"Together forever...we will make donuts"

Last night we were all going about our business doing various things. Ammon was in a meeting and he texted us to look outside. The sun was peaking out from behind thick clouds and lighting up the mountain in a rather magical way. 

We had to rise at the early hour of 6:00 am this morning. Considering how late we have been going to bed, 6:00 am was miserably early. The kids were surprisingly good sports about it though. We grabbed lots of extra layers and then drove up to Grindelwald where we boarded a Gondola that took us high up in the mountains to a train station. We then boarded a train that took us up to the "Top of Europe." The highest peak is called Jungfrau. We visited Jungfraujoch where they have set up observatories and other fun things to experience just under the shadow of Jungfrau and on top of a giant glacier.

We had risen super early because we had read that the views are best early. We had also read that you absolutely needed a reservation as it gets really crowded. We were surprised to walk right on to the first gondola that came our way and to have it all to ourselves.

The views going up the mountain were amazing. We have had so much rain here that I wasn't sure if we would be able to see anything. Luckily, the clouds had let up for a little bit and we could see quite well.

They really have it all laid out how they want you to progress to all the sights. We first went through a large 360 degree video experience that was rather disorienting before being sardined onto elevators to go up to the observation platform.

We met a lot of these friendly little birds up there. Azure even saw one land on some lady's head. I watched one eating out of some guys hand. They were not scared of people at all. Lucette topped us all by actually touching one of the birds.

The large expanse of snow down the middle of these pictures is the glacier. It is quite huge.

Next we went through a museum that taught us about the first explorers who hiked up to Jungfrau and the building of the railway. The peak was first summited in 1811. They built the railway over 100 years ago using pick axes, dynamite, and a lot of labor.

Next we walked through the ice castle which is built right into the glacier.

We found Scrat!

Cormac had sat down in a little cove for a picture but then slipped and ended up on his backside. The girls decided to join him on the ground to take a "dramatic" picture. The girls had been running and sliding on their knees through most of the tunnels anyway, so why not lie down as well?

At the end of the tunnel we headed out to the actual snow to look down on the glacier. It was incredibly bright outside. The views were really fantastic. We hit the window just right.

We had anticipated it being extremely cold. It was honestly much colder in the buildings than it was outside. In fact, we were all roasting a little as we hung out outside. The thing the kids had been most looking forward to was the Snow Park where you could tube down the mountain. It had been closed when we got there, but by the time we got to this point it had opened up so we headed outside again to play in the snow. Everyone (except me) opted to do the zipline. I opted to watch our stuff, take pictures, and drink the most amazing hot cocoa of my life. The girls were the first people of the day to head down the zipline.

We had never seen a zipline end the way this one did, you just bottomed out onto the snow to stop. They didn't even have someone down there to unhook you, you were on your own. They all had fun but said the landing was a little abrupt.

We then hiked down the hill a little ways to tube and sled. They only let you do 30 minutes, so we had to try to hurry to get in as many runs as possible.

We were told that the snow park was open "for now" when we went out to play. These kids must be good luck because it was bright and beautiful and even warm while we were tubing. After our time was up we grabbed some lunch and watched as the clouds really start to roll in. There was no view anymore. We took one last lap through the ice palace and then boarded the train that took us to the gondolas that returned us to the station at Grindelwald. As the train came out of the long tunnel to pull into the first station we saw that either it had started pouring rain while we were in the tunnel, or we had been above the storm and were now low enough to be in the storm.

At the station the girls got to hang out with Lilly a bit. This cow, named Lilly, is everywhere here. They have her introducing all kinds of tourist attractions. Since our train pass includes all the gondolas in the area we decided to board another one and see where it took us (I mean, we knew where it would take us, but yeah). It was dumping rain and the visibility was poor, but because of that we had the gondola to ourselves and had a good time laughing together. It was also cold for the first time and we had dropped our extra layers off at the car...oops.

We road up to Mannlichenbahn and were greeted with sheets of rain and the largest cow playground we had ever seen. Azure decided to not worry about how soaked she would be and to ride the slide down. She shot out of it so fast that she bumped along the ground for 10 feet before coming to a stop. It was hilarious.

We sought refuge in a nearby cafe to get some hot cocoa and to watch the rain slowly turn into snow and then back into rain again. We got a few glimpses of the mountains beyond. Then we went back out so Azure could do the slide again and Cormac could join her. Ammon performed a neighborly service by sharing his umbrella with a couple locals.

The ride back down was freezing, but entertaining as the kids were in high spirits. As we were coming down we were saying something about quality family time together and Lu said, "Together forever...we will make donuts." We all laughed and then the kids said it was to be the blog title. I protested, but they were definitely determined. They come up with the most random things to first off say and then decide those things should be blog titles. Strange kids. The drive back to Interlaken was quite stunning.

We stopped off at Lake Brienze to see the view, but it was too cold to hang out long and everyone was starting to get hungry.

We went all the way into town and ate at McDonalds. Many of the restaurants serve the same things over and over and we are all a bit tired of it. So we opted for McDonalds which tasted exactly like McDs at home, so that was sad. We shopped around a bit and then returned home exhausted. It was an incredibly packed day. Luckily, no one else seems to have gotten my cold. 

I love that every time we do something new the kids decide that it is the best day so far. Then in hindsight they usually say other days were also awesome, but this one may just take the cake. They loved getting to sled in late June and any day a zipline is involved is a good day. The gondola rides were extremely long and very fun with incredible scenery. And in the end, as we were wrapping up our time on top of the mountain it was getting extremely crowded. So the early morning turned out to be worth it as we had the amazing views and thinner crowds. Switzerland just continues to impress us everywhere we turn.