The Swiss Pics

Adam and I decided to depict the painting on the sidewalk in Lausanne, Switzerland.

 On the tour at Grueye Cheese Factory, we were able to see the aging process. ha! We did not see anything occurring because the cheese is their for about ten to fifteen months.

 Cailler chocolate is among the best chocolate in the world. It is by far my favorite chocolate in Europe.

 The valley of Lauterbrunnen!

 Our hotel in Wengen!

Though this is not the day we climbed, this was the mountain. You can see the top from the above picture of our hotel.

 The group that conquered the mountain.

 This is how beautiful it was towards the top. Almost looks like a painting. The valley reminded me of Yosemite except a little more green.

 Our group split up into two. I was in the leading group.

 The day after the long hike, I decided to go on another hike towards the valley. I hiked down this simple road to Lauterbrunnen.

 On my way down the mountain, I cam across this little path that lead to a barn.

 The valley floor.

 This is one of the waterfalls that I hiked to. The waterfalls were more like mist, but they were beautiful.

 Another view of the valley floor.

Heaven on Earth

The past couple of days can be categorized as a vacation from the vacation. The 26^th of May was considered the longest drive of our lives. We left Paris around nine am and did not arrive t our destination until eight am. We were in a town called Multin (sorry for the misspelling because I was not paying attention to were we actually ended up).  This town was about twenty minutes outside of Bern, Switzerland. Some of us walked through the old town to only find discouragement. The town was pretty, but the food was around 40 franks a plate. Adam, Butters, Sarah, Ashlyn, and I walked down to the waterfront to see if we could find food, but we only found hotel restaurants that charged too much for a simple entrée. After twenty minutes, we walked back to our hotel and found a restaurant that served pizza and hamburgers. After eating, we headed back to the hotel and partied. Ha! The party consisted of everyone waiting in line for the single computer that had the Internet. We also ate all the candies that near the receptionist desk. Ha!

The next morning, we were back on the road. I can speak for all of us when I say that we were all ready to leave the hotel. The hotel had flies everywhere as well as bugs that would crawl through window when it was open. Because the window could not be open, we were suffering. It was boiling in our rooms. The drive to Wengen was not bad. We made two stops on the way. Two business visits actually. We first stopped at a cheese factory. The whole process was fascinating, but it was not appealing. I felt more like a child than at Cadbury World. Towards the end of the audio tour we were given cheese that was six month, eight month, and ten month. I did not enjoy the smell or the taste of any of them. I wish I had never tasted one of them because they had a nasty aftertaste.  Following the cheese factory, we traveled to the opposite side of the valley to a chocolate factory. I forget the name, but I have concluded that it is among the greatest chocolate my taste buds have ever experienced.  The tour was much like of Cadbury except that this tour was more grownup. The company was more mature. We did not receive as many samples during the tour as we did at Cadbury, but when we came to the end, we finished in a sample room. The chocolate lining the tables and we could try around twenty different variations of this chocolate. I loved each of them except for the ones with nuts. Most people stop eating chocolate when they think of milk, but I kept on eating until I really needed a liquid to help with the process. Ha!  Like most tours, we ended up in the store. We found a sign that read six for five. We all thought that it was sic for five franks, but we were all wrong when we found ourselves at the cash register. It was six bars for the price of five. Ha! Great marketing scheme. Ha! I did not regret my choice because that chocolate is delicious especially when you are towards the end of the bar and you feel satisfied. Ha!

Have you ever felt like shouting our your excitement? This is how I felt when we drove through Lauterbrunnen. I felt like I was in Yosemite. What was even more amazing was the fact that we had Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday in this area. I felt like I truly found heaven on earth. The landscape cannot we explained in words or pictures, but I will provide pictures because it will do better justice than my words. If I had Jaclyn with me, she could explain it in words, but I was not given that talent. We were forced to unload the bus and take a train up to Wengen. The only way to access this town is either by foot or train. AS we ascended the mountain, I became more speechless. I was taking pictures, but most of them did not turn out because of the raindrops on the windows. However, when we arrived to the top of the mountain, we had a view that was worth millions of words. My word of choice was flabbergasted. Luckily, our hotel was only a hundred feet from the hotel because I did not want to drag my luggage around this town.

We dropped our luggage and toured the town for the night. We mainly were searching for food, but of course the food that looked good was not in our price range. Most of us ate at a local restaurant that served hamburgers and chicken nuggets. Ha! After dinner, the hotel was kind enough to extend the hours of the spa area. A majority of us spent time in the hot tubs and the steam room. Ha! The steam room was amazing. The scent of the room was of peppermint oil, which feels quiet good when it soaks into your body.

