Kleine Matterhorn

August 6th--Today, we took 3 different gondola rides to make our way up to Kleine Matterhorn. After the 2nd gondola, we stopped for a picnic lunch while looking right at the Matterhorn. We picniced in an area that looked like a construction zone though. It is the first area we've seen that would definitely look better covered in snow. Also, since it is off-season, there was a lot of maintenance work going on around this area. After lunch, we headed up the last gondola ride. This was one intense gondola that made a huge climb up to the top of Kleine Matterhorn. Kleine Matterhorn is at 3883 meters high. The air was definitely thin up there, but the weather was wonderful. I'm sure the temperature was probably in the low 50's, but being so close to the sun, made it feel a lot warmer. After getting off the gondola, we took an elevator up to the panoramic view area. It was absolutely magnificent because we could see all the peaks in the area and also see into Italy. This area is where summer skiing takes place so there was a lot of snow. The kids played around in it for a little while, but were being effected by the altitude. We went inside to get some water and let the kids rest a little bit. After that, we took a elevator down a floor into the Matterhorn glacier paradise. Now, it was cold inside the glacier, but absolutely beautiful. After having enouch of the cold, we decided to take the gondolas back down to Zermatt. Abby was having a little bit of hard time with the altitude, but once we made it back down to Zermatt she was much better. So, we walked from the gondola station back through the town of Zermatt. It was so nice to see the whole town in it's entirety by walking from one end to the other. Close to the end of the town is the grocery store so Mike ran in to get some essentials while I took the kids to the playground. But, first, we had to stop off and get Abby's paragliding certificate. She was so proud of herself! After Mike got to the playground, the kids played for a while longer before heading back to the apartment. We had found out earlier that there was no washateria in the town only a dry cleaners. Well, we had planned to do our laundry tomorrow, but we are certainly not going to take our clothes to the dry cleaners. So, tonight was a big multitasking night. When we got back to the apartment, the kids were taking a bath, dinner was being cooked and laundry was being done "old school" style. Yes, we were washing our clothes in the sink and hanging them up to dry. Now the hanging up to dry part is normal for us. We have had to do that our entire time in Europe. Mike did a great job of finishing up the clothes and has earned the name "wringer". I was not strong enough to wring out all the water. We finished the night off with some future travel planning and watching Big Brother. We've got to get some reality TV somewhere.

Fly like an eagle

August 5th-- Today was an exciting day for Abby and me. We had signed up for paragliding yesterday. I had wanted to do it and Abby had seemed interested so I signed her up as well. We were a little skeptical that she would end up backing out, but our fears were quickly dashed when she woke up asking if it was time to go yet. Our time was not until 12:00 noon, so we had the morning to hang around the apartment and wait. We ate an early lunch and a little before noon, we headed to the funicular station to meet our tandem pilots and start our way up the mountain. Amy and Austin decided to head into town for a little shopping. Austin was not happy that he was not getting to go (not because he wasn't old enough, but because we thought he was too young to really appreciate it), so Amy took him into town to get a treat. Abby and I met one of the pilots, Stu, on our way to the station. He was just coming down from another flight. It was an absolutly beautiful day, with not a cloud in the sky. We headed up the funicular with him and then took the gondola up to Blauherd, our launch area. We were taking off from 2600 meters and flying back into Zermatt at 1600 meters. Abby talked the entire way up the funicular and gondola. Again, any worries I had about her being scared, were dashed. Once we got to the launch area, Stu started setting up his equipment. Shortly after, Abby's pilot, Ronnie arrived and set up. We took a few pictures and they took some video of Abby. There was another couple at the launch area and everyone was getting a kick out of Abby. She was cracking them up with her questions and comments. At one point when she had gotten her pack on, she shouted out real loud, "look at my big booty". We had decided for Abby to go first so I could make sure she got off safely (and didn't panic at the last minute) and then I would go right behind her. Ronnie and Abby got hooked up, waited for the wind and then with a count of 3, they were walking off the mountain and into the air. It was a great launch and was funny to see Abby's feet still "walking" after take-off. She later said she thought she was still on the ground. Stu and I got hooked up and were ready for take off, but the wind had died down. We had to wait almost 5 minutes before we were able to take off. We had hoped to be able to get side-by-side with Abby, but this kept that from happening. The ride was unbelievable. It really wasn't scary at all and provided some just unbelievable views. It was a very smooth flight that lasted about 15 minutes. Near the very end, Stu asked if I wanted to do some tricks in the air. I, of course, said "yes". So he did a couple of flips and then a spin. I'm glad it was at the end, because it definitely made me dizzy. Just a few minutes later, we were on the ground, greeted by Abby, Austin and Amy. Abby was all smiles and had loved the ride. We landed a little earlier than anticipated, so Amy almost missed seeing Abby land. She said they were walking to the landing area and saw someone in the air. She wasn't sure it was Abby, but decided to take a few pics just in case. When she realized it was her, she took off running for the landing area, getting there just before she landed. Luckily, Austin's a good runner because I think she left him behind. It was a very cool experience, and I'm glad that Abby and I had the opportunity to do it. Once we had come down off our high (literally and figuratively), we headed back up the mountain to the large playground at Blauhard. The kids had played here on Monday when the weather was bad, so they wanted to go back when it was pretty. The kids played for a while on all the different equipment. It was a little warm in the sun, so we decided to take one more gondola up to the highest point on this mountain, Rothorn. Once on top, there was a restaurant and a viewing area. We had a snack and the kids played on a slide and see-saw. We then took the gondola and funicular back down to Zermatt. We headed into town to pick up our photos and videos of the flight. Ronnie was working and suggested a restaurant named Nelly's for dinner. He works there in the evenings. Also, the CD was not ready so Ronnie was to bring it to us at the restaurant. It was a great choice as they had an outdoor terrace, wonderful food and 2 ride-on toy tractors for the kids. The owner actually has 2 small kids so he leaves them there for them or any other kids. The restaurant was on a side street so the kids were able to play while we enjoyed dinner. Ronnie showed up about 7:00 with the CD. We chatted with him for a little while longer finding out he was from Australia. So, he gave us some suggestions and tips for our trip there. We had to work at it, but finally got the kids off the tractors and said good-bye to Ronnie. It was a great end to a great day.

