reporting from the swiss alps

more photos in my facebook album, but a quick rundown here:

thursday was rental car day. we drove around appenzellerland and stopped for a wanderweg up to a castle. we were the only ones there and just explored for about an hour. truly amazing. appenzellerland is absolutely beautiful, and even more so this time because we had blue skies. we spent the afternoon walking through the country side on something called a "barefussweg" which translates as "bare foot walk." we literally took our shoes off and and hiked through farms and villages for about 5 miles. i got sunburnt, but it was worth it. absolutely amazing. by the end of the day, my feet were pretty ugly, annie said she was grateful for shoes. :) it was really fun though. we ended the day at the st. gallen ikea for meatballs. not quite as good as i remember. good thing i wasn't too hungry!

friday was a long train ride into grindelwald where we set up shop in our apartment for the week. we went grocery shopping and just admired the view.

saturday was spend riding up a mountain called first (fearst) then hiking up to the bachalpsee and then hiking down MOST of the mountain. it's at 7000 ft, so we hiked a good deal that day. we were beat, but it was SO beautiful. i took far too many photos, but really, can you take too many in the alps? the wildflowers were at their peak this time. july is the time to be hiking if you're into wildflowers :)

today we didn't make the train into interlaken for church, so we went to a outdoor museum called ballenburg. it's kind of like williamsburg in the states. they've taken a bunch of original buildings from all over the country and brought them together to show the history of the land in one place. they have animals and exhibits, as well as live demonstrations. a very nice way to spend your sunday.

and now the kids are engrossed in the world cup. they have fallen hard for it. go holland they say :)