Haha I promise we were having fun, even though Rossano isn't smiling and Nevio looks like he's in an intense amount of pain
We got drinks at this really cool place with an amazing view
When we got home in the evening, Carlo made us a nice barbecue. Compared to the amount of meat he's made previously, this is a relatively small one. Also, this time it was beef instead of buffalo.
Sunday was a relaxed day we had lunch at this cool restaurant up in the hills close to this really old church and Rossano left in the evening to go back to Zurich.
If you're wondering who the man in the blue shirt is, his name is Christoph and he's a good friend of the Kellers. He has a wife and three kids but they were away in Germany for the weekend so he came and had lunch with us. He lived in Canada and travels to San Diego a lot for work so he speaks good English
Here is where we get to the "It's a long story" part. Next Monday, Nevio is leaving on a bike tour of Europe with his cousin Adrian- they're going on a big loop around through Austria or something like that, leaving from the Keller's house. The thing is, Adrian is currently on a camping trip with some friends and will come here directly without stopping at home, which is where his bike is, several hours away in the French part of Switzerland, which is why Melanie and I got to become bike transporters. Do you see where this is going?? It's going to the French part of Switzerland!!
On Monday morning, Marie-Helen, Melanie and I went to Locarno (or was it Lugano?? Ugh why do the names have to be so similar? No, I'm almost sure it was Locarno) and took a cable car part of the way up a mountain and went hiking with some of the most incredible views I've ever seen.
We made it to the top!
The Alp flowers are so pretty. My favorites are the yellow ones but the pinks ones aren't so bad either :)
The fearsome trio!
We hiked back down the the cable car and had a picnic while watching people launch themselves off the mountain into the sky
After our hike, Melanie and I hopped the train to Sierre, where Marie-Helen's brother, Andre, lives in the French part of Switzerland. Andre and his wife Rikke have four kids, but the two youngest girls were away visiting their grandparents and Adrian was away camping so their oldest daughter Caroline, who is nineteen invited her cousin Noemi to come stay the night which was awesome as they are both super fun and energetic. It was funny, Melanie and I got off the train and were looking around to exit the platform when we heard "Yooohooo!!" and saw two girls waving excitedly. It was a good way to be picked up, especially because Noemi was driving her mom's Alpha Romeo.
After an amazing dinner the four of us went on a little walk to one of the castles and then down to this cool little lake.
The one on the left is Caroline. She's super sweet and energetic
On Tuesday, we had to catch a train at 1:30 and we had a few hours in the morning so we went to a nearby little town and went shopping. Shopping with Caroline and Noemi is dangerous though, because they have really good taste and help you find the cutest things, which you obviously need, even if you don't. :) We had a grand old time wandering through the stores and admiring the little town.
Before we got too carried away shopping, we went to the castles which sounded very posh and French
There are vineyards everywhere- even in the roundabouts, I kid you not. Wherever there is a square inch of space, there is a family vineyard. Lots of people own them so they can make their own wine
Three of the coolest girls ever in one of the coolest places ever
On the left is Noemi, in the middle is Caroline, and on the right is Caroline's mom, Rikke. I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of Andre as well, but we will be seeing them all in a couple weeks so maybe I'll get one then
The train ride back was really pretty but also an adventure because we had Adrian's bike which proved challenging at times because the train doors are really narrow and we both had bulging backpacks and purses to carry as well. Also, some of the train cars don't have bike holders and on one train we got on (we had to switch trains multiple times) only the first and last carridges had bike slots. That being said, we accidentally got on the back carrige instead of the front one and consequently had to sprint from the last car to the first at one stop because they were taking off the last two cars.
What I like about trains is that the time passes so much quicker than in a plane, but I guess that's to be expected with views like we were seeing. I'm afraid I have a terribly romanticized notion of trains (thanks to Harry Potter and Narnia and the like) and Switzerland has done nothing to dispel this idea
Do you think this is where Munster cheese comes from?
Rikke was so sweet she gave us water bottles and waffles to eat on the train. So random, but so good :) This was another one of those surreal moments for me- how many people can say they've eaten waffles while riding a Swiss train?
It's interesting because I'm so used to hearing Italian that I felt like I was letting lingual whiplash, because we went from Italian to German to French to German back to Italian, all the while hoping someone knew English. Whew! It was amazing though, to be able to see a different part of Switzerland and how different it can be just a short distance away. At home, 5 hours will take you across the state but here, 5 hours will take you across the country.
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