June 11th- Wengen

June 11th- Wengen

What a fun day!  We had such a fun time.  We woke up this morning not
really early, but Stockton woke up at about 7:00 or so, so I was up
taking care of him!  When I woke up, everyone else in our room was
awake!  We are sharing a room with my parents, and the Derricks and
the Mini-Miles are right next to us.  This hotel Belvedere is somethin
else!  It is really fun.  I can't BELIEVE the views from around here!
We woke up this morning and it was really clear and pretty!  So we sat
and checked out the view for a little while, and then the other dudes
woke up, and the clouds rolled in!  We were pretty socked in!  We had
a yummy breakfast here in the hotel and it was good!  Not as good as
the Renaissance, but good. :)  After that, we walked down through town
and got onto the big tram that took us to the top of the mountain!
It's called the Mainnlichen mountain, and we took the Romantikken
trail for our hike.  It was absolutely GORGEOUS!  When we got to the
top, we thought we were going to be in major trouble, because it was
actually SNOWING on us!  It was really quite chilly!  We couldn't see
much in front of us either because we were sitting in a cloud!  But as
soon as we started the hike, and then throughout the entire hike
actually- it alternated between raining and sunny! It was crazy!  One
second we would be hot, then the next we would be freezing, and all
sorts of things!  The hike was about 3 hours or so, and by the end,
before we hopped onto the train to go up the mountain, it was raining
REALLY hard!  Poor little STockton was getting soaked, but he was
actually doing really well!  He slept most of the time, and when he
was awake he was just looking around happy!  So we took the train from
the middle of the mountain down to Grindewald- the coolest little town
ever!  Instead of going somewhere to lunch, we hit up the grocery
store and had bread and cheese and meats and fruit for lunch at the
park!  It was delicious.  As soon as lunch was over, it started to
rain a little bit more, so we packed up and walked the shops.  It was
great!  I found a little long sleeved sweatshirt/sweater thing that
has the Swiss flag on it, and Cole found him some more patches!  He
loves those patches. :)  Walking that little strip was fun!  Lots of
cool souvenir shops.  It was like a glorified Park City street!  SO
cool!  Glorified, except for that it was the real deal!  So that was
fun.  Then we hopped back onto the train, headed back up to the top of
the mountain to see a little more of the view from up there- Keinne
Scheidegg- back to the train that would have taken us to Interlakken-
but we got off at Wengen- home base!  Everyone wanted to shop the
streets a little bit, so we did that for a minute until the stores all
closed!  It's so weird, because it is light here until like 10:00
p.m.!  So when they start closing the stores and it is light outside,
it is a bit trippy!  We came back here to the house after because we
were all pretty cold and very wet from the hike still, so we changed
out of our clothes, hung out for a bit because we weren't all terribly
hungry- then went down to eat around 8p.m.  Poor Stockton is so out of
schedule, and just needs to sleep and lay down, so he was a bit
grumpsters, but dinner was delicious!  As soon as we got to the
restaurant, he started to scream, so I just looked at the menu and saw
the first thing, and it looked delicious, so I got it!  Later to find
out that I picked the MOST EXPENSIVE thing on the menu!  It was $38!
So, Cole just got a salad and we shared the plate.  It was really good
though!  We got a Steak and Roesti- which is shredded potatoes cooked
in LOTS of butter, and on top there was some bacon underneath a fried
egg!  It was so delicious!  Very fattening, but very delicious.  I
have gained quite a bit of weight on this trip- what can you do eh?!
I'll really hit it hard when we get home.  BUt that doesn't change the
fact that I am roly poly now!  Oh well.  Anyways...today was a very
wonderful day.  This is the most beautiful place that I have ever been
to in my life!  I can not BELIEVE the views and things that we are
seeing here!  The Jungfrau mountain wasn't visible to us as we were
hiking because of all of the clouds, but we knew it was there. :)
Just looming out over top of us!  Hooray for Switzerland!

On one of our train rides!  SO FUN!

From the balcony at the Hotel Belvedere

Right before getting onto the tram

See the tram wires going up into the abyss?

Back to the town of Wengen

Hangin in the snow at the top of the mountain!  Glad it cleared out pretty quickly!

These lift towers were all over the mountain- of course, because it is a working ski resort!- and they were so cool!

Taking a little rest during our almost 6 hour hike!

Having a little respite from the rain at the end of our hike.  It really started comin down!

View from our hotel balcony.  HOLY BANANAS!

The bells on the cows were SO cool!  Cole could NOT BELIEVE we were taking pictures with cows.  :) teeeheee

These little streams were also running around everywhere. 

Water troughs for the animals.  They also have some that is good drinking water for people ! We filled our bottles up at one stop and whoooweee!  So delicious!

Hotel Belvedere

One of the little Chalets there in the town. 

The Alps.  NBD

I LOVE this picture!  Stockton was very enthralled with Grandpa.  It was so cute.

My mom is scared of heights- so it was a big deal for her to be in the tram!  Such a champ.