Part 14 - Back to Reality

Our mega trip to Europe is now complete.  This is not the longest trip we have been on (my previous sabbatical trip was one week longer in duration, and significantly longer in distance driven), but was by far our longest trip outside of the North America.  By the numbers:

• Days away from home: 72
• Number of different places we stayed:  39
• Number of countries visited: 19
• Distance driven:  8,245 miles (13,269 km)
• Number of photos taken: 16,097 (100 GB in size)
• Number of words in the blog:  more than 40,000
• Most northerly point visited: Umeå, Sweden, N 63° 49’, E 20° 15’
• Most southerly point: Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, N 46° 36’, E 7° 54’
• Most easterly point: Vilnius, Lithuania.  N 61° 31’, E 23° 38’
• Most westerly point: Mt. Saint Michel, France.  N 48° 35’, W 01° 38’
• Weight lost - 12 lbs (5.5 kg).  Certainly it was a challenge to eat healthy while traveling, so most of the credit goes to a lot of miles walked, and the added effort to get around on crutches.  For the first time in over 20 years I am under 170 lbs (77 kg).   Unfortunately I don't think if I wrote a "How to lose weight by using crutches" book that it would be a best seller.

Our most favorite experience overall?   I’m not going to even try and get everyone to answer that.  It was hard enough to pick a favorite item for each country, and to compare the wonderful experiences in each country against each other is just not possible.  I will however add my best moment of the trip.  It was in Sweden, when they removed my cast and the orthopedic surgeon said that my foot would heal better without the cast.  While getting around on crutches limited a few things that I wanted to do and made almost everything physically more demanding, I was ultimately able to do more than 95% of what I wanted to do, and minimally limit the impact on what the rest of the family could do.  If I had kept the hard plaster cast it would have significantly limited what I could do, and we would have had to consider coming home much earlier than planned.  I am indebted to Betty and her family for helping me get initial care for my foot, to Birgitta for arranging follow-up care in Sweden, and to the doctors and nurses that helped me.  I am also thankful for my family who carried my suitcase for me, and patiently waited at times for me to catch up.  Thank you! 

Now it unfortunately is time to for sabbatical/summer vacation to end.  I have to return to work, the kids to school, and Karen to the myriad of volunteer activities and household tasks that keep her perpetually busy.  Since I delayed the start of this sabbatical I have less than 5 years until I am eligible for the next one.  Only 1,798 days, not that anyone is counting.  Time to start planning the next big adventure.  Any suggestions?

Update on my foot.  I had a visit with an orthopedic surgeon here in Portland about a week after returning home.  Unfortunately he said that the bone is not healing as well as it should be.  He said he would have recommended that I be in a cast for 6-8 weeks versus having the cast removed after a week which was the guidance I was given in Sweden.  I have to try and be less physically active to allow the foot to heal, and have another Dr. appointment in 5 weeks,  If it has not healed by that time the Dr. will likely recommend surgery to put a screw in the bone.  I hope that can be avoided, but even in hindsight I wouldn't change what I did.  If getting rid of the cast in Sweden and doing a lot of walking on the trip resulted in longer longer healing time and more pain short term that is a trade off I am  happy to have made as it allowed us to continue our trip with with minimal impact to our planned activities and itinerary.

Part 13 - The Home Stretch

 After leaving Switzerland, our plan was to go to Luxembourg, the 19^th and final European country to be visited on the trip.  On the way to Luxembourg we would travel in Germany, close to French border.  After leaving Luxembourg we would head back to Paris.  The final 4 nights before we returned were spent near Baden-Baden Germany, in Luxembourg (2 nights), and a final night near the airport in Paris.

Day 68– Friday, August 23.  Baden-Baden, Germany.  After crossing the Swiss/Germany border near Basel we proceeded north to Baden-Baden Germany.  Our hotel was in a small town about 15 minutes from Baden-Baden.  After checking in we drove to Baden-Baden and spent about 3 hours in town, walking around and eating dinner before returning to our hotel.  Baden-Baden is famous for its hot mineral baths.  The hot springs were known to the Romans 2000 years ago, and they developed the springs into formal baths.  Today you can experience the baths in a 19^th century bath house.  Unfortunately we did not have time to enjoy the baths given our late arrival.  We see some of the ruins of the Roman era baths, but the museum was closed by the time we arrived.  After dinner we walked around town until dusk, and then returned to our hotel.