Saturday was among my favorite days this whole trip. There were several activities that we could have done, but we all decided to hike instead of spending money. The hike was beautiful. The views were amazing. I took 140 pictures alone on this hike. I could have taken a lot more, but I did not. I held myself back because I did not want to drop my camera. The landscape was easy to navigate, but once we reached the avalanche guards, the ground became saturated. It had snowed the night before, so it was now mud. We were slipping and stumbling as we crawled up the mountain. We finally reached the top and felt like we accomplished the impossible. Ha! The front group consisted of Sus, Michelle, Adam, Jon, Cortney, Butters, Rogelio, Bristal, Sarah, Ashlyn, Christina, and I. We had such a fun time. The top of the mountain was chilly because we had finally stopped moving.  Food and water tasted like a delectable treat for my worn body. Thirty minutes go by and people feel like they want to head back down the mountain, so we all decided to descend; however, a group picture was necessary. We asked an English couple to take the photo of us.

Sarah and I decided to take the easy way down, so we walked over to the cable car to only learn that it did not open till June 10^th.  Sad day! Ha! On our way down the mountain we had a good conversation about each other’s lives. I love talking to Sarah because she converses well. She also laughs when it is not necessarily funny, but I except the fact that she thought it was funny. Ha! As we reached the outer boundary of Wengen, we ran into Adam, who was reading Catching Fire. We found him on a bench looking out for a field and some cottages. Next to his backpack was a water bottle full of stream water. The water in this area was some of the best water I had tasted this whole trip. Ha! The girls were worried that it would be bad for our body, but so far we have seen no side effect.

The rest of the night was filled with card games as well as piano sing-a-longs. We did spend significant amount of time in the hot tubs because of the current state of our body.

Sunday was special. Because of our location we could not travel to a chapel. We held our own meeting in of the rooms on the first floor. It was a meeting I will never forget. Jon, Janelle, Ashlyn, and I sang Lead, Kindly Light. It was amazing. I felt the spirit so strongly. We also heard from professor Kimball about how it is okay to cry when you are lonely and looking for guidance because people run to your side and assist you. Sometimes we did to express what we are going through because there are people around us that can help us.  The meeting also consisted of a testimony meeting. The spirit was so strong that I could not help myself, so I bore my testimony concerning trials. I used the mountain as my analogy and how I tried to take the easy way down instead of the difficult path.

After the meeting, we all broke off. People were heading to the waterfalls and others were staying at the hotel. I did not want to do either, so I went on a walk by myself. I ended up walking down the mountain to the valley where I was able to walk to some waterfalls as well as see the valley in all of its glory. I loved it. I seriously felt like I was in Yosemite again with my family. I took many pictures because again I cannot describe what I was experiencing. While I was walking around I stumbled upon Rogelio. Ha! It was funny. We spent the rest of the time walking around and talking about the creations surrounding. We talked about many topics, but I cannot remember what they were. After about an hour, we walked back to the trial, but Rogelio took me a different way. On our way though, we run into Lucas our bus driver. We talked with him and learned about his life. He grew up in South Africa and decided one day to move to Holland.

The hike up the mountain was so hard because my legs were exhausted from the previous day’s hike. We made it though. Back at the hotel, we relaxed and played games outside. Sarah and I played a very intense game of chess on the outside. I kept getting annoyed with people telling her what to do. Ha! It was pretty funny, but I felt bad. Some how moved the game into stallment even though I was dominating the game. Ha! It was a great way to end because I did not want to make Sarah my enemy. After the chess game, we went to the hotel restaurant and had dinenr as a group.

The night was much like the previous night. Tonight was a little bit different because Adam was entertaining us with mission stories. Ha! The night did come to an end and when it did, I was thankful because I was tired from the two hikes. 

The perfect day

Christina and I one our way to Versailles!

The whole gang except for a couple of people in front of Versailles!

Sarah, Adam, and I thought that we would become the art inside the Chateau. The hall of mirrors depicted our bodies very well.

This was by far the best hall I have been in. Out of all the art museums and architectural structures, I loved this room. Even though it was of French victories, I enjoyed the paintings as well as the infrastructure.

Rogelio and I with some nice hats!

I was so lost in the gardens that I was constantly checking my map. However, the Grand Canal behind me was a good indicator of where I was.

We be fly! I do not think you can find a better looking group of dudes! ha!

Versailles from our rowboat, which only cost me three Euro. It cost 11 Euro for a half-an-hour.

I was having so much fun rowing!

Heather and I  spending some moments in front of the gardens!

Arc de Triomphe from the Eiffel Tower!

The girls could not resist what I had to offer. Honestly, I had nothing to offer, but the girls could not resist me!

Sarah especially could not resist me! Adam was admiring the success that I had!

