Hooray for Visitors!

Our first visitors finally arrived this past Friday.  Our friends from Charlotte, Megan and Ellen, arrived at the airport on Friday morning around 9:15am.  They were about 45 minutes late.  Normally this wouldn't bother me but since I live my life without common sense, I didn't think to check the flight before leaving my apartment and therefore spent my extra 45 minutes hanging out at the airport instead of doing some last minute cleaning or whatnot around the house.  Sigh.

Anyway, I can't even tell you how glad I was to see them.  I've had a few bouts of homesickness recently and so it was fantastic timing for their arrival!

I took them home and let them shower and then we headed to Zurich to meet up with Russ, another American friend visiting Zurich.  We spent the day exploring the city.  Lucky for the visitors, our friend April is a much better tour guide than myself.  I took notes though so I can look knowledgeable for future visitors.  :)

Group Shot!

On Saturday, I got up and participated in the SOLA with my work group.  The SOLA is a relay race throughout Zurich and surrounding areas.  It covers 117km.  My portion was 5.9km.  It started out on a nice downhill slope and then about 4km in, it switched to uphill.  It also rained the entire time I ran.  I almost died.  Here's proof that I survived:

The worst part of the race was actually after I finished.  To get off the mountain where my portion ended, I had to ride down in an enclosed furnicular car crammed with sweaty smelly runners.  Ew.

Anyway, after all that, I showered, packed and we hit the road to Lucerne.  We found ourselves a map with a suggested walking tour and we hit the road. 

Chapel Bridge - Europe's oldest covered wooden bridge

The Dying Lion of Lucerne

It was carved out of natural rock in memory of the heroic deaths of the Swiss mercenaries at the Tuileries in 1792. Mark Twain described the Lion of Lucerne as the saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world.

Lucerne is gorgeous.  I highly recommend everyone visit.  Feel free to visit us too if you are in the area!  Other pictures:

Lucerne - May 2012

While at dinner in Lucerne, we realized that we wouldn't make it to our hotel until after 10pm so Ellen gave the hotel a call to let them know.  They said, no problem, we'll leave the door unlocked and the key to your room on the counter.  And that's exactly what they did.  Apparently, there is no reason to worry about crime in Lauterbrunnen.

On Sunday, we explored Lauterbrunnen, checked out the Trümmelbach Falls, the James Bond restaurant at Schilthorn, walked through Mürren, took the cable car back down to our hotel, saw a phenomenal rainbow and finally had dinner at Hotel Oberland with our own individual chocolate fondues for dessert!  Lauterbrunnen is a trough valley in the Alps with 72 waterfalls.  It's absolutely stunning.

Waterfall #1

Trümmelbach Falls - Glacier Water Falls inside Black Monk Mountain

A view of the valley

We did a LOT of walking on Sunday

At the top of Schilthorn

This pictures shows you our view along with what we were supposed to see....

Mother Nature was forgiven as we headed back down the mountain and got to see this:

Other Pictures:

Lauterbrunnen - May 2012

Monday, we got up and headed up to Jungfrau.  After the previous three days of walking (and running), I was personally quite glad to sit on the train for two hours as we made our way up the mountain.  This time, we went so high, we actually passed through the clouds covering Schilthorn and it was nice and clear when we arrived to Jungfraujoch.

Other Pictures:

Jungfrau - May 2012

Now it's time for everybody else to come visit!  Let us know when you are coming!!!!