XIV. Climbing mountains

   I am very pleased to announce that I have finally seen some of Switzerland in this past week or so. As this was my first week off of school I got to sleep in almost everyday, and I went with my host family to various places. And, yes, as I promised, I finally have more pictures. They can pretty much speak for themselves.

This panorama view was taken from the top of a mountain called Chäserrugg.

This is a little blurry, but you might see the little plate that says 100. We climbed "The Thousand Steps" which is only like 10 minutes from where we live.

Don't be deceived. That is only one small section of the steps, and that is definitely not the top.

"Mr. No-Face" (aka my host brother) didn't want his picture taken.

That is the top. After over about 1200 steps. Whew!

"Hinter dem Wald ist Vordemwald." 

Translation: "Behind the forest is Vordemwald (where I live)" 

but "Vordemwald" literally means "in front of the forest" so:

"Behind the forest is in front of the forest."

Yup.

This is the view from the Thousand Steps in case you didn't figure that out.

Some kind of crackers that we had to munch on.

My family!

You can just barely see the outline of the Alps. They seriously look like clouds.

Top of Chäserrugg.

It was kind of flat on the top, but don't worry; this was still thousands of feet in the air.

Stein am Rhein

Rhine River

Rhine Falls

I look scared, but Timon... looks like he's yawning in the face of danger.

We ate at McDonald's, and I puzzled over Swiss American French fries. They still taste the same.

This is one of the lakes around Lucerne.

We climbed another mountain called the Rigi, and this is the view from about 3 quarters up.

Seriously reminded me of the train "I think I can!"

Still not the top but getting closer.

And... the spectacular view from the top. A little unfortunate that we were in a cloud. It cleared by the time we got down.

Lake Lucerne (In German the name is something completely different, but I can't remember what it is.)

In Lucerne. We didn't spend much time there, but we did walk around a little.

This is me in front of a lion that I am sure has some significant importance, but I really have no idea what that is. It's pretty though...

The countryside

This is in a town called Rapperswil near St. Gallen. I think that this building used to be a castle-like area.

One of the many lakes by Rapperswil

   Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the break from me writing extensively. 

   Differences: My host family has a washer for laundry, but they do not have a dryer, so we hang-dry all our laundry. 

   A drive of two hours is considered to be very very far away; in America I call 15 hours far.

   As for food, I've eaten more fondue now that it is really starting to get cool. I always wear socks inside because the floors are really cold. 

   I don't think that I mentioned before that every Sunday the Swiss eat a particular kind of bread called Zopf. It is white bread that is braided before it's baked. "Zopf" literally means braid. I really like it with Nutella and coffee for breakfast. :)