Dinner in Baden-Baden

Colorful buildings in Baden-Baden

Elizabeth and Matthew across the street from our hotel

Day 69– Saturday, August 24.  Sennungerberg, Luxemburg.  We had about a 3 hour drive to our hotel in Luxembourg, so stopped in Trier, Germany, which was on our route, and spent most of the day there.  Trier is often referred to as the oldest city in Germany, with an uninterrupted history as a city of more than 2000 years.  We started our visit at the   Porta Nigra, a Roman gate to the city dating from the 2nd century.  The gate got its current name (Black Gate) during medieval times when the pollution turned the gray sandstone black.  After a stop at the tourist information office to get a map, we worked our way to the Hauptmarkt (Main Market).  We then headed to Cathedral Square.  There are two churches side-by-side here, Trier Cathedral, and the Church of Our Lady.  The Cathedral is the oldest bishop’s church in Germany, dating from the 4^th century.  The current Cathedral has a section of the original walls rising up to 86 ft (26 m).  Next to the Cathedral is Liebfrauenkirch (Church of Our Lady). This is the oldest Gothic church in Germany, dating from the 13^th century. After leaving Cathedral Square we walked to the Konstantin Basilika.  This impressive building is the largest surviving single-room structure from Roman times, measuring 90 feet (27 m) wide. 108 feet (33 m) high, and 220 feet (67 m) long).  It was Constantine’s throne room.   We then worked our way over to the birthplace of Karl Marx before heading back to Hauptmarkt and Porta Nigra.

Porta Nigra

Trier Cathedral

Decorative man hole cover - many cities had their own unique designs

Karl Marx birthplace

Eating dinner

One unique thing going on in Trier while we were there was the Elephant Parade.  This open air art exhibition was started in 2006 to gain awareness and raise funds for Asian elephant conservation.  Every year they choose about 3 cities worldwide to participate.  In each city there are dozens of colorfully painted elephant sculptures (each unique) on display throughout the city.  These sculptures are approximately the size of a baby elephant, and are auctioned off to raise funds for elephant conservation.  For 2013, Trier and Luxembourg City were both selected, so we got to see the elephants on two consecutive days.  You can buy a map with the location of each of the elephants, but we choose to just follow our planned route and we still found dozens.  It was a fun to spot them, and we did do a bit of extra walking as we would see an elephant down a street that we hadn't planned to go down and that would draw us down for a closer look.

Elizabeth and Matthew with one of the Elephants

Another elephant

We had dinner in Trier before heading to our hotel in Luxembourg which was only about a 30 minute drive from Trier.  At the restaurant the waiter tried to rip us off.  Our bill was for 44 Euros.  I paid with a 100 Euro bill, and the waiter gave me 6 Euro in change (like I had paid him 50 Euros) and said thank you.  I checked the change, and gave the waiter a “hey dude, where is the rest of my change” look and held out my hand at which time he handed me a 50 Euro bill and walked away without saying anything.  I have read that this is a common way to rip off tourists.  If you catch them they will almost always give you the rest of the change you are due and pretend it was a mistake. This is the first time we have had this problem on this trip (at least that we noticed), although we have paid almost exclusively with our VISA card.  In this case since we were nearing the end of the trip I wanted to use up some of the Euros that we had left and thought that this café on the main street would be a good place to use the 100 Euro bill that we had gotten from the ATM machine.  Needless to say the waiter did NOT receive a tip. 

We caught a lucky break with the weather today.  It had rained almost the entire time on the drive from Baden-Baden to Trier, and started pouring down rain shortly after we got to our hotel in Luxembourg.  However, it was dry for the several hours that we spent in Trier with the exception for one brief shower while we were eating dinner.  This continued the pattern on the trip.  We have had quite a few days with rain, but except for the opera in Bregenz we have avoided getting soaked, mostly by luck, although in a few cases we made minor changes to our schedule to avoid being outside in the rain.

