I've been excited this whole trip to go to German speaking lands. However, I did not realize how much my heart would patter the first time I heard German once we reached Switzerland. Oh, it is pure love.
We drove from Paris to Lausanne, stopping by the Fontenay Abbey to break up the long day in the bus, which added a needed amount of peace away from the bustle of the city. I once again contemplated becoming a nun so I could forever live in such a serene place but the whole being a Mormon thing kind of throws that plan out. Lausanne was lovely, though I liked the German speaking parts of Switzerland better (remember that I'm biased). We popped in out pretty quickly, though I was able to get in a beasty hill run with my runner partner Jess--those Swiss know how to do their hills.
We drove through Switzerland, stopping at an old-fashioned traditional cheese factory where we got to gush over cute goats and cows with their precious bells as we ate delicious cheese they had undoubtedly helped produce.
Though the cheese was nice, it fell second to the wonders that the Cailler chocolate factory held in store for us. Picture Willy Wonka. Then picture Switzerland. Then picture me in a Willy Wonka chocolate factory in Switzerland. If we count this visit as a museum trip, it goes right up there with the Uffizi for me. They had this really cool automated tour with all sorts of dramatic voices and moving parts of the rooms to tell the history of chocolate and explain how it is made.
And let's not forget the many free samples.
And the many bars of chocolate purchased by infatuated Americans.
With the taste of chocolate still in our mouths and the weight of it in our stomachs, we stopped by the LDS temple in Bern and talked a little bit about Mormon history in Europe. It looked bigger than how I remember the Freiberg temple, but it had a similar peaceful feel to it. I enjoyed walking around it, admiring the flowers, and being grateful for temples.
Plus, Bern was out first German-speaking stop :)
I found a couple of other girls who love vegetables as much as I do and we made a super classy salad in Bern for dinner.
And by a classy salad, I mean we bought lettuce, tomatoes, and dressing, put these ingredients in a plastic bag, shook them, and then used our fingers to eat it.
#peasantsalad
Our salad gave us the needed energy for the next day though--we left Bern at 6:30am to drive up the alps where we spent the day. We took a series of trains to get up to the top of the Jungfrau, which was way cool. We got caught in the middle of a cloud at the top so everything was all white, which was strange and semi-disappointing but also cool. We hiked down some of the mountain and had some other beautiful trail adventures where I took approximately 767 photos and agonized over picking which ones should go on Facebook. It's been one of my favorite days so far. We stayed in Zug for the night, but we were all too tired to go out when we got there.
We had another long bus day following our mountain adventures, stopping by Neuschwanstein on our way to Munich. I thought that I was happy in German-speaking Switzerland, but once we got to Munich, I couldn't stop dancing around the streets and singing to myself and to the world because it just doesn't get a lot better than being back in Germany.
Basically I spent my time in Germany drooling over all things German and bashing America (I know, I'm a terrible patriot) as well as trying to think of schemes which would help me live in Germany. We visited the BMW museum and I sat in powerful-feeling cars and we also had a super traditional German dinner at a Biergarten, which was so fun. I just had all those perfect moments that I wanted to hold onto forever.
On Saturday I got to meet up with my exchange family from when I went to Germany as an egocentric sixteen-year-old. Fortunately, they still liked me and we've been able to stay in contact throughout the years. I had another friend come visit Munich at the same time so I felt very surrounded by German-love (aka Germans who are wonderful and people who love Germany like I do).
So I have been stricken by a bad case of German-love. Which makes me not want to go home but rather learn how to play the accordion and make a living by playing music on the magical cobblestone walking streets. #ivegotadream
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