Two Blondes do Switzerland

At this time last week I was laying in bed – unable to get a wink of sleep – with anticipation of my mom's arrival into London. It had been exactly two months since I had left home, which is probably the longest I have ever gone without seeing her. I managed to get two or three hours before I left for the airport to pick her up, but ended up arriving an hour and a half early because I just couldn't wait any longer!

She may not have noticed, but I couldn't hold back tears when I saw her come out of the terminal at London's Heathrow airport. I had kept in contact with her almost every day over the phone and email, but for some reason seeing her brought out a whole new container of emotions. 

When we arrived back at my dorm, I took my mom on a little walking tour of my area. At first I couldn't tell what she thought about it, but by the end of the trip I knew she was very impressed and excited for me. We didn't do much sight-seeing the first day because we had a long day of travel ahead of us. We woke up at 3:10 a.m. the next morning in order to get to the airport for our 6:45 flight to Zurich, Switzerland out of London's Gatwick airport (about a half hour farther than Heathrow). It was BRUTAL. 

Zurich was absolutely beautiful though. We did a trolly tour the first day to get our grips of the city, and then walked around to different shops before indulging in an expensive cheese fondue dinner. Actually, the fondue dinner wasn't even that expensive compared to other things. Everything was expensive in switzerland. A cheese sandwich cost me 18 swiss franks! 

Lake Zurich

My beautiful mother in front of the lake

Me in front of one of the rivers

Mother with her SWISS hot chocolate 

Cheese Fondue with bread, potatoes, onions and pickles. Strange combination

Zurich at night

On Saturday we woke up and ate a complimentary breakfast at the hotel before we made our way to the alps. I have always had this weird fascination with mountains, so this was probably my favorite part of the trip :)

The Sleeping Lion Memorial for fallen soldiers 

Mom and I in front of the Lion

Lucern, Switzerland

On our bus to the mountains!

View from the first lift

Rotating gondola that took us up to the highest point. Around 15,000 feet in elevation

On the very top of the snowy alps!

Me and mom sittin' in a glacier

Only my fourth time seeing snow this winter :)

Mom having successfully making it back down to sea level

We ended the night in the mountains with a great dinner and some drinks from the hotel bar. The stay in Switzerland went perfectly, and I could not have imagined going anywhere more beautiful. I would say the only problem we ran into was the intense language barrier. Unbeknown to us, Swiss people speak German– only German! We had a very hard time communicating, but luckily our hotel had a good English speaking staff who helped get us around. It was truly a trip of a lifetime and I felt so blessed that I was able to share the experience with my mom,  because she made every experience that much better :)