Switzerland/France

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Thought I had published that last one earlier but apparantly I just saved it. Anyways...I'll get you caught up. My Kindle has had a hard time with all the different wifi areas and the battery must be going because it keeps shutting down on me. So, eventhough I just got back in the states, I'll let you know of our last two adventurous days. Our second day in Switzerland we drove to a great valley between a couple of huge peaks and parked our car. This is where the adventure begins. It was a cute little mountain town which we took a tram up to the next cuter and smaller mountain town. From here we walked an easy trail for 1 hour 10 minutes to another mountain town. The hike was pretty easy and we wanted something a little more mountain like so we took a funicular (sp?) up to another small town. This took us to the "mountain view" trailhead. This was much more scenic and the trail much more narrow. It was exactly what we were looking for. This hike lasted close to 2 hours and gave us many opportunities for great pictures. My favorite part was the cowbells. Apparantly, each cow in the herd wears a cowbell and each bell is a little bit different size. Well, the flies must have been biting that day because the cow bells were moving. You could hear them from very far away and they sounded like the most beautiful wind chimes. Kjerstin recorded the sound on her ipod so we can hear them whenever we want. It just won't be the same as being there though. I'll have to look for cowbell windchimes to hang at my house. We were a very good kind of exausted when we got back to our car and slept and ate very good that night. We have used many different types of transportation on this trip but added tram and funicular to our list😊

We left Switzerland the next day for a very long day on the road driving to the Paris area. I thought I had booked rooms at a hotel close to the airport that had a shuttle service to the airport but...it was a little futher away and no shuttle service. The plan was to return the car and use public transportation in Paris. Ken had a little adventure of his own when he went to return the car. He drove to the airport but when he asked about the bus to get back to the hotel, that bus line had already stopped running for the night. Turns out there was a very nice bus boss guy who had another bus from another route drop Ken off right at the hotel. Whew!

The last day in Europe was to explore Paris. Again, we were to take public transportation. We asked front desk people at our hotel and they were very good at giving us directions, even in the little broken English they knew. So, we walked 4 blocks to the bus stop, rode 30 minutes on bus to the metro station and rode 30 minutes by train to Paris. As soon as we popped up from the train station, we were THERE. PARIS!! We had to fit in everything in a day so we were moving fast. We did a little shopping (have to do that in Paris!), stopped at the Pompedu (again not sure about the spelling) just to see the fun tunnels leading in and out, more shopping and then Notre Dame. The line was way to long to go in but we got to see the outside. We then walked down the path next to the Seine to see many other historical buildings that I can't remember but Ken could name them all, get the spelling right, and give you a history of each. Not sure what I was doing during my history classes😞 Every building was more grand than the last. We stopped for a late lunch at a great French cafe and sat outside to watch the boats on the Seine and the Paris traffic go by. We made it to the Louvre museum and went in. We saw the Mona Liza (along with 100 other people at the same time). It was blocked off so you couldn't get too close and it had glass around it. That one was hard to get a picture of. We also saw Venus de Milo which we got good pictures of. The information desk gave us a map to see the best of the best. We then headed toward the Arc de Triomphe on Champs Elysees. We saw the Arc from a distance because we wanted to get to the Eiffel Tower. The line was very long there too. Come to find out that one of the lifts was not working. But, there was almost no line to get tickets to walk to the second floor and if we want, take the lift up to the top from there. By the time we got to the second floor, the girls thought we could see everything so they didn't need to go to the top. We have great pictures from there also.

We found some ice cream before taking the journey back to our hotel. This time it was three trains and a bus and our 4 block walk for about 1 1/2 hours total time back. Again...we were exausted and saw much of Paris. Sure it would be good not to have to rush, but we got a good flavor of Paris, and I don't mean the ice cream😊

Our plane back to Chicago was long and uneventful. We had a great time, did a lot, and are glad to be back to the states...for now.

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