Day 13 - Travel Day

Bonjour! Yes, right now we are in France :) We spent the day in Switzerland but tonight our hotel is actually in France!

We kind of had a travel day today. We got up and had a nice buffet breakfast once again at our hotel in Murren. We said goodbye to our beautiful view and headed for Lausanne, Switzerland. We had to head back down the mountain towards Interlaken and make our way west towards Lausanne. Again, absolutely beautiful views! We stopped at a Castle in Chillon which is called Château de Chillon. It was right on Lake Geneva, which is where our hotel is also on, just on the France side. We looked around the castle for about an hour before heading to our hotel. We took trains to Lausanne and then took a ferry across Lake Geneva to France to get to our hotel. A long travel day but some beautiful sights. We didn't get to our hotel until 7:30pm tonight and got a bite to eat before crashing. We have an early morning today as we start our journey home tomorrow. Our flight leaves at 6:15am to head to Munich before heading back to the US. If all goes well, we will arrive home around 9:30pm Saturday night in Minneapolis. Say a prayer that all our connections go well.

We had an amazing trip over here and we all are sad it is coming to an end. Although I think we are all ready to be back on a routine and sleep in our own bed! This will be a trip none of us will ever forget and we created some amazing memories! Thanks to Erv and Eileen for going on this journey with us!!!

Love Always and Forever,
The Corcorans

 Goodbye Murren and your amazing views.

 View from one of the trains today.

 Ehhh.. not quite the same. You all know how much I love my goldfish crackers!

 Château de Chillon,

Château de Chillon,

 Château de Chillon,

View from Château de Chillon,

View from the ferry.

Day 12 - Murren

We enjoyed another beautiful day here in Switzerland. We are sad to be leaving Murren tomorrow as we could all stay here forever!

We started off the morning with breakfast at our hotel. They had a nice buffet which is always a great way to start the day. We spent the day heading to and visiting Jungfrau - aka the top of Europe! It took us a little while to get there because we first had to go down the mountain and then back up the other side... but it was worth it. There was a tour you did that was self guided that took you through different exhibits. After we did that and got all of our amazing photos, Erv and Kevin hiked a little bit. Amber and Eileen took the train back down and waited for them. It took the boys a little over an hour and half do do their hike and got some beautiful photos!

After we arrived back at our hotel we got some dinner from the market and ate outside on a little deck while we enjoyed our views. There is nothing that beats these mountains! Our hotel had a cocktail hour so we went down there to get some champagne :) Before heading to bed, Amber and Kevin took a quick stroll to check out the moon and wow was it beautiful!

Tomorrow we will have breakfast in our hotel before heading to Geneva, Switzerland for our last night. We plan to see a castle tomorrow before calling it an early night as we have a 6:20am flight to Munich on Saturday morning.

Distance Walked: 4.54 miles

Love,
The Corcoran Clan

 Good Morning Murren, Switzerland.

 Erv and Eileen ready for the day!

Made it to the top of Europe!

 Views from the top.

Views from the top. Absolutely perfect weather again.

 This was the platform you could walk out onto.

 Amber and Kevin :)

 There was an ice cave you could go into... very cool.

Ice Cave :)

 Amber and Kevin inside the ice cave.

 This is the top of Europe platform from afar.

 View from Kevin and Erv's hike.

Love this photo :) :) :)

There are fountains like this all over for you to drink. Kevin has been the only one brave enough to actually do it!

 Our hotel's happy hour!

 Trying to be artistic maybe!?!?!

Hello moon!

Day 11 - Murren

Well... today might have beat out all of our other favorite days! Today was just perfect and beautiful!

We left Lucerne this morning and took a two hour train ride to Interlaken, Switzerland. We then took another short train and a gondola up to Murren. Yes, we had to take a gondola up to the town we are staying in - how cool is that! Took one last short train to the end of the town where we got off for our hotel. Murren is a small little town and is just what we all needed. To walk from one side to the other is like 15 minutes and there is no one here!

The mountains here are so beautiful. You can see them from anywhere in the city. The pictures we are getting are so pretty! We got all checked into our hotel and settled before heading up to one of the mountain peaks around here. We took a stroll through the town to the other end before catching a gondola up to the mountain peak - Schilthorn. This is not just any old mountain though - it is where some of the James Bond movies were filmed. So on the top of the peak they have a exhibit with James Bond stuff (all before Amber and Kevin's time)! Again, the views were breathtaking! We could have stayed up there all day long!

