October 7th to 10th - my first few days

7/8 of October

In the last two days we have been sitting, packing, watching movies and sleeping. So on the 7^th we finished packing and said good bye to our dog sally this was a very sad time for me because she means the world to me. We then went to my best friends place (Sierra) to wait for our train it was nice to see her just before we went away. Once we were at the train station we found out that the train was going to be 50 minutes late! This was a very stressful time for my dad and I have to say it was the tiniest bit funny. Nice we were on the train we found out that there were no seats and we had to stand up with all our bags. Once we were at the airport we had dinner which for me was a boost juice and some hot chips. Not the most amazing dinner ever but it was tasty. Once we were on the plane there was a realization in me that this was actually happening and it wasn’t something in the near future it was happening now. The first flight was alright I got 4 hours sleep and watched two movies. It was a long 14 hours. I got a bit travel sick when we had turbulence and Josh my brother threw up. So it wasn’t the best flight ever and we couldn’t even see outside because it was dark. Most of us were dreading the next flight. On the next fight it was only 6 hours and it was sunny outside so we could look out the windows. The food was nicer than the last fight and I enjoyed it much more. Once we landed in Genève we got our bags and car and left the weirdest thing was that there was no customs, we just left. Genève is on the border of France and Switzerland and we got out on the French side and drove to Premanon in France. That night was a great night I got 12 hours sleep because I went to bed at 5 in the afternoon with no dinner and still in my clothes from the last 24 hours. I’m just thanking god that we got here safe and sound and that everyone at home is safe too.

Amelia

9 of October

Wow what a second day. I didn’t know where to start so I will start from the beginning. After we packed up all our stuff we got on the road to our next destination - Interlaken. We had a few little stops on the way our first was when we saw some cows and yes I know what could be exciting about cows but these cows had bells and all of the bells together sounded magical. It was amazing. After that we were back on the road and we went from France into Switzerland.  It was amazing how we could just drive from one country to another, it’s like crossing from NSW to Queensland but this time into a different country. Once in Switzerland we stopped in a little town where we saw sheep on the road, school children and shops with toy cows in them which my brothers wanted to buy. We then drove back through Genève where we saw these lovely garden beds with swans and ducks clipped into them. It was quite amazing to see how well kept they were. We also saw this very smart business couple walking their dog which was a very strange sight to see. We then went to Lausanne where we bought our lunch from a Swiss shop. This was a weird experience because everything was in French so it was interesting trying to work out what things said. We then went to a park to have our lunch this was interesting because in the gardens there were different this like cars, toilets, tyres and bicycles set as sculptures. After lunch we went to where we were staying for the next three nights in Interlaken. On the way there we saw a river and in the area at we were there is a lot of lime stone so the river was green just like the river at Jenolan Caves. Once we got to our motel we had dinner and went to bed. After such a big day it was easy to fall asleep.

Amelia

10 of October

A very exciting and tiring day. We got up at about 4 am and it was dark outside. Up here it is dark to 7.30 or 8 o’clock which is quite late in the morning for us. Once the sun was up we went to an information centre where we worked out where we were going for the day. On our way to Lauterbrunnen we saw some army men out for a walk with their guns this was a very strange sight. Further along we heard the sound of gun fire so we suspected that the army men were training with their guns. Once we arrived in Lauterbrunnen we went on a cable car up the Swiss Alps where we then went on an UP hill walk for half an hour through beautiful forests. It started to rain and it was very foggy and we could hardly see ahead of us. We got into our wet weather gear and noticed that the fog had moved and about ten metres away there was a bigger hut with much more space under it.  We kept walking and we decided to catch the train the rest of the way from Winteregg and the train station there was a park which had a hobbit hole and a swing that could fit all of us in it. We caught the train to Murren and from there we caught a cable car down to Stechelberg it felt mysterious because of all of the snow. We were also on the mountain which they filmed a James Bond movie which was fun. We then went to Turmellbach Falls which were 10 falls from the one river which had eroded the rock away. So the falls were in the mountain and the falls were so amazing it was hard to capture. We then caught another bus back to Lauterbrunnen and the amazing thing was that dogs are allowed almost everywhere so a big Labrador was on the bus! Once we were back at our motel we noticed that some of the mountains that we saw in the morning without snow now had snow on them. We thought it was amazing but I must say I thought Mum was over reacting. It is very cold and we are rugged up in blankets and have lots of layers on.

Amelia