Swiss Cheese Alps

We arrived in Interlaken late evening and the hostel was only a short walk from the train station. The hostel was located right above a bar so after about 15 minutes of wandering around and walking through the bar multiple times we find out that the reception desk was actually the bar. Who would have thought! It would have been nice if one of the bartenders could of slipped us a note or something as two tired bewildered kids with lots of luggage are trudging through the bar looking for their place to stay that the reception was indeed the bar. Or a sign maybe, just a suggestion.

The Alps was my favorite part of the entire trip. The views from our snowboard runs when I wasn't looking at the snow or attempting to maneuver my way away from potentially deadly cliffs were breathtaking. Anna did a great job photographing on one our runs down the mountain. She had lots of time as she usually had to wait for me because it takes a long time to get down the mountain when you stop and start 100 times. On estimate I believe that first day I fell close to or above 100 times, got to love learning. Anna was a good teacher though, she got me down the mountain a couple times.

It took us about 45 minutes by train to get up into the mountains. Interlaken is located right at the bottom and is surrounded by peaks. We rented boards and boots for two days and spent all day on the mountain. My body hated me after the first day of boarding. The runs were unbelievably long and gorgeous. One run took us over an hour even when I didn't fall a lot (not a lot is under 15 times). But that first day I fell a lot. My body hurt but I didn't break anything, at least that I know of. There may be a lot of internal bleeding though J !!

The second day was much different. We decided to ski a different area which required us to walk a kilometer or so and wait in line to ride the lift up but it was definitely worth it. I was much better on the snowboard the second day. I think I was starting to get it figured out. We even made it down an intermediate run without much trouble. I did take a couple falls on my butt which are still in the process of healing today. We didn't snowboard as long the second day as our bodies still felt the effects of the first day.

I wish I could have had one more day on the mountain. It really was beautiful. It was nice to fall (well not nice but) and then sit in the powder and look at the tops of the clouds and the peaks in the distance. Words cannot do justice so here are some pictures.