Mountains and more (but mainly mountains)

So I am currently a few days behind, I'm sure your all bitterly disappointed and missing my blogs.  I have been struggling with poor internet connection.  It wouldn't let me upload photos and that would just be an incomplete aka boring blog.  Now I can't post everything at once or you might be put off by the enormity of the blog, and well I want you to read it, so it'll have to be in installments :)

So further to my oddities/observations I've noted a few other things (maybe because I forgot some of them in the first place, there's just so much to document!!!)
 1) Smokers are everywhere, this is so much worse then NZ.  Filthy people polluting my lungs.  I find it sad the amount of teenages I've seen doing it.
2) Toilets are expensive, I miss free toilets.  There seems to be a smell of urine around most railway stations we've been to, one doesn't have to think for very long to figure out why.  
3) Sucks paying for water.  Ohthe luxuaries of life - free water from the tap . . .

I've been informed that "The bit of bathroom furniture that looks like a cross between a urinal and a footbath is in fact neither.  Its sounds like a bidet which is designed to sit on to wash your nether regions !" I thought you would all gain from this valuable information.  I think that's closer to a urinal then a foot bath so I'm gonna claim that as a win- sorry Jono!!

Could some one please explain these?  Found at a supermarket

Probably the place I'd been looking forward to most was Switzerland.
The train ride between Austria and Switzerland - amazing.  Magnificent mountians - the quote "You huge" was used often (for those who aren't Madagascar fans - it's in the second movie).

Just a wee snap shot

No one ever told me Switzerland was so expensive, expensive accommodation, expensive food, expensive activities.  Everything oh so pricey. 

Zurich - to my surprise the first place that I felt unsafe while we've been travelling.  We went on a quest to find a laundromat - into what appeared to be a dodgy part of town.  Needless to say the laundromat was closed and didn't infact look like a laundromat at all.  In fact finding a laundromat in Switzerland is quite impossible, we tried, several times to no avail.  Hand washing in the sink then.  Jono even 'gave it a go' - after his 'rude' comment about if I rung it well intially it wouldn't need a second wringing - yeah right!!!  Zurich on the whole - overrated/disappointing.  Not how I imagined Switzerland at all, apart from yummy hot chocolate. 

Expensive dinner - 1 course cost more then the 3 course lunch we had in Colmar  - more to come on Colmar in a further post yet to be written.

Ok - so Zurich looks quite nice at night, gotta have some upside :)

The cathedral there does have lovely unique stained glass windows, unfortunately not allowed to take pictures once again.

The outside of said Cathedral

Then we stopped at the Sprugli cafe/chocolate shop (It is my understanding they are linked with Lindt - I couldn't find a Lindt shop in Zurich).  I was hoping for a chocolate factory tour, but they don't seem to have one :( I guess I would have to settle for some nom nom nommy truffles, and a hot chocolate (that actually tasted like liquid chocolate - mmmm) or so I thought . . .

Dreamy hot chocolate, Jono trying to look dreamy  despite the fact he didn't have the best hot chocolate

Bern - such a pleasant place after the disappointment of Zurich.  And it has bears!!  After having a bad then great experience with the luggage lockers (first it ate 2 franks, then the next one gave me like 5 when I put it 2, the second occurance happened twice - score) the helpful tourist information man told us what we should do.  We went for a walk taking in the sights, I think pictures explain better then words :)

Cute wee bear!

Up close with bears, as close as I'd like to be!

Found a store for Mara

A clock

Jono attempting to look intelligent outside Einstein's house

Old Bern - I think it looked awesome

Bear again!!

Signs aye?

View from the Rose garden

Daffodils, especially for Daddy

The cathedral

And we have the beehive . . . Is there any comparison??

I would like some farmer's opinions - would a sheep actually lick a cow????

 Interlaken/Jungfrau - AMAZING!!!! 'You huge' once again featured.  Pictures, I'm not sure they do it justice, but here goes.  I'd read that you could do dog sledding at the top, I'd also read that it had finished, unfortunately the latter was true, so no dog sledding for Karlyn :(

Oh mountains <3

Looking down part way up the north face of the Eiger

Pretty sweet view from the top :)

Choice place for lunch (mine was fondue)

Yea that's how high we 'climbed' as you can tell from the pained look on my face AKA squinting

Shame about the cloud down below, but still pretty darn choice!

Jono fancies himself as quite the actor now . . . 

Looks like I may enjoy the odd touch of acting too . . .

Ice sculptures at the top of the Jungfrau plus that other thing

Unfortunately I lost/or potentially had stolen my special features AKA my headband (It said on the packet when I got it that it had special features - who knows what they were exactly).  I was so devastated by the loss only retail therapy would comfort me - so I brought a new one (Sadly this one doesn't say anything about special features), however old habits die hard, so the new one is also called special features.

Once again an amazing train ride from Interlaken to Brig.

Brig - When you look up from here pretty much in any direction there are magnificent mountains.  It's awesome. 

We went on a little bit of a supermarket crawl - turns out that hot chocolate and truffles in Zurich weren't enough to clench my chocolate need in Switzerland.

Me in my happy place

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Food - funnily enough the best schnitel I've had has been here, also the best pasta.  We did do the typical Swiss things - veal, potatoe rosti, cheese fondue (this has nothing on chocolate, give me chocolate anyday, esp with pretzels).

Prayer thanks
- for enjoyment and safety while we travel.
- that Jono's foot and my back have been pretty good recently.

Prayer requests
- for continued enjoyment and safety while we travel.
- that our injuries will continue to be fine.
- that we'll continue to place God as highest priority and then our marriage
- once again I haven't heard about the car, but you could keep that in your prayers anyways.