Switzerland

Friday-Tuesday, August 14-18, 2009
Okay, I have had it with the stupid slide program to upload photos. I spend at least 3 hours of my night uploading them and the last slideshow I did completely deleted and I had to redo it. Tonight I was uploading a bunch of pictures from Switzerland and half of them completely deleted and I have already spent about 2 hours on it. So, I have had it. No more slideshows, sorry. You will just have to see more pictures when we get back. For now, I will just post a few with each post. I will also write about what we have been up to these past few days. After we left Paris we spent a night in Dijon, France just to sleep. After we left Dijon, we then headed here to Switzerland which is where we are now, but are leaving tomorrow and heading to Garmisch, Germany for 7 or 8 days, I can't remember. In Switzerland we spent the first 3 nights in the Temple Lodging by the Bern Temple. NO A.C.! The windows would only open like an inch and it was so small. We had to sleep on bunk beds...4 people in there was not cool. It was so freaking hot. Kelly and I would get showered and ready for bed and w0uld sit outside till like 12:30 and then run and get in bed and go to sleep to avoid sweating to death. But then we would wake up way sweaty...so nice. Saturday the 15th we were able to do some sealings at the Bern Temple which was really cool. The Sealer didn't speak any English so it was very interesting. It was our first time doing sealings since we got married so it was pretty neat. After we left the temple we met up with our previous exchange student Sabine and spent the day with her. We went to some of the markets in Bern and ate lunch and then walked around a bit. We had dinner at a cool restaurant in a small village which was pretty good. Sunday we had breakfast with Sabine's family at a cool restaurant way way high on one of the hills which overlooked Biel/Bienne and the Swiss Alps. We stayed up there for about 6 hours! It was seriously so much fun and I have never spent so much time at a restaurant at one time! Her family is so much fun and we loved meeting them! After we left there, we went floating down a gorgeous river in Bern. Well attempted to. I thought I was going to drown...it was pretty scary. Too long to type, so if you want to hear the story just ask. :) Monday we went to Interlaken and then drove up to Lauterbrunnen and rode the train to Kleine-Scheidegg. We had lunch up there and then hiked up a bit to see the glaciers. Oh my GOSH it was SO pretty!!! I love Switzerland, it is one of the most beautiful place I have ever been to. We then drove to Lucerne and stayed last night and are staying again tonight. It's a way nice place but again NO A.C.! Oh well, it is nice and we have a fan. :) We had McDonald's for dinner...MMM. Guess how much? 40 freaking bucks! Can you believe that? A value meal was 12 dollars and a cheeseburger was $2.50. So crazy. So I guess when you think 5 or 6 bucks is a lot think again. Sabine said people here make a lot more so it makes up for it though. Today we rode a boat to see some of the little villages. We ate lunch as the boat was moving which was fun. I just love how pretty this place is. Lucerne is probably one of the prettiest places we have been to in Switzerland. I think one of the prettiest places we have been to so far at all. We shopped a little bit and then got pizza to take back to the room. We said goodbye to Sabine and then ran to the bus. We ate dinner and then me and Kelly went running up the big huge hill behind our hotel. (Yes, me and Kelly have only missed 3 days of running since being here, yeah!) Now we are sitting in our room. Well...should be sleeping. Tomorrow we have to drive about 4 hours to Garmisch and then it is relax, relax, relax. We are staying at Edelweiss Lodge and it has a pool so we can finally relax! I am very excited for that. I will post more later, until then...enjoy this freaking long post. Sorry...I guess I use this more like a journal than anything.

At the templeAt the markets in Bern. There are these fountains in several places for people to wash off their hands or drink. It is completely fresh water and really good!

The biggest swiss army knife EVER!!! It was like 500 bucks I think?

Kleine-Scheidegg

Breakfast and visit with Sabine's family.

Kelly and a goat. A bunch of goats just came right up to all the people from their fields! It was funny.

Me looking at the glaciers.

After hiking up to see the glaciers. SO PRETTY!

