Day Eleven ~ Monday, May 6

First day in the Alps! Kinda boring actually. The problem was, it was so foggy/cloudy/rainy, that we could really just see the base of the Eiger, Jungfrau and other Swiss Alps mountains.
Let me briefly describe our current living spaces, which we first saw late last night. Small bedrooms, 2-3 people per room, desks and personal reading lamps, lving rooms with sofas and TVs. Electric stoves, washing machines, driers, etc. We all fell in love with this place immediately. I’m not sure of the name except “Chalet.”
Anyway, this morning we woke up at a leisurely 8:30 or so. We had quite a large breakfast: pastries, multiple cereals, fruit, yoghurt (or now, Jogurt [because of the Germans spelling]). After breakfast, we took a couple trains over to the little town Grindelwald.
Yes… Grindelwald. The same name as the wizard in Harry Potter. It was a quaint little place. We got to shop for a bit, I bought a Switzerland deck of cards for the summer at Philmont. Then we had lunch, the usual bomb sandwiches. After lunch we had a bit more time to shop before taking the cable car and a mountain train or a “Bergbahn” to Lauterbrunnen Valley.
We walked around a bit up there, and started on a hike down to Gimmelwald, but we decided it was too rainy and nasty for those without rain gear and besides, we’d probably get better views tomorrow.
So we went all the way back down, ultimately to our Chalet. People who wanted to go into town, did. I stayed in and wrote. Dinner was about an hour late (7:30 instead of 6:30) but it was SO worth it. Salad, garlic bread, pasta with meat sauce, extra chicken for those who wanted it. Unbelievable get-up for the chefs. Truly well-done!
Then we had the usual evening meeting and evening program, which tonight was filling Christina in on the details of England. It was a good day!

-Joseph Bruner