Switzerland

We had planned to spend 5 days in Switzerland, since it's in between Amsterdam and Italy, and the apartments we rented out were for specific days so we had some time to kill.  While in Russia, one of Aunt Glo's friends, Paula, offered us her house in Switzerland to stay at for free.  They lived there for a while and the house hasn't been used much since.  Paula was really sweet, while we were in Russia she  made us dinner while Aunt Glo was away in Germany.  She also said we could use their really nice Mercades, we were too scared of wrecking it so we never did, but what a nice gesture!  As a thank you, I took graduation pictures of her son and his friends.

When we got into Suiss, we came in on the train very late, and could not figure out how to get to the little town we were staying.  Two very nice guys helped us with their phone, and we got on the train.  At this point it was one in the morning, and we kept passing stops that weren't our town.  Then, the train stopped completely.  It wouldn't start again until 4am.  We didn't know what to do, we thought about staying in the train station until 4 and then trying to find it then.  Finally, we decided to take a taxi.  It costs us $100 euro, which sucked, but at least we made it, and the driver took us right up to the house.  From the train station, it's a long walk uphill to the house so in a way this was good.  We might have gotten lost since it was so dark and with all our suitcases that would have been no fun.

The house was awesome, we totally got hooked up.  When we got there there was a little gift waiting for us too, with bread, chocolate and fruit, and the fridge was stocked with some essentials (Paula had the company her husband works for come and set the place up for us).  The house was 3 stories and fully furnished.  We had been traveling for about 2 months now, and we were tired.  So, we spent pretty much the whole time relaxing in this house and it was awesome.  We had planned to go to Bern, but since everything is insanely expensive here, we just sort of hung out.  We got groceries, caught up on etsy, walked around the town.  It was great.  The town we were in is in is a quant, green hilly place, and I can not remember the name of it.  It was something like Groschototten, we'll call it Gro for short (edit: it's called Grosshochstetten, I was close!).  Gro is not a touristy place at all, it's just this small little farming town about 20 minutes away from Bern.  So we did get a few looks from the locals walking around.  But it was nice to be in a place that wasn't overrun with other tourists.

One thing we did do however, was go to the Swiss alps, how could we not?  We took the train to Grindelwald, and it was breathtaking.  Switzerland isn't my favorite country, from what I saw, not a ton of personality, but I think you go here for the scenery.  It was pretty unforgettable.

Ooh, I almost forgot, the train ride from Amsterdam to Suiss was freaking gorgeous.  We stopped in Germany to switch trains and it made me wish we had planned Germany into our trip, it was so cool.  From the train we'd see a church on a hill surrounded by little houses and it was just too cute.  I didn't get any good pictures but here are some anyway...

Groschototten (sp?)

This was the view from our window in Gro, so gorgeous, I kept trying to get good pictures of it but none of the pictures I took really showed how pretty it was.   Ah well.

Pictures from our walks around the town:

One of our friends from college, Harper, posted on Facebook how to make homemade peanut butter cups.  We thought that looked pretty good.  So we went down the steep hill to the grocery store and got the ingredients: chocolate, powdered sugar, and peanut butter.  Well, what actually happened was when we got to the store, I told Seth we already had powdered sugar, that I had seen it earlier.  He said, are you sure??  You promise?  I told him I was sure of it, and if I was wrong, I would walk all the way back and get some.  Turns out, I was wrong.  It was just sugar I saw.  So I walked all the way back to the store to get some powdered sugar.  I have no idea why I was so sure it was powdered sugar, but I lived up to my promise.  These were super good, and really easy.  You just melt the chocolate, then fill a cupcake liner up halfway, add the peanut butter mix (it's just peanut butter with some powdered sugar mixed in), fill up the rest with chocolate and refrigerate.  So good!  We tried to make this again in the states, but it wasn't as good, you gotta get that suiss chocolate I guess.

Treats from the bakery (love me some citron):

One of our train stops on the way to Grindelwald had a really pretty lake, I took some pictures while we waited for our next train.  I believe it was here that we found tons of ritter chocolate bars, and we bought almost every flavor.

Grindelwald

And now Grindelwald!  Not much to say about Grindelwald, except that it was simply gorgeous.  We took the rail up to one of the mountain tops, not the highest one, and did some exploring.  It was like The Sound of Music up in here, so picturesque.

Cute little Grindelwald at the base of the mountain:

awww, seth makes a new friend.

These are the carts we rode up the mountain, pretty cool.

Photo shoot time

Seth picked me these flowers.

I love how the houses are speckled throughout the hills, this is at the base of one of the peaks.

Mountains, clouds were big and fluffy that day:

Photo shoot time again, being really awesome this time.

Switzerland!

This is how high up we are, (thank you Grindelwald for accommodating us americans).

Interlaken

We made a quick stop in Interlaken on the way back.  Not much to do here unless you want to go hang gliding or skydiving.  We also paid way too much for bad fondue.  There was some good shopping, we bought some chocolate here and almost bought a really cute cuckoo clock, sort of wish we had gotten it looking back.

I love the detail in these buildings (a lot buildings in Suiss had painted words on them, as you might have noticed, and I just love that, it gives it such a handmade look).

This fountain, the cutest.

Bye to Switzerland, you were lovely.  Next stop: Italia.