Gornergrat

August 4th--As we were leaving the apartment this morning, everyone was gathering up their sunglasses before heading out for our hike. Abby says "Wow! I can't believe Austin hasn't lost his sunglasses." Mike says "Don't jinx us." Abby says "Dear Jesus, Austin hasn't lost his sunglasses....." Mike interrupts with "No, Abby I said don't jinx us." She replies with "Oh, I thought you said tell Jesus." Oh, the funny things kids say! Anyway, today we rode the 30 minute train up the mountain to Gornergrat. This took us to up to 3089 meters and some unbelievable views of the area. Unlike yesterday, today the sun was shining with a few clouds in the sky. So, we found ourselves a spot on the top of rocks to have a picnic lunch and take in the view. After our lunch, we walked toward a patch of snow that was up on this peak. The kids were able to play around enough to get their snow fix for the day. As they were playing, we met a family from Austin, Texas so we chatted with them for a while about the area. It was here that we got a great look at the Gorner glacier. This is the 2nd largest glacier in Europe. The largest one we saw on our first trip to Switzerland. After a couple of hours on the top of Gornergrat, we decided to start making our way down the mountain, but first had to stop for a family pic with the Saint Bernard's. They were so cute and the kids just insisted that we get a picture. It will definitely be a moment to cherish with the beautiful mountains in the background. After the picture, we really did start our hike down the mountain. Unlike yesterday, today's hike was going to be much shorter. The main reason was we were all a little stiff from the long hike yesterday. It was a 30 minute hike to the next train stop down, but our hike took a little longer because of the many stops along the way for great photo opportunities. We managed to maneuver the many rocks along the path and make our way to the Rothenboden train stop. We hoped on the train back down to Zermatt. When we arrived in Zermatt, Mike took the kids to the playground while I went to the grocery store. The consensus was pasta for dinner so I picked that up along with some other stuff. I met them at the playground and we all headed back to the apartment. At this point, it was time for dinner, bath and bed. It's tiring being in the Swiss Alps! :-)

Our first hike

August 3rd--We slept really good last night. The apartment has the black out shades, so it was really dark and cool in the bedrooms. It was nice to not have the sun waking you up at 4:30am. Once we got up and going, we decided to head up the mountain to do a little exploring and hiking. We walked to the funicular station and took the funicular up to Sunnegga Paradise. The funicular goes up through the mountain and was only about a 5 minute ride. We exited and there was a restaurant located at the top of the stop. There was a bowl area below the restaurant that had a playground and small lake. There were also swings and slides placed all around the lake. So we headed down there to allow the kids to play. It was very cool up on the mountain today because it was overcast. The temperature was in the 40s, but felt cooler at times because of the clouds and wind. I thought I had read you could swim in the lake, but it was way too cool today to swim...or so I thought. An older man, probably in his 70s, strips down to his speedo and dives in. No kidding, everyone around stopped what they were doing and stared in amazement. After making our way around the lake, we headed back up to the restaurant for lunch. It was nice to get out of the cold and wind for a little while. At lunch, the kids were looking at a kids book they had picked up earlier in the day. It indicated there was a large playground a little higher up the mountain. So after lunch, we took the gondola up the mountain to Blauherd. Here we found a very large play area. It was spread out over a couple of acres and included everything from slides to zip lines to a large chess set. It had started to rain a little (more like a heavy mist), so we didn't get to play as long as we would like. The kids still had fun on the zip line...plus we had the entire area to ourselves. We had originally planned to hike down from here, but because of the weather, we decided to take the gondola back down. When we got back to Sunnegga, the weather had improved enough that we decided to hike back down to Zermatt. It started by a nice, fairly flat trail that took us about 40 minutes. It ended at Tuftern, where there was a little restaurant. We stopped off for a hot chocolate break. We then continued down to Zermatt. The next section was pretty rough terrain. It went through the forest part of the mountain and was a fairly steep decent. After about 40 minutes, we found our way back to a smoother path for the remaining decent. All in all, it was about 4 miles of descent over about 2000 feet. The kids did great and really seemed to enjoy the hike down the mountain. By the time we arrived back in Zermatt, it was after 5:30 pm, so I ran to the grocery store to pick up food for dinner while Amy and the kids went back for baths. I was able to find stuff to make tacos, so we had a good dinner after our long day on the mountain. Amy and I are pretty sure we found some muscles we forgot we had and are worried how sore we will be when we get up tomorrow.

