The students were quiet for the first half of the ride. Although it was exciting for them to see their first highway gas stop. This is nothing like the bathrooms on the way to Kenora...these are full fledged restaurants and stores. You Even have to pay to use the immaculate washrooms!?! We grabbed lunch at the rest stop before crossing over the Germany–Switzerland border. You'd expect it to be tightly sealed, but if you watch the video, you'll see it is nothing like any of us expected. The bus simply drove under a covered structure, waved at a man in a yellow vest, and we drove on. "And that, boys and girls, was the border to enter Switzerland," exclaimed the tour guide. You can imagine the confused look on your son's and daughter's faces. "Wait...that's it? We're in Switzerland now?" (I think they were all ready with there cameras for a big WELCOME TO SWITZERLAND sign...which doesn't exist either)
Once we crossed into Switzerland, the camera's never went back into their pouches. It is literally impossible to take a bad picture in Switzerland. Point your camera in any direction, press button, voila...post card quiality! The Interlaken region of Switzerland is truly mesmerizing, and unlike anything the students had ever seen before.
We arrived at the town of Interlaken, and students were set free upon the locals for a few hours to do some shopping and site-seeing. The hot item of the day was definitely the Swiss Army Knife. How could you NOT buy one? They even come with a free engraving. Another highlight was watching the parachutes float down from the sky, into the field in which we were gathered. Dozens of parachutes were in the air at a given moment, as jumpers came from mountains in every direction. The students enjoyed the free time, but were excited to see the night's hotel. Up on the side of a mountain village, we came to a quaint hostel overlooking the most perfect Swiss houses and fields. The uniforms came off as boys and girls got fancied up for dinner. It was nice to see them so excited to dress up and take photos with the incredible landscape.
Following an incredible dinner, some of the students wandered into town for a look, while others were already getting ready for bed as we will be on our way to Pisa, Italy at 6:30am (as if climbing up a leaning tower weren't difficult enough already)! Stay tuned for a video of the day's events, and enjoy the snapshots that made our jaws drop.
