Beautiful Switzerland

Kathleen, Crystal, and I returned 7 days ago from a wonderful 15-day trip to Switzerland & the Alps -- the "homeland" of both of our extended families.  After an 8-day guided bus tour throughout the country, we rented a car for the remainder of the trouble-free days seeing specific sights -- many related to our family and church history.  We stayed 3 nights/days with the extremely gracious Peter and Hanni Klopfenstein in their rental apt. above their home in the mountain village of Adelboden.  They operate a Photo Shop specializing in making and selling Switzerland scenic postcards (which we saw for sale throughout the country) and are a prominent family in Adelboden. 

K saw the original farmstead of her grandfather and great-grandfather Bahler.  There we were met with open arms of the family who purchased the farm and now reside there since the late 1800's.  We also saw many gravestones bearing both of our family names as we vagabonded around that beautiful country which offers constant irresistible photo opportunities in every direction one looks.  The scenic beauty is beyond description and the infrastructure is magnificent (perfect highways, mountain tunnels, passenger trains, etc.) and the people are educated, "westernized" in every way, and very helpful and friendly to visitors. 

Pease bear with the long train of photos here, but I just couldn't quit showing "just one more"....of my hundreds of pictures.  My camera battery was dead at the end of each day! 

 This is not a postcard or mural...it is the window flower-box on the balcony of the Klopfenstein Apartments overlooking the snowcapped Alps, outside our room in Adelboden.

On top of the highest and longest ski-lift in Switzerland, at the Jungfrau mountain.

To get to the top, one had to take 3 back-to-back lifts, transferring one to another.

That's the village at the bottom of the valley in the middle of the picture.

 

Our hosts, Hanni and Peter Klopfenstein, Jr. who operate the family Photo Shop

 on the main street in Adelboden.

 

Markus Klopfenstein, uncle of Peter, looking at photos of himself with

 my parents and Vic & Jean Rich in Adelboden in 1998.

 

Crystal and I sitting on the very same bench that Jean, Vic and Dad sat on in 1998.  Note the name on the bench!  The tower is an old military tower from the 12th century!!  Things in Switzerland are OLD!

 

 

Milk cows (with cowbells) grazing at 6,000 ft. above sea level.

 

Kathleen beside one of the many "family" gravestones we saw...

 

The very shy Klopfenstein daughters of Hanni and Peter K.

in front of the family Photo Shop.

 

 

Kathleen loved the flowers in Switzerland.  They were everywhere -- and beautiful.

 

A typical example of thousands of neat, flowery homes that dot the vast mountain foothills.

Note the old lady mowing her yard.

 

 

Absolutely gorgeous!!  And this river and buildings are pretty, too!

 

(Bern, Switzerland -- the capital city and area where many of our

acquaintances originate from)