We crossed into Switzerland in the middle of a tunnel in the mountain somewhere. It's funny how quickly things changed once we left Italy--as soon as we came out of the tunnel we saw rolling hills and pastures with cows, sheep, and goats. There were log cabins and big piles of wood along the road, and everything was green and gorgeous. The roads were really winding and normally I'm not the greatest passenger on long, twisting-road car rides but Robbie made me take some motion sickness medicine before we left and I'm glad he did. I enjoyed the drive much more.
We got to Leysin just as the sun was setting. If we had driven straight through, it would have taken about 6 hours from our house. We checked into the hotel, and decided to just have dinner at the buffet in the hotel rather than drag Michael out around town. It was quick and easy, and we went back to our room to get to bed.
In the morning, this is the view we woke up to out our big picture window
We got dressed and headed into town to find breakfast. It was such a tiny, quiet little town. However, it was also the off-season so I'm sure it's packed and bustling once the snow falls and the ski slopes open. We found a little croissant and sandwich shop, got a couple of cappuccinos and pastries and had breakfast outside.
After breakfast Michael was ready to take a nap (and we had a bit of a rough, not-sleeping night before so he needed it) so I hiked back up the hills to our hotel with him to get some rest while Robbie walked around the town a bit more and took some pictures.
He met us back in the hotel room and we got ready to go ride the ski lift to the top of the mountain.
The views up there were amazing too. We walked around a little up top, and had lunch in the ski lodge thing up at the top. The food wasn't super great (most of the stuff on the menu was cold--meat and cheese plates, salad, and cold soup) but the views made up for it. And the deck with the tables rotated really slowly so you could see the views all around as you ate.
6,719 feet
We walked around a little more. Michael and I sat and watched the ski lift cars go in and out for a while. He played with rocks and practiced walking on hills. We watched a guy paraglide off the mountain, and big groups set out for hiking, rock climbing, and mountain biking. The weather was beautiful--we were expecting cold and snow, but it was probably at least 70 degrees down in town (a little cooler at the top of the mountain, obviously).
We headed back down the mountain so Michael could take another nap. Once he woke up we went to walk around the town a little more since I hadn't had the chance to yet. The guy who checked us in at the hotel recommended a cheese shop for dinner called Le Formagerie, so we went down there and had some fondue for dinner. It was really good.
We had a really great time on this little stop, even thought it was really only a day. The next morning we packed up, checked out, and had a quick breakfast at the same croissanterie, and hit the road for Germany. Robbie got some really beautiful pictures and was feeling at home back in the mountains again. A couple things we didn't know about Switzerland until we got there (mostly because we never really thought about it): they speak French. We know pretty much no French. Enough to say 'hello' and 'thank you' and that's about it. It's interesting how your brain works when you're learning a new language. Whenever someone asked us a question, we automatically answered in Italian. Even though we knew they weren't speaking to us in Italian, our minds went "foreign language--Italian." They also use the Swiss franc as their currency. They accepted the euro everywhere we went, but we got change in Swiss francs and now have a handful of those we can't use until the next time we go back to Switzerland!
I'm pretty sure there will be a next time. It was one of the most beautiful countries I've ever seen. Now, two weeks in Germany!
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