Shortly after leaving Trier we entered Luxembourg.  Total distance driven in Germany on this segment, 290 miles (460 km).  Total distance driven to date, 7910 miles (12730 km).  Total distance driven overall in Germany on the trip, 940 miles (1520 km).  Our favorite things in Germany (including our previous time in Germany):  Elizabeth - elephants in Trier, Karen – visiting with her friend Barbara, Mike – the monkeys at Affenberg, Matthew – walking around Trier.

Day 70– Sunday, August 25. Sennungerberg, Luxemburg.  We drove into Luxembourg City (about 15 minute drive from Semmungerberg) and spent the full day there.  Luxembourg City is a fairly compact city of ~ 100,000 people, with all the attractions located within walking distance.  The city is located at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers.  These rivers are located in ~250 feet (75 m) deep gorges, and the core part of the old city spans multiple levels, with many bridges and viaducts crossing the gorges.   We parked in an underground garage near the Cathedral Notre Dame, and walked to the tourist information office located nearby in one of the main squares, Place Guillaume II, to get a detailed city map.   This portion of the city is on a high plateau above the two rivers.  After looking around the square which includes City Hall, we determined which sights we wanted to see.  We started by working our way over to the Monument of Remembrance, a granite obelisk commemorating those who served in Work War I.  The monument overlooks the Pétrusse River, and there are great views of the park in the river gorge below.  There also is a great view of the Pont Adolphe, the bridge spanning the gorge.  It was interesting that the Monument of Remembrance was located off of Boulevard Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  There were several major roads in the city that we saw that were named after prominent 20^th century Americans, including John Kennedy and George Patton.    We then worked our way over to Plateau du St. Esprit, where there is a square surrounded by a modern complex of judiciary buildings.  There are is also an overlook with great views of the Alzette River and the lower part of the city.  We then worked our way through the narrow streets above the bluff to the Palais Grand-Ducal  (Palace of the Grand Dukes), a 16^th century structure with an Italian Renaissance facade.  

Luxembourg flag

Pont Adoplhe

Elizabeth, Mike, and Matthew

Parade of Elephants by Judiciary buildings 

Lower part of city, with city fortifications in the background

After lunch we continued our way along the bluff to an area where many of the ancient fortifications of the city are still visible.  In addition to above ground fortifications, Luxembourg had an extensive system of casemates, or underground defense tunnels.  Many of these had openings in the side of the cliffs for cannons, similar to Gibraltar.  In fact, Luxembourg City has often been called the Gibraltar of the North.  At its peak, the city had 14 miles (23 km) of defense tunnels.  Most of the fortifications were demolished in the late 19^th century, but some still remain.  After some exploration to find the right path to reach the lower city, we worked our way down the side of the gorge to the banks of the Alzette River.  After walking through the lower part of town we found a tunnel leading into the cliff with an elevator inside.  Since we wanted to go back to the upper plateau we took the elevator even though we were not sure where it would lead us.  When we came out from the top of the elevator we were surprised to be back next to the judiciary buildings where we had stopped at the first overlook above the Alzette River.  We backtracked to Notre Dame Cathedral as there were services in progress when we had first arrived so we had not gone inside.  We then walked back down Boulevard Franklin Delano Roosevelt in search of a store someone had told us about.  We never found the store, but we did find another city square where there was a band performing and a number of restaurants and open air cafes.  After dinner we walked back to our car, and then took the short drive back to our hotel.  Throughout the day we found dozens of the colorful elephant sculptures that were part of the Elephant Parade along with the neighboring city or Trier, Germany.  It was fun to see who could spot the next elephant.

Close up of fortifications and casemates

Band performing in town square

Matthew and Mike tired at the end of the day

Elizabeth still with energy at the end of the day

Total distance driven in Luxembourg, 55 miles (90 km).  Total distance driven to date, 7965 miles (12815 km).  Our favorite things in Luxembourg:  Elizabeth & Mike - ancient fortifications, Karen – elephants, Matthew – cool parks.