In Kleine-Scheidegg

In LucerneIn Klein-Scheidegg

Paris

Wednesday-Thursday, August 12-13, 2009
Yesterday we woke up early and spent most of the day driving to "Mulhouse, France." Good thing I slept like the entire way cause little did I know, my parents and Kelly were surprising me and taking me to PARIS!!!!! Oh my gosh I was so excited! I wanted to go so bad, but my parents said it was too out of the way and we wouldn't have time to make it. I kinda just forgot about it, but I was so happy when I found out we were IN Paris and I still didn't know it! So funny that we drove past tons of signs that said "PARIS" and it never clicked. Typical Heather. And they are good. Our hotel was nice, just really far from anything. We were going to ride the underground Metro to the Eiffel Tower, etc., but there was no way for my Dad to get down the stairs so we decided to just walk. Um....bad idea. And the fact that me and Kelly decided to wear jeans was a bad mix. It was SO hot outside. My hair was in a ponytail, but my scalp was soaking wet. My clothes were damp, holy it was hot. I don't think I have felt that nasty ever. But it was some dang good exercise! We made it to the Arc De Tromphe and then caught a tour bus just to take us to the Eiffel Tower. The tickets on the tour bus were good today also, so we went on the tour today. We took TONS of pictures at the Eiffel tower and I took about 200 pictures altogether in Paris. Crazy! We were at the Eiffel Tower till it got dark so we could see it all lit up. Gosh I can't believe how crazy it is there!!! I can't believe how crazy Paris is in general. SO MANY PEOPLE. And it is so dirty. Trash everywhere. And people drive insane too, it's scary. Parking is all over the place too. Probably one of my favorite things was the Smart Cars parked at the very end with like no space. So funny! There are dozens of women walking around by the Eiffel Tower with signs saying they are "from Bosnia and lost their family, blah blah blah...we need money..." This one girl walked up to us 2 times and asked if we spoke English. I was like "um yeah, you already asked me." So annoying. And the guys walking around trying to get you to buy roses are annoying too. We tried to avoid them, but they still walked up to us. One guy walks up and just hands me a rose. I was thinkin oh sweet, I am special and walk off with it in my hand. Then he tailgates us with his hand out for us to pay him. What a jerk!! haha jk. I just thought I got a free rose dang it! So then we felt guilty and had to pay $3 bucks for it! What a rip. When we were done there, we took a taxi back to our hotel and oh my gosh. I was sure I was going to die. The driver was weaving in and out of cars so much and driving so fast! People don't even have lanes here, they just drive where they want to and it is NUTS. He did get here safely though, thank goodness. :) This morning we took another taxi back to Arc De Triomphe and then took the tour bus again around the whole tour. It took us to a bunch of different places, but I can't remember what they are called right now and don't really want to find out at the moment! We got off the bus quite a long ways from our hotel, so we just walked the whole way back. We stopped at a small deli and had delicious sandwiches and then continued our walk and made it back to our hotel. When we got to the van someone was parked right against our bumper!! Oh well, didn't do anything to our freakin awesome van! We left, and drove to Dijon, France which is where we are now! Tomorrow we head out to Bern, Switzerland so I will update more later! It may take a few days or so cause I don't think we will have wireless for the next few days. Hope you enjoyed my long long post on Paris!

Germany

Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Today was our last day in Trier Germany. Today we went and looked at a couple castles. Cochem castle, and Bern Entz. We went on a wild goose chase trying to find Bern Entz cause it was so hidden! We had to walk down this way steep road to get there, but it was so worth it! Dad's wheelchair stopped working cause it was pretty much overworked. Hopefully it is fixable! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was way cool! The outside, and some of the inside is being reconstructed so that is what is on the outside of the castle. Seeing the castles and going inside seriously made me want to live back in the time people lived in them. It was amazing! Driving around through little towns is probably one of my favorite things to do here. All the towns are so gorgeous. Everything is so pretty and well kept and clean. We mostly drove around today so that took most of our time, but what we saw truly made it worth it. It is seriously incredible how many vineyards there are here! They all go uphill which is crazy! Dinner was good, and now we are back at the hotel ready to leave bright and early for Mulhouse, France! Funny thing of the day I forgot to blog about yesterday: We bought some cheese, opened it, all of us about vomited, and we drove with our hand out the window trying to find a garbage to throw it in. I think cheese is not a good idea here anymore!!!

