FIREWORKS DAY turns to glacier day...

July 4, 2011

Happy Independence Day, America!  We celebrated this great day (which also happened to be Rachel’s birthday) with an early rise to get on the train.  The event of the day was Glacier 3,000, which is pretty self-explanatory.  The glacier itself is 3,000 meters long. 

We took the train, transferred to a bus, then transferred to a gondola to take us to the top of the mountain. I believe we were over 3,000 meters high as well.  However, the sunshine was so warm that we didn’t even need jackets.  We bought lunch at the summit and ate it on the deck as we tried to keep Rachel and Bryn’s daughter, Noemi, from eating the dirty snowballs she was making.

looking up from the bottom of the gondola

After sufficient sunning, we took the ski lift down to the path made in the glacier and walked over it to the edge of the mountain.  The view was breathtaking, to put it lightly.  We could see Mount Blanc in the distance, even through the slightly cloud-hazy sky.  The wind began to pick up and the sun went behind the clouds, a good sign (including our freezing cold feet) that we should head back to the gondola.

Gorgeous

on the lift, taking a pic of the lift

beautiful flowers on the mountain top

see that little dot on the top of that rocky sticky outy thing?

yuuuuup thats a guy.

me telling susan to look at the glaciers.

When we boarded the gondola, we ran into a group of English-speaking people.  A 90 year old grandma with a walker had just set the record as the oldest lady to be on this ride they had at the top of the mountain – it was like this sled on a track that wound down on part of the mountain.  She was only kind of joking about looking to go bungee jumping next.  We were talking to her family, and found out that one of them had grown up in Evan City, Pennsylvania, right near where Rachel grew up and I lived for awhile.  Imagine that – Small town hickville Pennsylvania people meet in the mountains of Switzerland on a gondola.  Small world.  Oh, and then the grandma was chasing Noemi around the parking lot at the bottom of the hill, and then fell over.  She could have broken something, but ended up being just fine. Crazy woman.

Scenic route back: epic.  Back in Lausanne, we dressed up, Rachel and Bryn got a babysitter for Noemi, and we all went out for dinner for Rachel’s birthday.  The restaurant down the street held one of the most intense waiters ever – sometimes you couldn’t tell when he was joking or for real - Quite unsettling, but quite amusing at the same time.  Susan and I had legit fondue for dinner - Seriously delicious.  The cheese rocked my world.  The meat and sauces were delicious as well.  Switzerland is definitely the place for fondue. 

Susan and I in a main square in old town

fondue and friends. :)

A little cake and champagne topped off the evening, I reorganized my suitcase (for the 18^th time) and did some laundry.  The hide-a-bed never felt so welcoming, even though the music keeping Noemi asleep in the next room was on repeat infinity.  Pretty sure hiking on a glacier, travel, and chocolate does its job of putting you asleep almost instantly.