Catching up on Thursday on Sunday

I feel my readership may be overwhelmed with the high volume. Comments, anyone? ;)

Justin and I were packed for the weekend trip to Interlaken when we left for class Thursday morning. We were to catch the 12:17 train to Lugano, so we left class as soon as possible and scooted to the station. From Lugano, we went to Lucerne. At Lucerne, it was snowing, and my fears of the cold were confirmed. It was cold. But the train was warm. :) Also, everyone spoke German... I can kind of function in Italian, but not in German! It was a little unnerving at first. From Lucerne, we headed to Interlaken. We went past amazing scenery. There was more and more snow as we went on (fallen, not falling), and it was just poofed up everywhere. The trees were mostly very tall evergreens, and they held the snow so it was beautiful. We kept going higher and higher in the mountains. Wow. You'll have to see the pictures (when I get them up--or you can see Justin's, http://www.themapples.net/europeBlogger/europeBlogger.php).

When we got to Interlaken (we were ahead of the group), we walked to our hostel (quite a place, Balmer's Herberge--it apparently has been around a long time and has memorabilia of every sort with its name on it--pins, shirts, hats, bottles, etc.). Then we ate our bag dinners and talked until everyone else showed up.

For my learning for the day... in class I learned about Switzerland's instruments of government--their parliament and its houses. I also learned more about Switzerland's geography and could see the distinct boundaries in language and scenery as we went from one part to another. I'd heard about that but not seen it. Personally, I worked on not being afraid even though I felt really concerned about the cold and felt kind of helpless in the German-speaking area. Justin helped me be thankful instead. :)

posted by LizC @ 1/27/2005 03:24:00 PM