Views From Swiss Countryside

I've entitled the first picture Swiss village church on a snowy afternoon. As you can tell we spent an interesting Saturday afternoon driving out in the countryside and up into the mountains. We were very close to Gstaad, but didn't go the rest of the way up because of the weather. We also had a successful trip to IKEA--loading up the car with nightstands, a dresser, a bookshelf, a chair and a desk. None of these items were in the furnished apartment and all of them were necessary. I had never been to an IKEA store before and was amazed at the way they cater to organized living in very small spaces. It was a lesson to me of how you really can live in one room. Even the high chairs and cribs here are very small in comparison with what is in the U.S. We keep hearing stories of people being unable to find any place to rent here. We were so lucky to find the person who was willing to rent to us. One young couple in the ward here had put in nine applications just in the last week and been turned down every time. He has a great job and can afford the places, but housing is so scarce. They also have two little kids--3 and almost 2 so it is hard not to have a place to call home. Steve and I have become adept at assembling IKEA furniture. The instructions (for those of you who haven't experienced it yet) are all in pictures. There's no need to read or understand any particular language. What a great idea. Our boxes all got here without a problem. We are on the fifth floor and have an elevator that only two very skinny people can fit into at a time. So the poor Fed Ex delivery guy is struggling with trying to fit a dolly and several boxes at a time into the elevator. I knew he was coming cause he called to get into the building. Then I can hear all this grunting and shuffling of boxes and banging of things and I'm wondering what is going on. When he finally gets upstairs I see that the poor guy is handicapped with only partial use of one of his arms. I felt guilty for not going down to help, but I had no idea that Fed Ex would be hiring the physically handicapped to make deliveries of large boxes. Who knew? I miss everyone so much, but we are blessed and everything here is going well.

I love you all,

Mary

This was a very typical swiss mountain village on the road up to Chateau de Oex. You see also genuine Swiss cows with genuine Swiss cowbells. I've never seen one that didn't have one of these bells on. Even the farms and barns are idyllic looking. These cows will come right up to you--they seem very curious about what you may be doing. The all brown cow is saying :"What am I doing out here with my hooves ice-cold in the snow, and can I please get in the barn now?"

It was interesting to still be able to see the fall colors in the foreground with the snow on the hills.

This is the village of Gruyere. It is very quaint and charming with a castle at the top of the hill. It also was bitterly cold with wind and blowing sleet. We look forward to seeing it in better weather.