Places and Spaces: Switzerland

Since we weren't able to do any traveling this summer, I was being a little sentimental and going through some old travel photos. A little over a year ago, I took an amazing vacation with my dad. It's always great fun traveling with him because he takes me to really neat places that I would never think to go. Last year we went to Switzerland. This wasn't one of my top choices for a summer vacation. First of all, I love summer (like how Olaf loves summer) and I'm not a huge fan of outdoorsy types of activities (like climbing mountains!) nor do I like heights very much. But this trip was amazing. I can't even describe it in words and quite honestly, the photos don't do it justice!

One of the strategies I like to teach my students when they need a break is to take a mental vacation. I suppose looking at these photos is quite like taking a much needed mental vacation. 

We toured the country by train. This is one of the many trains that we rode. I love this photo that we snapped as we stopped for a quick break in the quaint little Swiss station.

Here's the train in "action." We're actually turning round a bend and were able to see the front end of the train from where we sat! I'm going to apologize now because most of my scenic photos are taken by train, so you might notice some blur or reflection from the windows...

This is the view from the window of our hotel in Interlaken. It was so pretty to see the church outside the window.

On one of our first days, we stopped at Jungfraujoch, where we climbed to the Sphinx observatory, one of the highest in the world. Outside, I found myself looking down into a metal grate that stood above nothingness.

The inside was lots of fun too, including an ice sculpture room with cute little arctic scenes like this one.

And of course some yummy food and deserts! :)

This is Gornergrat, the Matterhorn Observatory, which boasted some gorgeous views. Unfortunately, the clouds got in the way and we never did get to see the Matterhorn. 

But, we did get to have lunch al fresco (brrr) under some warm blankets, with this fabulous view. 

Once we returned to the hotel and the clouds decided to cooperate, we were finally able to catch a glimpse of the Matterhorn from none other than our hotel window!

On one of our final days in Switzerland, we stayed in St. Moritz, and after taking a walk though the resort town, we spotted a rainbow at just the right moment that a train was coming through.

Hope you've enjoyed the virtual vacation... Now back to reality... Back to work on Monday!