little colorful paragliders could be seen floating amongst all the rock and pure snow. Everything seemed so perfect up there. Every worry and stress seemed to float away with the wind. The sun beat softly on us, not enough to be dreadfully hot, but just enough to be cozy warm. Time seemed to have no meaning there, we just did everything at our own pace. Then when we were ready we went up to the top of the zip line. Christina and Joel are both scared of heights, so we put them in middle of Chelsea and I. Melody went after us. She has been sky diving before, so zip lining through the Alps was no scare for her. Chelsea and Joel took a video of our experience so I will have to show you all some time. It was so much fun. It did not go very fast, I felt like I was just floating. I put my arms out and soared down. I kept spinning, it felt so good. The only part I did not like was when it stopped and we hit this spring thing and it was very loud. But other than that, it was so amazing! We wanted to go again, but it cost quite a bit so we could not.

After we ziplined we hung out for awhile and then I really wanted to go see the cows. So we walked over and hung out with the cows. They were very very very large. They were just walking around everywhere. They were so cute and friendly! Well except the one that tried to butt Chelsea with her horns, we named her Veronice AkA Meanie ( they named her Veronica, I named her Meanie). There was a very kind one I named Bessie and one with spots I named Dottie. Then there was a scrawny one that I thought was beautiful so I named her Daisy. It was so much fun! I tried to feed them flowers, but I guess they do not eat flowers...who knew.

We rode the gondola lift back down and just marveled about our lives. Very few people ever get to experience the things that we have and we feel so blessed that God gave us this opportunity. Joel turned his Iphone on speaker and we sang songs together all the way down the mountain. We sang "Over My Head" by the Fray. It is so interesting how songs bring back so many memories and how a few verses or words can make you remember an entire time in your life. Now everytime I hear that song I will think about Switzerland and our time in the Alps. On our train ride leaving Switzerland going to Munich, we all sang old Yellowcard songs and it reminded
me so much of when I was in high school. I felt like our group bounded so much through these experiences because we all shared moments of our lives that had been forgotten or put away for so long. I love this group!

Next destination Germany, to see Dachau Concentration camp...

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