What a Difference A Day Makes!

We awoke this morning to THE thickest pea-soup fog I've ever seen...and it's not just stationary it constantly moves - it's rather odd looking.  We opened our bedroom window this morning and you could actually see the fog rolling INTO our room.  But I know we've prayed and you've prayed so there must be something we're supposed to find within all of this fog.  We had breakfast and went to the train station to enquire about our trip to the Top of Europe today.  Top of Europe is pretty unimpressive when shrouded in fog, and the Murren train station employee (whom we've seen for the last 10 years working here) advised us that tomorrow would be better than today.  We took his advice and purchased our tickets for tomorrow and just planned to travel down to the valley floor today.  As we walked to our gondola station to Gimmelwald we passed the famous "knife" store where the travelers stock up on souvenirs trinkets to take home as gifts and keepsakes.  We were surprised to find that it was one of the few places open today (Sunday). Most everything else is closed up tight.  So knife shopping it was, and while we did our shopping and waited for all those knives to be engraved we spotted a patch of a mountain top far in the distance.  The fog shrouded everything except the very tip top of the snow covered mountain.  It looked like the mountain top was floating by itself in the middle of the sky,  As we watched the clouds just parted slowly revealing more and more of the puzzle until we clear vistas of the might Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau in front of us.  It was a miraculous moment that we had been praying for, but maybe not fully expecting.

Thank you, God for allowing these young adults to see this fabulous creation!

We trekked down to Gimmelwald taking in all of this wonderful and magnificent scenery that had been hidden only a day earlier.  Gimmelwald is a tiny hamlet that sits below Murren.  From Gimmelwald we took the gondola all the way down to the valley floor to begin our walk to Trummelbache Falls.

It was a magnificent day for the walk from the gondola station to Trummelbache Falls with wispy clouds and blue sky and sun!  Yes, it was a magnificent day.

Trummelbache Falls is completely fueled by the waters of the melting glaciers on the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.  The water has chiseled out holes and caverns and gorges inside the mountain.  The sound inside is like a jet plane - you really can't talk it's so loud with water gushing and continuing to drill out the mountainside.

After climbing lots and lots of steps and twists and turns and trails and paths we decided to jump on the Swiss Post Bus back to Lauterbrunnen for a quick lunch.  The students broke up into groups to choose their own restaurants - but eventually all ended up at the same place for cheeseburgers!  Mr. and Mrs. Mynatt stopped at a little restaurant for a pizza until we found out it was going to cost us 10 Chf just to sit down.  So we left and ended up at a little bakery across the street for some of the best tomato soup and thick bread slices cut fresh from the loaf we've ever had.  It was wonderful.  After an hour it was time to gather the troops and head back up the mountain to Murren to spend the rest of the day.  Some of the students are currently on the NorthFace hike with Ms. Ketchen, some are swimming at the sports center with Mrs. Mynatt and some are just resting in the hotel with Ms. Armstrong.  It's been and fun and PERFECT SUNNY day for us! Thank you so much for helping us to have this perfect day through your prayers.

Another miracle of the day is that it's only 4:45 pm, and I'm already finished with the day's blog entry.  I think I'll take a little nap before dinner :-)  Good night from Murren.


***UPDATE from hikers...


They're back! I believe the general atmosphere was festive and triumphant even though the rain moved in before they finished.  Here they are at their return: