Our Swiss Adventure...

Ok, before I even get started... Let me preface this with the fact that you are about to look through ALOT of pictures!! :) Our Swiss Adventure was a gorgeous experience in virtually every way, shape, and form... And, in order to capture the beauty of the area, we proceeded to snap crazy amounts of pictures throughout the weekend! :) And, believe it or not, the pictures you see here, are just a very small portion of all the pictures that we took... Yikes! :)

While my friends, Sherry and Billy, were visiting, we decided that it would be fun to head to Switzerland for a weekend get away with some of our friends from this area. My friend, Denise, organized the entire weekend, so basically all we had to do is hop into the car and drive there... How awesome is that?! :) (Thank you, Denise!! :)) So, bright and early on Friday morning, we all headed to Kandersteg, Switzerland for what we now refer to as "Our Swiss Adventure"...

Now, in our minds, we were going to be heading to Switzerland to stay in a hut (i.e. a small Swiss motel) in the mountains and do some hiking. We knew that it wasn't going to be a 5-Star hotel, but we figured it would, at the very least, provide us with the basic necessities we needed over the weekend (i.e. heat, hot water, etc...). We had also checked the weather forecast and we knew that it was supposed to get pretty cold with a chance of rain/snow over the weekend, so we packed accordingly (or so we thought)... Well, let's just say, upon arrival, we realized just how unprepared we really were! :)

When we arrived in Kandersteg, we were informed that we would have to drive up through a mountain pass to get to our hotel... Ok, no problem... Being that we had so many people with us, we were driving three cars through this pass... I was driving our little car, Maciek was driving his car, and Denise and her family were driving there van... We started to drive up the pass, and pretty much, by the time we got to about here...

.... I was in full on panic mode! :) Because, we all know how much I "enjoy" driving up mountains... Yikes!! :) I do have to say that, as scared as I was to be driving up that narrow road, it was actually one of my favorite memories of the trip... You see, Sherry and Billy had never seen mountains prior to that, so during that drive, Sherry was so excited about being in the mountains that she was standing in the backseat, with her head through the sunroof, filming the entire drive and whooping and hollering like crazy... Hilarious!! :)

Fortunately, the drive wasn't too bad after that, and within a few short minutes, we reached our destination... Which was a parking lot in the middle of nowhere, in which we had to park our cars and unload them, so that we could hike the rest of the way up to our motel with all of our things (i.e. suitcases, backpacks, etc.)... Our initial response to that was "Say What?!" :) Thankfully, Denise offered to drive her van up to the motel, so we threw all of our stuff into her van to be taken to the top, and we proceeded to set out on foot...

The hike up was absolutely gorgeous!! It was a beautiful, clear day, so the mountains were in full view, and the trees were ablaze with color. It was a perfect day for a hike! We reached our hotel about 2 1/2 hours later... And that's when things got very interesting! :) When we arrived, the owner showed us to our "rooms"... We were a little surprised when, instead of walking into the main building, she escorted us around the side and across the yard to what appeared to be a barn... At this point, we all started to get a little bit nervous... She then walked us up the staircase on the side of the barn and opened the door to our "room"... Oh, let's just say, it was quite a shocking relevation for all of us! :) Our room was indeed in the barn! The room consisted of a row of what you could call bunk beds (but, not the bunk beds as we know them.... These were more along the lines of concentration camp style bunk beds... Literally!)... There was a long row of beds across the top and a row of beds underneath... So, needless to say, we were all quite "cozy" when it came to our sleeping arrangements... Thankfully we all knew each other! :) The best part was when we realized that the barn was unheated (yep, the temperature stayed around 3 degrees Celsius/36 degrees Farenheit that weekend... Fun, fun! :)), there was one light in the whole place, and the restrooms were located across the yard in the main building, and there was only one shower for the whole place... Nice! :) Oh, and to top it off, we were informed that there was only a limited amount of hot water so we had to take very short showers in order to make sure that everyone had warm showers... Sherry and I ended up being the only two people that attempted the showers that weekend (the others were too cold! :)), and we quickly found out that a "short shower" to them must have meant about 3 seconds... Because that's about how long the warm water lasted before it turned cold... Grrr! :)

