Switzerland Day Two - Grindelwald

Last night was a little rough. I promise not to start all my posts with a complaint but this one has to be made. Our apartment here is wonderful in every respect except for the beds. They are so hard! Sometime in the night Christian moved to the floor and even though it has only a thin carpet I am sure it was only a lateral move. I woke up every hour with an aching back and finally moved to the couch at 7am. I have a plan for tonight though so I am hoping it won't be as bad. 

Morning bells

On the positive side, the extreme firmness of the bed helped mitigate the other problem I have with the bed. Just as in Germany, the double bed here is actually two twin beds put next to each other in the same frame. And to add insult to injury they only have two twin blankets making it absolutely impossible to share. I don't know if this is something that most Europeans live with or just something they do to torture tourists but it is incredibly annoying. The whole thing is designed to separate you as much as possible and I hate it.

Bethany and James on a mountain path

Ok, now that my complaining is out of the way it is on to the good stuff. :-) Today we all slept in until after 9 and even then it was the adults who woke up first. We had no food in the house so James and Camille went down to the local bakery to pick up breakfast while I stayed home with the sleeping boys. Eventually I went in at 10:30 to wake them up and that is when I found Christian curled up with his pillow and blanket on the floor. 

Breakfast was delicious. James and Camille brought home some nutella cereal for the kids and some local pastries for everyone to share. We all enjoyed our breakfast while we admired the scenery and watched people paragliding down the cliffs. I really want to try it, it is something I regret not doing in Germany, but James is insistent I wait until the kids are grown. Camille too is worried about the risk involved and said that as his mother she forbids James from doing it.

Daddy and Grandma with the kids

After breakfast James and Christian went to pick up something from downtown and I sent Will and Jon to the playground alone. They had a lot of fun and came back on time so we will definitely do it again. The rest of our morning/early afternoon was relaxing and enjoyable. James and Camille took the kids to the store and then we had a pleasant lunch of cold cuts and various Swiss cheeses. The kids didn't like any of them of course and preferred to stick with American cheese.

Playing in a Swiss stream

After lunch James and I played a new (to us) game called The Pit with the boys. It is a trading game where you try to gain full control over a particular commodity. James and Christian were on the same team and they beat us every time. Then the boys went outside again to play in the field. They almost lost Christian's ball in the stream and it took them 15 minutes to fish it out again because the water was ice cold. 

Trying to get the ball without getting wet

Finally though we decided to go explore a bit of the Alps and we all headed off to Grindelwald, a nearby town in the next valley over. Grindelwald is built on the side of yet another beautiful valley. In Lauterbrunnen the mountains drop to the valley in steep cliffs but in Grindelwald there are long green slopes on both sides. While they don't have the stunning waterfalls it is a gorgeous area which we thoroughly failed to capture on camera. Because the mountain sides are so steep it is impossible to walk on a flat surface and there are always houses on various levels above and below you. 

The town is much bigger than Lauterbrunnen and clearly a tourist destination. We passed many shops but the mountains ahead were calling and we continued on as long as we could. The road ended at a hotel at the far end of town. There was another town farther up the mountain but you could only reach it by gondola, train, or tour bus. So instead the kids played on a little playground and then we took a walk through the woods. 

The spinning table

Will and Christian play

Daddy takes a turn and almost breaks his neck (didn't get that picture though)

The kids loved this!

Christian enjoys a rest on the hammock

 Our walk was on a nice, wide, and mostly flat trail. Camille hurt her leg two weeks before we left home and is unable to walk or stand for too long but the trail was smooth enough for James to push her in the wheelchair. Just a little ways down the trail was a small stream flowing down which the kids immediately started to explore. James tried to throw Christian over a small part of the stream but the landing was too narrow and Christian landed on his rear end with one arm in the water.

Jon and Christian play in the stream

Jon loves to jump

Jon is a bridge troll

There are two trolls!

Will and Jon in the river

As we walked on we found smaller trails that led into the woods and then returned to the main trail. Following these the boys found little places to exercise so they ran from one to the other to try each one out. Some of the things were easy like stretching on a log, and a couple, like pull ups, were too difficult for the kids to fully do. But they loved trying each one and then racing to the next one. 

Jon tries to do a pull up

Will on the trail

Zombie Christian comes out of the woods!

  Christian shows me how to do some of the exercises

Meanwhile James found his own fun by pushing his mother quickly along the main trail right next to the edge of the mountainside. She would scream and throw her hands up and he would laugh and do it again. Later as drove back into town we teased her about the wheelchair telling her that now her leg is almost healed but one day she might have a longer stint in a wheelchair and therefore be at James' mercy. At that she told James, "maybe you should try paragliding".

A bad son

Christian is tired from trying to do pull ups

Our walk was short because of time constraints so we went back and headed down into the main part of Grindelwald. There was an awesome playground there full of things to climb and tons of different rope bridges that the kids could try. It was fun and challenging and the kids became braver the longer we stayed. But by this time it was getting late and time for us to look for dinner.  

Will climbs a little mountain

Jon crossing a rope bridge

Christian was nervous about crossing the rope until we told him to picture a swift,
freezing, and rocky Icelandic stream underneath him.

Will was proud of making it across the top!

 Grindelwald does have a lot of restaurants but they were very expensive so we left the valley and instead found a little Italian restaurant on the road to Interlaken. The staff there didn't speak much English and none of us speak Italian so ordering was a little stressful at first. But there was a small play mat for the kids and once the food arrived our stress melted away. Everything was delicious! The kids ordered pizza and we will have to return for the pizza alone because it was fabulous. The adults all had various pasta meals which were also excellent and we finished off the evening with some ice cream. Here I have to confess that I am a bit of an ice cream snob. It was very good but European ice cream is just not the same. New England has the best ice cream in the world though so I am rather spoiled.

Waiting for dinner

That was it really. After dinner it was straight home and to bed. Now Christian is asleep and even though it is almost midnight Will and Jon are still up whispering to each other. I am off to knock some sense into them and then head to bed myself. James bought me a mattress pad and I am going to put down two blankets on top of that so hopefully I'll be able to sleep without too much discomfort.

Goodnight!