Germany

Monday, August 10, 2009
Last night we didn't do a whole lot besides drive around because it poured rain almost the entire day. We woke up and ate breakfast and then headed out and just drove around different small towns for a few hours. We ended up in Mastershausen where my parents used to live and saw their old apartment. Pretty cool. We stopped at a little grocery to buy water and the guy spoke only German. It was pretty interesting how well we understood him although he didn't speak any english! After, we went to a bakery and walked around for a minute. All the little towns over here are so pretty!! I love all the flowers and all the cool looking buildings! We left and drove to Hahn Airport which used to be Hahn Air Base where my Dad used to work. Most of the roads over here are so small and tight turns and everyone passes cars over here! People drive so crazy over here! We went back to the Hauptmarkt to eat dinner but by that time it was pretty late and everything was closing up so...we ate at McDonalds! I ordered completely in German! I guess German class in High School kinda paid off... :) Last night we heard sirens and they are kinda scary compared to the sirens in America. All the sudden the sirens got louder and louder. We ran to the window and 2 ambulances drove up our street! It was pretty crazy. Of course we went to bed late again...we are going to be so screwed up on our sleep when we get back. haha. Anyway, that's about it. Nothing to exciting. Today is going to be our last day in Trier and then off to Mulhouse, France for 2 nights. I am now caught up on the blog so tonight's post will be from stuff we did today.

Germany

Sunday, August 9, 2009
Yesterday was a fun day! We slept in a little bit and then got ready and headed to Les Thermes Impériaux. It was pretty cool! We just walked around for a bit and took some pictures and then went to the Hauptmarkt and had some lunch. Sausage and pommes (fries). Yuuum. At lunch we discovered the kind of water to buy that wasn't mineral water "with gas". Oh my gosh can we say how happy we were?? Today we went and bought TONS of it. We have been so thirsty since we have been here we drank so much water today! At restaurants you can't get free water which sucks! You have to buy a tiny bottle of it. When you order juice or pop, they don't bring you refills! I don't know about you, but drinking tons of water or any drink while eating makes your meal so much better! After we ate we went to the Der Dom Cathedral. It was way cool to see and go inside a Cathedral but it was a little strange inside! It definitely was cool to see though. A lot of architecture inside. After we left there we went and drove around and went to Mehring and walked around and took pictures on a bridge. What a pretty view. We ate dinner at some extremely strange little cafe thing...it was a huge slice of bread with nasty ham, tomatoes, cheese, egg, and pickles piled on top. It was good when eaten separately, but a very weird meal. It really made me crave a Gandolfo's breakfast sandwich!! :) hehe. After that, we just came back to the hotel and went to bed. Busy day, but fun day! Things I have learned since being here: 1) I love the United States. 2) I love living in the United States. Embarrassing moment of the day: When ordering ice cream, I said "uno" scoop instead of "eins" scoop. I think my face was red.

Germany

Saturday, August 8, 2009
We arrived in Trier Germany Saturday, August 8. We had a good, but long flight. They fed us dinner and breakfast which was nice and pretty good. We watched a couple movies and slept as best we could on a cramped plane. Gosh we were so glad when we finally landed! We got our luggage...Nope it didn't get lost!! With my luck I was sure it was going to get lost, but it didn't. We got our freakin awesome rental van. Lucky Kelly gets to drive it and maybe me too if he gets time to teach me how to drive a stick shift. We stopped at a grocery store to buy some cheese and crackers and water...but it wasn't just normal water. It was mineral water...with carbonation (or "gas" as they call it here). SIIIICK. Our hotel is nice, just no AC in the room. We are staying at Nells Park Hotel so there is a park with a big path right behind our hotel so Kelly and I can keep up our running streak. :) Last night we ate dinner here at the hotel. It was yummy! We went to bed kinda late and then slept this morning till 11. We still aren't used to the time change, but we will get used to it in the next couple days. Things I have learned so far being here: 1) People drive like insane people. 2) Mineral water "with gas" is disgusting.

P.S. You can click on the pictures to get a bigger view.

Vacation time is almost here!!

Only 2 more days till we are outta here and on our way to Europe!!! Until then...we are just packing our bags and counting down the hours!!!