Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once, and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.
My words are:
They were submitted by: Baking In A Tornado - Thank you, Karen!
Not sure how I am going to integrate all of these words, but let me use them by telling you about our little outing to the mountains.
For the past few years, hubby and I would always take Friday (afternoon) off in order to drive to Engelberg, which is primarily a skiing area, but a very nice mountain resort in summer as well, especially if you're a paraglider.
The reason for our tradition to get there the day before pickup, is to avoid getting up in the middle of the night to be there in time to observe the ice unit Colin and his teammates are presenting early Saturday morning.
It's been a very hot and very dry summer so far. Looking at the weather forecast, all you'd ever see was a sunshine symbol and temperatures of 28 - 38° Celsius, which converts to 82 - 100° Fahrenheit.
Except last week. Friday had clouds and raindrops :-( They were originally announced to set in around 2pm, so I insisted on leaving home early for a chance to still have a partly sunny morning and lunchtime. The fact that a client, whom hubby was supposed to give a call, was not reachable, came in handy, and we actually parked at the valley station shortly before 10am!
It felt great to escape work and everyday life. And the heat! It was noticeably cooler than at home, and as we took the cable car and then the chair lift, I almost regretted not having brought a sweater. Almost.
It's a lovely area for families, hikers, bikers and nature lovers.
There's a small heart shaped lake surrounded by a nature trail: Local plants are featured, and the trail is equipped with various natural materials that provide a sensory experience: Pebbles, mud, pine cones are supposed to be explored barefoot.
There is a toboggan run and several fire pits inviting for a BBQ, but there's a restaurant as well if you don't feel like grilling your own food. We came prepared as in hats and sunscreen, even water bottles, but no picnic, so we purchased our snacks at the alpine hut.
Now what?
We had explored the lake, enjoyed the view, had an early lunch, and the sun was still shining!
"Let's walk back", hubby suggested.
Wait, what? Why? We have a return ticket!
"Just because. It'll do us good. Plus we have time."
We compromised to walk to the middle station, which was supposed to be an hour long hike.
At first it was a pretty steep and narrow trail, and my legs had to work hard. Suddenly the big cloud that had appeared, cleared up, and we found ourselves walking in the blazing sun. Good thing we brought the hats!
Several times we had to cross a cow pasture. I felt a little uneasy. I mean, I don't perceive cows to be aggressive or dangerous, but if you're walking right past them, they are huge!!
Well, I can happily report that I survived both the hike and the cows! Actually we made it in 45 minutes.
Back at the village I remembered a park I had been to a few years ago.
Mind you, Engelberg has one of the two ice rinks within a 90 minutes' drive that remain open all year long. So if you're a Hockey Mom to an ever growing teenager, you will have to buy him new skates pretty much every season, and prior to attend summer hockey camp, he will need to break them in. This is why I will find myself there every summer. After dropping Colin and usually a teammate or a school friend off, I will have some time to myself to explore the area.
This park comes with a pond, a tower with water slides, and an island, which is reachable by rafts. Again, there are several fire pits scattered across the area.
Sheep live there, too, and as we arrived, we met a somewhat bizarre scene:
Among all the tourists in bathing suits or hiking gear, there were two nuns taking pictures of the sheep. I know it's sort of un-classy, but I had to take a picture ;-)
Even though we had visited the monastery area - mostly for its cheese shop - many times, we had never encountered actual nuns around?
My imagination went wild. What if they were not interested in the sheep but had other reasons to stand there, talking and gesturing towards the forest. What might they be up to? Are they even nuns? Maybe it was a disguise, a perfect one at that. They may draw a quick moment of attention to their appearance, but then people will respectfully leave them alone. They could do all kinds of things without being suspected.
Underneath their robe they may pack weapons to commit bank robbery! Carry packets of drugs to smuggle or sell! Cameras and recording equipment to spy on people!
OK, let's leave the poor nuns alone. I just had to use my words ;-)
The sky was getting darker, and we decided to check into our hotel. In order to get there we passed the ice rink, and in front we spotted one of Colin's team's staff members. She told us she just got word that one of her other kids, who spent the week at scouts' camp, got injured on her knee, and she had just asked her Mom to pick her daughter up.
The national camp of the Swiss Scout Movement only takes place every 14 years. This summer, more than 30,000 participants, 5,000 volunteers, 40 firefighters and 120 members of the army got together, and everyone was super excited.
Too bad for the girl. On the plus side, it only happened on the second last day.
The hotel was nice, and we killed some time waiting for the rain and dinner. Both were supposed to happen around 6pm. You will note that the rain that had been announced for the early afternoon, never materialized. While we were not mad about the change in plans, we could have slept in at home. Never mind.
Shortly before we left to walk to the restaurant, there was a little drizzle. Just enough to turn the entire area into an open air sauna. It was so humid. Yuck!
Nevertheless, when in the mountains... I ordered a cheese fondue. The menu said that the cheese mixture was manufactured at the close-by convent
Aha!! Maybe our nuns were sending an encrypted message? We kept our eyes open for a microchip, also we made sure to eat every single bit, in case there was a note at the bottom of the caquelon!
And what do you know, there was one, indeed. It said
"If you can read this, you ate too much! No more food for you until the next full moon!"
Oh my goodness?! We nervously checked the calendar. That very night was crescent, so we would have to wait for a full week?
I don't think so, even though my jeans would thank me.
Have you ever heard of spies who disguise themselves as nuns and hide messages in dairy products?
Let me know in the comments, and please visit my fellow bloggers and check out their posts:
I don't know about nuns and spies, but I do know that scenery is just gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha! Love the message! AND the nuns! Gorgeous scenery. You do that rather well in your country!
ReplyDeleteWhat an imaginative, creative storytelling about your family tradition day.
ReplyDelete