Raising Flowers and Skids

Zandra and Ilyah’s wedding

Posted on February 6, 2022 by Leah

Zandra and Ilyah made the decision that they wanted to do a small wedding on their own in Hawaii!

While the original date was at the beginning of January, their officiant got Covid, so they had to do something really small and social distanced. So in a small park in Hawaii, they said their official “I’do’s”.

They had a more formal ceremony a couple of weeks later on the beach with some friends they said their vows and we got a zoom link to watch. We were in Denmark at the time, so woke up at 2am to watch! It was beautiful and she of course looked gorgeous!

Here are a few of the pictures she sent us – a beautiful couple in a beautiful location!

They plan on doing a wedding for family and friends a home at a later date tbd ….

We wish them so much love and happiness! Welcome to the family Ilyah!

Zermatt Day 2

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Leah

Every hotel we have stayed at has included breakfast. Some are better than others. While we like this hotel (called the Matterhorn Inn) but the breakfast is meh…

We headed into Zermatt with big plans to go up not he cogwheel train to see the Matterhorn, and then cut over to what they call Matterhorn Glacier Park (called the peak to peak pass). Unfortunately, they said the winds were too strong and we could not go up to the park:(

I was truly disappointed:((

We headed up on “the Gornergrat” – which takes you from the village all the way up to 3100m above sea level where you get incredible views of the Matterhorn.

The ride was pretty great.

Up at the top – the views were also pretty incredible!

We walked around and soaked it all in.

We decided to do some hiking down the mountain.

We took the train back down one stop where the hiking trails started.

We had some fun heading down. At times it was slippy! I ended up having to go on my butt sometimes!

When we hit the next station, we hopped back on the train.

Josh was tired (late night last night) so decided to head back to the hotel. We decided to get off the next stop and continue hiking down.

What a mistake that was.

The path was super super slippy – with a sharp drop on the side and it was super narrow. My boots were not the best for this either – so I had to get on my butt and slide and then crawl. When we saw it was not getting better – and I was truly nervous, we decided to abandon ship and try to head back up to the main path. But there was no way to get there except try to climb up through the snow up a steep hill. The snow was deep. The incline was steep and we tried to crawl up. We had to change route partway to find an easier route.

We eventually made it back to the path – completely exhausted and soaked!

I saw a sign that said that the area we had climbed up was where the animals climb, lol.

We took the train down another stop and decided to try hiking again.

The path looked OK – so we attempted it.

Grrr. It was not great! I had to toboggan down on my bum again!

We finally came to a really nice, clear, easy path and were able to walk down the rest of the mountain into Zermatt.

I tell you I was relieved when we got to the town! My body was pretty achey!

We stopped for a snack – a crepe from a cute little crepe shop.

We took the train shuttle back to tasche where Josh was having a snooze and we chilled before heading back to Zermatt for dinner.

We ate in a cute Swiss place and Josh and I had racklette (last Swiss food item on my list!) Rob had a rosti (another Swiss food that I had a couple of nights ago). Josh headed back to see his buddy again for the last night and Rob and I stayed to have some dessert:)

It was a perfect meal to end our trip!

Zermatt is the cutest little town! Definitely a place we would like to return to (and potentially ski – although it is so intimidating bcs it is so so huge!!)

The next day we took the train back to Zurich – and went right to the airport. Smartest thing we did was to stay in the airport hotel bcs we had so much paperwork to do -especially to get Josh ready for his 4 months of travel.

We left the next morning at the crack of dawn and mid morning Josh flew to Paris to meet his buddy to start their adventure.

It was an awesome trip!

Zermatt – Day one

Posted on January 29, 2022 by Leah

Zermatt is not an easy place to get to.

We had two connections to make and it was quite busy so it was a bit of a pain.

Josh wanted to go to this destination, lol.

But again, the ride was beautiful!

I made a new friend at the hotel, lol. We stayed juts outside of Zermatt in a small town called Tasch. Tasch is the last place you can bring your car (No cars in Zermatt) so it is popular place to stay and you just take the 12 min train int Zermatt using our Swiss pass.

One of Josh’s really good friends just arrived in Zermatt a few days ago for a ski program and we found out that where he is staying was a 4 min walk – really nice for Josh. We had plans to have dinner with him – it was his birthday so Josh planned to spend the evening with him too.

We headed into Zermatt by the shuttle train that runs back and forth throughout the day – super easy.

We walked around the town and then found a place for lunch.

Lots of watch stores!

After our late lunch, we went back to the hotel and chilled for a bit. Josh went to hang with his friend and we agreed to meet up at the restaurant.

