A Room With A View Please

OK, so we made it to Gimmelwald and asked the lady at the gondola station how to get to Hotel Mittaghorn. Mind you, both Jill and I have on full backpacks and we both have our 25" rolling suitcases full and roughly 50lbs each and we have our cameras and other junk strapped to the front of these suitcases. So, the lady tell us go up the path and take a right and it's about a 5 - 7 minute walk. Awesome. So we head down the path, take a right and then we come to a dead end. No Mittaghorn. No way, she couldn't possibly . . . . there's no way we are . . . .

Apparently, we are. A short (wet from rain) gravel road, then these steps were our route to the Hotel. Don't think it looks that bad? Well, that is a shot to the 1st turn. Here is the view from the other end:

Can you say miserable? Well, if that wasn't bad enough: I was tired already, Jill was tired, we were wearily dragging our suitcases up the steps and I noticed one of my wheels starting to bend out. So, not wanting to damage our suitcases and also not wanting to have to carry them the rest of the trip without wheels, I was forced to lift both suitcases and walk these steps. 50lbs on each arm may not seem a lot to you, but to me that was a lot. Add to th e fact that it was a bulky 50 lbs and both bags were slamming into me the entire way up. It was, to say the least, not fun. So to make matters worse, when we get up the ridiculous stairs the manager is sitting outside the place and he informs us that we could have stayed on the paved road and walked about 20 minutes around the village and made it there just the same. Thanks gondola lady. Like she didn't notice the ridiculous baggage that we were carrying. I'm not bitter though, at least we made it.

As tired and frustrated as I may have been, even more so after I carried our stinking suitcases up three flights of stairs (no elevator here) to our room, the view was worth it all! open the window to and door to our little balcony and directly across from you are Jungfrau, Monch and the Eiger Mountains. You don't believe me, have a look for yourselves:

This is Gracie!

This is my precious little Gracie. Isn't she the cutest dog you've ever seen? Well she is to me and that's all that matters.

Well, Gracie isn't just cute. She is also really smart and has chosen against all odds to be an LSU fan. She even asked her mom to buy her a jersey. And her mommy did not disappoint:

So, being an avid LSU fan myself, I felt that I needed to test my dog's sports knowledge and loyalty to her team. So, I talked to her about Flynn and Perrilloux. She agrees with me that Flynn is the better option for the team. He's got a better grasp of the offense and a better head on his shoulders for decision making. He's even faster, but we also agreed that Perrilloux has a better arm and a prettier throw and better moves on the run. But, there is still no question we want Flynn at QB. So, Gracie is pretty articulate when it comes to her team of choice. Kudos Gracie. Satisfied that she is an opinionated fan, but not quite certain how avid she is I mentioned the two words to her: Florida and Alabama. This was her response.

Not bad, so I took it a step further and mentioned the once beloved one: Nick Saban.

Enough said, though I'm certain she, like me, would love that dude again if he came back next season when Les is gone to Michigan.

Jokes, Jokes, I Make Jokes

So, I got my bag and everything was in it. I just thought I would have a little fun. I know that most of you didn't even read the last couple of posts because they are too long, but I enjoyed writing them.

Anyway, so the weather is really disgusting in Switzerland and we are finally heading to Gimmelwald via Lauterbrunnen.

Isn't it lovely?

So, maybe it's not, but at first it's still awesome just knowing that you are in the heart of the Swiss Alps. Emphasis on "at first." So, we get to Lauterbrunnen to catch a connecting train to Gimmelwald. Lauterbrunnen is a nice little town in the valley of the Alps. They have great waterfalls and as my wife can attest, I love waterfalls. Here is a shot of the most famous one:

Staubach Falls

It was also here, in Lauterbrunnen, that we caught our first view of the snow-capped Alps through the rain and clouds that seemed to smother everything beautiful about the area.

From here, we take a train and gondola lift to Gimmelwald village of the famous Hotel Mittaghorn on Mount Mittaghorn directly across form Jungfrau.

Danke Shen? (Hallo Svitzerland Continued)

So, we are sitting there and approaching the landing for the ferry. I'm getting more and more anxious every single minute. How much longer is this stinking ferry ride? So, finally we see the landing ahead and the guy that I had spoken with earlier comes up tom me and says he's working on finding my bag. Just wait and he'll be right back. Meanwhile, the captain announces the final stop and everyone must unload. Great, now what. So, I try to be the last person on the boat and cannot seem to find the guy I was talking to.

