We were in Switzerland just two weekends before this one, but we did not take time to see much besides the temple near Bern, so we decided that we would return and experience some of Switzerland's cities and spend some time with my Swiss Host Families who I lived with for a year as a 16 year old exchange student back in 2010-2011. I was an exchange student with Rotary Youth Exchange, and my first steps in the German language were made living with these families in Rottenschwil, Switzerland. Just like many of the weekends this last semester, we started out at Vienna's main train station "Wien Hauptbahnhof".
Vienna Main Station
Around midnight on Thursday, we boarded a night train and woke up in Zurich! Here we are in front of the Zürich Hauptbahnhof. (Zurich Main Station)
We walked along Bahnhofstrasse which runs from the main station all the way down to lake Zürich. Bahnhofstrasse is famous for its shopping. The only traffic along the street are Zürich's iconic blue trams, and the sidewalks full of pedestrians.
We stopped in at Sprüngli and bought four of their Luxemburgerli macaroons. They aren't cheap, but they are delicious.
From Zürich, we made our way to Lucerne which is about a 40 minute train ride to the south. Lucerne is perhaps the most touristic city in Switzerland with it's old wooden bridge, and old city surrounded by mountains.
This is the Kapellebrüche, or Chapel bridge. It is the worlds oldest surviving Truss bridge and the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe.
This is the Löwendenkmal, or Lion Memorial in Lucerne it commemorates all of the Swiss Guard that were killed in the French Revolution in 1792 when the revolutionaries attacked the Tuileries Palace in Paris. From Lucerne we went to Wohlen to visit the Gymnasium school that I attended as an exchange student.
The school was open so we walked around the halls and showed Carli the different classrooms that I used.
The city of Bremgarten is an old Swiss town near Wohlen where I would often go with classmates for lunch, or to go to Zürich. There is a Döner Kebab place that has really good Döner.
This scene in Bremgarten is featured in a book I had that showed 100 panoramic photos of Switzerland. As an exchange student, we tried to visit as many of those 100 places as possible.
After walking around in Bremgarten, we went by train to Rotkreuz and got picked up by my Host dad Christian, and host sister Fabienne. With them we drove to their mountain home in Hasliberg which lays right in the heart of Switzerland and the Swiss Alps.
We slept the night in this house, and around 4 am I woke up sick, but it wasn't that bad, because BYU had a football game at that time and I was able to stay up for a while listening to the game.
This is Ronja! Ronja and I share the same birthday, August 18th, and had a combined party in 2010 when I turned sixteen and she turned nine.
It was awesome to see everyone again, and to be able to practice my Swiss German.
The next morning, Carli, Christian and I went together to the Gletscherschlucht Rosenlaui which is a narrow gorge carved by glacial melt. Inside the gorge it was freezing and windy, but it was so beautiful.
There were hundreds of these rock stacks.
We loved our time in the mountains! And then we mad our way to Rottenschwil where a Pizza party at the Ernst's house was waiting. When I came back and visited in 2013 we had a pizza party and there was a double rainbow, and this time there was also one in the same spot!
This is one of my favorite places. Ralph, my third host dad built that pizza oven and has put it to good use.
Time Lapse of my pizza cooking.
And this spider we found chilling on the wall right by the table. Carli like him.
Since this weekend was General Conference, we downloaded some sessions and stayed Saturday night in Rottenschwil instead of catching a night train back to Vienna. We rode back all day Sunday. Here is a little video of the train cabin we rode in for the 7 hours between Zurich and Vienna.
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