...and my testimony of that loves grows with each new beautiful place I see! And we have seen so many incredible sights in the past week!
I was lucky enough to have Mom, Grandma, Aunt Julie, and Amy come and stay with me for a week so I would have someone to do some sight-seeing with. Everything we did was absolutely delightful and I feel SO BLESSED to have done all the driving I did SAFELY in so many unfamiliar places. We were certainly being watched over.
Mom typed up notes for everything we did during their stay here, so I'm going to post them here, along with the pictures.
July 18th (Wed) – We went grocery shopping to buy some supplies for the week. I forgot that we are supposed to take our own bags for the groceries, so we had to carry everything out. We laughed about that.
Geneva, Switzerland
We went into Geneva and took a train tour of "Old Town" Geneva which lasted about 45 minutes. A very cute lady was our driver, and we were the only ones on the train. It was a nice tour of some very old buildings and such.
Then we walked and walked and tried to find a cheap place for dinner. We settled on a pizzeria, and we all took our seats outside and decided that one pizza would do for the four of us because Amy wasn’t hungry or feeling very well. Our waiter came to take our order, and insisted we could NOT order just one pizza. We kept insisting that’s all we wanted, but he was adamant that we couldn’t, so we got up and left. We found a bagel/icecream shop around the corner and settled for that (which we enjoyed).
Then we walked to the park for the “free concert” that they have every Wednesday night. It happened to be a Jazz band which was ok, but kind of boring. We were all very tired, so after enduring an hour, we left and walked back to the underground parking and called it a day.
Annecy, France
July 19th (Thurs) – We picked up Julie at the airport about 9:30 and continued driving to Annecy. Annecy is about an hour drive from the airport. It is a beautiful little place which reminded us of Venice. There was water with bridges and roads and shops everywhere.
There were many churches for viewing, and we thought the whole place was charming. Of course we found some delicious gelato (we did yesterday as well), and we took a zillion pictures. We had a delightful dinner (pizza and salad) at a café by the water.
After touring “Old Town”, our feet were very tired and we sat by the Lake and rested and cooled off. The lake scenery was beautiful as well. Then we walked back to the car and called it another day.
Chamonix, France
July 20th (Fri) - We left around 9:30 for Chamonix. We stopped on the way at McDonalds for a potty break and next door was a grocery store, so we bought more snacks and such and then we continued following the GPS which took us on all the back roads due to construction.
We enjoyed the scenery all the way there and went through about a zillion roundabouts. Chamonix is a mountainous, ritzy tourist town. The mountains surrounded it, some of which were snow-capped, and it was very majestic and awe-inspiring. We ate a lunch that we packed on the lawn by the visitor center. It was great.
Then we bought our train/ice-cave tickets for $33 a piece. The train took us up the mountain and to the path/stairs which led to the ice cave. There was a cable car which took us partway down to the cave, and then we hiked stairs the rest of the way.
Grandma was very shaky-legged about the journey to the ice-cave as it was quite a test of nerves for someone who is afraid of heights. We were proud of her for making it! The ice cave was really ‘cool’. There were sculptures inside and music and mannequins and ice tunnels to walk through. The lighting changed hues. It was pretty neat. Then we hiked back up the stairs and returned by cable car to the train stop. We explored around about a bit. Bought a few trinkets, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery!
Lots more pictures were taken. Then we returned by train to Chamonix, and bought panninis and crepes for our dinner. It was delicious. It rained on us as we were leaving, but we made it to the car and called it another day.
Yvoire (France)
July 21st – (Sat.) – We started our day by heading to the market which sets up on Saturdays. We loved the prices and merchandise there. Jenny bought some shoes and a scarf. Amy also found some cute things. We didn’t have much time there because we had to get Amy to the airport. But we decided the best shopping in Switzerland or France would be at markets such as that one. So then we took Amy to the airport because the flights were looking better that day than on Sunday, and she needed to get home by the weekend for work. She barely made the flight which again we were very thankful that she did since we didn’t have cell phone communication.
