Day Sixteen: The Netherlands

After a late night, we woke up at 10:00 and had breakfast with janina and stefan. The kids jonte and rone were already at school so the house was very quiet. 

First we drove to see an old monastery called Kloster Hude ( Hude Monastery). It was built in 1232 as a daughter house of Mariental Monastery. It stayed strong for over 250 years, producing bricks, woven goods and pottery ( i found two pieces in the rubble) until its downfall in 1536 due to the reformation. It fell into a state of disrepair, and the roof and many of the walls collapsed. The leftover bricks, stones and wood slowly was turned back into dirt and now "ground level" in and around the monastery is actually around 6 ft higher than it was back in the day. 

Wild roses growing from the rubble:

The secitions in black are still standing to this day:

A drawing of what the monastery and surrounding lands used to look like:

After visiting the monastery we drove to see some old (were talkin bronze and iron age) graves. There were about 530 of them covering a large field. We walked around for a few minutes and then drove 2km down the road to see some german megaliths. It was cool to see and touch some of the things we had learend about in art hisotry during our junior year at Priory.

The first megalith was basicly a bunch of large stones in a tight oval 50 ft long and 15ft wide with some large stones in the middle. 

The second meaglith was much larger. Large stones covered in dirt, 10 ft high, 15 ft wide, and at least 150ft long. In the middle was a small chamber about 4 ft tall, 10ft wide and 15ft long that we could still go in!

It took an estimated 100 people 3-4 months to complete it. Unfortunately cory didnt get to see either of these since he felt bad from the night before and decided to stay in the car. 

We headed from the megaliths to see an old fort in the netherlands (holland). It was actually really cool to cross the border because the lines on the roads all changed, and because germany and the netherlands have different laws on how you can build your home, the architecture changed a bit too. 

The fort was pretty sweet. It was built as a military compounds in the 16th century and then converted into a town in the 18th century. Its hard to get a feel for what the sorrounding area is like but just imagine that someone built this in the middle of iowa:

 Anyone who wanted to attack this fort would surley have a difficult time. Theres at least 2 moats to cross at any point and its impossible to hide from the fort's guns. There are no weak or blind spots, all bridges are retractable, and the community is self sufficent. The whole village was just very cool. 

After around an hour and a half at the fort (now a town called bourtange) we crossed back into germany and went out to a nice italian restaurant before coming home.

-grant

Day 13

In a separate bunkroom from the mountain guides, the four of us and Rita woke up around 5 am in preparation to climb the Mönch. We woke up early because a thunderstorm was moving through in the afternoon, and lightning does not mix well with ice axes and high altitude. Not only could it be a safety issue, but the clouds could obstruct our view. 

Everything had been set up the night before, so we ate a quick breakfast of bread, yogurt, tea, hot chocolate and coffee. Around 6:30, we had our gear ready and headed out into the Swiss wilderness. Johann was the guide for Grant and I. Marcel, an international mountain guide in training, was roped together with Cory and Elliott. In order to receive certification, individuals must pass 3 years of testing. The mountain guides are expected to be experts in areas such as climbing, ski touring, and avalanche safety and theory. Johann said his class started with 75 and finished with 28.

The morning view wasn't all that bad either!

Our plan was to attack the south side of the Mönch and climb up the ridge to the summit. At the beginning, the climb was mostly rock, so we just used our hiking boots. When it got quite steep, the guides would climb first and then wait incase anyone fell, but no one did. Snow then became a factor, so we put on our crampons, which are spiked plates that attach to the bottom of a boot for extra grip in ice and snow... think of a trucker putting on chains on tires. The ice axes came out and we continued our ascent, climbing a mixture of rocks and ice/snow.   Scaling up the rocks was a bit tricky with the crampons, but we all soon mastered the learning curve.

Marcel climbing infront of Cory and Elliott

Johann leading the way. Just another day at the office for him!

Around two thirds of the way up, the summit was visible. The remaining section was entirely snow and ice as we made our way along the ridge of the mountain: a 2 foot wide margin for climbing. It was incredible to move along the ridge because each side was a very steep drop down the mountain. I felt like I was in a James Bond movie or North Face commercial. 

View of our path from the summit

Reaching the top was surreal and rewarding; standing on the highest inch of the mountain provided a commanding view and feeling. 2hrs and 10 minutes of climbing were put into perspective as we all embraced the moment. It was like being the highest on in the playground tree and knowing you were the only one... but on a much different level. The view was incredible and we were very thankful for nearly cloudless skies: the forecast had not looked good days before. We had successfully summited before the thunderstorm and clouds from the West had blown in.

After summiting (most pictures are on flash drive I can't upload right now or our GoPros)

When we had finished soaking in the landscape of the Alps, we headed down in opposite order: the guides trailed behind as a safety precaution. The descent was easier physically, but more difficult mentally. Instead of having the foot and hand holds directly infront, we had to look more closely. The snow and also begun to soften, developing the ability to slide when under pressure (us stepping). Of course Johann and Marcel just walked down the mounatin like it was no big deal... Legend has it they had their hands tied just for fun. Who knows. 

Our journey down the Mönch was shorter, taking a total of 1hr and 50 minutes. We passed a few climbers arriving late to the party, who would unfortunately reach the top surround by clouds. Sometime during the 11th hour of the day, we reached the bottom, also in a cloud:

We all quickly took our gear off, happy to shed the weight, and headed to the Jungfraujoch 20 minutes away:

Found this dandy picture on the internet. 

We all celebrated with a beer and were happy to see Rita, who was waiting for us before all returing to Grindelwald. It was interesting to think of how much we had accomplished before noon. A feeling of productivity entered my mind as I entertained the possibility of applying this experience to my everyday life. That thought was quickly dispelled as I remember how much I love to sleep. 

