How many Alphorns can you carry???

Here is my favorite companion and porter at our little local train station. This is just a warm-up. We will have to carry these alphorns plus the carbon fiber horn plus a suitcase and sleeping bags and CPAP machine on three different trains and one bus to get to the Young Single Adult camp next week. And then on one bus and three more trains to come back home five days later... I probably won't have a free hand to take a picture of that to post!

My favorite "Packesel"

In Engelberg, on our way up to play at the top of Mt. Titlis, which is higher than any of those mountains in the picture. Elder Fox is carrying two alphorns and a bag with the day's necessities.

I found "Wall-E!"

Here is Wall-E actually working in Switzerland. His job is to sweep up all the bits of broken pavement that spilled as the little loader was loading them in the trailer. You can just see the outline of his operator in the picture.

"The House" in Summer

I posted pictures of this neat old house in winter and spring "clothes." We pass it on our way to the store. Here is how it looks in summer. As I had thought, you can hardly see it for the vegetation!

More of the Amazing Scaffolding

We went by the town that is re-roofing their church, so I tried for better pictures. It is tough from a moving train, but here they are.

Balcony flowers update

Here are two views of our balcony from the outside. The flowers make it look cheerful, and the greenery cools our balcony. The fellow who lives above us is a big soccer fan. ("YB" is the Bern team.)

Swiss Building Methods

Look carefully--what is this a picture of? (Hint--it is NOT a pagoda.) I always wondered how they re-roofed the incredibly steeply pitched roofs of the church steeples. Now I know. That is scaffolding that you see. Amazing.

A Swiss Bride

Marion Eggman married Roy Hansen on Friday in the Bern Temple. She is a fashion major, and designing and making this ensemble was her major project. She worked on it for almost two years.

Picnic on the Gurten

We had an activity last Tuesday on the Gurten, Bern's "personal mountain." Here is the view of Bern from the little "Gurtenbahn" train, almost at the top.

Here is a picture of part of the group. Notice the pot that had potato salad in it. Lots of lettuce left, but the bowl of rolls is about empty!

The Birthday Cake

Here is a birthday cake to serve 30. Very American. Only the decorations are Swiss. (And they are in English!)

And here is the cake with the two "birthday kids", Megan Frost, an au pair working in Grindelwald, and Elder Boyce from Oregon, who is serving in Interlaken. They were both 20 that day.

Ballenberg and Bread

We went to Ballenberg with Sally and her family. (Ballenberg is billed as an 'Open Air Museum' and covers many acres as a 3-D, living museum of Switzerland.) They had a fascinating exhibit on bread. Can any of you figure out how they braided this loaf? I can't! It is all one piece.

This "Zopf" is so big, it needs a basket to hold it. I don't think we could bake it in one of our ovens!