Day 71– Monday, August 26. Paris, France.  Today was a travel day (about a 4 hour drive time to Paris) and preparation for our flight back.  It rained most of the drive back to Paris, but otherwise was uneventful.  After checking into the hotel we unloaded all our stuff out of the car – a major task after living out of the car for 9+ weeks.   After dragging everything up to the hotel room, we spent about an hour sorting stuff – throwing away things we no longer wanted, identifying fragile items that needed extra care in packing, etc.  Karen and Elizabeth wanted to go to Vapiano one more time, so they headed in to Paris while I worked on the jigsaw puzzle also known as “find a way to get everything safely packed”, and Matthew chilled out and watched videos on his Nexus.  Karen and Elizabeth had a bit of a challenge finding the ParisVapiano (it was not where the web site said to was), but were ultimately successful.  I had a somewhat easier time packing.  It wasn't as bad as I thought, and was able to get everything packed into our suitcases for the trip home without too many challenges.

Elizabeth "distraught" over her last visit to Vapiano

Day 72– Tuesday, August 27. Home!  Now the worst part of travel – the long flights home.  Heading home always seems worse.  When you are starting a trip, the anticipation of the upcoming adventures makes the long flights, lines in airports, security hassles, etc. seem less burdensome.  Sure, we want to be home to see friends and family that we have not seen for 2.5 months, but commercial air travel is not fun, especially when you are in coach.  Too bad that after we see our last sight we can’t just say, “Beam us home, Scotty!”   Flying through Reykjavik  we had about 11.5 hours total flight time to get home, a ~3.5 hour flight from Paris to Reykjavik , a ~7 hour flight to Seattle, and a less than 1 hour flight to Portland.  My foot still swells up if I can’t elevate it or move my leg, so the doctor in Sweden told me I should try and get a seat on the airplane with more leg room, and wrote a letter for the airline describing my medical condition and the “need”.  I tried midway through the trip to see if Icelandair would make some accommodation, but they said they couldn't move me to a bulkhead row with more legroom, and their only solution was to propose selling me a new business class ticket.  I decided it wasn't worth it, so I dealt with the cramped conditions in my economy coach seat.  Not sure if I would have gotten any better response from another airplane or not.

After breakfast we loaded up the car one last time and headed to the airport to return it.  The car return couldn't have been simpler.  It took less than 5 minutes.  While Karen and the kids took out the luggage and put it in the shuttle van, I went inside, returned the keys, and signed the title back over to the company.  We were then off to the airport.  Everything was so efficient getting to the airport that we actually had a short wait before Icelandair opened up to start checking in passengers.   This was to be a trend on our return to Portland – everything went smoothly, on schedule, no issues.  If only the flights could have been shorter it would have been perfect.

Posing beside our "home away from home" for the past 9+ weeks

Waiting to check in at CDG

We arrived back in Portland about 10 PM local time.  Karen’s parents met us at the airport.  They brought our van as well as their car, so after getting our luggage loaded up we headed home and they headed back to their house.  In our 30 minute drive home we didn't encounter any roundabouts – something that never would have happened in Europe.   I wish we had counted the number of roundabouts that we went through on our trip – some days it was definitely in excess of 100.  We spent a short time going through our mail at home before taking a shower and going to bed.  It was good to sleep in our own beds again, but the night was too short.  Elizabeth was signed up to be a leader for freshman orientation at her high school, so she had to be at school at 8 AM the next morning for training, and Matthew had marching band practice and football practice.  Welcome back to reality!

Note:  I had this section 50% done before we returned home, but finding time to finish it after returning home was very hard with work, kids activities, and lots of things to do around the house after being gone all summer. Several people have asked how I found time to write the blog while traveling,  It actually was quite easy - I wrote a bunch while riding in the car, at night after the rest of the family had gone to sleep, and even wrote a fair amount sitting on benches in some of the cities we visited as I needed to take some breaks from walking given my broken foot.  I also wrote about most places the day we were there, or the next day.  Writing things close to real time was easy.  Writing much of this section after returning home was hard.  Even if you don't do a blog, I highly encourage people to do a journal and make the time to update it every day, even if you only spend 5 minutes.  It is so much easier to write it "real time" and I think it better captures the essence of your experience.  It is amazing how hard it is to remember things when you try and write it even a couple of weeks later,  Not sure if that is a sign of getting old, or just reality for most people.

