Back from Switzerland!

Hello! How has everyone been? I am currently dealing with a bit of jet lag, a slight cold, a giant pile of too-much-work in front of me, and a very large desire to return to Switzerland where my family and I spent all of last week. It was amazing. Honestly, it's kind of depressing to be writing this from back in boring ol' America. Haha.

We chose Switzerland because it checked the two boxes on our What To Do During Spring Break list: A short European vacation using nothing but credit card points (thanks hospitalization visit from last year!) and someplace with snow year-round which my two boys, being born and raised in Florida, have never really gotten to play around in. Was happy that both those things worked out.

I didn't do any drawing on this trip but I did take a LOT of of photos. And since I rarely share anything outside of my art on here, I thought, "Hey, why not? Let's open up!" So in the spirit of that but mostly just wanting to show a lot of cool mountain pics, a HUGE dump of Switzerland photos! Along with some commentary. Feel free to scroll as fast or as slow as you want. I'll be back to sharing new art with y'all later this week!

LUCERNE

Our first couple days in Switzerland we stayed in the small town of Meggen near the city of Lucerne. It was cold, cloudy and rainy but we made due. I loved the squished and pastel architecture in this city.

We walked through an ancient glacier...

Felt bad for this lion...

Greeted our variants while lost in a mirror maze...

Took in the views from a cable car taking us to the top of Mount Pilatus...

And got our picture there. :)

This is me dealing with the frigid temperature.

There were signs like this one all over various mountains. Kicking myself for not bringing any BG/SG or Space Cat stickers with me. Next time!

A rope course we ate lunch next to on the way down, closed for the season, but more magical looking as a result. I affectionally referred to this wooden wonderland as "Narnia."

Warming up with some hot melted chocolate drinks. We ate/drank sooooooooooooo much chocolate on this trip, you guys. So much.

VITZNAU

After our brief stay in Meggen, the bulk of our trip was staying at a mountain house near the foot of Mount Rigi, by Lake Lucerne. After that initial cloudy beginning, we lucked out with four straight days of clear skies and sunny weather. This was our view from the deck.

And for context, MY view; sipping tea, watching the ferry boats dock in and out.

Tracks for the rail train that we depended on for traveling up and down Rigi. It stopped at each station once every hour. Glad we were able to get some groceries in the town below or else we likely would have starved and that mediocre Fantastic Four drawing of mine would have been the last one you ever saw.

Spectacular views from the tippy-top of Rigi.

My wife, Jen, and her snowman.

My boys' snowman along with my futile attempt to carve my signature in the snow.

Look how happy this kid is to play in snow.

And this kid.

And this guy.

I just really like this pic.

My oldest accidentally lost his "new" (my old) phone at the top of of the mountain due to rolling down snow hills. He miraculously found it even without it connected to cellular! But the mishap caused us to miss the last train back down the mountain so, utilizing this incredibly useful navigation sign:

...We hiked a snowy trail down the mountain in hopes of catching a different train.

We didn't mind the hike. :)

MOUNT TITLIS

Midweek, we took a long multi-vehicle adventure to Mount Titlis, in the Uri Alps. First by boat...

Then by train and bus...

To cable car...

And finally to REVOLVING cable car! Wheee!

Boys are digging it.

We made it! Rocky peaks. Worth the trek.

We tube sledded, ate gelato, went through another glacier, and walked across a scary bridge. Yay acrophobia!

I also enjoyed watching these Alpine Chough, indigenous to up in the mountains (or so I was told by a nice elderly man tossing bread for them).

Even the views below the mountain were inspiring.

BRUNNEN

Our final full day on Rigi, we took a short trip to quaint, little Brunnen, where the restaurants and shops looked like something out of a Disney park.

There we ate a few local foods and assembled our very own custom Swiss Army Knives.

We had a knife time! 

Nussgipfeli (my favorite Swiss treat).

Cows.

Cat.

More chocolate.

Important signs.

OFF TO ZURICH

Alas, it was time to say tschüss to our mountainous region of Switzerland. We boated across the lake and parted from the Lucerne train station which after a week of continuously finding ourselves in, we navigated like pros.

And from there we headed straight up to Zurich for more chocolate.

And that's that! Didn't include our little NYC bookends but mercy, the length of this post is already likely to break some phones and/or computers. So I'll just leave with one of my favorite pictures from the entire trip which graciously adorned the walls of the Home of Chocolate for a solid ten minutes.

❤️🇨🇭🏔️🍫