If 8 train rides seem a little ridiculous, you are right but we never planned it to be like that. And in case you were wondering how riding a gondola could take us up the Alps, do not be confused with the romantic boat gondola on the rivers of Florence. It is actually a ski lift that can hold all 27 of us and more with glass walls as it flies us across valleys and waterfalls to reach our stopping point in the midst of the Alps. We have become great friends w/ the gondolas as that is the only way to get around in the Alps besides walking (which we did plenty of as well). The view was "drop dead gorgeous" as Millie expressed not realizing she was holding hands with those who were afraid of heights. Luckily her expression was not too accurate in the literal sense.
I am sure you realize by now that our trip is actually over and already know all about our adventures now that your daughter/son/friend is home (except for my parents as I am still not home yet). But I am still going to finish off where we finished the trip, so feel free to keep reading in case my story is a little bit different than others oral account. But I am sorry for all of you who have been eagerly waiting to hear of our adventures without any reward for the past week. I guess you could say Switzerland was just that amazing I could not write to you.
So let me begin.
Our hotel was on a mountain that was surrounded by Mountains even higher. Mountains covered with snow. Our view from our rooms was exhilarating as one could gather by all our expresses when we first arrived, and one by one people stepped out onto their porch with using the same expression as "O MY GOD" (in the good sense). It was a sight to see with all of our heads poking over our little balcony's laughing and calling out to each other from excitement of our view.
Our first night started the same routine we would do every night while we were there. 6:30pm dinner at the hotel, in which they would serve us all the same meal with a soup, meat dish of some kind, and then desert. For not having an option for food, it was not all that bad and for the most part everyone ate everything off the plates. Even those who are more picky than others (we won't mention the trading of foods around or the hiding the spinach in the tarter sauce.....). We would end dinner every time at 8:10 than play some cards or rest in the lounge before we all met at 8:30pm for testimony's that would go until 10:30ish. One may think we young college students would complain about having our night taken away from us, but really there was nothing else to do after 5pm in the small town we were in.
Our first day we went hiking on the North Face trail where Dr. Afman and Tim Bumps secret talents were unveiled when our path was blocked by a few cattle. Tim Bump started playing with the cow, in which we all thought the cow was angrily head butting him (as we were running away naively according to the other cow experts in our group - in which I slipped on a lovely green cow pie...but it is okay because everyone had stepped on cow poop by the end of the hike anyways). So G-man stepped up to the cow and started whispering to the cattle, while we all walked past...I holding hands with Mary, G-man's wife, who was holding onto Millie, who was holding onto Lucas and etc. Tim just continued playing with the cows.
The rest of the path was perhaps not as exciting as dodging "stupid" cows, but it was just amazing! Wild flowers were everywhere (though no Edelweiss), which many ended up as bouquets or decorations in the girls hair. The beautiful, fragrant flowers covered the entire mountain side. It was as if "All had their faces and golden crowns turned down the mountains as if looking at valleys, multitudes upon multitudes of them, which no man could number, like a "great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12), all stooping forward to watch what was going on in the world below"(Hinds' Feet on High Places - it is the book I am reading for our PEA credit). We sang How Great Though Art in several different spots along the mountain side which could not have been any more appropriate, and filling me with such joy and praise as we all joined in unity - giving glory to the God who created everything our eyes could take in and more.
Later we had lunch at a restaurant on our path - that was owned by former California residents - and got $20 hamburgers. But the price was more for the scenery than the food. Then our group split up, those who went back to the town and those who continued up the steep path to Braig. And it was steep. But the view was just outstanding as the mountain sides continued to grow the more we climbed up. Beka, Elisabeth and I returned back down the mountain after an hour of intense incline. If we continued just 15 minutes more we would have hit snow and experienced Dash's first encounter with snow. But alas we had a great walk down surrounded in peace and tranquility and good conversation. The rest of the group that continued up - Ryan, Stephany
The next day we all hiked down the mountain + a gondola in the rain to see the most powerful waterfall I have seen up close, that was inside a mountain. It was more than amazing. The crevices and pathways that the water formed filled me with fear and I was safe on dry land (for the most part). In the book that I am reading, it is about one's journey of wretchedness and fear to glory and joy - from our selfish, natural lives to loving and being loved as God hopes and intended us to be. Though right now following the Lord may seem full of suffering or pointless - in the end where we will be filled with such glory and peace in the High Places, it makes every hard step worth it. That is where true love comes from, where self-giving is fueled. And that is where the books analogy (which takes place in Switzerland) of the Falls of Love - relates to one's own life and passion to follow our One True Love - applies with this very own waterfall I have mentioned.
"It is beautiful and terrible beyond anything which I ever saw.
Terrible...it is the leap which they have to make, the awful height from which they must cast themselves down to the depths beneath, there to be broken on the rocks. I can hardly bear to watch it."
"Look closer. Let your eye follow just one part of the water from the moment when it leaps over the edge until it reaches the bottom".
"Once over the edge, the waters were like winged things, alive with joy, so utterly abandoned to the ecstasy of giving themselves that she could almost have supposed that she was looking at a host of angels floating down on rainbow wings, singing with rapture as they went.
"It looks as though they think it is the loveliest movement in all the world, as though to cast oneself down is to abandon oneself to ecstasy and joy indescribable."
On reaching the rocks below, all the waters flowed together in a glorious host, forming an exuberant, rushing, torrent which swirled triumphantly around and over the rocks.
Laughing and shouting at the top of their voices, they hurried still lower and lower down through the meadows to the next precipice and the next glorious crisis of their self-giving.
"Self-giving is its life. It has only one desire, to go down and down and give itself with no reserve or holding back of any kind. you can see that as it obeys that glorious urge the obstacles which look so terrifying are perfectly harmless, and indeed only add to the joy and glory of the movement"(186-187).
"Brought like herself by the King to the Kingdom of Live and to the High Places so that they could now pour out their lives in gladdest abandonment, leaping down with Him to the sorrowful, desolate places below, to share with others the life which they had received.
She herself was only one drop among the glad, exultant throng of Self-givers, the followers of the King of Love, united with Him and with one another, each one equally blessed and beloved as herself." (253)
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