Switzerland: our final days

After packing Thursday morning, we once again headed to the train station, this time heading for Bern.

Only, once we got on our train, Jen noticed that she had left her backpack on the platform, and just as I was about to jump off and get it, the train started moving. We watched the platform rush away, and we were slightly panicked.

Enter two kindly gentlemen. They were sitting near us on the train, and they offered to call the train station to have one of them run out and grab the pack and hold onto it until we could get back to Interlaken and pick it up. I knew full well that Jen's backpack would surely be there, because people leave their bikes unlocked and unattended in Lucerne; Switzerland is a safe country full of honest, helpful people! Alas, when the train station called our friends back, they told us the bag was nowhere to be found. Jen was bummed, because her iPad was in her pack, along with her (super old school, but tried-and-true) cell phone and a few other things.

We got off at the next stop we grabbed our luggage, got off the train, and ended up running up and down about 13 flights of stairs before we finally made our way back to the Interlaken platform to look for the bag ourselves.

It was nowhere to be found. We were all so bummed. And shocked. I honestly couldn't believe that Switzerland had let us down like that. Jen was super sad, so I started singing a Michael Jackson song to her to help her feel better. (Michael Jackson is her favorite musician, you see.) The first song that came into my head and out of my mouth was "Smooth Criminal." I felt like a real jerk, but Jen started laughing, and then we all kind of got lost in the laughter for a few minutes. (I was ever so grateful that Jen has a good sense of humor.)

Aaaaanyway, we eventually made our way to Bern, where we stowed our luggage for the day, and then we made our way to the temple where we did a session.

Me and Jen outside the Bern LDS temple

We had a little snack right outside the temple after our session.

All three of us. (That really is the Bern temple behind us!)

Leaving Bern just after 5:00pm on a weekday was ridiculous!

This sandwich was my dinner, and it's one of the tastiest things I ate the entire trip.

When we finally made it to Langwiesen, we saw this view, 

Jeanna and I went for a walk that evening with Yana and Sergio while Jen FaceTimed with her fiance, Mark. While walking, we planned what we'd do with our last full day in Switzerland; originally we thought we might check out Zurich, but after our stressful day getting to Bern, we were rather keen to do something a bit more low-key.

So, what did we do with our September 5th? We took a train (or two?) to the gorgeous village of Stein am Rhein. Yana told us of the lovely shops there, and of a "nice walk" to the fortress there. The weather was overcast and cool, but when we stepped off the train, and then once we figured out which way we ought to go, we were nearly struck dumb with the beauty of the place. (Let it be noted that our...ah...sense of direction, especially in a foreign country where we don't sprechen the language, left us confused on more than one occasion. But mostly it made us roll our eyes and laugh.)

Our trio on the bridge.

Yeaaaahhh, It was hard to be annoyed with the fog when it allowed us such beautiful pictures.

Hello, Swiss bird by the Rhein.

Our feet in Stein am Rhein. (I love cobblestone streets.)

I know this picture seems random, but all of the architecture at Stein am Rhein is incredible.

We walked around the town for a bit--into some shops and a church or two--and then we figured we'd make our way to the fortress: Burg Hohenklingen.

It seems to be a sickness with me; I always have to try on the hats. And then I always "regret" not buying them.

Back to Hohenklingen. Yana impressed upon us that it would be a pleasant little walk. She and Sergio said that there would be signs, and that it would be easy to find. She absolutely failed to mention that it was a hike. 

Now, I love hiking. It's a favorite pastime. If I could hike half of my life away, I'd be thrilled. The thing is, though...we hadn't been planning on a hike. We weren't exactly dressed for a hike, and we weren't exactly mentally prepared for a jaunt up the mountain. In the rain.

But there we were: in Stein am Rhein, ever so curious as to what kind of views we'd see from the top of the fortress; so we wandered around the town, heading up (I couldn't even pretend to tell you in which direction: west, maybe?) until we found a sign that said "Burg Hohenklingen." And then we kept heading up until we found another sign. Then we followed a long, curvy road and walked up and up some more...

Walking

A panoramic view from somewhere near the lower 1/3 of our hike. :)

We eventually left the road and followed a footpath that eventually led us to the fortress.

