Switzerland

Well, I'm back and almost fully recovered from the busy week away! I see that my wonderful husband has kept you up to date, including how much he missed me while I was away!! :)

Switzerland was simply fantastic! The 11-hour down/13-hour back bus rides weren't quite as fantastic, but they were worth it!

We stayed in a youth hostel down there, which was very clean so I felt pretty comfortable. The food wasn't the most gourmet ever, but it filled the belly after long days of hiking around making sure the kids aren't killing each other.

The first day, the younger kids did their river study all day, which included measuring things like the depth at 15 cm intervals across, the speed of water flow (using both a flow meter as well as a lemon!), and the size of the rocks on the riverbed. I got out of helping the kids with this, though, because I was needed to help supervise the older kids, who were studying the rocks (sorry, I mean clasts) on what is called a scree slope, or talus in "American."

The second day, the younger kids did a walk through the Engelberg valley, but I didn't do that either because I was asked to help supervise the older kids on their river studies day. I guess that turned out to be a blessing because the other teachers complained about the long walk and some leadership issues that arose.

On the third day we went to the city of Luzern, which is a little north of Engelberg. It is a beautiful old medieval city, and it was lovely to have a chance to walk around for a bit. But the special part of Luzern is the glacial rock formations that some guy discovered when he started digging for a wine celler. He stopped when he noticed the amazing rock formations, and now it's a museum. There, there's a hand-made map of the whole area, made by a guy who walked the terrein and measured the mountains using a ruler and protracter in 1768. It's amazing!

On Thursday, we took the cable cars up Mount Titlis, which is the tallest mountain in all the mountains surrounding Engelberg. The views were spectacular, and the kids had a great time throwing snowballs at each other at the summit! We also got to walk under the glacial cap of the mountain, through beautiful ice caves.

And finally, Friday was our trip back to Holland, when we watched riveting movies like, "In Her Shoes" and, "Twilight."

All in all, it was a very lovely trip. Watching the kids wasn't too strenuous, and the gorgeous surroundings made up for all the times I had to tell the girls to be quiet and go to bed!