Day 14

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Amber's Journal:
Today was a fairly low-key day which was nice. We had a nice breakfast then lounged in beach chairs next to the lake. It was beautiful. After we checked out we drove to a place called Lauterbrunnen, a small town in the Swiss Alps near Interlaken. The drive was gorgeous! I was surprised to see that the Swiss Alps look very much like our own Rocky Mountains. The only major differences are the large green valleys and small villages built into the steep hillsides. They even farm the steep hillsides, many of them by hand. We passed at least 40 waterfalls on the drive today. I love waterfalls so I got excited every time I saw one. Oh, and another difference is the huge (HUGE!) gorgeous lakes they have in the mountains here and they are all such pretty deep blue and green colored. We got to drive past Lake Lucerne as well as Interlaken. We wanted to take this one pass but the road was closed so we had to take the long way. They had this rest stop onthe way that had ginormous revolving doors, a grocery store, a gas station, an expensive cafeteria, and nice bathrooms. I wish rest stops in America were nice and clean like that! As a matter of fact I think most of the public restrooms I've been in here have been much better than those int he states. Also, there were about a zillion tunnels on the road today, some of them very long, and one of them was around 10 miles long! It actually made me a little sick after awhile. Anyways, we arrived safely in Lauterbrunnen which is beautiful and quaint. Our hotel room is small and not super great for what we paid for it but the nice part is it has a balcony and french doors looking out over the valley, mountains, and huge Staubach Falls. I enjoyed sitting out there taking in all of the beauty and breathing the awesome smelling fresh air. It's so clean and fragrant with lilacs and flowers. We can actually see 4 or 5 waterfalls from our hotel room. There are pastures everywhere with sheep and cows. During dinner we even saw some cows being herded down the town's main street. THey all wear cow bells and you can constantly hear their jingling all through town but I kind of like it. For lunch we had little meat pies (mine had chicken, mushrooms, and bacon) and sweet potato vegetable soup. For dinner I had Swiss pasta with potatoes, cheese, and ham. Preston had pork sausage in onion sauce with hash browns. We had apple strudel and cream for dessert. We finally found a place that would give us glasses of tap water and we still had to pay a dollar a piece for it. Everything is really expensive here. My pasta was like $18 and that was one of the cheapest things on the menu at the cheapest restaurant we could find. We both love the mountains so much and are so excited to be here!

Preston's Journal:
From Lake Como, Italy to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. We woke up this morning and started the day with a great European breakfast. This was followed by three more games of foosball... we won't discuss it, but Amber ended up quite upset for part of the day. The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon were spent driving. We haven't had problems with Italian drivers, but the motorcycles are freaking crazy. The roads, as well, are insane... skinny as heck and very windy (as in moving all sorts of directions). Once we entered Switzerland, there again began to be real mountains. The Swiss Alps seem almost identical to the Rockies, and they are gorgeous. Amber loves all the waterfalls here, and I agree they are very captivating. We had lots of very pretty views throughout the day, with bright blue-green lakes, Swiss houses, and the Alps. Lots of the farmers here cut their hay by hand (a small roto-tiller sized swather) instead of a tractor, and turn it over by hand with rakes! Crazy! We got into Lauterbrunnen, which has magnificent waterfalls all around, walked the town, e-mailed family and ate dinner (which was very good). This area seems to be quite a bit more expensive, but we'll still be ok. We decided to skip Lucerne and Interlaken for today, and feel ok about it so far. Our room looks out at one of the giant waterfalls, and its sound is coming in through the open balcony door. The weather has been great, and we hope it stays that way! I am having such a good time with Amber. I feel closer to her as my wife and friend, and we've been having such a good time. I am so glad we came, and hope the little bit we have left goes well. For lunch we had little meat pies and soup, and dinner for me was pork sausage with hashbrowns and gravy- both were very good.

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