All quiet at Tipperary

Lara named my apartment "Tipperary" because "it's a long, long way to Tipperary" (from the train station, on foot). The distance seemed shorter and shorter, however, as the visit progressed and their legs got used to walking. By week 3, after a 4 hour hike up the mountain from Grindelwald to Kleine Scheidegg, the little green bump in Basel Land where Tipperary sits seemed like a mole hill after all.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps), we've all agreed to a general policy of "what happens in Tipperary, stays in Tipperary," so I'm not allowed to share some of the most entertaining events and conversations from our three weeks together, but here's a few highlights that I think I'm permitted to tell you about.

We spent three days in the mountains last week with Sarah and Rebekkah, friends of mine from church who are the same ages as Chelsea and Lara. We started in Murten, a town I visited ages ago with Janet and her parents my first winter here. We followed Rick Steves' walking tour around town, admired the cannon balls lodged in city wall, thought of the star-spangled banner while attempting pull-ups in the ramparts, imagined Charles the Bold and his 20,000 Burgundians encamped upon the nearby hill in 1476, and enjoyed lunch by the lake, while watching a windsurfer try to right his capsized sail, only to have it immediately fall over the other direction.




From Murten we took the train to Grindelwald. A farmer and her sister were waiting to drive us to our "schlaf im stroh" accommodations nearby.




This is the advantage of being the first one up for a shower in the morning.



After breakfast with the other guests at the farm, we left for a hike.









Cable car and train views on our way up to the James Bond restaurant above Murren.





Silliness at the Shilthorn:



Hmmph. This is taking forever. More later.

In other news, we welcomed Janet and Stephan's son Joseph to the world on Monday. He's a sweet little dude! :) I got to have a much needed catch up chat with Janet today while rocking the baby. I'm looking forward to lots more visits with the two of them in the coming months (thanks, Gina, for the picture).