Back to the hotel and saw the stunning sunrise:

We went back into Zermatt and found my favourite chocolate place to get my favourite truffles (the same truffles that Bro Bill made growing up and would give us a bag every year – they were my favourite!) and then headed to the restaurant.

Josh met up with his friend and we went for dinner.

The restaurant was called “Say Cheese” – haha. They had a tad bit of attitude too. We had cheese fondue, followed by chocolate fondue. I won’t tell how much the water cost us – but it was astronomical!! (I guess they did not understand that we wanted the “tap water” as opposed to the $17 bottle of still water. ) Prices in Switzerland are insane!!

We had a nice meal – and then Josh and his friend went off to celebrate his friend’s birthday with all his ski program friends.

Josh clearly had a good time bcs he got home really late:)

But he still had to be up early for some adventures in Zermatt…

(The nicest McDonald’s in Europe – possibly??)

Paragliding and Cruising in Interlaken

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Leah

While yesterday was a low-key day, we decided to pack things in today!

First up, paragliding!

I don’t know what made me want to do it, but I did.

Josh was a little iffy. He researched the death rate – 1 in 1000?!??! (I’m not so sure about this – he might have been exaggerating to dissuade me).

But he then read that the safest place to do it was Switzerland, so he was in.

Interlaken Paragliding was right next to our hotel, so we walked over mid morning and they gave us some gear…

We headed up the mountain to the starting point.

It was super foggy so we had to wait for the clouds to clear.

Once they cleared, we were off!

DCIM\100GOPRO\GOPR3169.JPG

Here are tons of photos of this incredible experience! I was surprisingly calm! Both Josh and Rob were pretty nervous at first but then got into it.

Rob went first:

Then me:

It was pretty amazing!

And finally Josh (we were all up there together but we just took off one at a time. The pictures Josh has of one paraglider up ahead is me:))

I loved Josh’s photos the best!

We decided to have a chill afternoon and went on a boat cruise on the Thun Lake (Interlaken – means between two lakes so we went on one of the lakes). It was so pretty.

It was a super chill ride.

Once we arrived at Thun, we got out and walked around. Another little cute town!

We trained back and looked for a restaurant.

My favourite chocolate shop with my favourite chocolate truffle!

A lot of things were closed – so we found one that looked pretty good. Aside from an abrasive host (we laughed about it!) we had a nice meal.

Ready to move on to Zermatt!

Interlaken

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Leah

We bid farewell to Lucerne and took the train to Interlaken.

I had always wanted to go there as it was very popular back in the day with backpackers and I had missed it. (The hostel is right near the train station and it looked so nice!! Josh is hoping that all hostels will be so nice for his trip!)

What a beautiful ride!!

The train is really the way to travel in Switzerland.

We didn’t have much planned for the day – wanted a day to relax! So we just walked around town.

We checked out the church, the little town and Josh wanted to try a McDonald’s burger that they don’t have at home, lol.

We found a cute little place for Schnitzel and spent the rest of the night relaxing. Nothing too eventful!

I caught up on a bit of work (but it’s the enjoyable kind!)

Mt Titlis, Switzerland

Posted on January 27, 2022 by Leah

We were all pretty excited to get out into the mountains today!

We decided to head to Mt Titlis – which required a train ride to a cute town called Engelberg – a total ski town.

Although we ski, we knew that this was not going to be a skiing trip (it’s lot of work to go skiing in Europe from home!)

But we did want to get some incredible views.

And that we did.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking – but basically we took a rotating gondola ride up halfway and then switched to another type of lift (rotair).

We headed all the way up and walked along the suspension bridge (Europe’s highest).

We checked out the panoramic views.

We then went through the glacier tunnel which was cute.

We stopped and grabbed a pizza at the top and then headed back down.

We missed the train by 2 minute – we saw it pull out as we arrived – grr .

So we found a cute cafe and sat with a dessert before heading back.

The trains are great! The scenery is stunning and it’s nice to have some down time (we all read, listened to music, napped and watched the beauty. It was quiet time for us all:))

The train station – so beautiful!

Walking back to our hotel – always some time for silliness between Josh and Rob.

We were totally wiped so we went to an Italian restaurant right near the hotel and had some pasta. They always have such good pasta in Europe!

Tomorrow – Interlaken….

Lucerne, Switzerland

Posted on January 27, 2022 by Leah

We woke up, enjoyed another breakfast of meat, cheese, eggs, yogurt and sparkling apple juice and grabbed our bags and off we went.

I asked the boys to go find some chocolate for the train ride. They came back with this – which was delicious – but they misunderstood the price so it ended costing a fortune ( not unlike everything else in Switzerland!)

We took the train to Lucerne (Luzern) about 50 minutes away and then wandered the streets to find out hotel.

