This morning started with those magnificent Swiss Alps being shrouded in a thick mist and grey skies. I thought to myself how thankful I was for yesterday's sunshine and fun in the snow. But as I got dressed and prepared for breakfast and the day's agenda the skies cleared and the sun shone brightly. Yeah - because THIS day was another outdoors day. It began slowly as we formed two groups for two very different activities. Fourteen of the students opted for a leisurely walk down to sleepy little Gimmelwald and taking in all of the sights and sounds and "tastes" along the way with Mr. & Mrs. Mynatt. The other 3 students strolled over to the Stager Sports Center and prepared themselves for a day of bravery on the giant granite cliffs of the Lauterbrunnen Valley on the via Ferrata in Murren. Let's start this story at the beginning...WAAAYYYYYY before we arrived at this point the students were introduced to the possibility of participating on a "special excursion" with Mr. Margene to scale the walls and traverse the gorges of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Following their own interests Emme, Caroline and Joseph chose to take part in this rather heroic activity.
The others chose to follow the Mynatts on a different excursion down the path to sleepy little Gimmelwald. Each path contained its own excitement and fun. The Gimmelwald path began like this:
There are many friends we make along the way as we journey down to Gimmelwald including a cat, a horse, several HUMONGOUS snails and a few sheep which we think were German speaking sheep because they didn't come when Mrs. Mynatt tried to call them over ;-)
Gimmelwald holds the one room school for both the villages of Murren and Gimmelwald where all the students learn simultaneously. I'm sure any teachers reading this cringe at the thought of preparing lessons plans for 10 grades all at once every day! These alpine villages all have one thing in common and that's the production of cheese and butter from their cows who graze in the high alpine pastures during the summer so the farmers can harvest the thick green grass and wildflowers for food during the long hard winters. Each villager contributes a share of the milk from their cows. The milk is used to make some of the best Alp Cheese and Alp Butter any where around. After the cheese is aged and ready each villager is given a portion of the cheese based on the amount of milk they contributed. It's a wonderful "teamwork" kind of concept and today we totally benefit from that teamwork as Mrs. Mynatt hands out the cheese slices!
As we wander through the village and the family farms and chalets we encounter a homemade simple sign affixed to the outside of one of them. It reads "AlpKase" - Alp Cheese! Please Ring the bell. So a few of my cohorts and I bravely approach the door and ring the little bell wondering to ourselves who might appear...maybe actually hoping that NOBODY would appear ;-)
As the door opens we are greeted by a very nice lady who says hello in several different languages (refer to that 1-room schoolhouse education) and takes our order for 20 slices of cheese please. She smiles and disappears for a few minutes and returns with a package containing 20 precisely cut sticks of THE absolute best cheese I've ever tasted. I had exactly 1/2 of a piece. Angie had the other 1/2, and the rest of the 19 pieces were instantly inhaled by our 14 students! They all loved it!
We ate cheese as we played at the Gimmelwald playground and waited for the via Ferrata people to appear as their trail ended where OUR Gimmelwald trail ended. A few txts and phone calls later we discover they're going to be just a little later than expected so we journey on down to the valley floor in Stechelberg via the Schilthornbahn Gondola and lo and behold guess who we pass on our way down...
Yes, CAK moms and dads, those are your little ones perched up there high over the gorge on probably the tamest section of the entire Murren via Ferrata. Congratulations to them on their heroic bravery...even though they DID miss out on the cheese tasting!
Anybody needing smelling salts at home about right now???
Joseph wore the Go-Pro apparatus strapped to his helmut the entire time so there are SEVERAL video clips to give you several more rounds of heart palpitations, and I'm sure Mr. Margene will be distributing those ASAP.
There's really not a good way to continue on with this story here, is there??? But we must! Mr. Margene's group completed their trek, hopped on the gondola and met us at the entrance to Trummelbache Falls which is contained entirely inside the mountain and the falls are powered by the melting snow and glaciers from the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. The water is so powerful it has drilled enormous caverns straight through the granite. And of course the Swiss built an elevator ALSO inside the mountain that whisks us up straight to the top; straight to the beginning of the falls where we make our way down to the lower falls and finally to our ending group picture.
It's been a fun-packed adrenaline rush kind of day in many different ways. But it's time to head back to Murren for some free time to swim, shop in the grocery store, nap, picnic whatever you want to do. Several of the students are really watching their money closely and cooking their dinner in the Chalet this evening. I think they've learned how to eat economically in Switzerland which is a REAL feat of strength!
Rose made a cake for the ending of a perfect day. It was all eaten and the students said it was delicious!
