3 Cities in 3 Days

Review Pictures :)

Munich Silliness:

We have been very busy and constantly moving so here is the full update:

Thursday we visited the Fairytale Castle (see previous post).

Castle

Soaking wet in Munich that night

To save time and money, we decided to travel to the Interlaken overnight on a train! I knew we wouldn't get the best night's sleep, but in my mind, we would be sleeping in a sleeper car. When we went to book a car, the only option we had was to book a regular seat on connecting trains. So here's our overnight adventure:

  Our train was scheduled to leave at 11:30pm which we promptly made. Our train schedule was to ride to Salzburg, connect to another train until we were close to the Interlaken where we would transfer to two more trains. But we ran into difficulties right away. On the first train, the conductor checked our passes and noticed that Austria was not one of the countries we could travel in...and Salzburg is in Austria (a detail we hadn't foreseen). Fortunately, he let us go to Salzburg but told us we'd have to pay for the next train out of Austria. We weren't sure how much that would cost, but since the train was already running we didn't have much of a choice. Our brief stay in Salzburg started at around 1:15am until our train came about 15 minutes later. We'd reserved seats so we found our car and room which during the day is compartments of 6 seats: 3 on each side, facing each other. Conveniently, these seats could pull out and together create 3 "beds." There was a girl in our compartment already, but we managed to get situated and after awhile we fell asleep. It wasn't a great night's sleep, but it was decent considering the circumstances. Before we fell asleep, I had asked Stephen to set his alarm for 7:15 am since we needed to switch trains at 7:30. The next thing I know, Stephen is yelling for me to wake up and get off the train!! We had both slept through his alarm and by God's grace, Stephen just happened to wake up as our train was sitting in the station we needed to get off at! The trains don't stay put very long, so we frantically grabbed all our stuff and rushed out the door. Disheveled and disoriented, we managed to find the platform for our connecting train. The next two trains left us at Interlaken where we were surrounded by awe-inspiring mountains and glaciers in the distance. I heard that Switzerland means "breath of fresh air" and if it does, I believe it!

Our accidental side-trip to Austria

Friday:
Stephen and I started our search for the hostel, which turned out to be only a 15 minute walk from the station. It was too early to check in, so we locked up our bags and searched for breakfast. As we walked into the town, we noticed several booths being set up to sell food, drinks, ice cream, and clothes. But the odd thing was that we also saw several people dressed up in the traditional Swiss get-up. We soon found out that this was the same weekend as a festival! We found a place to eat that was pricey (especially compared to what we've been accustomed to so far...but we also knew Switzerland would be) but delicious. We had coffee and split a hash brown dish that was mixed with eggs, ham, cheese, and bacon.

The Swiss in their Traditional Outfits

Once our stomachs had settled, we started off on our hike. Last year, Stephen and the boys had hiked up to a restaraunt on the side of a mountain. Stephen remembered where the trailhead was and had enjoyed the hike so we decided to go. At first, I was able to maintain a steady pace behind Stephen. But there was one problem. The hike goes up and up and up and up and up (at a pretty steep incline) the entire time! So throughout the hike, I slowly fell farther and farther behind. At first, he would wait for me and as soon as I arrived, gasping for air, Stephen, now rested, would immediately continue. (sounds like Dad, right Mom? lol) He quickly learned to wait till I had at least caught my breath again. Despite my lagging pace, we maintained a quick pace and an hour and a half later, the glorious restaurant appeared in our sights. :) We did the math and discovered that we had climbed 2500 feet in 90 minutes which is approximately 27 feet per minute! As you can imagine, I am still a little sore several days later :).

Following Steve Johns up a mountain is not easy

A view from near the top

The top of the mountain supplied us with breath-taking views of surrounding mountains and the city of Interlaken where a crystal blue, glacier river runs through the town. While relaxing, chatting, and enjoying our drinks, we were also entertained by several airplanes flying around in different formations. On our way back down the mountain, we stopped at a resting point with benches to eat our lunch (bread, cheese, and meat from a grocery store). The town was still bustling with people, some in their outfits, some playing accordians, yodeling, and others, like us, just enjoying the various activities. We grabbed some ice cream and milk and walked back to our hostel.

After checking in, we took long, hot showers which felt amazing after sleeping and hiking in the same clothes! (eww :) ). That night, we had the pleasure of eating dinner with the Mantens! I had run into Martin at Katrina's wedding (we met in Berlin 7 years ago while I was on a high school missions trip) and impressively he had remembered me! That night, they served us a Swiss meal of pasta, cheese, potatoes, and ham (all in one dish). It was delicious! We were also entertained by stories from Martin and all 6 of their children. I had only met three of their children and it was great to see how much they'd grown! as well as meeting their younger siblings. Their youngest son, who is around 2 or 3 was sitting next to me at the table. During dessert, the whip cream can was sitting in front of me so he turned to me and with such cute, pleading eyes, started talking to me in German (he didn't know English). I could only assume he wanted me to give him some.. His mom said that he had asked me in proper German rather than Swiss-German, which is what the family usually speaks. Such a little cutie! Too soon, we had to leave so as to make our train back.

