einhorn and finkle, finkle and einhorn

after studying spanish for four years in high school, i am pretty comfortable traveling to western europe. i can barely get by in spain, i can read the menu in italy, and if you say bonjour to a french person he or she will be 30 percent more polite. but, polish! that was a laugh! try saying this in polish: wroclaw. (vrohtz-wahv). riiiiiiight. dutch. nope. and then german, no way.

in switzerland the national languages are german, french, and italian. i thought i had a good chance of things going my way. not where we went. it was all crazy german words that i'd never heard of. the voice on the train would announce the next stop: "nachste stade zurich." one of the stops was "Blllaaaargh," at least that is how they pronounced "Baar." luckily phil, cissy's BF, took german in high school, so we had some balance on our team.
we abfahrted england on monday afternoon and flew to zurich. the next morning, we took the ever-so-efficient swiss railway to the charming town of luzern (or lucerne if you speak french, which they didn't). it was freezing and cloudy, but with buckets of melted cheese and swiss beer and wine, we were prepared for a disappointing trip, weather-wise, but good company to balance it out.

we toured the charming city center, ate fondue aboard a boat, slept in a jail, and learned that einhorn literally means one horn. one of the best things about cissy is she's a dictionary of random song lyrics and movie quotes, so when i busted out with the einhorn and finkle, she was totally on top of it. it was aaaawwweesome. (sorry 'bout your car). it's like having someone who can speak my language, only more fluently. (what the deuce?). hahaha! ok, back to the weather...
the druid gods of stonehenge and the swiss gods of chocolate must have had a conference and decided that we were A-Ok. on wednesday morning we got our first glimpse of a swiss alp. a real alpine peak. we furiously (side by side) took photos through the windows of our train from luzern to interlaken as the clouds passed around the peak of what we think was Pilatus. and it just kept getting better.

valleys, lakes, alps, chalets. it was the land of christmas cards and gingerbread villages. we showed up in the famous alpine resort of interlaken and after lunch, took a train, a gondola, and another train to our town of murren high up on the cliffs of an alp where we slept in a mountain view room at 5,000 ft. it was the off season, so there was, literally, one hotel (ours), one restaurant (yummy), and one taverna (convenient) open for business. we were four of about 10 tourists in town. a winter wonderland all to ourselves.

on thanksgiving day we ate a great continental breakfast and took the TRAIN to the "Top of Europe" station at Jungfraujoch. a train station at 11,333 ft. above sea level. and there was barely a cloud in the sky. that's what i call tappin' the rockies.

as i looked over the alps toward germany, the sun glittering off the snow, with the -10 degree wind blowing in my face, i thought, "damn. i am freezing. if it weren't so cold up here, i could reflect sentimentally about all the reasons i am thankful this thanksgiving day as i look upon this glacier."

but i didn't. i ran inside when my camera threatened to freeze. ate a hearty sack lunch. took more photos. drank more Lager Hell (light beer). and headed back down the mountain. it was amazing. really amazing. we then toured the Lauterbrunnen Christmas market where they were giving away free mulled wine -- now there's a true reason to be thankful -- and spent another night in murren.
more touring the next day to see some cows in a traditional swiss town, and back to zurich for cheese shovels, beers, and some sweet accordion music. it was a fantastic thanksgiving week and i'm so glad that cissy and phil could join dan and i on our turkey day trip.

ciao, bonsoir, and auf wiedershen.