Devotions are now over, kids showered and tucked in...and hopefully nearly packed up. In the morning we're rolling our big luggage down to the train station and shipping our bags ahead to Zurich where we'll catch up with it tomorrow evening after we depart Murren :-( and stop by Lucerne for a visit on our way to Hotel St. Josef for our last night in Zurich. Last night??? I'm really having a hard time believing it. To think that just 15 or 16 days ago my worry was attempting to learn all of the kids' names. Now they're just like my own! What a time we've had exploring and working and growing closer and building friendships and finding new strengths we didn't know we had. Thank you, parents for allowing us to spend this time with your wonderful kids. They've been great, and I'm sure I'll get a little melancholy tomorrow night writing the final entry here. I hope you've learned along with us as we spent each and every day with new and exciting destinations and activities. I know your little ones will have MANY stories to share with you when they get home.
Good night from Murren. Talk to you tomorrow from Zurich!
The others chose to follow the Mynatts on a different excursion down the path to sleepy little Gimmelwald. Each path contained its own excitement and fun. The Gimmelwald path began like this:
Gimmelwald holds the one room school for both the villages of Murren and Gimmelwald where all the students learn simultaneously. I'm sure any teachers reading this cringe at the thought of preparing lessons plans for 10 grades all at once every day! These alpine villages all have one thing in common and that's the production of cheese and butter from their cows who graze in the high alpine pastures during the summer so the farmers can harvest the thick green grass and wildflowers for food during the long hard winters. Each villager contributes a share of the milk from their cows. The milk is used to make some of the best Alp Cheese and Alp Butter any where around. After the cheese is aged and ready each villager is given a portion of the cheese based on the amount of milk they contributed. It's a wonderful "teamwork" kind of concept and today we totally benefit from that teamwork as Mrs. Mynatt hands out the cheese slices!
As we wander through the village and the family farms and chalets we encounter a homemade simple sign affixed to the outside of one of them. It reads "AlpKase" - Alp Cheese! Please Ring the bell. So a few of my cohorts and I bravely approach the door and ring the little bell wondering to ourselves who might appear...maybe actually hoping that NOBODY would appear ;-)
As the door opens we are greeted by a very nice lady who says hello in several different languages (refer to that 1-room schoolhouse education) and takes our order for 20 slices of cheese please. She smiles and disappears for a few minutes and returns with a package containing 20 precisely cut sticks of THE absolute best cheese I've ever tasted. I had exactly 1/2 of a piece. Angie had the other 1/2, and the rest of the 19 pieces were instantly inhaled by our 14 students! They all loved it!
We ate cheese as we played at the Gimmelwald playground and waited for the via Ferrata people to appear as their trail ended where OUR Gimmelwald trail ended. A few txts and phone calls later we discover they're going to be just a little later than expected so we journey on down to the valley floor in Stechelberg via the Schilthornbahn Gondola and lo and behold guess who we pass on our way down...
Anybody needing smelling salts at home about right now???
Joseph wore the Go-Pro apparatus strapped to his helmut the entire time so there are SEVERAL video clips to give you several more rounds of heart palpitations, and I'm sure Mr. Margene will be distributing those ASAP.
There's really not a good way to continue on with this story here, is there??? But we must! Mr. Margene's group completed their trek, hopped on the gondola and met us at the entrance to Trummelbache Falls which is contained entirely inside the mountain and the falls are powered by the melting snow and glaciers from the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau. The water is so powerful it has drilled enormous caverns straight through the granite. And of course the Swiss built an elevator ALSO inside the mountain that whisks us up straight to the top; straight to the beginning of the falls where we make our way down to the lower falls and finally to our ending group picture.
It's been a fun-packed adrenaline rush kind of day in many different ways. But it's time to head back to Murren for some free time to swim, shop in the grocery store, nap, picnic whatever you want to do. Several of the students are really watching their money closely and cooking their dinner in the Chalet this evening. I think they've learned how to eat economically in Switzerland which is a REAL feat of strength!
Rose made a cake for the ending of a perfect day. It was all eaten and the students said it was delicious!
Devotions are now over, kids showered and tucked in...and hopefully nearly packed up. In the morning we're rolling our big luggage down to the train station and shipping our bags ahead to Zurich where we'll catch up with it tomorrow evening after we depart Murren :-( and stop by Lucerne for a visit on our way to Hotel St. Josef for our last night in Zurich. Last night??? I'm really having a hard time believing it. To think that just 15 or 16 days ago my worry was attempting to learn all of the kids' names. Now they're just like my own! What a time we've had exploring and working and growing closer and building friendships and finding new strengths we didn't know we had. Thank you, parents for allowing us to spend this time with your wonderful kids. They've been great, and I'm sure I'll get a little melancholy tomorrow night writing the final entry here. I hope you've learned along with us as we spent each and every day with new and exciting destinations and activities. I know your little ones will have MANY stories to share with you when they get home.
Good night from Murren. Talk to you tomorrow from Zurich!
No comments:
Post a Comment