Fahren in die Schweiz

I went on a typical American tour...see as much as you can in a really short period of time. I left Sunday from Bonn, and returned on Thursday. Sunday-Tues morning in Villeret with Sabine, Tues-Wed with Elizabeth at Andrea's, Wed-Thurs morn in Klosters/Monbiel/Davos with Elizabeth at Hitch and Dominiques!!!

I started by taking an unnecessary, but beautiful trip up to Cologne, and got a picture by the Kolner Dom, the biggest cathedral in Europe. Very gothic, very impressive.



My discounted train ticket got me from Cologne to Zurich, but as I was on the train, I realized it would stop in Basel, which cut off about 3 hours of travel time! I stopped in Basel, found the church (I wanted to watch conference), but no one was there. I took a picture in front of the train station. The last time I was here in Basel was for Fasnacht in February 2004 with my friends HP and Christina.


I called Sabine on my train from Basel to Villeret who said to get off at the next stop, she had some friends passing through who would pick me up and bring me up into the mountains where she was for her friend, Olivier's birthday dinner. We all went out for a lovely walk in the mountain pastures. Beautiful. This is me with Sabine.


We went back to the cabin and had Raclette for Olivier's b-day. Raclette is basically taking little individual pans, putting a slice of cheese on it and putting it over a fire to melt the cheese, you then scrape it off onto your plate, grind some pepper over it, and eat it with potatoes. Wow, it was delicious! Very Swiss, but I had never eaten it! Olivier is the only other one looking at the camera.


I met Sabine in Davos as well. She was studying massage therapy. We had a great time while I was there, I only wish it could have been longer. She had to go back to school Tuesday morning anyway. She is now studying Physical Therapy.

Hang-gliding

"Hey Millie, my friend, Olivier just called and wants to go hang-gliding. He has a double-wing, do you want to go with him?"
Sabine flies regularly on her own, so when we went up the mountain they were so chill about it, and it all happened so quickly, I really didn't have a lot of time to freak myself out.
It was soooo awesome!! I highly recommend hang-gliding!

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So, I was a little nervous at first, we were setting it up here, Olivier let me help, fortunately, he went back over everything to make sure it was all secure.


We stood in this "ready" position for a couple of minutes, waiting for the wind to be right.


We got strapped into our harnesses that hang you from the Delta (the wing). Olivier said "are you ready? 3,2,1 go" then we started running down the mountain.

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We ran and ran, then kept going straight, we ran out into the air instead of down the mountain. It was so incredible! We flew for about 30 minutes then landed in a nearby field. The Delta had wheels so we just stayed suspended face down, legs and feet dragging a bit, but, rolled smoothly to a stop. Amazing, and so fun!!


Sabine and her family are so great. Her parents, Stephan and Ursula made a dinner for me. Stephan is a chef, so it was delicious! Her mother, Ursula, is also a great cook. She kept offering to make me crepes, Citronella tee (which was quite tasty), and Apfel Strudel with vanilla sauce. They were such great hosts.

Basel with Andrea

I met up with Elizabeth Keeler. Funny story. So, Elizabeth's sister, Becca was living up in Alaska while her husband worked as an intern at the clinic with me. They later found out that Becca and Elizabeth's grandparents served a mission with Grandma and Grandpa Carlson! It's a small world after all...(to be sung while moving your hands and head in stiff, mechanicalized motions). Becca's mom gave Elizabeth my e-mail address along with some for my cousins. Elizabeth wrote to all of us and said that she is living in southern Germany and if we are ever traveling in Europe, to look her up. Very cool, I thought. I wrote her and said, hey, I'm living in Germany too, we should meet up. I'm going to Switzerland next week, do you want to join me? So she did! She is very cool, and if any of you are over here, you should meet up with her. Go visit her in Konstanz!

Elizabeth and myself in front of the Rathaus (government house) in Basel.


We met up with my friend, Andrea. I know Andrea from Davos. She was so great! We took our things to her house then went out touring Basel for the afternoon. We went back to Andrea's house and made cheese fondue and pumpkin-chestnut soup, and salad. So good, but ugh, we ate so much!


Andrea and Elizabeth tried Heisse Maroni, Roasted Chestnuts. Quite delicious. =)

Andrea made some beds out of sheets, blankets, towels, whatever she could find. So nice of her to have us there at her house!

Davos

Elizabeth and I traveled to Klosters and Davos. I got to see my friend, and former German teacher, Helmut Falter. It's kinda funny. My life there no longer exists. I think there may be 5 people, if I looked hard enough, who might remember me. It was really nostalgic to go back, brought back a lot of great memories!

Beautiful fall weather. Just one of the incredible views from the train to Davos.


My friends Hitch (short for Christian) and Dominique with their 2 boys, Gian and Lenard. They had to leave for Zurich, but let us stay in their beautiful home in Monbiel, just outside of Klosters.


Elizabeth and I hiked up Parsenn, up to 1300 meters, I think. We only hiked the top, so we would hike just a few meters and have to stop to catch our breath because of the altitude. It was a bit cold, some snow up there, but a great hike! We took the tram up and down from the Mittlestation, but on the way down we thought we were going to miss the last tram so we started going faster. Fortunately, we made it. Otherwise we probably would have been hiking down for another 2 hours!


This was the mt we hiked up, w/ Davos in the valley down below.
Elizabeth and I went back to Monbiel and made some stir-fry for dinner. I had to catch the bus early in the morning to catch my train to Zurich, to catch my train to Bonn, but she stayed an extra day there...lucky!


One of the many castles on the Rheine I saw on the way back home.

What a great trip!

Switzerland, here I come

I'm headed to Switzerland in the morning. I get to see my friends, Sabine, Andrea, and hopefully, Hitch and Dominique...look forward to pictures!

How lucky are we to have such wonderful messages taught to us by God's Prophets! I've enjoyed conference thus far and look forward to more tomorrow!