The Hills Were Alive

A month ago tonight, I was packing excitedly for our - Ma, Andrew and I's - European trip to Paris and Zurich.

I had recapped some of the highlights from our Paris leg and as the mineutia hits me in the late afternoons these days, I think back to the beautiful Swiss Alps.



We took the train from Paris to Zurich, a four-hour train ride to be exact. We had always wanted to take a train country to another. The beautiful weather that greeted us in Zurich lasted for the rest of our amazing three-day weekend soujourn.

Zurich is a tiny modern city by a beautiful lake. It is so convenient to get around by tram; in fact, I was impressed with their public transit system.



We spent the first day walking around town, exploring the Banhofstrasse shopping mile and taking a leisurely late afternoon boat ride around Lake Zurich.

The highlight of our Zurich stay - and to me, the entire trip - was our full-day excursion to the top of Jungfraujoch, one of the Swiss Alp peaks.



We departed Zurich from the bus terminal and the two-hour drive took us through Lucerne and Interlaken. My eyes were glued to the window, just staring out at the beautiful mountains and the wide sprawling flat green carpet. Tiny waterfalls - made from melting glaciers atop the mountains - sporadically cascaded down the tall mountainside - and the turquoise glacial lake water hypnotized me.

The one-hour ride to the top of Jungfraujoch was fun. Andrew, Ma and I took turns being silly to the camera, poking out of the tram. We absorbed the views, as the houses got smaller below us and the majestic white-capped mountains emerged.



There was an ice palace atop that we got to explore, which was quite cool. When we exited one of the palace doors, we found ourselves atop a snowy peak - and we had to wear sunglasses to shield our eyes from the blinding white light.



Standing atop the peak - at 13,500 feet above sea level - with Ma and Andrew, I felt so blessed to be soaking in this amazing moment. I said a silent prayer to express my thanks for this trip of a lifetime, made all the more enjoyable because it was shared with two people that I truly care about.