Then we went to Geneva and bought (after much deliberation and five trips to the ticket window) a boat pass to Yvoire (Eevwah). It was about a two-hour boat ride there. It was a super-charming village full of flowers and touristy shops. It was medieval-looking, with a super- cool castle and great photo ops. We decided that “charming” is a good word for just about everything we have seen.
Mom and Jenny toured the “garden” that was in the middle of the town. Julie and I sat on the waterfront and enjoyed the swans and views.
It was late when we got back to Geneva, so we got a look at the city with the lights and night life. Fun.
July 22nd (Sunday)
We went to Geneva to an English-speaking church at 9:00. It felt just like we were visiting a church in Utah. There were a lot of missionaries (old and young) there helping the meetings move along. They spoke in church and led music and conducted meetings. All the meetings were good. It’s been a great, relaxing day. After church we rustled up some dinner of pasta and sauce and a smoothie. Then we napped and walked to the pond to enjoy the ambiance there.
Chillon and Gruyeres Castles/Cheese and Chocolate Factories (Switzerland)
July 23rd - Monday morning we left home about 8:00 and headed for the Chillon castle which is at the far end of Geneva Lake in Montreux. It cost $12 a ticket and took us about two hours to tour it. It was fairly undecorated and unfurnished and gave a feel of lots of concrete, but we liked the fact that we could explore all the nooks and crannies. There was a beautiful view out overlooking the lake.
Then we headed to the Cailler chocolate factory. We loved the tour - it was very entertaining. It smelled good too. We learned everything from the history of chocolate to the making and production of it - not to mention the health benefits! Then at the end of it we got to taste all the chocolate varieties we wanted. We were nearly sick from trying it all.
Then we headed to Gruyere to the cheese factory which wasn't nearly as entertaining, but we
Learned all about how they made their great-quality cheeses. It was neat to see how they stored them and turned them while they cured. We missed the live demo, but got our own personal tour from Cherry the cow via our own handset. They also had lots of things to lift up and smell to show what cows ate and would therefore flavor the cheese.
After the tour we found the walking path up through the charming part of town and to the castle. We toured the castle for about an hour. It was much more decorated and furnished and seemed more modern artsy. But once again there was some great views. Magical countryside.
After our touring we headed to zollikofen to try to find the temple and possibly stay in the temple housing. We had hoped to get ahold of them by phone earlier in the day, but hadn't had any luck. When we got to Zollikofen we wished we had the temple address, but we didn't, and nobody was answering our texts. So we just hoped and prayed we would run into it or find some missionaries. Then lo and behold, to our amazement, two missionaries appeared walking towards us on the street, and they told us how to get to the temple. We considered it a tender mercy of the Lord. The missionaries didn't know about the housing, so we made our way to the temple to see what we could see. Then another tender mercy appeared in the form of a couple who were getting out of their car by the temple. They were temple workers and told us how to get to the temple housing. We were able to stay there for only $40 ($10 a piece) - best deal of the trip!! The only downer was that mom lost her credit card right after we checked in there, and we never did find it.
July 24th (tues) - We got up early enough to attend the 8:00 session. What a joy to be In the temple with fellow saints and such sweet sister temple workers! We got to wear headsets to hear the session in English, and it was a very nice session. I loved the Celestial room. Very simple but simply elegant.
Interlaken (Switzerland)
After the temple we headed straight to Interlaken. We found the Office of Tourism which every touristy town has, and they suggested our activities of the day. First we went to our lunch spot which was by the lake and also a gorgeous waterfall - five or six tiers. We hiked around there a bit, and grabbed a bit to eat. There was a beautiful hotel there which we went in to use their wifi and restrooms.
After hiking back to our car via the waterfall, we went to Lauterbrunnen and took a cable car up up up the mountain and then took a train across the top. It was beautiful countryside. Then after another walk where it rained on us pretty good, we got to take the cable car back down the mountain, and then we walked the four miles back to town where our car was. It was a beautiful walk along the river, through green pastures, and waterfalls on our left. We loved the quaint Swiss houses and barns.
And THIS is the cute little car that took us to all of these amazing places!
We also stopped at A LOT of places that looked like THIS inside...with information for tourists like ourselves.
