Lake Lucerne and the Swiss Alps

 

I know this blog entry is WAY late, but now that my pictures are all organized, I have to share the amazing views and tributes to old ways of living in the Swiss Alps.

 

The views were stunning, the hikes adventurous, and to get anywhere, you needed to take either a gondola or cog wheel train up the super-steep mountainsides.  Mom loved that!

 

From our hotel, we had a view of the waterfall in the valley, which was lit up at night for a breathtaking scene.  Sometimes, at just the right angle, you could look through the valley and swear you were in Yosemite.

 

We had amazing fondue.  How can you go wrong really, when dinner is a big pot of rich, melted cheese served with a bowl of bread?  We also learned that chocolate fondue was not a Swiss thing....it appeared to be a sweet American variation of the otherwise delicious savory original.

 

On the way back from dinner one night, we saw this awesome orb made out of river rocks that had been constructed to glow from the inside out.  We all had to peek in and see where the lights were coming from...easily amused.

 

 

 

The following morning, in Lauterbrunnen, we participated in a marathon up to Jungfrau mountain...by clapping for all the crazy runners as they passed by.

 

 

 

 

We visited an enormous open air museum where they brought in and maintained buildings from the area's historic roots.  If a building was more than 200 years old, it had the option to come here for display.  The real impressive structures told tales of an age where life, priorities, and sensibilities were very different.

 

Imagine this being your house, barn, and place of work...all were rolled into one-

 

 

This might have been your kitchen.

 



 

 

 

Here was your pantry, with food stored for the winter

This was your dining room table.

 

Your bedroom.

 

 

 

Maybe you made lace in your spare time.



 

Or straw hats...

 This was your garden.

 

 You might have lives in a house like this with three other families.

 

This is how you did laundry.

 

 This would have been the workshop.  A real man's lair...

 

These would have been my baking tools.  Most likely they didn't have cheesecakes the way you're all used to. :)

If you were rich, you might have lived in a house like this. 

 

But chances are you didn't bathe very often, and there was no indoor plumbing.  Light was by candle and warmth was by fire.  You ate what you shot, caught or grew.  The family lived, died, and thrived together all under the same roof.  A day's work was back-breaking, and everyone had a trade.  You were a thatch-maker, a lumber-man, a baker, a barrel-maker, a doctor, a blacksmith, a farmer.  Communication was by letter or around the dinner table, and dinner tables were not plagued by cellphones.  Can you close your eyes and imagine...?