Our Final "To-Do"

This morning was a positively beautiful day as I awoke to this stunning vista from my bedroom window.  I'm so thankful that your students were able to see another spectacular beginning of the day in tiny Murren.  First thing this morning we took our 18 bags to the Murren Station and shipped them ahead to Zurich Main Station so that at the end of our train journey today they would be waiting for us.

Another wonderful breakfast with Denise at the Chalet Fontana is met with both excitement and a bit of sadness for me.  I'll miss this place immensely, and I hope your sons and daughters remember it fondly for many years to come.

As is our custom we gather our remaining belongings and head out to the front of the chalet for our farewell picture with Denise who is so absolutely nice and accommodating to your children.  She is purposely taking fewer and fewer bookings to slow her business down a bit - but that's not true for your children.  She's already welcoming next year's group with open arms even though it means some extra work for her.  I'm eternally thankful for her, for Edy at the knife shop next door, for Lydia across the street at the Stager Stubli - they've all contributed to the experience your students have had in this beautiful creation of God.

But as every year we must move on to the next step and today we had a peaceful train ride all the way to Rhine Falls just about 50 minutes from Zurich.

Jackson's new ambition - move to Murren and be a train conductor!

Off we go to Rhine Falls.  The largest waterfall in Europe (not by elevation) but by the amount of water flowing per minute down to create this thunderous waterfall.  Of course when in Switzerland every mountain top needs a train station and a restaurant and every thundering waterfall must have a staircase to climb to the top and a Swiss Flag flying!  So off we go straight to the base of the churning water right in the middle of the falls.  There's no other way to climb the staircase to the flag and we must climb because we haven't done NEARLY enough climbing, you know ;-)

Of course the students are starving so we stop at the official Schloss Laufen Rhine Falls cafeteria of sorts to fill up on chicken fingers, bratwurst, pommes frites, salads, drinks and desserts.  Thanks to careful planning and preparation we've included ALL of today's meals in the trip budget (yeahhhh for parents!)

Popcorn freshly popped from the vending machine...good idea - BAD popcorn :-(  But at least the birds got to enjoy it :-)

After our time at Rhine Falls we jump on the train again to Zurich Main Station to pick up that luggage that we shipped ahead this morning.  Drew informs me that he doesn't think the luggage is gonna make it because he's looked on every single train we've been on today and our luggage was NO where to be seen.  But nevertheless our luggage DOES make it and is waiting for us at the precise time it's supposed to be there.  After all we're not in Italy anymore :-) This is Switzerland where you can depend on the train being on time, your luggage being delivered precisely on schedule and even when you leave a 900 Swiss Franc watch on the gondola the train workers know it before YOU know it, and it's already being delivered to us before we even make an inquiry.  Yep - that's Switzerland for you!

We arrive safe and sound WITH luggage to our sweet little Hotel St Josef on a cloudy and damp evening in downtown Zurich - the world's most expensive city.  When we check into hotels we all know precisely what to do by this point in the trip.  We all stand outside and wait for Mrs. Mynatt and Mr. Margene to go inside, check us in and retrieve our keys.  After all - we can seem like and overwhelming group if we enter these sweet little Mom & Pop hotels ALL at once :-)

This is the last night of our big adventure where we usually visit the Zeughauskellar Restaurant for the Steak on a Sword dish and other delectable delights.  However the Zeughauskellar is currently under renovation and is closed during our time in Zurich so the students have opted for a newly opened restaurant Holy Cow! which specializes in all kinds of burgers (beef, chicken, vegetable) and french fries.  Seems the troop is a little tired of Bavarian Food so Holy Cow! is our destination tonight.  Like I said, careful planning and preparation have allowed us to cover ALL meals for your students today.  18 cheeseburgers french fries and drink comes to a mere 400 Swiss Francs - not a bad price for super expensive Zurich!

It's raining tonight and we're safely in our rooms after devotions playing games and preparing for our last night "together".  I truly hope this trip has been (and will continue to be) a lasting book mark in your students' lives.  The experiences, the fun, the laughter, the times of a little "too much together time" all works together to shape us into who we are.  Your students have had a tremendous time and we've all laughed and played and worked well together for 2+ weeks. What an accomplishment.