Bed felt wonderful that night. Funny story: the bunk beds in this hostel are really close to each other. I had the top bunk and basically slept right next to another girl in the bed next to me. Sometime during the night she had lost her blanket. In the morning, when the temperature started to drop, she sleepily grabbed for a blanked which happened to be mine! Reflexively, I grabbed the blanket back and she realized what had happened and found her own. awkward... :)

Saturday:

The morning was overcast and raining so rather than go on another hike, we decided to just leave early for Geneva. Rather than walk in the rain, we figured out we could catch a bus. As I was walking to the bus station, I saw a bus with the correct number pull up. I yelled for Stephen to run and we made it on the bus. However, as soon as it started driving, it was going the opposite direction as the train station. I was hoping it would turn around after a few streets but it just kept heading toward the mountains. It was the right bus; wrong direction. Oh well, we weren't in a hurry and we got to tour a little more of Interlaken before leaving. It was also entertaining to watch as a huge group of Swiss people in their traditional clothing came onto the bus. Not an ordinary sight.

We made it to the train station, with spare time to buy lunch materials from a grocery store (similar as before: bread, cheese, salami, and yoghurt). Our train ride to Geneva went smoothly and we enjoyed reading our Kindles for the three hour ride. Our next objective: find Kimberly Glass. We knew they would be at the Victoria Hall from 3-4 and I had two cell phone numbers. Other than that, we were on our own. We knew which tram stop to go to and we have now become pretty good at figuring out maps. But as soon as we knew which tram we needed, we realized it was sitting on the other side of the tracks about to leave. We ran to the tram and Stephen slipped through the doors just as they were closing. I had been behind Stephen and looked up in time to see his smiling face leave with the tram. I was just hoping he'd been listening when I told him the stop we needed. I waited about 15 minutes for the next tram and a few stops later we were reconnected.

We found Victoria Hall at 3:30 and knew the concert didn't finish until 4, so we grabbed coffee at a nearby cafe. We then camped out at the front of Victoria Hall ready to watch for the mass of people exiting the building. I went inside the lobby to check on when the concert would finish. They had a TV playing the concert live so I was able to listen to the very end and the last 15 minutes of anchor peices. It was a really good orchestra!! (I think it was the City of Geneva's orchestra or something big like that!)

As people streamed out of the building, Stephen and I kept our eyes peeled for the Glass'. Slowly the stream of people lessened and then stopped...but there was still no sign of Kimberly. We then moved to Plan B: Call their cell phones. Just one problem, I didn't have a cell phone and I had trouble figuring out their payphone system. I happened to have a calling card, but it took me about an hour to figure out the paying process, then the area codes. It was all very confusing. By this time, we had moved telephone booths and when it started pouring rain outside, Stephen joined me in the booth and offered to help. Naturally, on his first try he was able to connect to a cell phone. We left a message and waited a few minutes so as to call later. Instead, the payphone started ringing so I answered it. Kimberly had called us back and we were able to arrange a meeting point at a nearby Romanian Church that her family was going to that night. A girl from the church was getting baptized and Mr. Glass was asked to preach. The church was close to our phone booth, so we ended up beating Kimberly and John William, and were able to meet Mr. and Mrs. Glass. We stored our backpacks in the church and started sitting down with everyone else. Soon into the service we realized it was all going to be in French and Romanian and was going to be a couple hours long...so during prayer, we sneaked out and explored Geneva, eating dinner at a pizzaria.

A couple hours later, we returned to the church shortly before the service was over. Unbeknownst to us, after the service was a potluck dinner for everyone! So...we had our "second" dinner. Another funny story, as we were putting a little food on our plates, a Romanian man came up to Stephen, looked at his plate, looked at Stephen again, and just grabbed the food off his plate!!! haha! So Stephen grabbed more food and offered more to the Romanian man. :) He laughed.

That night, John, Kimberly, and other youth from the church took us into town because there was a music festival this weekend! (thus the concert earlier that day...) We happen to attract festivals somehow. The night music was much more contemporary so as we walked around the park, we heard rock, rap, reggae, techno, etc...We all had a good time hanging out and did so until late, then went home and to bed.

Kimberly and I being our completely normal selves

Once again, it's pretty late so I'll finish catching up tomorrow. :)