Guggisberg, Switzerland - The Alps!

There are no words to describe the beauty and the peace of the Alps.  Once you visit, you'll know what I mean.

The view from the playground.

Guggisberg, Switzerland - The Town

Population 1500 (and mostly in the surrounding hills), Guggisberg is truly a quaint hamlet, nestled inbetweens mountains, a green and relaxing retreat.  There is one small hotel, but Sara and I only stayed for a few hours, wandering among the houses and cemetery, continually in awe of the view and being in the homeland.

We had no idea what the first word meant, but we did get "Tourism Bureau."  Being in the German-speaking part of Switzerland without a German speaker made things a bit difficult, but Sara was able to find someone that knew French.

Chocolat froid for a mid-morning snack!

The bubbles on our cold chocolates just slay me.  So cute!

We found the playground!  And I'm sure everyone thought we were nuts.  Yes, we were the crazy American girls.

This slide was no joke.  Not for the weak.  

Now, I will say, there is a hilarious video of me trying to dance to "Sound of Music" -- but the first time I did it, I danced in real time and fell flat on my bum after hitting a particularly dew-y patch.  The second time I decided to twirl in slow motion.  Pure cinematic gold.

The photographer, hard a work.

Guggisberg, Switzerland - The Church

In 1856, my maternal grandfather's great grandfather Gottlieb came to the US and settled in Minnesota, as a Territorial Pioneer (Minnesota was a territory between 1848 and 1858, when it entered the Union as a state). 

Gottlieb and Marianna had Henry, who was six years old during the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862.

Henry grew up to be a bit of a ladies' man, having three wives, and divorcing the third after only four years of marriage (the things a simple family tree can tell you!).  His first wife Caroline had Harvey in 1896. 

 Harvey married Margaret (also known as Great Grandma), and they had their third child, my grandfather Donald, in 1923.  This is a photo of grandma, great grandma, grandpa, and then all of my cousins...I'm the one in the baby carrier, looking cute as a button.

The family tree I have from the Swiss side goes all the way back to 1558 (God bless Swiss neutrality), and is full of names like Bendicht, Hans, Elisabeth, Barbara (in the 1500s, not kidding), Hieronimus, and Anna. 

And while we don't know exactly where my relatives lived or went to church, standing in the sight of the steeple in Guggisberg, framed by the Alps, well, I didn't quite know what to do with myself.  Despite Guggisberg being a sleepy town, with no one under the age of 50, no stores, no gas station, nothing...I could never live there, but it just felt right to finally stand there, in the middle of nowhere, knowing that at some moment in time, a relative stood exactly where I stood and saw the same mountains I did. 

The altar was off center, a somewhat strange design to one used to symmetrical churches.

A photo of one of the church bulletins.  I loved this woodcut of the church. 

Montreaux to Guggisberg!

Morning dawned sans fog over the Alps, so I finally got a clear view!

Stunning!

While I was continually astonished by the ease of travel in Switzerland, I could do without the rushing, and this morning was all about the running to catch trains, buy tickets, get money from the ATM (Switzerland is EXPENSIVE), running to catch another train...oy.  But!  Breakfast!

The cute little bus that took us to Guggisberg!  

Important pronounciation detail...here in the states, it's Goog-iss-berg.  In Switzerland, it's Goog-eese-bhairg.

Trip from Montreaux to Guggisberg

A.  Hostel in Montreaux
(bus)
B.  Montreaux
(local train)
C.  Lausanne
(train)
D.  Berne
(local train)
E.  Schwarzenburg
(bus)
F.  Guggisberg

I think the most amazing part of this morning was that, although we left early, and although some connections were only two minutes, we were in the middle of nowhere 100 miles away from our starting destination, in the Alps, two and a half hours later.  Magic. 

If you're curious, the trip cost 55 francs (55 CHF = 55 Swiss francs; the CHF stands for Confoederatio Helvetica Franc, also known as what Switzerland calls itself).  This ends up in today's exchange rate to be about $60.  To be fair, this was just the ride to get there, the ride to get back to Bern and then on to Interlaken was about the same price, so the day's three buses and five trains cost $120. 

A night at the Montreaux Jazz Festival

....starts (obviously) holding a wet bathing suit in a convenience store, swaddling beers like they're your children.

Free concert on the hill.

Post-concert Pimm's Cup

Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the band Queen, was a part of the rock and jazz scene in the Montreaux Jazz Festival's early days.