DAY 106 – The Swiss Pass = $250 EACH (for 4 days)

July 3 – Touring Switzerland on a Train for 12 hours

Switzerland is the most gorgeous country EVER! And...clean and friendly AND expensive! So, we thought the best way to see it would be to buy a pass and travel all around looking out the window and enjoying the spectacular scenery. We weren't sorry!  (All these pictures are taken out of the window of our train.)

 It was a little cloudy in the morning, but started clearing in the afternoon. We went on the Glacier Express rail route which is an Unesco World Heritage event. Indescribable! Incredible! Unbelievable! Pictures will never do it justice...we loved it!

Can you see me in this picture?

  It was a bit tricky catching all the connections to get to each city that would connect us to our new host in Bern, Switzerland.  Rich is in charge of that while I continue to write and organize photos in between looking out the window. You just can't imagine the hard-working Swiss people as the countrysides are so organized and grass mowed and dead trees cut and chopped into neat stacks for the winter.

  Cows are everywhere as are the sheep. Patrick says that the farmer just doesn't get enough money for the milk, so the government subsidizes it, paying the farmer the difference. The price of groceries we found alarmingly high. Evidently everything is from what the Huberts say.

Our new hosts in – Michaela and Nathan are also LDS, so they are quite busy with church meetings and working late. They welcomed us with a wonderful meal and a huge package of Swiss chocolates – Tablerone with fruit and nuts – on our bed.

Michaela & Nathan were so sweet and so in love - thank-you Dianne for helping us to find them.

 We talked about many things as their English is quite good. They have a cute apartment that they rent...Swiss rent is very expensive as they pay $1500 a month, which they say is average for Switzerland. This would be for a two bedroom, 1 bath, but quite spacious apartment.

   **Unfortunately, I lost ALL my pictures for this day.  Parting family picture of the Hubers, all the 1st day on the Swiss Train Ride through the Alps :(  yummy dinner picture of roasted chicken and roasted vegetables which was amazing and a very good dessert cake.  It happened when we were downloading them to the computer.  Luckily we had Rich's photos on his camera.

This was our VERY OWN bedroom.  We had our own desk.

I know I take strange pictures.  This was the bathroom tile.  So cute, and I love Nemo.

                                                         

 One postcard costs $1.30; a train ride for 30 min. is $20; an ice cream cone is $3; a made-up salad in the grocery store is $10, so the price of living is very high. In the states my hip replacements cost $120,000. Here in Switzerland it would cost $12,000. But we pay nearly $1,000 for health insurance per month and they pay only $300, so it all works out I guess.