July 2016
From Paris, we headed to Switzerland. I’m embarrassed to admit that most of the group (myself included) hadn’t done much research on this amazing country–but the upside of that was being completely and utterly blown away by what we saw in our short time there.
#Sorrynotsorry for all the pictures in this post. Flipping through my photos again reminded me of the stunning landscape of Lauterbrunnen: a quaint town cradled between mountains and surrounded by the greenest grass, with hikes that led us to beautiful waterfalls, and a helicopter ride that showcased the mountains’ snowy peaks.
Perhaps the pictures can speak for themselves better than I can describe my experiences. But I’ll try to narrate the best I can. 🙂
First impressions matter. The night we arrived, this eerily gorgeous post-storm view, spotted while on a walk through town (for necessary supplies like wine and cider) did not disappoint.
After a night of socializing in the bar at our hostel/campsite (each little one-room house had 2 bunk beds, a type of accommodation we’d find often throughout our TopDeck trip around Europe), the next morning, some brave souls (*not me*) went skydiving out of a helicopter. I took the opportunity to arrange a ride-along for my first helicopter ride!
I’m terrified of heights–and I try not to let it interfere with awesome opportunities–but I was deathly scared of falling out of the helicopter each time a skydiver jumped out. (I’m surprised this next photo turned out, with my shaky hands.)
Calming down from the high of being up in the clouds (literally), I regrouped in our room and headed out for a massive hike with my Australian friend, Fi. By the end, we’d logged about 17 km! Every sore muscle was worth it, considering what we got to see.
I could have taken photos every minute of our walk. And we hadn’t even started climbing at this point. Before taking a gondola ride to our starting point, we climbed up next to a waterfall and actually passed behind it on the trail! Fearing another water-damage incident with my phone, I kept it stored away, so you’ll have to trust me on how cool this was.
On the gondola ride, our eyes were delighted to see even more beauty.
You can take the girl out of Wisconsin, but you can’t take the Wisconsin out of the girl. Dairy state reminders can be found all over the world. (But for anyone wondering: no, I didn’t grow up on a farm. :))
Fi and I trekked on and on, taking a bajillion photos, filming Fi twirling around like in the Sound of Music, and pretty much feeling like we were strolling on the top of the world through sights that looked like movie backdrops.
The pictures clearly win when it comes to describing Lauterbrunnen. As a final plug, I will say, don’t skip over Switzerland if you plan a Europe trip! At the end of our group trip, over a dozen countries later, the consensus on everyone’s favorite country was, by far… Switzerland. (Spoiler alert: I was able to visit again briefly in November, this time on a layover in Zurich, which I’ll cover in a future post.)
Follow my blog to read next week’s Weekly TBT Post on Nice, France!
You can also follow me on Twitter: @lizlizliiiiz and on Instagram: @lizlizliiiiz
Thanks for treating us to such beautiful pictures of a beautiful country. We have only ever been to Zurich with a day trip into the Alps, but even that was wonderful. I have always wanted to return and see more of Switzerland, which your post confirms is a MUST. 🙂
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Thanks, Kristyn! I’m glad you’ve been able to see Switzerland, too!
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Hey Liz, I nominated you for the Sunshine blogger award. 🙂 Here is the link: https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/44833129/posts/1410940997
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Thank you so much!! I’m gonna try to follow up with this before I head out of town for a couple weeks 🙂
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Ooh, where are you off to? 😊
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Traveling around the North Island 🙂
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Nice! Enjoy 🙂
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A friend of mine is going in September. I sent her a link to this post. Your enthusiasm is so infectious. I saw the first photo of the mountains and church and my heart fluttered. Lyz, I hope you don’t mind if I make a little layout suggestion… Your blog page shows the full text, so once a person reads and scrolls down there is no place to like the post. One has to go back and click the title and scroll throught the text again to get to the like and comment buttons. Maybe change setting to only show partial post on the blog page? You may get more likes that way as people who are new to your site will find it easier to do so. Anyhow, another beautiful post. I’m loving seeing you experience the world so fully.
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Thanks for the suggestion, Lyz, and for the nice comments! I hope your friend has a great trip! I have so much to learn about layout; I didn’t realize that issue. I will look into that now; thanks again!!
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Of course! We’ve gotta support each other.
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All right, I’m clearly sucking at wordpress today bc I couldn’t figure out how to DM you either. 😂 Do you by chance remember how to change that setting? I clicked around but couldn’t find it (I’m on an iPad). Thanks!!
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I’ve got the answer! You go to theme (customize), Content Options, Blog Display, Post Excerpt. I think that’ll do it. I’m on a laptop but hopefully that helps.
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Grrr, not working on my end. Gotta try to get on a real computer! Thanks so much for the help!
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I’m over in Thailand right now and for the first time using my tablet. I am hating it. Haven’t posted anything because of it! Good luck to you.
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Good luck to you too! Boo. 😦 But enjoy Thailand!!
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I spelled your name with a Y by accident because that’s how I spell mine! So sorry Liz 🙂
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No worries 🙂
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Wow! Lauterbrunnen is on our bucket list, and your beautiful photos make us want to book a ticket today!
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It’s amazing there! I hope you get to visit 🙂
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