Ich liebe dich

Guten tag from Mainz in Germany. Its wet and cold here today but we are all snuggled down in Jenny's apartment. We arrived here yesterday after an eventful week visiting friends, the Swiss Alps, a few Swiss towns and Lake Konstance. First up after Scott and Flo´s was Valerie and Francöis, who we met on our trip in Syria two years ago. They have had a baby, Julie, since we last saw them so it was really fun to meet and play with her. We also saw some other family friends, Grant, Sara and little Sienna. Yes, LOTS of babies in one week!
It was so nice to hang out in the warm weather, in retrospect of the weather to come for us, and go for a swim in the local pool where Lachie managed a few laps in between getting sun burnt. Next stop was Lauterbrunnen, near Interlaken, in the Swiss Alps. Beautiful! Cascading waterfalls, glaciers, rushing rivers and some of Switzerland's largest mountains as the backdrop. And then...it started to rain and rain and rain. Nonstop for over 24hours. A bit of disaster in the old trusty transit! But we made it through, relieved when the sun finally came out on our last day revealing some spectacular scenery of Jungfrau and the Eiger. On the rainiest day we visited Luzerne. Which would have been nice if any of the shops were open and the rain stopped! We spent most of the day in the local brewery sampling the finest Swiss beers. So on our last day we went for a scenic little hike up to Mürren, partly for the views and partly to keep frostbite off our toes...amazing views!
On next to Bern, a beautiful city to realise that we are starting to get low on funds, hence the photo below of us not so happily eating McDonald's for the first time on this whole trip. Switzerland is expensive! Otherwise Bern is a very cool city, onwards we went to Lake Constance on the Swiss/German borders via Basel. Basel-nice but wet. Constance- nice. We got to Jenny's last night and leaving tomorrow morning for a big drive up to Berlin with Jenny in tow. Looking forward to it! Especially after looking at the weather report for the next week- rain, rain and more rain! Onwards we go! Little Julie

Saying goodbye to Valarie, poor Francois was hard at work

Little Miss Sienna

hehe...

Rugging up at our campsite in Lauterbrunnen

Lachie looking happy in wet Luzerne

The covered bridge in Luzerne

The spectacular view from our campsite in Lauterbrunnen

On our little hike up to Mürren

In Mürren

Beautiful Bern

Eating a cheap meal at McDonald's in Bern

Lake Constance

In the town of Constance