5/23/11

 If I could pick a favorite day this trip, it would be today.  Everything worked out perfectly. Even though there was some resistance and we lost some people along the way, it was well worth it.  The morning began at Mercer. Mercer deals with investments, consulting, and outsourcing. During the meeting, I wrote down some notes because Paris is a very unique place to work. France is one of the most productive countries in the world; however, the average person works about 20-25 years. The country also requires five mandatory vacation weeks, which honestly does not sound bad. Most of the time you can take eight weeks off. Also, the average workweek is around 35 hours. Even though the above information is interesting, I will explain why working in Paris is nice. Every company provides a company car. They have this 2/7 deal where you only pay for weekend use. Also, if you have more than two kids you are paid 825 EU a month for each child.  The company receives tax breaks if they look more family oriented.  However, the downside to Paris is their labor force. France does not fire people that often. When you fire someone, you must pay them for two more years. You may be able to negotiate or take to courts, but the courts favor the employees. This issue causes slackers to stay in the system, which could end up hurting the company more than if they had to pay them.

Following Mercer, a group of us walked over to the grocery store near our hotel. We all planned on going to Versailles today, so we thought it would be fun to have a group picnic. Once the items were purchased, we made our way to the hotel where we quickly changed from business casual to touristy outfits. After five minutes of prepping, I made my way down to the lobby where I joined the others. As soon as we got everyone together, we headed to Versailles. We had to take the train to get there, since it was outside of the city. From the train we walked to the Chateau. The Chatteau was not as impressive as the Louvre, but the gates in front where sold gold, which is not too shabby. I would not mind having those outside of my estate when I am older. We all entered the Chateau and quickly broke into groups of two to five. I was with Ashlyn, Adam, Sarah, Butters, and Heather. The Chatteau was not impressive in my book. The hall of mirrors was not the hall of mirrors that I wanted it to be, but there is a hallway that is lined with huge paintings of French victories. It was by far the best room in the Chateau.

As we were exciting the Chatteau, we ran into Regilo, Shardae, Christina, Bristal, Luke, and Michelle. We looked around for the other four couples before we decided to head into the gardens. It was three at this point and we did not want to wait till four to enter the gardens. So we went without them. We knew that John and Cort would be fine as well as Cory and Jack. However, we did not know how Kandace and Chad would take the separation. Hmm!

The gardens were amazing. We made our way down the hundred step stairs where we found this nice patch of grass to eat lunch on. We were there for about an hour because most of us decided to take naps. Afterwards, we wandered around and took hundreds of pictures. We ended up running into Jack and Cory who were heading home. Our initial target was the Marie Antionette’s estate, but we would never make there in time. Instead, we took a rowboat out onto the Grand Canal, which was so much fun. The rowboat made Versailles that much cooler. Around 6:30 we began walking back to the entrance of the Chatteau and then to the train station. We were all excited for our next event, which was the Eiffel Tower.

Before the Eiffel tower, we went to a pizza near the grass areas. It had Rick Steve’s all over the windows, so we decided to try it. I still do not know if they were lying or telling the truth. The pizza was pretty good. At the base of the Eiffel Tower, Ashlyn, Christina, and Shardae decided they were not going to join. The rest of us decided to climb the stairs up until we could take the elevator to the top. We saved about 4 EU. We watched the sun go down as well as watch it sparkle three times. Total time spent on the Eiffel Tower = three hours. We spent the most time on the top taking pictures, which will we represented in this post because some of them are hilarious.

We arrived home a little bit after 12, but we did not care because we could sleep in the next morning due to our business visit at 12.

Can I get a hot tub?!

My love for Paris was strengthened today. The layout of the buildings and urban planning of the city is spectacular. The day began with our 25 EU breakfast at the hotel. I will never get tired of food as long as it is prepared the way it is here. Following breakfast, a group of us headed to the pantheon. On our way over, we lost Regillo, but there was no need to worry. He speaks french. As we were taking a group pictures on the steps of the Pantheon, we saw this person running towards and yelling, wait for me. ha! It was hilarious.

The Pantheon is amazing! The architecture is amazing and the paintings are incredible. It is one of my favorite buildings so far in Paris. I do not think I will find one that can top it. It is hard to describe the initial shock of the building, but it just feels unbelievable that someone could design and carry out a project like this one. By the way, our museum pass was amazing. It is nice having to just buy a four day pass and then flashing it to the guards when we want to enter a site.

Soon after the Pantheon, we headed to the Muse Du Louvre. The art, sculptures, etc, numbered in the thousands. Sarah, Ashlyn, Adam, Michelle, and I spent about three hours wondering around and looking at the various time periods. I especially enjoyed the Neo Classical rooms because I studied most of these paintings already and it was fun to see them up close. The Mona Lisa is not that impressive. Sure it is a nice painting, but there are masterpieces surrounding it. Right across from it is the painting called the wedding, which blew my mind. It stretched from wall-to-wall and from ceiling-to-floor. It was incredible. How can someone spend that much time on a painting, especially since you can not see the whole painting in front of you while you are painting. The Louvre was amazing! I wish I could have spent more time, but I honestly could not have lasted any longer. My legs were tired. Looking at art for that long also makes you tired. My group meet up with Cory, Jack, Kandace, Chad, and Regillo in the gardens. We were just relaxing and having a good time when we all decided to walked down Champ Elysees.

