The essential palace to Louis XIV's centralization of royal power. There are mansions and other disgusting expressions of wealth in the US, but this palace was ridiculous. Funny enough, this palace was not used much after the 17th century. Most of the kings could not afford to keep it maintained. It was not until John D Rockefeller, in the flesh, donated millions of dollars to restore it after World War 1 and the Treaty of Versailles. 

We did not go inside. We simply toured the gardens and rode bikes around the canal. 

What was your favorite part of Versailles?

- Saraya: Riding Bikes!   - Soren: Riding bikes!   - Anna: Riding bikes!   - Jansen: Riding bikes!   ----I guess that about sums up our day :) 

12 years ago, Jansen met a wonderfully kind and intelligent man named Beat who lives in SLC but grew up in Murren, Switzerland. Beat has built 3 chalets on his land in Switzerland and he invited us to stay at his chalets. In exchange, Jansen helped him with his website, https://www.chaletsnowbird.com

After 12 years, we finally made it! We were so lucky with timing as well. Beat and Nancy with their 2 daughters, Erica and Heidi, along with their 3 children, Adde, Lucas and Lilly stayed in Upper Snowbird and we stayed in Lower Snowbird. 

Our families easily blended into one big family. Switzerland not only offered a new group of friends, but exciting scenery with the Eiger looming out of our window the entire time and delightful fields rich with flowers, cows, sheep, bugs, lakes.....

The cheese was the best in Europe. The wine was shockingly fabulous. And you definitely do not want to check your cholesterol levels after living there for a few weeks. 

We all embarked on the local Via Ferrata known for its massive swinging bridge and steep overlook. 

This Via Ferrata was unique. There was a LOT of hiking on it and it was quite wet

This girl has no fear. The bridge behind her is wide enough for 2 feet side by side. It has limited railing to hold onto with your hands, it sways and bounces and it is > 2000 feet above ground! She just moseyed over it and even took the time to check in with her mom, who was not moseying. 

A game of Giant Chess before starting the hike on a rainy day. Fisher is a chess master and the kids really took to it. 

Along the way, we debated if the lines were really going to shock us. Some of us found out....

Cow, sheep, or person?!? It is definitely the tombstone I want, just not anytime soon. 

Along the way, we had a mixture of trail, road and wide pavement trail. Murren is home to many paragliders, base jumpers and wing suits. 

Allmendhubel, The Best Playground in the World. 

"Switzerland is a place where they don't like to fight, so they get people to do their fighting for them while they ski and eat chocolate."

And the best part of the playground, the restaurant overlooks it. So in true European style, we hiked, played and ate delicious warm food prepared by someone other than myself. Oh and we drank beer!

Beautiful Murren home on our way back after hiking. 

We looked up the Jungraujoch, https://www.jungfraujochtickets.com. It looked cheesy, and sure enough, it was. But in a fun, good way that offered some exceptional experiences with kiddos. We walked through a glacier, pretended to make chocolate and stood just below the peak of Jungfrau. 

The train takes you though the mountain and when you arrive, you are at the top of Aletsch glacier, 3,454m above sea level.

Ice Palace - Caves carved through the glacier with sculptures to boot

Can you guess who we found! He will likely thaw again soon. 

Sphinx highway - a memorabilia for the miners who made it possible

It was a strange store to have at the top of a glacier, but the Swiss do love their chocolate. And there is never a bad time for chocolate. 

Murren, Switzerland. Cables, Trams and Trains

We blazed through Chamonix, less than 24 hours. Hence, few photos. Jansen, Saraya and Fisher did a Parcour tour in the forest. Soren and I went shopping. I literally took one silly photo. Chamonix is impressive. I have always heard you can be sipping espresso in the warm valley and 20 minutes later you are on a treacherous mountaineering climb after taking the tram up 9000 feet. It is true! But it rained on us the entire time, so we hung out, ate food, shopped and packed our bags for Switzerland. 

Our hotel which had a really large 2 bedroom apartment. Very spacious. 

The Treehouse stay was impressive to say the least. The Treehouse was super fun. We played camouflage through the evening, hunted mushrooms and shared a composting toilet. We also rented bikes at Altebikes. What an experience because they were electric bikes! I may have been pulled to the dark side..... The kids definitely have been!

We found a Swiss boy at the treehouse. We might take him home. 

“Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live.”

Nutella rewards at the end of a solid effort

Gunderson Experiences

Versailles

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