Mini Reunion at St Michael's

Shortly after my return from the Swiss Alps, I joined a mini reunion with Meiping, YS, Chunlei, and Doreen at St Michaels's.  We stayed at the St Michael's Harbor Inn for three nights.  The waterfront suite was quite comfortable.  We chat, ate (especially the blue crabs), toured, and shopped.  It was very pleasant.  I was able to get some sunrise shots, and did a bit cycling with Meiping early in the morning.

Hiking in the Swiss Alps

From May 26 to June 10 I joined Ed's group to hike in the Swiss Alps.  There were eight of us : Ed, Karen, Wenli, Katie, Sue, Michael, Monica and me.  Johnathan, the owner of the Edelweiss  Tour was our guide.  He bought 10 days Swiss Pass for us.  We did a lot of train rides to various places using the Lauterbrunnen Valley as our base.

Inside one of the train ride:

The first portion of the trip was with the Clymb group (8 other young people), and we stayed in a hostel with bunk beds and shared bathroom.

When we stay in lauterbrunnen, we hiked on both the west and east side of the hills surrounding the valley.

On the west side, the Lauterbrunnen Fall was quite impressive.  Some of us also parasailed down from the west cliff, flied by the Fall and landed in the valley's floor.  Quite a thrill!

 
The Valley sometimes becomes beautifully cloudy:

The two above pictures were taken from Wengen where we stayed in a beautiful hotel, and ate delicious breakfast and dinner every day during our stay.

All our hikes were beautiful:

 Matterhorn is as majestic as ever:

We also did city tours in Berne, Luzern, Interlocken, Thun, and Zurich.

Berne:

Interlocken and Thun:

 Luzern:

Zurich:

 Everyone bought this upon Johnather's recommendation:

 I bought Brioche, 2.5 Franks a piece.

The tour was finished in Zurich.  But since we all bought an extra night hotel in Zurich, and our Swiss pass had one more valid day, we all decided to take up on Johnathan's offer .  We followed him to the boarder town in Germany.  En route to Konstanz, we visited the Rhine's Fall too.

 Johnathan told us the story about the statue toward whom we all walked with anticipation!

 It is standing right in front of the waterfront.

 The German emperor and the pope each held by her hands.

 

We had lunch in this restaurant whose chef is Turkish.

 The gigantic spinach dumpling came to Sue!

 The old city gate:

 This store has lots of the famous gummy bear!

What a delightful bonus tour, thanks to Johnathan!