Switzerland: part 1
Hi everyone!
As you can see, I allowed Andrew to write an entry last week ;-) - but only because I was away on holiday! Seriously, he has promised to write another blog about his journey from Bush House to a different train station. In the meantime, I'm afraid you'll just have to put up with me.
When I said I'd been on holiday, I meant that very loosely. I did go away last week, but I took 35 children with me, so it wasn't really a holiday! Perhaps I should explain. They weren't 35 of my own children (you'll be pleased to hear) - they were 35 Girl Guides (if you're not sure what a Guide is, see my last blog). Anyway, 35 girls and 8 leaders travelled to Switzerland last week. The youngest was 10 years old and the oldest 66 years old! We travelled all the way from London to Interlaken by coach.
We left London at 6 p.m. and arrived in Interlaken at 1 p.m. Swiss time the next day - (Switzerland is an hour ahead of England, so we actually travelled for 18 hours). We crossed the English channel on a ferry and then travelled through 3 countries - France, Luxembourg and Switzerland - although a lot of the journey was along the French border with Germany, so we almost travelled through 4 countries. On the journey we watched DVDs, read, slept (or at least tried to sleep) and sang - we were all very pleased to arrive! We stayed in a hotel in the little village of Wilderswil, which is in the German speaking part of Switzerland. Switzerland actually has 4 official languages: Swiss-German, French, Italian and Romansh.
We spent our first evening recovering from the journey and swimming in the hotel swimming pool, surrounded by the mountains: how relaxing (or it would have been, without all the children).
The next day was hot and sunny (you know how important the weather is to the English!) and so we all took a gondola half way up a mountain.
As you can see, it's quite scary, just travelling up and down a thin wire. Fortunately it didn't break down when we were on it. Unfortunately, it did break down when we reached the top, so we were stuck half way up a mountain for nearly 2 hours! Fortunately, there was a very exciting toboggan run, which we all tried out.
Usually, toboggans are used in the snow, but these toboggans travelled down a metal track - very fast!
When we finally got back down on the gondola we needed to find somewhere cool to walk - so we took a nice, shady path above a river:
The water runs straight out of a glacier, so is ice cold. Later in the week we went up to another glacier almost on the border with Italy.
Although it looks as if the glacier is quite narrow, the ice actually fills the whole valley. As it travels, it scrapes stones off the mountains and they form a layer along the sides of the glacier - in the picture below, we are actually standing on the ice.
You can get so close to the glacier that you can actually see underneath it - the colours are really beautiful. But don't be fooled if you tried to walk in to this ice cave, you could be crushed by falling ice!
If you want to read a really exciting - and true - story about mountains and glaciers, I can recommend Joe Simpson's book "Touching the void" - it has also been made in to a film.
I think I'd better stop now, before this gets too long and boring. I'll be back with some more about Switzerland, so I'm afraid there's no escape!
Take care
Carrie
put up with: to tolerate something or someone
loosely: vaguely
don't be fooled: don't be mistaken
there's no escape: you can't avoid something
Comments
Hi Carrie, You left the staff blogs in good hands. Andrew wrote a wonderful blog. I'm happy to hear that you were on holiday. It must have been great fun. The pictures are amazing (as usual). But I would be very scared if I had to be stuck because of the broken down. However you look pleased on the toboggan. Fortunately, everything has a solution. The landscape is terrific. I look forward to the 2nd part. See you soon, Cris
Hi Carrie! Ooooh it´s always a pleasure to hear from you :-). Wilderswil looks like a chocolate-box village. It´s so adorable :-). By the way, I would love to try out the tobbogan. It sounds great fun for me. Anyway, I´ve just googled and read the synopsis of Touching The Void and I found really interesting. This book is on my list of books that I must read. Thanks for the tip Carrie :-). See you soon, Ana Paula.
Hi Carrie. You look ecstatic in the picture. I'd love to hear more about the scout movement for girls and also about scouting for boys. Could you please post the scout prayer you have used in the meeting. Here, at the end, they say " Sempre alerta para servir" or only "Sempre alerta". Have a nice weekend. "Be prepared" Adri
Hello Carrie! I HOPE, we will put up with you for a long, long time. It seems unfair to me that you don't appear on the banner above this page. I think there has to be a big beautiful picture of Carrie and many small pictures of other bloggers on both sides.
Hi Carrie, your journey looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing that with us. The photos are very nice too, especially the one on the toboggans. This word sounds so funny, I made a search and found out that the origin is from Algonquian."Algonquian /al"gQNkwI@n, -kI-/ (also Algonkian /-kI@n/) · n. 1 a large family of North American Indian languages, including Cree, Blackfoot, and Cheyenne." The scenes are also amazing. Eager to follow up with the second part of yout travel. Best, H.
Hi Dear Cairre , I think every one had missed you a lot . I wonder how often Europe people used to go holiday in a year .I admire it and I think you know how to spent your money and how to enjoy your life .I don't think it 's the same in other nations .The photo was brilliant and I enjoyed reading your last Blog more than once . I specially like the Toboggan sliding and walking over the river. I can't wait to see your next Blog about your trip to Switzerland part 2 . Have a good time . cheers
It seems that your trip went on as it was planned. Well done and enjoy every moment of this precious life! All the best, Gaitrie
Dear Carrie! It looks you visited the same places as I did. It was long time ago, 1991, after passing my second post-graduate qualification degree in medical microbiology. I stayed in Zürich and spent almost 5 weeks altogether there in the country. The stay drive me to learn German language. It was shortly after changes in my country in 1989 and really a culture shock for me. However, I did not try a toboggan, actually, I can´t remember if there had been any then. Though, I remember well that the drive down the mountain road on a car was absolutely enough for me. And yet one thing. I have got no one photo from that stay! So I am looking forward to see more from the scenery of mountan I like the most and I appreciate your effort.
Hello Carrie, Fantastic journey and fanastic photos. Many thanks for sharing them with us, All the best, Maryam
hi! i've been there before few months ago, one of my jorney was riding scary cable car which was little croocked so it was funny! i really fancy Switzeland :)
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