Then here comes my little friend with not much more information. Hey follow the captain. Who's the captain? That guy right there. Just follow him. OK. Still not sure what was going on, I follow the captain to the ticket booth for the ferry. He tells me to go to the window, so I do just that. The lady asks me if I need a ticket and I do not, so I say no and let the people behind me go ahead. Meanwhile, el Capitan says something to the lady in the booth, lights his little cigarette and heads back to the ferry.

Still confused and now afraid that dude misunderstood me completely, I walk up to Cappy. He turns to me and says, "go there, go there." Then he just walks off. So, I go back to the booth and the lady asks if i need a ticket again. I told her i didn't think so, but the captain just told me to come here about my bag being left behind at the restaurant. She nods, picks up the phone and says some stuff in German (the Swiss don't have there own language). She hangs up and give me the incredible news. they have my bag and they are sending it on the next ferry. It will be there in about an hour and a half. Sweet!

Then I think, wait I never described my bag to anyone. I just mentioned that I left a bag. What if the bag they found wasn't mine? Tired of trying to explain myself to the Swiss, I just decided to trust that I was only person that had left a bag laying around. So, the Jillster and I decide to put our luggage in a locker and hang out in Interlaken until the ferry gets there. While we waited we made a reservation at a very cool little place in Gimmelwald via phone so we had a place to stay and went shopping for Jill some shoes. Then we saw this car:

Suddenly, it seemed this rainy, nasty day would turn out OK after all. Right?

A little while later, we head to the ferry and the booth lady heads over to greet the little ferry with my precious little bag on it.

So, one by one people unload. None of the ferry employees seem to be moving off the boat. No one has my bag in hand. Seriously, is this some kind of joke? I'm just trying to be patient and sit back hoping someone raises my little backpack. . . .

GEAUX TIGERS!

I nearly missed my first LSU home opener in about 6 years. But apparently sweet baby Jesus wanted me there. I was just sitting back chilling at my tailgate when my good friend Reynolds Leblanc places this magical piece of paper in my hand. He was walking a friend to the car and found this on the ground. I waited outside the gate and checked with a few people that seemed upset to see if my ticket was theirs. After a few clearances, I headed in and enjoyed the game. I even found the brother of one of the people outside so he could get in. With that said, that was probaly the best game I have ever seen in Tiger Stadium.

Hallo, Svitzerland!

So, we made it to the land of the Swiss. We actually arrived right at the end of Swiss Day. Our little train arrived an hour late into Bern, so we had to wait another hour before we arrived in Interlaken. So technically, we missed Swiss Day all together. So, we arrive in Interlaken only to find that there is no one there. Well, we were there with a group of college students backpacking and five old people. Eventually, we all got cabs to our hotels. So, 12 minutes and 40 Euro later we arrived in Iseltwald, a little village on the lake in the valley of the Swiss Alps.

We arrived very late and as we waited for them to look for our room key, we met to girls from none other than LSU. How random is that? Of all the people to run into, two LSU students. So, we chatted about the upcoming football season and enjoyed English conversation. Anyway, apparently, we arrived so late that our little hostel/hotel had given our room away for the night. So, they got us in a lakeside room with bunk beds for the night. Yahoo! Just what we always wanted, bunk beds for me and my wife. We had the room booked for 3 nights, but we decided immediately that we would stay here for only one night and just go hunting for rooms the rest of our trip. So, one night down and this was our view in the am.

It started out a bit overcast, cleared up for a minute, then rain all day! YEA!

You see that handsome, happy couple? Well, they didn't stay that way for too much longer. Here, we were waiting for the ferry to bring us back to Interlaken, so we could head up to Lauterbrunnen and get in the heart of the Swiss Alps. While we waited, we decided to head into the little restaurant in the Strand Hotel, seen here:

We didn't have a lot of time, so we just got a lite dessert and paid our bill just in time to see our ferry rolling in. Off we go, grab our bags and get on the ferry. Here are some shots from the ferry of the mountains around.

So, I'm taking these photos and decide to go get the video camera. Hey, Jill can you get me the vi . .d. . .e . . . . . oh crap! Where is my backpack? Are you kidding me? Where is my bag? You guessed it, I left my backpack in the Hotel Strand restaurant. So, I'm totally freaking out. Our video camera, our Eurail passes and our passports are in that bag. I throw up a little in my mouth and decide to see how long it would take until we could get back to the hotel there and hopefully find my bag untouched. So, I went to talk to one of the ferry employees. He told me the fastest way to get back was, after we arrived in Interlaken in about 30 minutes, to take a cab back. Depressed at the idea of spending another 40 Euro, I explained to the man why I was so anxious to get back. He went to see if he could get a phone book so he could call the hotel for me, but came back with nothing. So, we are sitting on the ferry that lasts forever and praying that my bag will still be there when we get back in about an hour.