Grindelwald, Switzerland! (Part 2 - Pfingstegg)

On the day we arrived into Grindelwald, we decide to take a mini exploration to a nearby mountain by taking one of their shorter cable car rides. (On a different exploration, we took a 30min long cable car ride!) We go to Pfingstegg, which is about 4500ft elevation, to get a better view of Grindelwald. Please, enjoy the view that we experienced from the cable car!

The snowy mountains in the distance, you could see glaciers! Apparantly, they have glacier hikes! That sounded really cool, but probably not a good idea for a newbie like me to take such a dangerous hike, haha!

...And these are the cows we saw at Pfingstegg. Everywhere in Grindelwald you'll see cows eating away on the endless acres of grass! They don't really fence the cows into an area, they just roam around freely. So, tourists can come very close to them, and they don't seem to be bothered by the constant attention!

We then say goodnight to our first night in Grindelwald and get plenty of sleep to take the amazing trip to Top of Europe where we get pretty light-headed being in 11,300ft high elevation!

Grindelwald, Switzerland! (Part 1 - Getting There)

Now, we begin our journey to Grindelwald as we say goodbye to Luzern. It was a dramatic change going to Grindelwald being surrounded by snow-capped mountains and webs of hiking trails and cable cars taking you to almost every level of all the mountains!

Grindelwald is a quaint village located southwest of Luzern in the Bernese Alps, and is a popular winter tourist destination for skiing and a summer destination for hiking. It's great you can enjoy these amazing mountains all year long!

So! We take the Goldenpass Panoramic railway to Interlaken Ost. Only the first car of the train provides a panoramic view of your trip. The windows wrap up the top of the train, and is like an IMAX experience! I love how Switzerland trains are on time and get you to your destination as scheduled! But, you gotta be careful because they make no announcement or buzz of a horn when your train is about to leave -just make sure you're already in the train!

Riding the Panoramic coach was definitely worth it! The smooth, yet fast, ride alongside an enormous lake and through the mountains, gave you billions of photo opportunities. The view was amazing and the comfortable seats made the experience all the better, haha! With the snow-capped mountains coming into closer view, we knew that we were nearing Grindelwald!

From Interlaken Ost we take a local railway to Grindelwald. (The train station below is not Interlaken Ost, we took a detour before arriving at Grindelwald!) Not to mention we view a group of cyclists about to take on one of the trails -I'm sure they've done this a bunch of times!

At last, we finally make it to Grindelwald! Since we had an afternoon open to do some exploring, we decide to take a short cable car ride up a nearby mountain to get a view of the village from above. That experience will be my next post! Sorry to keep you waiting, but I don't want this post to be a long, tiring read for ya =) (Oh! And we encounter some local moo-moos (cows!) in the mountains!!)

Perseid says, "Will You Marry Me?"

(August 12, 2007)

Danny and I were celebrating our relationship and visited the Getty Villa and Getty Center, ending with a dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant in West Hollywood. Danny thought it would be fun to see a meteor shower as it would be perfect conditions (that night just so happened to be a New Moon with no light in the sky to give the best optimal view of the shower) and would be my very first time to see a shooting star!

Arriving to our viewing site at midnight, Danny was studying the Star Finder Planisphere to show me the various constellations visible that night. The meteor shower was amazing! With no moonlight in the sky and the city lights so far away from the area, the stars were visable at its best! The meteors were shooting nonestop and were enormous!

It was then that Danny got down on one knee and proposed to me!!! (Since most people know the details of his proposal, I won't repeat it again here!) It was completely unexpected and perfect. We will now make it a yearly event to see the Perseids and remember that special night.

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So, everyone, that is why shooting stars holds an important meaning to us and the reason for our blog site name! We actually went to our proposal site last night and tried to view the meteor shower, but it was just too cloudy! At least we saw one star, but we didn't know the name, haha! Oh well...there's always next year!

Danke, Luzern!

Before leaving Luzern, here are some random extra photos that I'd like to share!

Can they put enough Swiss flags around town? Apparantly not! We found a flag on the mountain on our way back from Rigi Kulm.

These three restaurants sure did up their buildings...Very nice! Actually, there are many buildings in town that are "dressed up." It really adds the enjoyment of strolling around.

When you think of Switzerland "Swiss Knives" has gotta be one of the things you think about! Every corner you turn, you see knives for sale! I guess I gave into the pressure, but it was all worth it as Danny is lovin' his Soldier Knife and I am enjoying my small 125th Anniversary knife! Another Swiss Made item? -Sigg bottles...and yes, I gave into that pressure as well, haha!

Hmm, the best sushi in town? Too bad I didn't try it to see if it was true lol!