September 2009- Mom, Charlie, Tom & Katie visit- Switzerland

We had a very busy fall. In September my mom, stepdad, Charlie, stepbrother, Tom and his wife, Katie came to visit for 10 days. Evie and I picked them up in Munich and took them to Dachau Concentration camp for the day. Rand had 4 days off from work for Labor Day weekend so we took them to Switzerland for the long weekend (thank goodness we have an 8 person van, we were maxxed out). After some drama on the way there (our apartment reservation was not confirmed, totally my fault), we found a lovely alternative in a darling town called Meirringen just outside of Interlaken. We spent the next couple of days cruising on Lake Thun and hiking around Lauterbrunnen and on the north face trails of the Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau mountain peaks. We had incredibly beautiful weather with totally blue skies and 60-70 degree weather. Switzerland might possibly be the most beautiful place we have visited to date.

Dachau (not the most uplifting photographs, I know, but important to document nonetheless)

This sign means "Work sets you free"

Prisoner uniforms

Sleeping quarters (it's hard to tell in the picture but these bunks are only about 5 feet long w/ less than 3 feet of space between them).

The Crematorium

Switzerland- Our boat approaching Lake Thun

The lake is fed by mountain springs, you can see how blue the water is.

Everywhere you look, you are surrounded by incredible mountains.

I love these adorable Swiss towns.

The Jungfrau peaking over

We cruised over to a town called Spiez on the other side of the lake from Interlaken. I don't know what this beautiful old building was but the flowers were amazing.

I just loved these bright red shutters that we saw on many of the houses. The Swiss are very patriotic the Swiss flag flies everywhere.

A perfect day to go sailing.

Rand was wondering where he could get himself one of these.

The next day we took a train from Lauterbrunnen up to Wengen and then took a cable car up to Mannlichen where we hiked down about 1000 feet through the mountains to Kleine Scheidegg with amazing views of the three peaks (Eiger, Monch & Jungfrau) and valleys below. Words really cannot do this scenery justice (click on the pictures to enlarge).

You can't tell in the pictures but down in these valleys were tons of cows with bells around their necks. It was so quite up there that you could hear their bells clanging hundreds of feet below.

We found a beautiful spot to have lunch (my mom & Charlie).

My favorite people!

Our only family shot of the whole trip.

When we got back to Lauterbrunnen we drove over to Trummelbach Falls and hiked up through a cave to view the melt from the Monch, Eiger and Jungfrau mountains, a seriously powerful waterfall (at a rate of 5,200 gallons per second) that has several levels to view.

Veiw down through the Lauterbrunnen valley from the falls.

We hope to return to beautiful Switzerland again someday. Before my parents left we were able to do some fun day trips to Prague, Regensburg & Rothenburg. We have so much fun when family comes to visit.