Thursday, May 28, 2015

Adventures in Switzer(Wonder)land

I'm not going to lie, I was a bit nervous before making this trip.  I was obsessed with Switzerland as a child, and was worried I had set my expectations so high and that reality wouldn't live up to my imagination.  When I was younger and living in Oregon, I loved my mountains.  When I heard of a magical place called the Alps, an inconceivably great and glorious range of mountains, and that Switzerland was right in the middle of it, the only conclusion my mind could make was that Switzerland was paradise.  When I was 16, in one of my high school classes we had to create a project where we imagined what our future life looked like, and we had to include everything in it, like our job, marriage, future family, etc, pictures and everything.  In the middle of this project that I created, I have a large picture of the Bern Temple, stating that is where I was going to get married, no matter what.  Now, after all these years, I was finally making the journey to Paradise and see all of these things I imagined as a kid, and I couldn't help but worry I had dreamed too much about how great it could be.

"Oh ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

Turns out, despite all the rains and clouds I had for almost the entire week I was there, Switzerland did not disappoint.  It still seems quite like Paradise to me, and I would totally live there forever, if only such a thing were possible (after living with a roommate for 3 years who was dating a guy from Switzerland, I almost feel an expert in just how impossible it is to get a Swiss Visa.  Their story ended well though, as they finally got married, she got her visa and they now live in Geneva).

Despite how much I loved Switzerland, my week was definitely interesting, and probably nowhere near the typical tourist experience.  Every time I tried to do one of the major typical tourist things, it completely backfired on me.  I have no glorious picture of Interlaken, or breathtaking views of the Alps after having ridden a gondola to the top of a mountain.  Even the bears in Bern's bear park were on summer vacation while their area was getting some re-construction.  But I was super lucky to have a friend in Switzerland, and because of this friend and other super lovely people I  met along the way I was able to get the ultimate Swiss adventure camping in the mountains, discover the city where my ancestors came from, and enjoy many beautiful views of the country.

Here are some of the pictures I took from my adventures this week:

Interlaken

Interlaken

Bern Temple

Bern Temple

Bern

Bear Park--sans bears

Camping in Simmental

The alp we slept in camping in Simmental

Camping in Simmental

Camping in Simmental

Camping in Simmental

Camping in Simmental

Camping in Simmental

Views from maybe Lauterbrunnen, or Stechelberg, or some village like that

Views from maybe Lauterbrunnen, or Stechelberg, or some village like that

Trümmelbackfäll

Trümmelbackfäll

Views from maybe Lauterbrunnen, or Stechelberg, or some village like that

Views from maybe Lauterbrunnen, or Stechelberg, or some village like that

Views from maybe Lauterbrunnen, or Stechelberg, or some village like that

Snow Leopards in Zürich Zoo!

Snow Leopards in Zürich Zoo!

Snow Leopards in Zürich Zoo!

Snow Leopards in Zürich Zoo!

Snow Leopards in Zürich Zoo!

Snow Leopards in Zürich Zoo!

Snow Leopards in Zürich Zoo!

Snow Leopards in Zürich Zoo!

A long lost cousin in Eggiwil

An old church building in Eggiwil, where my ancestors came from!

Beautiful view from on top a TV/Radio signal tower

Beautiful Bern!

Eating a very Swiss meal...kebabs!

Sunday, May 17, 2015

The Netherlands and Belgium

This past week I spent a couple days in The Netherlands and a day in Belgium.  This quick trip was inspired by a dream I had a couple weeks ago of eating Belgium waffles, so I decided as soon as I was done with my dissertation I would go to Belgium and eat one.  I also recently found out that there was a temple in The Hague, Netherlands, and I really wanted to go see it.  When I was little, I decided that I wanted to see every temple in the world, which back that was a little more possible.  Although now it's not likely I'll reach that goal, I'd still like to see as many as possible, and this temple was #25 out of 144 that I've been able to see.
My first day I flew into Amsterdam, but I only had 1/2 hour to walk around the city.  I'm not going to lie, I wasn't uber impressed.  I've heard so many people say how much they loved Amsterdam, but it just seemed like a normal big city to me.  After that I went to see De Haar Castle.







Day #2 was my favorite.  In the morning I went to Keukenhof, a big flower garden that is only open 2 months every year.  It was so beautiful!  There were so many different colors!











































In the afternoon I went to the temple and that was so lovely.  The people there were so nice and even though it was a really small temple, it was very busy!





On my last day I went to Belgium.  There I discovered the best snack for strolling the city:  chocolate covered strawberries!  I did end up having the waffle that inspired the trip, but I didn't like it!  Belgium was nice to stroll around, a very pretty city.  I also went to a musical instrument museum, which was fun because it had instruments from all over the world and from all different eras, and they gave you headphones so you could listen to what these instruments actually sounded like when playing a song.  There were so many fun and beautiful sounds, but maybe this little flute was my favorite.  I also spent a bit of time in an art museum, and these are the pieces I liked best from what I saw.