20/8/10

I had the day off with my parents, yay! In the morning, we walked about 2 hours to the woodcarvers shop. My mom really wanted to visit the shop, since she saw my pictures and really liked that place. We spent our time browsing throughout the store and buying souvenirs and gifts =). We then headed over to Kaffee Blatti to enjoy some coffee and lemon cake. It was very yummy. The weather was very nice outside and it was not too hot and it was not too cold. The view from all around was phenomenal as well. Next, we went to the gorge; we started all the way at the beginning which is at the bottom of the gorge. My parents loved the breath-taking views and natural scenery. They liked to sit at the benches and just listen to the water run and observe their surroundings. I was happy that they liked the gorge! We then ate lunch by the river; it was nice to sit and relax, my dad even was acting like a kid and throwing rocks into the river. My mom and I thought it was funny. We then walked along the river and through a beautiful forest; our destination was first the alpen garden and then Tschetenalp! The view and hiking trail was very pretty to the garden, we saw so many creeks, streams and waterfalls coming from the mountain. We picked lots and lots of berries and ate them along the way; my dad really liked picking the berries. We then made it to the alpen garden; we sat and relaxed in the garden, observed the flowers and smelled the lavender! I really like gardens, so this was one of my favorite parts of the day. Our next journey was a lot steeper as we had to ascend 400m to get to the top of Tschetenalp. We took our time, paused, enjoyed the views, had snack breaks and water breaks and even watched the cows. By then it was after 5pm and I decided to look at my map to see when the gondola closed....well it said it closed at 5pm. Uh oh, we still had about 30 minutes to get to the peak. But, I wanted to get to the top so I could climb my 3rd mountain and get my 5 staff challenge points. So, my parents were kind and walked with me to the top, and yes, it was very quiet at the top as there was no one there and the gondola station was closed =(. I felt horrible that I did not look at the times in advance, but our only option was to walk down  back to Adelboden. We relaxed at the top in an abandoned ski building for about 45 minutes, it even had cushions so my parents laid down. I walked around and ate some snacks. Randomly, the gondolas from the station started moving downward toward Adelboden, and then they went back up. I ran to the station thinking that someone was there, but it was all locked up and no one was at the top; I think they were controlling it from the Adelboden station. Anyways, after our break, the downward journey began. It took about 2 hours to get to Adelboden and boy were my parents happy to sit down, eat and drink a beer. I felt really bad the whole way and I kept thinking that I wore them out completely and that they are going to be so tired the next day. But, my parents were pleased with the day and they said that they enjoyed themselves, which made me happy. We ate at my favorite burger joint, Kiosk Treff, we had hamburgers and fries and beer and it was yummy. I called a taxi so we could get a ride back to the chalet. My dad said that was the best 24 francs he ever spent on a taxi. The taxi brought us basically right to the door of the chalet, my dad and mom were happy. Horray, we made it back to the chalet before 10pm. I was exhausted as well so I took a shower, wrote my blogs and went to bed. Goodnight all! I only have 2 more days of work and then I am outta here. xoxo