Rain Rain Go Away

The entire central European region decided it needed a good washing out, just in time for Ron & Mary's arrival in Switzerland, convenient, I know. It basically rained everywhere they were until the last few days which we all spent together in Salzburg & Luzern. When they finally arrived, after a serious flight snafu & lack of luggage on Friday, we left for the mountains on Saturday, after returning to the airport again to retrieve luggage. At least the luggage arrived as promised by Saturday morning! They don't really makes clothes here tall enough for the likes of the Duchek clan. We have yet to encounter such extensive flight issues as they faced coming in (thank goodness) but they handled it all completely in stride. Once we had the luggage, we headed down to the Interlaken/Jungfrau mountain region for a few nights. We made the best of foggy, drizzly mountain towns, and enjoyed a fabulous hike despite only being capable of seeing about 5 feet in front of us. We are looking forward to returning to check out the walk again when the weather is more agreeable. The hotel we stayed in was small, but afforded a great view from our balconies of the waterfall pictured. We decided to also check out the Trummelbach Falls in Lauterbrunnen. But, we needed some guidance on how to get there from our hotel front desk staff. As a side note, she added, 'be very careful though' and I was like 'why, because they are all so tall?' and she responded with, 'no, a kid from the US died there a month ago, they just found his body a few days ago.' Oh, okay, so my dislike for heights has just escalated to a mild hysteria. So, after catching a brief view of a few of the falls, Mary & I retired to a bench next to the elevator, where there was no chance of bodily harm. The boys say we didn't miss much, although even if they said it was the greatest thing in the world, I don't think they could have dragged either of us on the slick, stone paths with guardrails that extended barely to the waist.

On Monday, we returned to Zurich and had a look around during the late afternoon. It rained. Then Ron & Mary headed out on their own on Tuesday to the Neuschwanstein Castle & Munich for two nights. You will have to get the details about that part of their trip from them, but morale of the story is, it dumped rain. Dumped down so much on the castle that they couldn't even see it. It's a really long day to get to the castle from Zurich, then back up to Munich, so I cannot imagine how disappointing it must have been to go through so much effort to get there & then see virtually nothing.

We met up with them in Salzburg on Thursday where the weather was a bit better (although still raining upon our arrival). We got ourselves a bit lost leaving the train station, and got a tour of 'ugly' Salzburg. I began to seriously question my faith in Rick Steves at that point. What was this hideous dump he had sent us to? Turns out we were on the wrong side of the tracks & heading the incorrect direction to boot. We found the hotel, relaxed for a bit, then headed out to see what all the fuss was about. We barely turned the corner from our hotel when we realized. Salzburg is a really fabulous, little German town with cobblestone roads and many "virtually car-free" roads. Cars still pick their way through the people on some of them, but for the most part, people rule the roads in inner Salzburg. We also got the opportunity to see some spectacular countryside on our Sound of Music bus tour, which really exceeded both mine & Joe's expectations. We hit up Joe's favorite Munich brauhall, Augustiner & enjoyed a few liters. We ate well, bought a few things at the sales that happen in all of Europe during the end of June & Dec, and generally enjoyed the better weather. There also happened to be some sort of outdoor festival going on, so we listened to some live music and picked our way through now very crowded, very pedestrian streets. We got really lucky with our hotel as well. The breakfast was amazing, eggs, bacon, potatoes, bread, Nutella, jams, cheeses, meats, pastries. I have never seen such a fabulously American breakfast spread in Europe. It was beyond satisfying. Another party bonus, I forgot I had reserved some package deal that came with Salzburg passes & 10Euro vouchers to many restaurants & stores in the area. So, we all got in free to every attraction we entered in Salzburg & each got 10Euro to spend (it all got spent on beer at Augustiner, the best way to spend free monies, if you ask me!) All in all, Salzburg was the highlight of the trip, at least in my opinion...I think everyone else would concur.

We headed back to Zurich for the final two nights of Ron & Mary's visit, which we spent in Luzern, on a boat ride & walking around Weggis. Again, the mountains were pretty well socked in fog, so we didn't see much, but they believe we aren't just making them up...at least I think they do ;) Had lunch at a super cute cafe that looked like it came straight out of S. Haven & then headed back towards home. Sunday night it down poured again, so we all spent our time packing, doing laundry, and getting ready for heading home/on to our next adventure. Will update with Russian pictures & information in a the next day or so, I hope.

Thank you Mary & Ron for taking such great care of us while you were here. We are so happy to be able to invite everyone into a glimpse of what our lives are like here and spend time with the people we love.

Hope everyone had a great 4th as well! We spent the day in a most un-American way.....but more on that to follow.