SwissMinns

Titlis The skies cleared on Langenthal on New Year's eve day.  We had planned to go hiking near Lucern, in a mountain town of Engelberg.  With such a clear sky, we decided to take the the gondolas up to Titlis mountain.  The final lift is a rotating gondola that holds about 50 people: A 5-story building teeters on the top of Titlis: The cliff walk was a great view, kinda sways in wind, wobbles when people walk:  The view in all directions was spectacular:

Above the clouds near Langenthal: Over the Christmas weekend, Langenthal was cloudy, rainy, overcast.  We discovered, by accident, those clouds were actually pretty low.  On three consecutive days, we randomly picked hilly look-out points on the map, all within about 30 miles of our apartment.  Each location, we drove under dreary cloudy skies, light rain, up into the clouds and eventually just above the clouds, bright and sunny,  Each location, you could drive only so far, single lane roads, with shear drops, sometimes on both sides of the car. We met cars occasionally, and had to back up to a wider spot or a switchback.  The rest of the way was on foot, hiking on roads and trails, steeply upward. It looks like an ocean of clouds below about 2000 feet. Vogelberg Dec 23. This is located north of Langenthal.  It requires about a 1.5 mile steep hike, on a nearly drive-able road. No parking up there. At the peak, you hike up a fenced pasture to get the highest point. We parked our

 On December 17th, we went to the mountains south of Interlocken, to do some snow shoeing.  Susan was recovering from a severe cold, so we were not sure that was good timing for her, but come-on, tough it out.  Good fresh air for those half-filled lungs. We could drive as far as Lauterbrummen, a small town nestled between steep mountains on 3 sides. From there, we took a "cog wheel" train up to the isolated little town of Wengen, about 1200 meters elevation.  Cog wheel trains have a toothed rail in the center of the tracks, which the train's cogged gears can grip, to allow it to go up and down very steep without slipping.  I took these pictures from the train, through the glass, turned out okay: This is down in the valley in Lauterbrummen. The view from the Train. Wengen is accessible only by train (or very skilled  hikers).  From Wengen, we walked snow-packed trails through the city and part way up toward Leiterhorn.  About half-way up, we put on snow

Saturday, December 9th - Monday, December 11th, 2017 Mark and I made a trip to Antwerp to visit our friends, who we met in China while we were all living there at the same time. Jos and Marlene Vets. Jos was actually Mark's boss while he was in China and Marlene was my life saver while I lived there. We usually got together most weeks and had lunch or explored the different shopping areas. They lived in Shanghai for 7 years and loved it, well as most of you know we weren't really fans. Mark worked in Cergy, France all day on Friday. So, we drove to Cergy Thursday evening and left from Cergy Saturday morning to drive to Antwerp. We drove all the way back home on Monday. Jos and Marlene were excellent hosts and tour guides and we had a great time. Weather was very wintery, snowy, and slushy but other than that, everything was perfect. We walked in the city center, close to their condo on Saturday, and to the Christmas Market. We went out for a Chinese dinner that evening. On

We have  postponed getting haircuts until we absolutely had to and we had moved to Lagenthal. We thought if we found a good spot in Gumligen and moved we would have to experiment again. I went first. I searched Yelp and google but no information if English. So I went to the first place I walked to. Looked nice. Very little English spoken there. I made an appointment for the next day. When I went the next day I had the owner cut my hair, he was the only one who seemed willing to take the English speaking Expat. I brought a picture of what I wanted. I didn't want to relive my nightmare China experience. The cut (experience) was fine. Cost of this little haircut? $78.00. Wow! Cut only! Mark was next. I told him to try somewhere else so we could compare. They had a little more English. Mark also brought a picture, again we have learned so much since China. He even got a massage with his and a piece of chocolate! Cost of his haircut? $52.00  These are our most expensive haircuts ever.

Thursday, November 23rd, 2017.  Thanksgiving day back home. I was sorta feeling bad about not being home for my favorite holiday, so I talked Mark into taking a day off and to go hiking with me. We have both been to Gurten Mountain in Bern before, but never together. It was before snow, but still kind of cool. Mark had to make a conference call on our hike, but it was nice to be together for the day. Obviously they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. If we wanted to have turkey today a 10 pound turkey would have cost us about $60.00. We had pasta for dinner! This next picture is of our car. Not that I want anyone to track us down, but I wanted to show what the license plates look like, and the features on them. (We are getting a new car this month, so don't waste much time tracking this plate) All plates in Switzerland look pretty much like this. They all have the Swiss flag first. Then the first two letters are they Canton (state) you live in. W

Sunday, December 3rd, 2017 Today we drove to Grindelwald to try out some snowshoeing. We hiked there this fall and loved it. Lots of downhill skiers there today, mostly I think that is why people go there in the winter. There were some other people snowshoeing, cross country skiing and sledding. We went on the Wetterhorn Trail. It was suppose to be easy, so that's where I wanted to start out. I'm not sure climbing up a mountain should ever be considered easy, but I suppose they can get much harder. It was freezing out today. About 0 degrees Fahrenheit. I must say it is the most beautiful place we have ever been snowshoeing, so it was worth it.