Switzerland

Ben and I just returned from an incredible 48 hours. 

On Friday morning, we kissed our kids goodbye, wished Lilly good luck and headed to the Automobile Club of Luxembourg for a Swiss sticker for our windshield (required to drive in Switzerland) and began the 10-minute drive out of Luxembourg, four hour drive across France and one-hour drive through the Alps to Bern.

France is beautiful. Especially the rolling hills, Rapeseed fields, old barns and muted colors of villages. But as soon as you cross the border into the Alps, there's no comparison. It's awe-inspiring, it's breathtaking, and it's life-changing.

As we climbed a one-way road to the top of a mountain we had the following conversation: 

B: This looks just like AF Canyon .

T: There are no Aspens here.

B: Good job identifying the only difference.

T: Switzerland is the most beautiful place on earth.

B: So basically you want to move to the Zermat Hotel in Midway, Utah?

T: Basically.

We checked into our room at the LDS Temple Housing, bought brie, salami, a baguette, juice, chocolate, nectarines, chips and bananas at a grocery store around the corner and then shoved the food in our faces as fast as we could, practically running across the lawn to the temple by 5 pm. Good and bad news once we were inside the temple -- the 5pm session didn't actually start until 6 pm. So we took advantage of a quiet hour to sit and read. 

After the temple, we moseyed back to our room across the street taking our sweet time to take a few pictures and chat with another couple from Alaska, only to find out the Temple Housing gets locked down at 10 pm every night - leaving us less than hour to drive to Bern, see the bear pit and get dinner. Apparently the Swiss aren't a fan of speeding, so Ben grumbled about that for 15 minutes (I quietly lamented about having to fast for dinner) and then we lucked out by finding a parking spot around the corner from the pit. We sprinted to the pit only to find a giant sign that said "Bears will be back in Autumn". We laughed out loud at all of the ridiculous mishaps of the past several hours and took advantage of the next 15 minutes of freedom by taking pictures and walking along the River Aare. Then we raced back to our dorm room (without speeding) and made it inside with four minutes to spare. 

Then we realized the outlets hadn't been updated in the Temple Housing since the 1960s making all of our plugs (to charge our phones or watch a movie on a laptop) incompatible. So we did the next logical thing and FaceTimed Ben's parents to compare Switzerland Temple Housing with Swedish Temple Housing. Sweden won. 

We were on the road by 8 am on Saturday morning, driving to Interlaken. On the way, Ben told me about the first time he went to Interlaken in the Spring of 2001. He took a train from Paris to Hollikofen (the Temple) and then on to Interlaken. He got off of the train, looked around, walked through downtown Interlaken and then decided there was nothing else interesting for him to see and got back on the train for another destination. This is hilarious.

We parked across the street from the Interlaken-Ost train station, bought round-trip train tickets to Jungfraujoch and boarded a train. Ben started taking a crazy amount of pictures and I started worrying about food again... we had now skipped dinner and breakfast... standard for Ben on vacation. Luckily for me, the map I was given at the train station showed a little fork and knife symbol at almost every stop on our train journey and luckily for Ben, the train windows slid up and down. 

Our train took us from Interlaken-Ost through Lauterbrunnen up to Jungfrau and back down through Grindelwald. Round trip, the takes 5.5 hours without any detours or stops. We departed on the 9:05 am train and made it back to Interlaken-Ost at 6 pm. 

We spent the majority of our time in Grindelwald and at Jungfrau. Ben proved the powerful effects of advertising by buying a watch in the Tissot gift shop that had been advertised at each train stop, and I ate as much as I could in the cafeteria and cursed myself for not bringing sunglasses. 

As we descended down the mountain, Ben and I had the following conversation: 

T: This place is incredible. It might be prettier than Norway.
B: Maybe Oslo....but not Bergen. But it is pretty awesome. Don't tell Jacob I said that. I can't believe I didn't come up this mountain when I came in 2002. 
T: Switzerland has better food than Norway. 
B: That's true. 

We ended our day in Switzerland by walking through downtown Interlaken, eating a parma pizza from Place des Alpes, taking a few forced selfies with smelly, drunk German teens, buying teeshirts for the kids, checking out the hostel for Lilly and driving home. 

Switzerland is, by far, the most beautiful place I've ever been to on earth. The highlight of Europe, for me. Nothing beats it. Nothing compares. I feel extremely blessed to have stood atop Jungfraujoch, breathe in the snowy spring air, see the Swiss cows with their ringing bells, and buy a Christmas ornament. 

Thank you Lilly, for making it possible.