friday, july 6

this morning we got a call from a guy who came on tour with his mom. he and his brother, along with two other girls on tour wanted to take a train ride to a small little town about two hours from lucerne. i didn't really want to go (if you want all of the details, i can tell you later, but i won't go into them here), but finally, lauren (who really wanted to go for ulterior motives) persuaded me to go. i was pretty grumpy at first, but the undeniably romantic landscape got the better of me.
we got off the train in brienz, a small town known for its wood carvings, and ate lunch on a quiet lake called the brienzersee, which means brienz lake. after lunch we walked around looking for souvenirs that were in our price range (there weren't any), and looked in all the tourist shops. my favorite was a small building that faced the lake and had a big picture window in front where blocks of wood were in various stages of being carved. it was just some guy's studio. i wish i had gotten a picture. below is our view as we ate lunch:


interlaken was our final destination. the name means "between lakes," and it truly is. the church below was our first stop; i have no idea what kind of church it is, or what significance it has (if any), but it was beautiful, so i took a picture.


we wandered around town for a bit, saw churches and paragliders, and eventually got lost. we had to ask people if they spoke english so they could orient us in the right direction. we weren't necessarily going anywhere specific, but we had no idea where we were in relationship to the train station, which is a pretty important landmark if you need to be back before the choir concert that is the whole reason you are in a certain country in europe. we got back on track and had a nice time enjoying the quaint town. one street we walked down was so picturesque that i thought that any minute people would throw open their shutters and start singing.


we walked along the river that runs through town and dipped our feet in the freezing water. we even did a little hiking in the woods that border the town, but that didn't last long because the trail was a dead end. we asked a local man what was worth seeing in the town and he responded, "well, the hills." how great is it that he called the freakin' swiss alps "hills?" maybe they are only mountains if they have snow on them.

on our way back to the train station we got ice cream and sat on the river to eat it. i ate my second truffle too--so yummy. they aren't lying when they say swiss chocolate is the best.

the train ride back involved a lot of napping, which i needed because it has been go go go since we got to europe. i am glad we took this side trip. the swiss country side all looks like the picture below; there is not an ugly thing in the country. except maybe the americans.

when we got back from interlaken we rushed to get ready for the choir concert and headed over to the concert hall. the concert was good, but it was hard to concentrate due to the fact that i was exhausted. after the concert paula and roger went to the rooftop for pictures and lauren and i went back to our hotel after grabbing some pizza (it was way too salty and pretty gross). then, to bed!