The view from above

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday. We started the day off with breakfast at the hotel. In this hotel and the last they have both had the most amazing milk. It is so silly to comment on milk, but we just cant get enough of it. Maybe it is because it is full fat milk (and we are used to drinking skim) but it is amazing. Californians think they have happy cows, but they have nothing on Swiss cows. Yum yum!

After breakfast we were off to catch a cable car up to the top of the Schilterhorn, one of the highest mountains in this region and the filming location for a James Bond movie (on her majesties service). And the first landing place, we had to change to another cable car, which would take us up to the Schilterhorn. At the first landing the temperature was 1 degree celcius. Just so you know, that is cold! Once we reached top, we saw thick snow all around. In fact, there were two men who were helping to break up the snow with chainsaws. One man would slice the snow in blocks using the chainsaw, and the other would shovel it further down the hill. Quite fun to watch.

We had hoped to get up there early in the day, as the clouds tend to roll in during the afternoon. We did get an early start, but there were still a few clouds there. They moved often enough that we could peek at the mountains from time to time. It was beautiful and we shared a apple torte and hot chocolates in the revolving restaurant at the top. Once finished we hiked along the ridge outside, until it became a bit too dangerous to continue. In the summer time, you can actually do a 3.5hour hike from the top back to our village of Murren. We were hoping to do this, but with snow still covering some of the trail, Michelle was nervous that it was not a good idea. So we took the cable car back down.

This brings us to the less enjoyable portion of the day. So far we gave refrained from commenting on what are known as "ugly Americans" those tourists who are disagreeable in their manner or comments, or are offensive in their interactions that of makes you sad to be an American. We have a few stories to share, but one family visiting Murren took the cake. We had experienced them on our first day, and were not thrilled to see them in the co-op yesterday morning, not were we excited to see them on our cable car to the Shilthorn, or throughout the facilities at the top of the mountain. They seemed to follow us throughout our time there. We were very excited to get on the cable car to go home and to not see them there.

When we got home we grabbed our swim suits and headed over to the sports complex that had a pool and a spa. We enjoyed the facilities for a few hours. Back to the room for a bit of sleep and some food (sandwiches from the grochery store) and we ended the day with packing. We are on our way to Paris tomorrow, and we have no Internet connection in the hotel for the first night. Today will be travels to Paris, with us arriving around 7pm. There is hopes of laundry, and maybe a walk around the city, but we are not pushing much more. See you in a few days!