Part 12 - Switzerland and Vicinity

The next portion of our trip included 2 nights in Salzburg, Austria, 2 nights near Ravensburg, Germany visiting a friend of Karen’s and her  family, a quick stop in Lichtenstein, and 3 nights in Switzerland.  I realize that Salzburg is ~ 200 miles east of Switzerland, but have grouped these three destinations as they all are similar in character, and it also helps to make the sections of the blog roughly equivalent in duration.

Day 61– Friday, August 16. Salzburg, Austria.  From the Czech/Austrian border we headed southwest to the small town of Hallstatt.  This small town (population ~1000) is in the Lake District about an hour from Salzburg.  Hallstatt is a very old city, and was prosperous before the time of Rome due to its salt mines.  The salt mined here was traded throughout most of the area of present day Europe.  It was so important that an epoch, the Hallstatt Era (800 to 400 BC), is named after this spot.   The current town is very cute, hugging the mountainside slope next to the Hallstätter See.  The main road to/from the area was routed above town and through a pair of tunnels back in the 1960s, so today the single road going through the medieval town center is restricted to local traffic and the old part of town is almost car free.   We parked in the new section of town, and walked the ~10 minutes along the lake to the old part of town.  The views of the old town from across the corner of the lake are almost as worthwhile as walking through the old town itself – it is extremely picturesque.    We spent about 2 hours in Hallstatt before heading on to our final destination of Salzburg. 

Hallstadtt

Main street in Hallstatt

Main Square in Hallstatt

I apparently cursed myself Friday afternoon by remarking that it had been more than 24 hours since Matthew had finished throwing up in Prague and that the rest of us were likely safe as none of us caught whatever bug he had gotten.  I started to feel ill in the evening after arriving in Salzburg, and started throwing up about 10 PM.  I spent the entire night throwing up about once an hour.  LLL

Day 62– Saturday, August 17. Salzburg.  Today our plan was to spend the day in Salzburg.  There was a bus stop was right in front of our hotel, and a 10 minute ride led to the center of the city.  We had booked afternoon tickets for a Sound of Music Tour (Karen’s favorite all-time movie) the previous day when we were in Hallstatt, and our plan was to do a walking tour of Salzburg in the morning, followed by the organized tour in the afternoon.  The rest of the family headed off into town in the morning and I told them if I was still alive I would meet them prior to the departure of the Sound of Music Tour.  They did a ~ 4 hour self-guided walking tour, including lunch.  They started at Mozartplatz, a square with statue of Mozart in the middle.  Next was Residenzplatz where a lot of famous historical Salzburg figures have lived.  Residenzplatz has a large Italian fountain in the middle.  They then went to Neue Residenz which was formerly a palace, but is currently a group of museums.  On the top of the Neue Residenz is a glockenspiel which plays three times a day.  In Neue Residenz they went into the Salzburg Panorama Museum which houses a panoramic painting of Salzburg created in 1829.  This painting toured around the world for 10 years to show how beautiful the city was.  There was also a Sound of Music exhibit in the museum that contained artifacts from the movie.  After going to the Salzburg Cathedral they went to Kapitelplatz which has some modern sculptures and an old horse bath.  They then walked through St. Peters Cemetery which inspired the scene from the Sound of Music where the von Trapp family hid out from the Nazis.  There are a lot of interesting renaissance style tombstones lining the cemetery from former graves.  From the cemetery you can see up on the cliff caves where medieval hermit monks lived.  After going by St. Peter’s Church they strolled through Universitätsplatz, a large open air produce market.  They wrapped up there tour of the city center by going to Getreidegasse which was the center of trade since Roman times and Alter Markt, the old market place.  Getreidegasse has a lot of old wrought iron signs showing what the stores used to sell.  Mozart’s birthplace is also located there.