The train ride down was quiet and quite scenic like the way up. When we reached Grindelwald, we separated with Madcel and headed back to the house for rest. After everyone took a shower, Elliott took a long nap while Grant, Cory, and I played the game of champions and our ancestors: Uno. Around 5:30 we headed over to Rita and Johanns for a great barbecue dinner. We talked, played more Uno, and ride bikes the rest of the night. 

-Parker

Day Fourteen: Bern and Zurich

Today was our last day in Grindelwald. We pack our things, said goodbye to Johaan, and then headed out. Before leaving however, we stopped at the hardware store owned by our mountain guide Marcel's father. Inside, Parker and Elliott each bought authentic Swiss cowbells which were very cool. Elliott's cowbell was actually used by a cow. Somehow, the cow cracked the bell and then the farmer exchanged it for a new one.

We then headed to Bern, the capitol ofSwitzerland  and the capitol of the Bernese canton, essentially the equivolent of a state in the U.S. (There are 26 cantons in Switzerland). 

Bern was established as a fortified town in 1392. The town was strategically placed on a peninsula formed by a river. That way, the city of Bern could be protected from invaders with a single stone wall. Centuries later, the population of Bern grew and available space within the city wall diminished. The town was expanded twice and two walls were built. 

Legend has it that the first ruler of bern didnt know what to name the new city so he organized a hunt in the surrounding woods, promising to name the city after the first animal that was killed. Fortunately they killed a bear first instead of a rabbit or butterfly. The bear is the symbol of the city and Canton of Bern this day.

As bern continued to grow into a flourishing capitol of trade, the city decided to boost security by putting wild animals in the moats which were infront of each of the walls. In the first and outermost moat there were deer, in the second moat there were bears, and in the third an innermost moat there were sharks with LASERBEAMS ON THEIR HEADS. (There actually wasnt anything in the third moat).

Everything from the third wall in is now a UNESCO world heritage site. We saw a lot of buildings that dated back to the 15th, 16th, and 17th century. Our tour guide showed us a few of the 15th century fountains in Bern, a large protestant church, the prison tower, clocktower, former resodence of Albert Einstein (where he came up with the theory of relativity E=mc^2) and a few other landmarks around the city. 

The above statue is one of the many water fountain statues in Bern. This one in particular depicts the father of time. Your eyes are not deceiving you, he is in fact eating babies. Not to promote cannibalism but to show quite vividly how quickly time passes.  

The clocktower. At the top is a large golden figure with a hammer who strikes the bell according to the hour.

17th century art in Bern:

21st century art in Bern:

My, how far we've come.

 After the tour we stopped at an antique store where i got a really cool cast bronze dish from the 60's and a postcard from the 90's for a combined $12. 

We then crossed the Aare river to a restaurant for lunch before heading back to the car. 

We were quite amused to see that some swiss parking garages (including ours) have special parking zones for women and the handicapped. We left at 4 for Zurich. 

We got to zurich around 5, checked into  our hotel and then took a tram into downtown zurich. We walked along the river and saw a bunch of old buildings before heading to a street with a bunch of bars. 

We chose a traditional German restaurant with great food but we had an awful waiter. After dinner we went and saw some live music and had some more drinks at a bar before heading back to the hotel. 

-grant

One of the coolest things we saw in Bern was a giant Catholic Cathedral.

It was decorated with stained glass windows and tons of statues. 

My favorite part of the Cathedral was a Frieze of the last judgement. 

The left sided depicts those who are going to heaven 

and the right depicts those going to hell.

St Micheal the archangel is in the middle fighting with the devil.

-Elliott

Day Twelve: Preparing for The Mönch

Cory: The beginning of our journey inside our journey: Got up today and headed up to Rita's house to eat breakfast and get our bags checked. We had to make sure we had everything we would need for the next two days to keep ourselves warm and comfortable. After making sure we were all set we set off for the Grindelwald train station that would take us up to the Jungfraujoch, from where we would set off. The train ride took around an hour and was an incredible feat of engineering. The track went through multiple mountains including the Eiger and Mönch and the tunnels had been built in the late 1800's, by about 300 men, before they had mechanical drills. Since the winters are so harsh and the Alps get so dangerous, while digging the tunnel they had to stay up in the mountains all winter. In the fall they had to bring up a bunch of live animals and other food that could get them through the winter. 

After arriving at the top we took a lunch break in one of the few restaurants they had. Since this was a prime tourist location not only were the train tickets outrageously expensive but so was the food. Most of the train station is under the mountain. There is only one visible part on top which is called the spinx and it literally looked like an evil lair.

 Once we were all full we set off for the hut that we would be spending the night in. Getting to the hut wasn't challenging as the way we took was actually just a path, however the snow we were walking on was quite soft and most of it was uphill so we were all pretty tired. The hut we were staying in was called the Mönchsjochhutte and sat at an altitude of 11,976 feet.

 We got our room which was full of bunk beds and headed back outside to practice using the crampons, picks, and being tied together on rope. The view from the hut was amazing.

After we got comfortable with all of this we went back inside and enjoyed a filling three course meal. We then played uno for a while and eventually headed to bed. We had been warned before we went to sleep that we probably wouldn't actually sleep much due to the altitude. I was thinking that since I was really tired I would probably get an alright amount of sleep but I was quite wrong. The night crept along slowly for all of us as it was very hard to fall asleep and unfortunately whenever I would manage to fall asleep I would be rudely awakened by a pillow thrown by Elliott because I was snoring. He probably should've just let me sleep since he wasn't going to anyways. 

The next day we would climb the Mönch.