It's a Christmas Miracle!

It's Sunday afternoon, we've just come home from church, and our latest guests should be in Paris awaiting their connecting flight to Philadelphia. My guess is that right now they are avoiding all French people like the plague (good experiences were not had with the French on this trip), and thinking up ways to get out of the 9 hour flight ahead of them. I wish them luck with that.

Our visitors included one of my best friends Jill, her sister Lisa, and their father, fondly known by all as "Papa Roach" (Roach is their last name, this isn't some weird nickname). This little dynamic trio stayed for 10 days, and since it was their first (and possibly only) trip to Europe, we crammed in as much as possible. We had some limitations of course, but not even sick kids, crummy weather or Jill's aversion to snow could slow us down. By the end of the trip I was highly impressed with the Roaches capability to quickly switch between using Euros and Swiss Francs, and saying "Danke" and "Merci".

As you'll see from the pictures below, we were able to do a little smattering of everything (all within a 3 hour driving range). I took it upon myself to set the itinerary, and it really was a good thing. If I left it up to Jill, we would have spent the entire time in my house (laughing of course), and if it were up to Lisa, we would have spend the entire time in German "euro" stores.

Oh, and if you were scratching your head over the title of this post, it's because every time we saw something cool (or uncool), we kept exclaiming, "It's a Christmas miracle!" And to warn you- this is a loooong post. It will be a Christmas miracle if you finish it all.

Lucerne, Swizerland

Below left: Colmar, France; below right: Freiburg, Germany. I was wondering what these cities would look like in the winter and I was not disappointed. Instead of colorful flowers, the window boxes were stuffed with Christmas greenery. Topped off with a bit of snow, and the whole scene was incredible picturesque.

Afton with the "Afton Whisperer" and Jill pounding her 1st of 3 Brotwurst within two days. Gross.

How do you pronounce Gruyere?I'm still not sure, but this little village is one of my favorites.

This is what I love most about Switzerland: you can go from the picture above (Gruyere), drive 40 minutes, and be in the picture below (Montreux). Switzerland is tiny, but it's diverse.

And to end our trip we stayed two nights in the French Alps, in a little town called Chamonix. This town is amazing, and if you ever get the chance, I highly recommend going (Rick Steve's does too!). Chamonix is completely surrounded by the most incredible peaks, including Mont Blanc which is the highest mountain in the Alps.

The view from outside our hotel room.

Do you hear the angels singing? I think the Roaches do.