We headed back down and freshened up before heading to dinner. Since it was Eileen's birthday, we wanted to do something that she would remember. So we had dinner at our hotel and we did fondue! Nothing better than traditional Swiss fondue in Switzerland with the mountains behind us! We had a very nice time and spent over two hours eating. We started off with the most amazing cheese fondue and then had the traditional broth fondue with an assortment of meats. It was quite delicious :)

After dinner, we went out to a little deck area of our hotel and watched the moon rise and shine over the mountains. Good some absolutely stunning photos today of the mountains. It was a relaxing day and all four of us love this little town feel with the mountains surrounding you!

Tomorrow we are here as well and will head to another side of the mountain range. That is all that is on the agenda but we will stroll through the town some more.

Distance Walked: 4.72 miles

Love,
Erv, Eileen, Kevin, and Amber

 This was our view this morning in Lucerne. It had been pretty cloudy until this morning - how beautiful is this photo!!

 Some views from our train ride into Interlaken today.

Kevin and his mom, Eileen, on the train.

 Views from the train.

 View from the deck of our hotel!! Can't argue with this photo - I think the cow makes it through.

 Erv and Eileen's new favorite spot in the whole wide world - amazing views from this spot.

 Love!

View from Schilthorn.

 Kevin and Amber at Schilthorn.

The town we are staying in, Murren. Again, a traditional Switzerland town. The mountains just surround you!

The Corcoran clan at dinner!

 Fondue!!!

 Nighttime view from the deck of our hotel.

Serenity.

Day 10 - Matterhorn

We are thanking the weather gods once again for today. The rain stayed clear of us and it ended up being a great day! We made it to Matterhorn with some amazing photos!

We started the day off early catching a 6am train. We had to make a few changes before arriving in Zermatt around 9:15am. We stopped at our favorite grocery store for some snacks and breakfast. Zermatt is a little town at the bottom of the mountain range - a very Switzerland-ish town. It's exactly what you think of Switzerland.

We first made our way up to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise - you will see by the photos why it is named this. We took a small gondola about 2/3 of the way up before switching to a huge 100 person gondola for the rest of the way (blue route on map). We were a little worried because the clouds/fog was still around the mountain by the time we got up to the top. But the weather gods did not disappoint! Once we got all the way up, we were above the clouds and it was amazing. Absolutely breathtaking! The photos below will not do it justice. It had just snowed because everything was ice/snow covered. There was a little platform you could walk up to. We could see Matterhorn from the backside and a few other mountain peaks. It was quite cold as we were 12,739 feet above sea level!

After we warmed up for a bit inside we headed back down the same way, gondolas. Again going through the clouds and fog. We got some lunch and headed up to another part of the mountain range (yellow route). This was not nearly as high but it gave you the iconic photo of Matterhorn. To get to this point we took a cog wheel train about 3/8 the way up (yep, I just used 3/8!) and then gondolas the rest of the way. Again, we were a little worried about the clouds/fog rolling in but we got there literally just in time. We got some great pics and then the clouds rolled in. You will have to see the progression in the photos below. The clouds came in and left a few times while we were there, so it was all okay! We stayed up at the top for a little while and enjoyed the sights before heading back down.

We enjoyed everything about the day! There were no crowds and really hardly any people at all which was very nice. We had another three plus hour train ride back to our hotel in Lucerne and got some dinner before heading to hotel for the night around 8:30pm!

Tomorrow is a big day! It's Eileen's birthday! So we will have to do some special celebrating for her tomorrow as she deserves it :)

We will be heading to Murren tomorrow, which is still in Switzerland. Hard to believe we only have a few days left before heading home!

Distance Walked: 3.53 miles

Love,
C-Squared

 Streets of Zermatt.

 Streets of Zermatt. The water is really that color - it's mesmerizing.

 View from our gondola on the way up.

 The top of Matterhorn Glacier Paradise.

 The icy steps we walked up to get to the little platform.

 The platform. Look at the ice on the metal poles on the left side of photo.

 Ice on the cross.

 Thought this was cute.

And there is the view! Matterhorn.

Matterhorn.

 Kevin and Amber selfie with Matterhorn in background.

Erv with Matterhorn in back. Great photo :)

Amber and Eileen selfie!

Erv and Eileen riding the cog wheel train up.

 The clouds are rolling in.

 We made it to the top just in time to get some great photos.

Amber and Kevin

Here comes the clouds!

Here they are and Matterhorn is just gone. It was crazy how fast they moved!

In the town this group would perform. They yodeled and everything.

Map of Matterhorn.