Musical Bread

Mozart Statue

St Peter’s Cemetery

Cheese seller at Universitätsplatz

Getreidegasse

After the walking tour they crossed over the river to go on the Sound of Music Tour.  I was feeling marginally better by 1 PM having slept for a couple of hours in the morning, so I decided too go into toen to join them for the tour.  We met about 15 minutes before the scheduled departure, and after checking in headed across the street to Mirabell Gardens.  Some of the outdoor scenes of the movie were filmed in these gardens by the fountain and stairs, so we took some photos there before heading back to get on the bus.  The Sound of Music Tour was 4 hours long, and included many sites in and around Salzburg related to the movie.  This included the two houses that served as the von Trapp house in the movie (the yard was used from one of the houses, and the actual house was used from the other), the gazebo, and the church in Mondsee where the wedding scene took place.  The tour was well done, with a good guide.  However, I should have skipped it.  About 30 minutes in I started counting the minutes until it was over, hoping to get through it without throwing up again.  I was successful, and partially saved by the fact that there was a ~30 minute break in Mondsee to explore the town on our own.  I found a bench in the shade near the bus, laid down, and even dozed off for part of the time.    After the tour I headed back to the hotel along with Matthew.  Karen and Elizabeth did a little more exploring in town, had dinner, and caught the bus back to the hotel a couple of hours after we did.

Mirabell Gardens

Church in Mondsee

von Trapp lake house

Gazebo (no longer in original location)

Road to second von Trapp house

Day 63– Sunday, August 18. Wiengarten, Germany.  Salzburg is located right next to the border with Germany, so it was a short drive from our hotel to cross into Germany.  Total distance driven in our second time in Austria, 170 miles (270 km). Total distance driven to date, 6940 miles (11170 km).  Our favorite things in the Austria (including our previous stay in Vienna) were:  Karen –Sound of Music Tour, Elizabeth – all the musical things, Matthew – Haus der Musik in Vienna, Mike – Hallstatt.

Our next stop was to visit a friend of Karen’s who lives in southern Germany, near the town of Wiengarten.  Karen met Barbara in college when Barbara spent a year as an exchange student at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon.  We would spend two nights staying with Barbara, her husband Volker, and their daughter Elisabeth.  Barbara and Volker have a second daughter, Rebecca, but she had just left a few days before we arrived to spend a year as an exchange student in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Instead of taking the most direct route on the autobahn, decided to take a more scenic route through Berchtesgaden and Inzell before joining up with the autobahn.  Our plan was to make short stops in Köningssee and some other small towns along the way, but traffic was horrible (the worst we have experienced on the whole trip), so we just enjoyed the scenery through the car windows and only made essential stops.  The traffic woes continued on and off for most of the day, with too many people enjoying the beautiful weather in the mountain towns, and too much construction on the autobahn.  We ended up arriving at Barbara and Volker’s house about an hour later than we had planned despite not making our planned stops.  We were welcomed by an American flag flying from their flag pole. 

Bavarian scenery

Unique German road sign (no – it is not a speed limit for tanks)

Mike, Karen, Barbara, & Volker

Barbara had bought tickets for both families to see Motzart’s The Magic Flute, in Bregenz Austria that evening.  Bregenz is about a 45 minute drive from their house.  The Bergenz festival is in its 67^th year, and the stage is located on Lake Constance.  The performance was wonderful, and the set was AMAZING.  The only bad thing is that it rained for ~ 1.5 hours of the 2+ hour performance, and at times it poured very hard.  We were soaked by the end, but we still enjoyed the opera.

