** Note: my camera battery ran out again and we used Brenton's Sony camera to take pictures. Unfortunately we don't have a Sony cable to pull the pix off with us. **

While we were in Prauge I found a flyer for a hostel in a small town in Switzerland called Gryon. My heart was set on Interlaken - a town known as one of the adventure sports capitals of the world - I was taken in by the offer of a guided mountain climb expedition. I hadn't even considered doing a mountain trek. Fastforward to our next stop, Munich. Around the camp fire I was talking with some other travelers who were interested in a mountain climb too. So we both rearranged our plans and booked a stay in Gryon.

While Interlaken is in the middle of Switzerland, Gryon is on the west edge. Since we came from Munich in the east, this made our travels take a full day. After 12 hours on the train and five transfers, we finally arrived right at dark.

The hostel is really a nice converted Chalet that has all of the trappings any traveler would want. It has a movie room, lounge with fireplace, kitchen, patio with mountain view, and of course our room that has fantastic views. The owner Matt is an Aussie that fell in love with the village when he was there some 15 years ago. He was a trekker at heart so he set up an affordable place to stay and is very much into living the mountain lifestyle and not getting rich. He's a great guy that steered me to a couple of good savings, even at his own expense.

DAY 1
On our first full day the plan was to take a 4-6 hour climb up a mountian to a little lodge nestled between two peaks. While we had planned on making this trek with two other groups of two (to meet the minimum of 6), two of them bailed on us. I assumed I'd have to eat the cost for the other two, but Matt said that we would be totally able to do this hike ourselves and that we should save his expensive fee. So at 3PM, off we set up the mountain - Brenton, myself, and a young guy and girl from London named Joe and Michaela.

Matt said there was an easy trail up to the top and that we couldn't miss it. He said we should hike up to a ridge and follow that all the way to the mountain hut. Well, of course we missed it! Instead of backtracking to find our way up the ridge, I suggested to the group that we go straight up to the ridge instead of finding the trail we missed. The group agreed, so off we went. The climb was a bit taxing at first as it was very steep. We all laughed at how out of shape we were, but we kept going until about halfway up. At that point we started hitting some really slippery shale. This caused Brenton to melt down and screaming about falling down the hill and dying. The two Brits trucked on up to the top section, while I repeatedly slipped 10 or more yards down the hill as I went down and over to encourage Brenton along. He ended up catching a groove climbing up the hill on all fours and using clumps of grass to grab on to. After a solid hour, we had made it to the top. Brenton was proud of himself, nobody died, and three of the four of us only had minor scratches. (Joe was unharmed) After quite a bit more vertical ascent, we finally made it to the ridge line and saw that we had really made very little progress from our starting point and we had a loooong way to go. So along the ridge we trekked, meeting some friendly sheep, and a not so friendly shephard and sheep dogs.

Once we made it to the mountain hut, the first thing we noticed was everyone there spoke French and we did not. While our traveling buddies had taken 5 years of French in school, neither could communicate any better than me with my pantomimes! But, we managed to make ourselves a nice fondue dinner, drank some cheap wine, and enjoyed the view. We ended up calling it a night around 10PM, and I hung out outside in the cold for a bit to admire the sky. I've never seen so many stars so clearly. It was so clear I could see the haze of what appeared to be the Milky Way galaxy, and even saw a handful of shooting stars. It was amazing.

DAY 2
The next day, at around 9, the French woman came in and yelled at us to get up. We complied, ate some of our food, and then set out for the long trek back to the chalet. Six hours later, we pulled into the hostel, dead tired and ready for some relaxation. Brenton made us some fire and burned some marshmallows for us, and we made some chocolate fondue dip to enjoy as well. Watching more shooting stars was a nice end to the day.

DAY 3
While our travling buddies left us bound for Rome, while Brenton and I set out for the top of another mountain (by ski lift!). Once there we had some $5(!) water bottles and hung out, ready for some action. Christophe came up the lift to meet us, and promptly strapped Brenton in to his paraglider. Brenton was a bit aprehensive, and after a few false starts took off like a champ. He glided up, down, and around for at least half an hour, and even coaxed Christophe to take him into the clouds. He said it was scary and awesome and that he would certainly do it again. After Brenton left it was my turn, and I have to concur with him. It was peaceful, cold, exhilirating, scary, and all around awesome. I think I may have a new hobby when I come home! On the way back to the chalet we stopped for some playground action, some putt putt, and a quick ride on a mini-train. A nice end to a pleasant day.

After talking with some folks in the hostel, we have decided to change our plans to go to Venice for two days, and then on to Rome to wrap up our trip. Brenton has already expressed sadness at us being almost done with our trip while at the same time missing Ashton, Mom, and even school. He's been exposed to an amazing array of experiences on the trip that should help open his eyes as he gets older. While he's still the same opinionated and strong willed kid that is all about the scary movies, he also now sees that the world is more than our little Friendswood, or Texas, or US.

In fact, after graduating from NYU he wants to move to Amsterdam to work. :)