VACATION!

Zurich

It couldn't have come soon enough! Jason was tired of work and I was ready to be out of school for a week - sad since I have only taught for one week. We headed off on Friday to meet our friends from Houston, Natalie and Gavin, in Zurich Switzerland. We traveled wiht Natalie and Gavin all week which was great. We spent two nights in Zurich enjoying catching up and eating and drink good food and beer! Quite a change from Norway. Zurich had a lot of street food to enjoy and it was quite a nice city with some nice shopping. Then we headed to Lucerne by train. We spent 3 nights in Lucerne and I love the city. It is pretty small but absolutely beautiful, clean and friendly. We hiked the city walls and towers and crossed all the city bridges numerous times. We took a half-day bike ride out into the country side and meet up with a sweet widower who showed us his amazing house. On the last day we went to Mt Pilatus, which is the highest peak in the area and was a great trip. The trip to the mountain consists of a nice boat trip on Lake Lucerne, a 40 minute ride in the steepest cog railway in the world to the top and then to get down you take an aerial tramway to a gondola- good thing I am no afraid of heights (oh wait I am). We stopped on the way down the mountain to ride the longest summer toboggan run (1.3 KM) and Jason and Gavin did a ropes course. It was quite the day!

Sadly we left Switzerland and took a 5-hour train ride Munich. We spent the last 3 nights in Munich. Munich was also a great city- much larger and busier then the first two but very nice. We enjoyed the mandatory stop at the Hofbrauhaus – we were amazed how inexpensive the beer was and how good the food was. We also toured the city on foot and bus – we saw Nymphenburg Palace and Olympic Park and most of the other important sites. We were all slightly insulted though at the lack of recognition the city gave to Hitler and the Nazi Party in Munich. The famous square where the Nazi’s had many parades and held the book burning is barely even mentioned. We also took a day trip out to the famous King Ludwig II castles – Neuschwanstein (the Disney castle) and Linderhof - it was nice to see the German countryside and check out the massive castles. We also enjoyed a nice run in the huge English Garden and we were jealous we don’t have something like that in Trondheim! We returned to Norway on Saturday with some slight sadness about leaving the warm and inexpensive south but I think we have recovered and have settled back into daily life. Though we are excited for our next trip to France and Spain!

Highlights of the trip included:

-Swiss and German cows with honest to god bells on their neck!

-Learning out first hand about electric fences in Switzerland (unmarked I might add)

-Feeding the numerous and sometime vicious swans in Switzerland

-Good food including our favorite vanilla creamed filled croissants that almost made us late to a train!

-Seeing real people in Germany wearing lederhosen and tall socks in the street

See pictures of our trip in the picture section!