Set for The Magic Flute

Day 64– Monday, August 19.  Wiengarten.  We slept in since we didn’t get to bed until close to 4 AM after getting back very late from the opera and then spending time visiting.   After brunch, we went with Barbara’s family to see some of the local sites.  We started at the Weingarten Basilica.  It has very beautiful fresco paintings on the ceilings.   We then went to Affenberg, or “Monkey Hill”, which is located by the town of Salem.  While there are deer, waterfowl, and lots of storks (dozens or more roosting on top the buildings), the featured attraction is 200 endangered Barbary Macaque monkeys that live in a 50 acre heavily wooded enclosure at the top of the hill.  You can stroll through the paths in the enclosure, and feed the monkeys popcorn.  If you hold the popcorn in the palm of your hand the monkeys will come and take it out of your hand and eat it.  We especially enjoyed watching the cute 6 week old baby riding around on her mother’s back or clinging underneath her mother as she walked around.  The whole family enjoyed watching the monkeys interact, and being able to get so close to them.  We finished our day in Meersburg, a small town on the shore of Lake Constance.  This charming medieval city and its castle were built in the 7^th century by Merovingian king Dagobert I. We walked around town for a while, had dinner, and then walked some more around town, looking at the sites and doing some window shopping.  We then went back to Barbara and Volker’s house for the rest of the evening.

Weingarten Basilica

Storks at Affenberg

Elizabeth feeding monkey

Baby Macaque and mother

Sunset at Meersburg

Day 65– Tuesday, August 20. Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.  We said goodbye to Barbara, Volker, and Elisabeth and headed off mid-morning.  We would have had a 3-3.5 hour drive to Lauterbrunnen if we had taken the most direct route, but we decided to go through Lichtenstein and also take a more scenic route through the mountains in Switzerland.  Within about an hour we had left Germany, driven through the corner of Austria, entered Switzerland, and arrived in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.  Total distance driven since leaving Salzburg, 410 miles (655 km).  The vast majority of this was in Germany.  Total distance driven to date:  7350 miles (11825 km).  We a little over an hour in Vaduz, walking through town, getting some Swiss Francs (Lichtenstein uses the Swiss Franc along with Switzerland) and buying a couple of souvenirs.  

After leaving Lichtenstein we reentered Switzerland, dropped down to Chur, and then cut diagonally down to Andermatt, crossing Oberalppass (2044 m, 6706 feet).  The mountain passes in Switzerland are very scenic, and we had mostly sunny weather.  The roads are narrow and very windy, with many switchbacks.   Since the passes are above timberline, you can see the road ahead (or behind) zig zagging up or down the mountain slope.   We then drove northwest, crossing over Sustenpass (2259 m, 7411 feet).  At this pass there was a group of cows off to the side of the road, and a farmer had a portable milking machine set up to milk the cows.  All over Switzerland the dairy cows are grazing in these alpine meadows during summer, and the farmers need to go up to milk them.  At least in this case they were setup right by the road.   It was very cold at the passes – a shock getting out of the car in shorts and a short sleeved shirt.  Once we arrived in Lauterbrunnen we checked into our hotel, got dinner, and planned our next couple of days.  We had a corner room in the hotel, with the view out the front looking east across the valley, and the view from the side looking at Staubbach Falls, one of many waterfalls in the valley.  These falls, which are illuminated at night, are about 850 feet high (~260 m).

Swiss mountain road

View from near the pass

Roadside waterfall

View from our hotel in Lauterbrunnen

Our hotel in Lauterbrunnen

Day 66– Wednesday, August 21. Lauterbrunnen.  We woke to a totally clear sky.  We were very fortunate that we had beautiful weather both days we were in Lauterbrunnen – clear blue sky and high in the low 70’s (low 20’s in Celsius) during the day.  Lauterbrunnen is a very picturesque town in a deep valley about a 30 minute drive south of Interlaken.  There are trains and cable cars that can take you to other small car free towns above the cliffs on both the west and east side of the valley.   We decided to spend one day on each side of the valley.  For Wednesday, we choose the west side.  We started by taking the cable car to Grütschalp, and then the train to Mürren, a total of ~20 minutes.  In Mürren we bought some groceries for lunch, and headed off for our hike.  We decided to do the North Face Trail, a ~ 4 mile loop.  This trail is named after the north face of the mountain Eiger, which is considered one of the most difficult mountaineering feats to climb.   The trail has great views of the climbing routes on the Eiger, as well as other mountains in the area.  Along the trail there are informational plaques describing the routes, and providing information on the climbing history.  This information was interesting, but we took the trail because it was so beautiful.  We started by taking the funicular from Mürren up to Allmendhubel.   This made our starting elevation for the hike 6250 feet (1905 meters), and made the overall hike a net elevation loss, but there were still lots of uphill sections.  We had gained over 3600 feet (1100 meters) from our starting point in Lauterbrunnen to the top of the funicular where we started the hike.  We then hiked a counterclockwise loop back to Mürren.  The “trail” was a combination of unpaved farm roads, and walking paths.  It passed through some small summer farms, or “alps”, and there were a number of dairy cows grazing in the meadows with their distinct Swiss cow bells clanking as they moved around.  After completing the hike we did some shopping in Mürren before catching the train and cable car back to Lauterbrunnen where we had dinner.  