Back in Switzerland

August 2nd--We had a little bit of a hectic/stressful morning getting out of our apartment in Paris. Two reasons: We had to get up at 6:00 to leave by 7:00 and I was up most of the night sick with food poisoning. By the time we got everything packed up and the apartment cleaned, it was closer to 7:30 a.m. before getting in a taxi heading for the train station. We sweated out the ride to the train station for our train was departing at 7:58 a.m. We arrived at the train station around 7:48 and thought we had plenty of time until we realized that our platform was a good 5 plus minutes away from the entrance. We ended up running to our platform. We had 2 suitcases on the train, the kids and myself when the whistle blew indicating that if you weren't on the train, you better jump on. So, Mike threw the 2 remaining suitcases on the train and jumped on himself. We couldn't have cut it any closer. Once on the train, we were able to relax. In fact, I got to rest some since I didn't get a whole lot of sleep the night before. It was a 4 hour train ride to Lusanne where we switched trains. We were then on a commuter train that was about 1 1/2 hours long to Visp. Upon arriving in Visp, we got our first taste of the cool summer Switzerland weather. We got on a very nice train to climb the mountain into Zermatt. We arrived in Zermatt at 3:15 p.m. We have come full circle arriving back in Switzerland and it feels good. We loved Switzerland so much in the Winter that we wanted to experience it in the Summer. We exited the train station and got in a Taxi. Now this isn't your normal taxi because Zermatt is a car free city. It is basically a large, enclosed golf cart. We quickly made our way to our apartment where we were greeted by Christopher. He was very friendly and informative. The apartment here is awesome. We can see the Matterhorn from our window and although it's an apartment, it still has a chalet feel. After settling in, we made our way toward the grocery store. Since this area is so touristy, the grocery store was actually opened on Sunday. On our way to the store, we passed by an awesome playground and the kids begged to play on it. So, Mike continued onto the store and I stayed with the kids to play. We had only been here an hour and were already enjoying the area. After Mike came back to the playground with the groceries, we all walked back to the apartment. I gave the kids a bath while Mike went to pick up a pizza for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the weather, the view and some English television shows.

Eiffel de Tower

August 1st--We moved pretty slow this morning around the apartment. We spent most of the morning packing our stuff up to leave out early tomorrow morning. After getting most of our stuff organized, we left the apartment a little before lunch time. We brought a picnic lunch with us and headed to the park at the Eiffel Tower (or as Austin has called it "Eiffel de Tower", we aren't sure where the "de" came from). After eating lunch, the kids played on the playground for several hours before we actually made the walk right up to the Eiffel Tower. But, before getting there, Abby and Austin pedaled their way around on small bikes for about 5 minutes. Once we arrived up to the Eiffel Tower, we all stood in awe and explained to the kids how big it actually is. Luckily (as there were REALLY long lines), the kids had no interest in going up the tower. They were actually more interested in getting back to the playground. So we then walked back to the park for them to play a little bit longer before getting ice cream and heading back to the apartment. We arrived back at the apartment around 4:30. Mike and I got ready for our anniversary night out. That meant the adults had to get dressed, the kids had to be bathed and fed. The babysitter showed up at 6:00. She was the daughter of the family we were renting the apartment from. It worked out great because she took them right next door to play with her younger bother and sister until it was bedtime. Mike and I headed out shortly thereafter and went down to the Champs-Elysees area. We were going to eat at a restaurant recommended to us, but when we arrived at the location, there was no restaurant. We are assuming it closed down or moved. Anyway, we walked up the Champs-Elysees and just picked a nice outdoor restaurant. About halfway through the meal, Mike went to get us tickets to The Lido cabaret show, since it was right across from our restaurant. We finished up dinner around 8:30 and walked into the Pugeot store nearby. We bought a couple of toy cars for Austin and looked at some of their concept cars. We then headed down to The Lido at 9pm for the 9:30pm show. The Lido is one of the most famous cabaret venues in the world. We were immediately escorted to our seats which were pretty up close and personal to the stage. It was a highly entertaining and energetic Cabaret Show (nothing says Paris or France like a Cabaret show). We really enjoyed our time out and arrived back at the apartment about midnight. The babysitter said that the kids were perfect, not sure who's kids she was talking about though. We headed to bed for we only had a couple hours before we had to be up for our early train out of Paris.