Chilling in the Swiss Mountains

"My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivtalent of churchgoing." - Aldous Huxley

I couldn't agree more with your father, Mr. Huxley.  There is something spiritual about being in the mountains.  When I am there, I am simultaneously in awe of my God who created these magnificent masterpieces, while also in a state of complete peace & gratitude.  I feel more connected to God when I am in the mountains (or at the ocean) than when I am at church, in fact.  

We spent last weekend in the Berner Oberland region of Switzerland, in the traditional Swiss mountain village of Adelboden.  Randall left on Monday for 2 weeks of work in the US, so we decided to spend the weekend with him "chilling" in the Mountains before he had to go.

We had such a fun time hiking, swimming & relaxing!

On Saturday we drove to Kandersteg and took the lift up to Oschinensee.  Talk about a spiritual place ... this spot was amazing.  Following an easy 20 minute hike from the lift you round the corner and see the most beautiful turquoise blue water surrounded by lush green mountains with snow covered peaks.

We took a row boat out on the lake ...

And then hiked up along the side of the lake, to get even more amazing views from up high ...

We spotted several cows along the way (somewhere there is a picture of me at about age 3, in Adelboden, pointing at a cow just like this ... need to dig that out).  It was so funny to see people swimming in the lake with cows drinking out of the lake just a few feet away.

After our hike we rewarded the girls with a ride on the mountain coaster.  These things are so fun ...a little bit thrilling & a little bit peaceful.

Once we got back to the hotel, it was time to head to the pool to enjoy the amazing view!

That night we had a fabulous dinner at Restaurant Schoenbuhl, which is a 15 minute walk from the center of Adelboden.  We were not expecting to find a gourmet meal in the mountains and were very impressed with the beautifully presented & delicious food.  It was an inventive take on more traditional Swiss food and the service was so friendly!  Highly recommend to anyone visiting Adelboden.

The next day we took a lift from Oey up to Sillerenbuehl, and this place truly was my church on this Sunday morning.  It was so beautiful with tons of hiking trails.  The girls were most impressed with the mountain playground that had a zipline with amazing views, as well as a fun ropes course.

What a wonderfully relaxing weekend we had in the Swiss mountains!

Le Cirque du Fer a Cheval: An amphitheater for the soul

We are so fortunate to live so close to both the French & Swiss Alps.  While in the winter, the skiing is fabulous, we are coming to realize just how amazing these mountains are in the spring & summer!  A couple of weekends ago we went hiking in the Fer a Cheval in France for the first time.  The Fer a Cheval is the largest mountain cirque in the Alps.  (Per Wikipedia a cirque is a steep amphitheater-shaped valley formed by glacial erosion.)  This place is breathtakingly beautiful, with dozens of waterfalls cascading down the huge walls of the cirque!  

Around every bend there was something even more beautiful to discover.  It was a magical place for my adventure seeking and beauty hunting soul!  These pictures don't even really do it justice (all taken with my iPhone and of course it died before we got to the cool rope bridge and ice cave).

The wind and noise created by the force of this waterfall were so loud that these sheep snuck right up behind us without us even noticing.  It was amazing how cold it was close to this waterfall ... we were actually shivering on this very hot day.

Between the initial hike to a dead end & back (a tiny village where we happened upon locals eating lunch on their patio in their underwear due to the heat), the big loop into the valley, and the various little detours we took up streams to different waterfalls, we hiked over 14km that day.  While the girls were exhausted by the end, and I feared we might not make it the last 2 km back to the car, they were great little hikers for most of the day.  Their favorite part was crossing the creeks using rocks and logs and getting to stand behind one of the waterfalls. It is such fun that the girls are now at an age where we can explore like this together!

Family Fun on Fehmarn

There is something so special about showing my girls where I spent my summers as I was growing up.  Fehmarn was my happy place and I have so many fond memories of time spent with cousins, biking back and forth between the beach and my Oma's house, swimming in the freezing cold Baltic Sea, going shopping on our own in "the Stadt."  And to be able to experience these things again with my girls and my family is so rewarding.