Tomorrow we'll have breakfast at the hotel (at least we hope they will) and head to the airport (First Class no less) on our super efficient Swiss Train.  I can't believe it's almost over; it's gone so quickly I hardly even remember Munich :-)  But I'll always remember these great times we've had together

Good night from Zurich.   See you tomorrow in Knoxville!

Best Regards,
Jere, Angie, Tim & Haley

A Day at the Jungfraujoch

Complete with SUNNY Blue skies.  No one was affected by altitude sickness, but we could have all used a good slathering of sunscreen!

And who could have known by the weather this morning that the sun would be so absolutely shining brightly on top of the Jungfraujoch.  It's pronounced YOONG-frau-yok.  And Americans being lazy with their words sometimes refer to it as just the Jungfrau.  These are your students walking to the train station this morning in Murren to begin their journey:

But fog or no fog we've traveled across the Atlantic to a completely different continent and we've just got to experience the Jungfrau, and we head into the mist with confidence that God will clear the skies so that we can see this most stunning creation...and that's exactly what happened!

As our little train took us higher and higher the clouds just split and the dramatic vistas opened up before us! Yeahhhhhhhh :-)

We made it to the Top of Europe and immediately ate lunch, visited the Ice Palace, and then had a fantastic group photo on the top.

Aren't they a handsome bunch all bundled up in their winter clothes in the middle of June???  I think so.  Needless to say from this point we headed straight out to the Aletsch Glacier to begin our fun in the snowy sun.  We have over 300 pictures from today, and even if I "could" stay up all night long uploading them - well, suffice it to say we'll get ALL of these Europe pictures to you after the conclusion of our trip.  Mr. Margene also brought the Go-Pro and has some fantastic movie clips of our time on the glacier.

But as everything - our time in the snow came to an end, and we had to round up the troops and head for our reserved train back down the mountain.

An important concept your students have learned throughout the trip and ESPECIALLY today is that a reserved seat doesn't mean you'll be escorted and have a reserved seat at the appropriate spot.  It means you have a seat, but you're gonna have to bump and push a bit to get it.  This area attracts MANY nationalities and many of those are from countries with gigantic populations and whose residents must be aggressive to get what they need.  We've learned that people bumping and pushing and fighting their way through the crowds doesn't mean they dislike us or that they're trying to be mean.  It's just their culture and this is what they know.  Now WE know it, too!

The train ride home is a great time to relieve some of that exhaustion that's been accumulating today and here we are in all of our sleepiness and leftover excitement :-)

Back in Murren at the end of a long day we clean up and head out for dinner.  Miraculously we run into the Wilson family, a former CAK family, who has our itinerary and traveled from their vacation destination of Grindelwald all the way to our tiny hamlet of Murren hoping to run into us.  And that's exactly what happened as they joined us for dinner at the Stager Stubli.  It was a great time of fellowship as we all shared our experiences of the day.

After dinner we walked them through the tiny town of Murren and to the Schilthornbahn to show them the way home as the day wound to a close and devotion time approached.  Tonight we talked about our favorite things we've seen or done during the trip.  And Mr. Margene loaded up the Go-Pro videos in the family room and had a GREAT time of reminiscing about the day.  It was just a great time of fellowship.  I have 3 great pictures of Mr. Margene with the students in the family room watching the videos from the sledding day.  The only problem is I can't quite figure out how to get them from my phone to this blog.  I'll work on that.

Mr. Margene just interacts with the students in a way that draws them in.  He's our "Fun Maker" and makes activities like sledding and hiking even better.  I don't know how he does it so well, but the kids ALL have a great time with him.  Mrs. Mynatt is our "Mom away from home".  She makes everyone feel good and she treats them like her own kids...tucking them in, making sure they're feeling well, reminding them to do whatever needs reminding. Miss Haley helps Mr. Margene in the fun department as well as making sure the Chalet Apartment is kept clean and running smoothly.

 My own personal job is seeing to the day to day functions such as reservations, tickets, paying those enormous hotel bills, and these daily blog entries.  We all have our jobs and functions, and we seem to function together well as a team.

Here they are, Moms and Dads, wishing you well from Murren and the Chalet Fontana at the end of a very busy day in the snow :-)

Tomorrow we're rolling our bags down to the Murren Train Station and shipping them ahead to Zurich Main Station where we'll pick them up after our travels tomorrow to Rhine Falls.  We'll be traveling quite a bit and to do so WITHOUT luggage is a blessing.

Goodnight from Murren. See you tomorrow in Zurich.