After the initial shock of seeing our rooms, we made the best of the rest of the weekend... Sure, we were cold (or should I say freezing!) at night, it started snowing on Saturday and didn't stop for the rest of the time we were there which made for alot of cold, wet clothing, and having to get up to run across the yard to the restrooms in the middle of the night was not so much fun (especially when the motel owner's husband looked and acted like a crazed ax murderer, which made us look over our shoulders as we were running across the pitch black yard in the middle of the mountains at night! :)), ... But, even with that, we had a fabulous weekend! It was fun to spend time with such great friends, the area was beautiful, and the hiking was fabulous (it was like walking in a winter wonderland!)... It was definitely an adventure that won't be soon forgotten! :)

And now on to the pictures... Enjoy!

Base camp...

From here, we parked our cars and headed up to our motel in the mountains.

And off we go!! :)

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day for hiking!!

I (heart) the Swiss Alps!! :)

Sherry, Billy, and Norah were loving the view!! :)

Kinga and Maciek hitting the trails...

The views were amazing!!

A typical scene from our hike...

When in doubt as to Brian's whereabouts... Always look for the camera! :)

Stunning!

These two crack me up! :)

Too cute! :)

Sherry and I crossing the great divide! :)

The view from our motel...

Our hut in the mountains... So cute! :)

My little friend! :)

Our second hike of the day was to the top of that waterfall...

Stopping to check out the falls! :)

The view from half-way...

I was loving all of the fall colors! :)

Halfway to the top... Whew!

This was a tough hike... 45 minutes, straight up! :)

Almost there... :)

Enjoying the view from the top...

A man and his dog! :)

Brian and I taking a breather and enjoying the view before heading back down...

The late night view from our hut in the mountains... Spectacular! :)

Starry night...

Breathtaking!

This was the view we woke up to on Saturday morning... Right before it started snowing! :)

Savanna, Finja, and Norah all bundled up and ready to head out for a day of hiking! :)

Hiking in a winter wonderland! :)

Striking a pose on top of a boulder! :)

The girls...

All the guys...

Look at that smile... She's such a little cutie pie! :)

Billy and Norah...

Kinga and Maciek...

Denise, Joerg, Savanna, and Finja... What a cute family portrait! :)

I love the fact that Tiffy (their dog) looks like she's modeling for this pic! :)

I love the contrast of this yellow tree against the white background... It was so pretty!

I think at this point we were singing "Old Macdonald"! :)

Sherry and I taking a break...

Denise and Joerg skipping down the trail! :)

Snowy kisses! :)

Joerg was having WAY too much fun "surprising" people as they walked under snow covered trees! He would stand off to the side of the trail, and as people would walk by, he would kick the tree, which resulted in all of the snow falling onto the unsuspecting passer-by! :)

Mountain man Brian! :)

A view of our "room"... Check out the beds! :)

Kinga and Maciek all bundled up! :)

Hanging out in our barn/room after a long day of hiking... So much fun! :)

Sherry and I trying to stay warm in the barn! :)

(Doesn't Billy look thrilled in the background?! :))

Our fondue dinner... YUM!! :)

We shared so many laughs in this restaurant... We would sit in here to warm up by the fire, while watching the snow falling outside... Perfect! :)

Warming up after a long day of hiking in the snow! :)

Gorgeous!!

Snowball fight! :)

My dear friend, Denise... She is such a sweetheart! :)

Without her, the entire weekend would not have been possible!

My adorable hubby! :)

So pretty!

Back at "base camp"! :)

On the way home... This was an interesting view to say the least... We drove down from the snow and winter-like weekend, into this beautiful fall day! :)