We spent 5 days on Fehmarn at the beginning of July, and while the weather at first felt more like fall than summer, we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

The top reason for going to Fehmarn is to see my Dad, Lexi & Kenzie's Opa.  This is where he grew up and where he returned when he retired.  It is his Home and I am so happy that he is now back on the island (following his stroke he spent over 2 years in a nursing home on the mainland).  His care facility on Fehmarn is within walking distance of two of his brothers and I can tell that he is happy to be back.  He had made such great progress in the past 6 months and was so excited to show us how well he was walking, that he pushed it a bit too much, and fell and broke his femur a week before our visit.  I feel so sad for him, as he is on bedrest until it heals and will then need to work so hard to regain his strength and all of the progress that he made.  I know that our visit brightened his spirits and I am hopeful that anticipation of our next visit will help be encouragement for him to keep up the hard work (once his doctor approves it).

In addition to spending time with Dad, the girls played at the beach with second-cousins... (It was so special that my cousin Caroline, made the trip to Fehmarn with her daughter and my aunt & uncle, just so they could be there at the same time as our visit.)

... cheered on Deutschland in the EuroCup with my extended family.  We also had a Hoepner family dinner with over 20 family members one night, that my cousin Birte coordinated.  Such fun to get everyone together!  My Uncle Gert and Aunt Telsche also had us over for dinner one night and of course Telsche made the girls' favorite German meal ... frikadellen with kohlrabi and potatoes in the most dreamy cream sauce.

... spent time in "the Stadt,"  shopping & eating lots of "Wurst" and ice cream.

We biked to the beach as a family and showed the girls the spot where Randall proposed ...

We got to meet up with Wibke, my favorite cousin that I shared so many Fehmarn adventures with as a child, and cheered on her husband in a triathlon in Heiligenhafen.

I am grateful that even though my parents have been divorced for almost 30 years, that they are still friendly and that it didn't feel awkward at all to be on Fehmarn with both my mom and dad ... a place that holds so many memories for our family.

My memories are becoming Kenzie & Lexi's memories and it makes my heart swell.

The Magic of Venice

"I had my dreams of Venice, but nothing that I had dreamed was as impossible as what I found." - Arthur Symons

Venice is truly a magical place and to be able to introduce my mom and our girls to this fairytale city was almost surreal.  When I took this photo of the three of them in a water taxi upon our arrival, I had one of those pinch me moments.  Then my mom told me that she had dreamed of coming here ever since she was 12 years old and I had to fight back tears.  So blessed.

After we got settled in our apartment, the first order of business (requested by the girls) was a gondola ride.  As our gondolier propelled us through the narrow canals of Venice we commented how quiet and peaceful it was.  There was something so serene about that moment, floating through the canals with Randall, our girls and my mom.  At first my mom was disappointed we didn't have a singing gondolier, but later a local commented that this is actually a faux pas as it ruins the serenity of the experience.  And I believe she is right.  So if you are ever in Venice, skip the singing gondolier (and save a lot of money) and experience the stillness of Venice.

Following our gondola ride, we spent some time just wandering and exploring the narrow walkways and crossing dozens of bridges over the labyrinth of canals.  I was pleasantly surprised at how uncrowded it felt, as I had heard that Venice in the Summer could potentially be a nightmare.  Sure, as we got close to the Rialto Bridge things got crowded, but as long as we avoided the San Marco/very central area there really weren't a lot of crowds.  And while I would certainly recommend a visit to San Marco square and the Rialto Bridge, our favorite parts were when we were exploring a bit further off the beaten path.  I had purchased a little pocket sized book from Amazon, called "Kids Go Europe:  Treasure Hunt Venice" and we had a lot of fun hunting for the different things as we wandered & explored the different areas of Venice.  I would highly recommend this to anyone visiting Venice with little ones as it provided just the motivation needed when little legs were tired & really didn't want to walk anymore.

