Moving to Engelberg...

Don't be fooled by the title. We are not moving to Engelberg. Yet. I was thinking maybe we should though, and I want to figure out how. It's kind of amazingly beautiful. Like really, really, really, beautiful. One of the more beautiful places I have ever been. Hands down.

The glacier Titlis is the rocky mountain face on the far right - the other side has snow.

I love the mountains, the great outdoors. I feel invigorated by their presence, energized by the fresh air, ready to take on the world! We woke up after our first night at Ski Lodge Engelberg (a hotel on of Martin's old buddies helped start), with Martin hacking up a lung (turns out he had bronchitis) and I had a really sore lower back. Not to mention our son weighs 35 pounds (nearly 16 kilos), so that's a lot of weight to carry around those rather large hills for 2 sadly out of shape parents. So we did things the really easy way (took the cable car up and down), and spent our time enjoying the views rather than putting our delicate health at even more at risk.

Simon bouncing a mile high!

Beyond the magnificent views, there is one other thing that stands out about visiting Switzerland - the prices. The Swiss franc is strong against the Euro, which means that it's expensive for those living and working in the Eurozone. (But not so for Swedes, for example, who use the Swedish kronor.) This might partly explain why we hardly noticed any other Eurozone tourists. It's easy to distinguish the Swiss as they speak their own Swiss-German dialect. But other tourists were few and far between. Given that Germany, Austria, Italy, and France all have pieces of the Alps, it does make sense to travel in the plethora of other amazing mountain villages that are more affordable. And maybe it was the absence of such tourists that made the place all the more pleasant....

The weather was ideal, with clear views and warm mountain sun. I really didn't want to leave. I wanted to traipse through the woods, huff and puff and be rewarded with magnificent views, discover crystal clear mountain lakes. Instead I left kicking and screaming with promises that we will some day return, sans kids.

More pics are part of this album here.