The views on the hike - cows and mountains

This cow really liked Matthew - she thought he tasted good

Mike, Elizabeth, & Matthew on hike

Cow bell on barn wall

Paraglider above Murren

Day 67– Thursday, August 22. Lauterbrunnen.  Our primary plan for the day was to take the train up to Jungfraujoch.   Jungfraujoch is the highest train station in Europe, at 11300 feet (3444 meters).  For those of you in Oregon, this train station is higher than the top of Mount Hood, the highest mountain in Oregon.  Getting to Junfraujoch involves taking two trains, both cog railways due to the steep grades.  First there is a train from Lauterbrunnen to Klein Scheidegg (elevation 6762 feet, 2061 meters).  Then you transfer to a different train to reach Jungfraujoch.  This last train actually goes through part of the Eiger, and there are two stops where you can peer out of the side of the mountain.  Building this railway was a major engineering feat when it was completed in 1912.  The final stop is in the saddle between the Eiger and Jungfrau.  There are a number of things to do once you get there.  There is an observation building with an elevator that takes you several hundred feet higher than the station, historical displays on the building of the railway, a gallery of ice sculptures (the floor is also polished ice), and several restaurants.  We spent most of our time outside on the snow.  Karen did a zip line that was suspended over the snow which you stopped yourself by sliding across the snow.  The kids did sledding on a hill that had a moving walkway to bring you back up to the top.  I took a mike about a mile up the hill to another viewpoint with better views to the west. The crutches actually worked pretty well on the packed snow, sort of like trekking poles, and the snow was soft enough that walking on it wasn’t too bad on my foot.   We spent a lot longer than we had originally planned at Jungfraujoch, and didn’t do a hike that we had planned in Klein Scheidegg on the way back down.   We returned to Lauterbrunnen just in time for dinner.  The train ride to Jungfraujoch was very expensive, (except for Matthew who was considered a “child” and cost 1/7 of the adult price), but it was one of those once in a lifetime things that you “have to do”.  I am glad we did it, but if we go back to the area again I would rather spend the day hiking or take one of the other train rides than go back to Jungfraujoch again.

View from lower elevations on train ride

View from one of the tops inside the Eiger

Matthew and Elizabeth inside train station

Sled run

Mike and Karen above train station

Matthew and Elizabeth taking a break

View of the glaciers and mountains

Day 68– Friday, August 23.   We started the day by heading about one hour west of Lauterbrunnen to the town of Adelboden.  We had reservations for a tour of Our Chalet, one of four world centers of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.   Our Chalet was founded in 1932 and offers a variety of programs year round for Girl Scouts and Girl Guides.  Since Elizabeth is actively involved as a Girl Scout (she is in process of finishing up her gold award, equivalent to Boy Scout Eagle award) and Karen has been actively involved as a leader they were interested in seeing this site.  The 90 minute tour provided a lot of history on Our Chalet as well as Girl Scouts worldwide.  The site is also beautiful, situated in a rural setting with views of the mountains and the town of Adelboden below in the valley.

Elizabeth on steps of Our Chalet

Mike pinning Our Chalet pin on Elizabeth

After leaving Our Chalet we headed off to Germany, passing through Bern and Basel.  We crossed the Swiss border early afternoon, heading back into Germany.    Total distance driven in Switzerland, 280 miles (450 km). Total distance driven to date, 7630 miles (12270 km).  Our favorite things in the Switzerland were:  Karen –cows with bells, Elizabeth – scenery, Matthew – Jungfraujoch, Mike – hiking above Mürren.