On our second day in Venice we met up with Martina from Macaco Tours in Santa Maria Formosa Square for a Sketch Hunt tour.  The tour was 90 minutes long and the girls had to look for things pictured in images on their treasure map.  At each stop we learned a bit about the history of Venice and the girls had to sketch something to complete the picture.  It was highly entertaining for Kenzie and Lexi and Randall, Omi and I learned some things as well.

Martina introduced us to beautiful campos that Randall and I never had visited on our previous trip to Venice ...

... and brought us to a crazy bookstore (Liberia Acqua Alta) with books piled floor to ceiling, gondolas and bathtubs filled with books and even a staircase of books that provided a view of the canal.

After lunch in Campo S. Giovanni E Paolo, with a beautiful view of the marble facade of the old hospital, we meandered our way over to Piazza San Marco.

To escape the sun we found a shady table at Cafe Florian and enjoyed some gelato & drinks while listening to the band.  Quite pricey, but worth it for the experience to enjoy a treat at the oldest coffee house in continuous operation (it was established in 1720 ... if walls could talk).

The next day we were scheduled to catch a boat to the islands of Murano and Burano, departing from the San Zaccaria area in front of the lagoon.  We took the vaporetto (water bus) until we were close and then got off with the sole purpose of taking a traghetto, as it was on the must do list for the girls.  A traghetto is a flat bottomed/stripped down gondola that acts as a ferry to carry passengers across the Grand Canal.  It was a quick trip of less than 5 minutes, and much more rocky than the gondola ride, but it allowed us to check all of the boxes for modes of transportation in Venice for our scavenger hunt (water taxi, vaporetto, gondola, & traghetto).

Then we were off to the colorful islands of Murano and Burano in the Venetian Lagoon.  This was one of my favorite parts of the trip (perhaps because it was new for all of us), and I would highly recommend a visit to these two islands for anyone who has more than 2 days in Venice.

Our first stop was the island of Murano, famous for its colorful glass.  We visited a glassblowing workshop and got to see the highly skilled glassblowers at work - an art that is passed down from generation to generation.

We then made our way to Burano, which is probably one of the most colorful places in the world.  It is a small fishing community also known for the most sought after handmade lace in the world.  This is sadly a dying art, as they said the woman who was leading our demonstration was the youngest woman to have been officially schooled in lace making and that today it only continues if mothers and grandmothers pass on the skills.

They say that no two houses in Burano are exactly the same color, and one reason that was provided for this was that it made it easier for the fisherman to find their way home in the evening after a few drinks.  Not sure if that is the truth, but it sure does make for a pretty little community.  I fell in love with all of the colors and could have stayed and taken photographs for hours.

On our final morning in Venice, Randall and I went for a run and tried to go see any last sights that we had not made it to in the previous days.  We ran through the Mercato Del Pesce and saw more varieties of fish and seafood being sold than any other market we have been to.   

What a wonderful visit we had to city with no streets.  We loved exploring the wonders hidden in narrow walkways, on quiet canals and in lively campos.  I had heard that Venice could be difficult with kids, but based on our experience I would definitely recommend it.  While there is a lot of walking and there isn't the option of hoping in a cab to head back to the hotel as soon as little ones complain about being tired, there was so much for the girls to discover and see and we found the vaporettos fairly easy to navigate when they got tired of walking.

We also loved our apartment (rented through Views on Venice) in the Santa Croce neighborhood.  It was away from the crowded tourist areas but still within walking distance of most everything.  We witnessed a local wedding in the nearby square, Omi and Lexi joined in on some traditional dancing on Saturday afternoon, and we got to experience the beauty of wandering through quiet alleys and campos after the sun went down.

Thank you Venice for sharing your wonders with us!