Gracie in Europe - A Series: Switzerland

 Switzerland Day 1: we got here around dinner time so we haven’t really done anything but here are the views from the hotel! And a few from the car ride.

Switzerland day 2: I have way too much to say about today, but I’ll try to keep it brief. We started the day by touring a medieval castle (see in the distance of the last pic) and took a scenic walk around part of lake Geneva. Then we had some free time, so I bought half of a rotisserie chicken and some fruit and took the gondola up the Swiss Alps. It. Was. Breathtaking. (See previous video of me in the wind) pictures don’t even come close to capturing how amazing and impressive this place is. I am smitten. After dinner we performed in the town square of Crans-Montana (where we’re staying) we had a full house. hundreds of locals from the Geneva area and even further came to watch and they were LIVELY. by the time we got to our last song (a choir/band rendition of come though fount) I was very emotional. And then we finished and got the strongest encore clap probably in the history of ever. So we sang it again and I cried my eyes out along with the rest of the choir and the entire audience. It was surreal. It felt like you had a connection with every single person there even though they don’t speak a word of English. This moment made all of the preparation and stress leading up to this trip worth it. I am in love with Switzerland and it’s people ❤️.

Switzerland day 3: Today was SO FUN! We started with a long ride to Zermatt, where we took a super cool train that went straight up the inside of a mountain, felt like a rollercoaster. That put us to the base of the Matterhorn! So bizarre to see it in person. We spent some time shopping and wandering around zermatt on our own before a long drive back to the hotel. We had some down time for a while and then the locals of Crans Montana threw us a fondue + polka party! Their only rule was that we had to follow their traditions. One of their traditions is that if a boy drops his bread in the fondue cheese pot, he has to go around his table and give every girl a kiss on the cheek. And vice versa. I never dropped any bread, but I did get kissed a couple times 💀💀 (I’m not gonna mention that tradition to talmage). Then they taught us how to polka! I volunteered to go up on stage and got to dance with a local and it was SO FUN! I think my choir teacher recorded that but I haven’t seen her to get it from her. It was a blast. And there was this 9 year old kid that gave us an accordion concert, that was super impressive. He played American songs like Battle Hymn of the Republic, when the saints go marching in, and let it be.  We gave him a strong European encore. There was an old man doing a harmonica performance too, he did great! The locals have the best spirit about them, and it was refreshing to go from London and Paris where everyone hated us, to Switzerland where everyone is happy to see us and welcome us into their culture. 

“Locals keep telling me to come back to Switzerland, that I’m always invited and that my family is too! So this is my formal invitation for y’all to join me in Switzerland soon ❤️🇨🇭”

Side note that I forgot: they have THE best drinking water, and strawberries here. You can drink water from pretty much anything you see, and you’re encouraged to do so because it tastes fresher than any water you’ve ever tried ❤️ and the strawberries are just the sweetest and yummiest ever. 

Another side note: tonight at the fondue dinner, a sweet girl in our group (who I could’ve SWORN was 11 years old) opened her mission call! She is serving in Dallas Texas, Spanish speaking.

Yet another thing I remembered, the locals told us that the Matterhorn is only visible 20% of the time. The other 80% it’s completely covered- so the fact that we could see it so clearly yesterday was really lucky!

Tomorrow we take a long drive to Germany 🇩🇪.