Gimmelwald!

Yay! Kate and I are in Gimmelwald, this adorable little mountain village that you can only get to by gondola, it's so high up. We are surrounded by beautiful mountain peaks of the Alps, and bright green cow pastures. Unfortunately we missed just this morning a grand event for Gimmelwald, the "procession" of the town's cows before they leave the town for 3 months to graze in the Alps. Apparently they have a little parade with their beautiful Swiss ribboned cow bells on, and it's on a different day every year, so we didn't know that it was happening today.

Still, we had a gorgeous afternoon photographing the town, and we also loved Lausanne, the city on Lake Geneva where we just came from. Check out this photo of the hang gliders going through the Alps - I emailed my mom we should come back and do that for my 30th birthday... I figured if I put it in writing now, while it still sounds like a good idea, she'll make me go through with it.

Tomorrow we're doing something a little crazy, we're taking a train up to the top of the Jungfraujoch, the highest point in Europe. It will no doubt be covered in snow when we get there, and we both only have a couple long sleeved shirts and a light jacket, so we won't last long at the top. But the train journey itself is really scenic. Can't wait.

If you're wondering how we found Gimmelwald (population of about 25), it's one of the special places our trip guru, Rick Steves, raves about to no end. According to him, there are people who say "If Heaven isn't all it's cracked up to be, send me back to Gimmelwald" and I have to agree - everything is perfect here.

The weather is warm with just a little alpine breeze, the food - especially cheese and yogurt - is homemade and delicious, the air smells like flowers, there's garden gnomes galore (*yay*), all the houses are dark brown timberframe with windowboxes full of pink geraniums, and all the people are super friendly just like the town is a big family.

"Esther's Guesthouse", where we're staying just built an addition to their chalet-type building, so our room is only 2 weeks old, and it smells like freshly cut wood! Of course in Switzerland, you always have a goose down duvet, even in a budget hotel, and a thick goose down feather pillow too. How perfect!
Strangely for a cow-town, we have a high-speed internet connection just outside our room and we even have cell phone service here, so finally I'll get some photos of Italy and Greece up on the blog tonight.
Bonsoir!