Selfie taken along the way, after we'd been hiking long enough to strip off our jackets.

This was very near the top, just before we turned a corner
and walked up some steps to the base of the fortress.

We did eventually make it, and the view was absolutely worth it, even if Yana did lie.

Somewhere inside the fortress...

Our feet inside the fortress.

From a window facing...I don't even know which direction.

Inside the fortress

After wandering around for about an hour and a half, we figured out that at least half of the fortress was closed for the day, so we hiked back to town.

Oh yeah! Jeanna and I had downloaded an app called word lens that was sometimes helpful
in roughly translating signs into English.

It started raining on our hike back down, but we didn't complain
because we were in Switzerland and it was was just too darned pretty. 

Also, we hiked through a vineyard. And I'm left thinking: half of Switzerland is a vineyard.

When we got back to town, we stopped at a churchyard cemetery, looked in some more shops, and bought our last bratwurst of the trip. We got back to the train depot a bit early, so we walked around some gardens until our train came.

This was taken on our hike back to town...

Pretty church. beautiful cemetery.

Oh my goodness, I love veal brat...

Our last glance at Stein am Rhein. (I'd have loved to kayak the Rhein!)

While in Switzerland, we learned that "fahrt" means "exit"
And I took this picture because I'm very mature.

There were lots of pretty flowers in the gardens. I don't know the names of any of them.

I took this picture because "Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers."
I didn't remember they were, in fact, pickled peppers until much later...

Once we got back to Langwiesen, we relaxed for a bit, and then we took Sergio and Yana to dinner to thank them for their kindness and hospitality. 

Jeanna, Jen, me, Yana, and Sergio. I was in excellent company.

We walked around Langwiesen one more time that evening, then got everything packed and read to roll. Saturday morning, Sergio drove us to the airport, and we flew home.

Long flights are always kind of yuck, and something about a return flight--once you've created a thousand wonderful memories and said goodbye to the holiday--once you're mentally ready to just be home...that return flight seems to take extra long.

We flew from Zurich to Toronto...which is where we had to clear customs. And really, customs shouldn't have been a hassle, except that our layover in Toronto less than two hours, our flight from Zurich was delayed by about an hour, and the airline worker in Zurich attached my carry-on to Jen's name, so...

When we landed in Toronto, things were hairy. It's a giant airport anyway, and we had to grab our luggage and run to a shuttle...then we had to go through security again. Then we were seated in a small area where we watched for our names to appear on a TV screen in front of us; Jeanna was in the clear after about five minutes. Jen's name appeared just a few minutes later. My name kept not showing, and time kept moving. I sat there for another 15 minute, panicking, when I finally walked up to some gal and told her my story; she went off to make inquiries, and when she came back to tell me I was in the clear (3-4 minutes later), my name appeared, and I ran!

Where I was once again stopped. At customs. The guy, bless his heart, was doing his job, but he was rather grumpy and didn't make the process any less stressful. Once I escaped from customs, I had to go through yet another security check. I took off my shoes, and what do you know? I WAS CHOSEN FOR A RANDOM PAT-DOWN. The guy asked me if I'd rather a pat-down or go through the superman vision x-ray thing, and I said, with panic in my voice, I'm sure, "Whatever is faster! My plane has already boarded!" I went through the x-ray deal without a hitch, I grabbed my carry-on, stuffed my feet in my shoes, and I all-out ran to my gate. (Jen and Jeanna were waiting for me just outside of security, praying I'd make it in time.) They ran faster than me, because my shoes weren't completely on, but they were able to tell the personnel that I was right behind them.

They shut the door a minute after I boarded.

Toronto was a mess.

We stripped down as much as is socially acceptable because of all the running.

Good riddance, Toronto!

We had a rather longer layover in Denver, which was nice, because Jen was able to go to lunch and spend some time with her fiance (who lives about an hour outside Denver, I think). Jeanna and I grabbed a bite to eat, then just sat and waited at our gate, and it felt like a luxury not having to run around like chickens with our heads cut off.

Our flight into SLC was on schedule, and...thus ended our beautiful, crazy, awesome Swiss adventure.

PS I saw Santa Claus at the Denver airport. He turned away just as I took this picture,
but I swear that the guy in the hat is St. Nick!