The street is amazing! Parks on either side, followed by shopping. Regilo, Heather, Luke, and I went shopping for a bit, but we could not find anything that we wanted. The prices also helped in our decision making. We did stop in some car dealerships because they looked sweet. We quickly grabbed something for dinner and then walked over to the Arc De Triomphe. The Arc was amazing. We got there as soon as the ceremony for the Unknown Soldier had finished. I loved how you could see Napoleon's Arc, Arc De Triomphe, and then the Grand Arc in the financial district. The views from up above were worthwhile. I was taking pictures from whichever direction I could. Took some modeling shots as well shots near do not tan signs. Regilo, Cory, and I tanned at the gardens of the Louvre.

Following the Arc, we made our way to the Eiffel tower, which cannot be described in words. I could not believe I was even close to the structure. I felt like I was just in San Francisco and looking at a statue. However, this time it was real. We did not plan to go up, but we did plan taking pictures and staying till it sparkled. We walked around and took several pictures. Maybe even a hundred pictures. At ten o'clock we watched it sparkle for five minutes. If you have not seen it before, you must go on the hour to watch it light up as well as sparkle. It looks like hundreds of people taking flash photos.

Our night soon ended with a metro ride home where I now find myself typing away on my blog. I will talk to you tomorrow! Have a good night!

J'aime Paris

Paris has been one of the most beautiful cities we have visited yet. I have enjoyed every second of the day thus far. Even my hotel room is a fantastic place to spend some time. ha! Today began with church, which means a different language. We walked into the chapel where we sat for a while before we realized there was a room for English. We were given headphones, but I was not into them because it was annoying to be hearing both English and French. After an hour of meetings, I changed rooms and walked into the English room with Butters and Adam. The ward was having ward conference today, so it was a two hour meeting followed by sacrament meeting. I enjoyed church because it was interesting to see how another ward functions. The church is the same no matter where you go. While we were there we ran into the Paris study abroad group. They were a fun bunch of people to talk to. Most of them were girls, so it was nice to flirt with them and learn about the area.

A decision was made to walk over to Notre Dame since we were next door. We began walking towards the island, but once on the island we headed towards Sainte-Chapelle instead of Notre Dame, which is on the other side of the island. We finally made it the Dame and we debated whether or not to go inside. We ended up touring the beautiful Cathedral, which was full of dust. Afterwards, we walked outside and waited in line for the tower. We got in line with a study abroad group from BYU Idaho. It was pretty fun. I meet probably 25 people from that group. The views from Notre Dame are gorgeous. I am glad, I purchased my camera because it takes amazing pictures. Notre Dame was checked off the list, so we headed to our next site, Sainte-Chapelle.






We bought a museum pass at Notre Dame tower for 50 Euro, which gets us into all the museums for free for four days. It also covers Versailles, but it does not cover the Eiffel tower. The pass got us into the Chapelle right when it was closing. We also skipped the line with the pass, which is another benefit of the pass. The Chapelle was breathtaking. I good not believe my eyes. The whole building was covered in stain glass and was beautiful. I could spend so much time inside there, but I did not because I felt my stomach.

We left the Chapelle and walked over to Luxemburg gardens, which were amazing! I have never seen such a prettier peace of land. People were relaxing on the steps, chairs, grass, and fountain. It was a site to behold. We took a thirty minute break before we continued on. I walked around the whole time, snapping pictures. It five blocks up from a Crepe shop that we ate for dinner. Crepes were good, but I do not think it can beat the shop in Santa Monica. ha! Food was yummy after 20 hours of no food. My day ends there. I am in the hotel listening to music with Ashlyn. Until next time!

 Here are a couple pictures of Notre Dame. From within the cathedral and from the lower landing of the bell tower. The gargoyle makes the picture! Here is a picture of myself with the Eiffel tower in the back ground! I love Paris!

 Here is another classic photo of Kandace and I. Probably not the best one we have taken, but it is up there. ha! Expect to see more of these. We plan on taking one every day or at least in a new city or romantic site. ha! By the way, Grandpa and Dad win with the best comment concerning Kandace! Thank you for your comments!

 This is towards the back of Notre Dame on the island across the bridge in the back. The ice cream is amazing. I would tell you to find it when you are near Notre Dame.

These locks are found on a bridge on the backside of Notre Dame. They symbolize a marriage. A couple will write there names on the lock and then throw the key in the water.