How do I sum up spending two and a half weeks in the Swiss Alps and the small German town where Ben grew up?
Blessed.
(And the 1,000+ pictures we accumulated between three cameras constantly snapping away will help).
Don't worry, I won't post them all. I figure the easiest way to describe the trip is through the lens of Ben's stories that he's told me over time and how they came to light on our trip. Over the next few days I'll try to tell some of them and give you a glimpse but as usual, the pictures don't do many of the stories justice. Which is why I feel so blessed to have stood at Ben's side for these experiences, to understand a little bit more his world. I have been to Europe before, I've even been to Ben's small town several times. But there was something intentional about this trip. It's not that he wanted to relive memories...I think he just simply wanted to remember.
Many of the stories Ben has told me over the years about Bergun, Switzerland, the small village in the Swiss Alps where Ben's family went every Christmas with many of their friends from BFA (the MK school he attended), came alive for me. During our last family dinner in Germany we joked about how Ben had given me the impression we'd be staying in a dormitory in Bergun. I wasn't quite sure how that was going to work out with meals and privacy and whatnot, but he just loved Bergun so much that I tried not to doubt him. It turns out that we stayed in an unbelievably gorgeous, historic, Swiss hotel....but when Ben went there in high school he and a bunch of the guys slept in a bunk room on the bottom floor...he just forgot to mention that there was this whole beautiful hotel attached to the bunk room. Here's a few pictures of it (and I have to give credit to the Farmer and Melli cameras/photographers that were also on the trip because often their shots caught the scene better than ours!)
There was even a room just for ladies...
A little ways down from the hotel is the main part of the village. The architecture is very unique and beautiful.
One of my favorite windows
The church at Bergun (there are beautiful mountains behind it but the snow clouds had moved in by then!)
Inside the church was amazing! They have preserved the original frescos...
From the balcony in the back
When we weren't sledding (I'll explain this later) we enjoyed strolling through the town and checking out the cool buildings. In the evenings we cooked together in our little kitchen...fondue, beef bourgingnon, and chili to name a few dinners, and Ben and I engaged in a week-long table tennis tourney. Movies at night, reading with blankets, a puzzle, and hanging out with the fam. I was the only one in our party (besides Lucie, our niece) that had never been to Bergun before and it was so special for me to spend a week there with Ben's family, creating our own new memories of the place that is so dear to them.
Next installment: The Darlux
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