Swiss National Day

August first is a special day for the Swiss, it's their day to celebrate their country (kind of like the 4th of July). I went up into the Alps the 31st of July for two days and two nights with Martin and his stepfather, Bruno. This picture was the room that we ALL slept in...EVERYbody: grandparents, kids, and everyone in between! The beds didn't have any space between them so each person most likely would be sleeping right next to a complete stranger! Each bed was covered with a scratchy, wool blanket with two more were folded up at the end to cover up with. Since it can get pretty cold up in the mountains, those blankets were really valuable! Plus, they helped guard against any unwelcome cuddling from one's neighbor! On the 31st, we drove a few hundred meters up from the base of the mountain and had to hike the last two hours to reach the cottage. We chose a hiking path that was a true mountain trail--straight up!! It was a challenging climb and it felt really good to reach our destination! We spend the day of the first hiking in the morning and playing Jass (a very popular card game over here) and battleship on paper. In the evening, all the hikers/lodgers gathered out on the deck to watch the high fires. These high fires are fires lit in the mountain villages and were used for communication--think Lord of the Rings...very cool! Also, we were able to see fireworks, but since we were over 2000 meters up they looked pretty small! :) The lady who owned the cottage brought out hot, mulled wine for all the guests and we all sipped it near our own fire as we watched the celebrations. These couple of days were really great--it was so relaxing and so cool to be included in this Swiss cultural tradition. This was something I would love to do again! The mountains are so beautiful and there are so many trails and paths to explore! Oh! One more thing: there were herds of sheep up in the mountains (the biggest ones I have ever seen--really, they were huge!) and they were spray painted blue and red and some wore bells around their necks so their owners could find them! Ha! It was great! :)