And this time I really do mean wandered 😂. We got a big lost and I had us lugging suitcases up hill!!

We finally found our hotel and settled in.

A day if site seeing was the plan and so we first headed out and crossed the Spreuer covered bridge.

We then headed to the Jesuit church (jesuitenkirke) which was beautiful.

We crossed Chapel bridge and found a little Italian restaurant by the water. We’ve been skipping lunches and just have early dinners but we were all pretty hungry!

Beautiful streets!

After lunch, we made our way to a few of the sites in the town – including the famous Church of St Leodegar.

We found a super cute souvenir shop and bought a few things.

We continued on our little walking tour and made our way to the Lion Monument.

We wandered through the town. Stopped in a few shops. Josh loved the Coo Coo clocks, but they are super pricey and is it one of those things you regret when you get home?!??!

It is not super big. We wanted to check out Lucerne’s towers so we headed towards them and got some amazing views of the city.

We ended up super close to our hotel – and called it a day.

We finished off our day with a schnitzel. Both Rob and Josh were so full and ended up not being able to eat it all! (I guess the big lunch wasn’t the best idea!)

Heading into the mountains tomorrow!

Zurich

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Leah

Wow. Such a beautiful city.

And so compact!

We were a little slow moving this morning but made our way to breakfast and then set out.

We chuckled at this sushi restaurant in the parking garage, lol.

Gorgeous views everywhere!

We went to see the view from Lindenhof.

We basically wandered old town. I had a list of places to hit – but at one point we had walked around the same block three times!

But it was so stunning. Lots of high end stores. The boys looked in a lot of watch store windows on the Bahnhofstrasse.

We also went to St Peter’s Church.

Another church:

Some more great views:

We went to the famous and iconic Grossmunster where we climbed the 187 very steep steps to the tower.

The amazing door:

The basement was pretty cool:

The tower:

Incredible views from the tower:

But then we had to go down…

We wandered the streets for a bit longer before heading back for a siesta.

After the siesta, we went to the University and took in some views of the amazing city!

We were all pretty hungry and decided fondue was on our mind – so we found a cute restaurant that served fondue and sat outside with blankets. It felt very Swiss:) It started getting cold near the end though!

Rob put another blanket on me at the end (I didn’t sit there like this:))

We headed back to chill in the room. Josh was exhausted but Rob and I headed out in the evening for a long evening walk in old town.

What a beautiful city!

Last Day in Copenhagen

Posted on January 25, 2022 by Leah

First things first, we needed to get a Covid test done for Switzerland. It is nice that they are free in Denmark. After doing that, we were all a little tired so took a quick power break at the hotel.

We had already done a fair amount of walking the day before and saw some of the main things – but we decided to head back to Nyhavn (and get a few more pictures).

We decided to walk to the famous Little Mermaid statue – we had seen her from the water – now was time to see her from the shore!

When Josh takes any pictures, he always likes to leave a selfie for me to see:)

It was a nice walk along the water. Not as sunny as yesterday, but warmer with a little drizzle here and there.

We saw some nice churches on the way back:

We also went to the grounds of the Amalienbirg Castle (the royal residence) and walked around there.

A few more churches:

We wanted a snack and found a hot dog stand in Nyhavn and had some street meet a la Danish. It was pretty yummy with a mixture of condiments, pickles and crunchy bits.

We headed back to the hotel, checked out and made our way to the airport. We were there nice and early so we reached relaxed with reading or a show.

Our flight to Zurich was uneventful and we took the train into the city. We dragged our luggage through the streets and found our hotel (Hotel Alexander) easily right in the heart of the old town. So cute!

Copenhagen Day 2

Posted on January 24, 2022 by Leah

We started off our day with a super yummy breakfast. Things in Scandinavia are pricey so it helps when breakfast is included!

We headed down the Stroget again stopping along the way to look at the shops.

We and made it to the famous Nyhavn street. It did not disappoint! Yes, we took way too many picture – but you can’t really resist when it is just so beautiful!

We took a canal cruise – which was freezing – but so good to see Copenhagen from the water.

We took a few more:

We were so chilled so looked for a nice pastry shop we could warm up in and had some delicious pastries.

We walked a bit to the Rosenborg castle – but the grounds were only open so we didn’t stay long.

Had some fun on the streets…lol

Afterwards we made our way to the Rundetaarn (The Round Tower) which we climbed Josh and I also got into trouble using the employee bathroom ( it was really nice, lol). We also checked out the attached church

We visited the adjoining and then headed to Vor Frue Kirke (Church of our Lady). I was especially excited to see it bcs that is where the original Christus statue is!