...back again

Just got back from spending the weekend with The Parents up in Torgon again. We had a great time- Zach and I took the train up to Aigle on Thursday morning (after succeeding in buying our tickets and the 1/2 price yearly rail passes, even though the guy couldn't understand a word of my French apparently), Mom and Philip picked us up at the train station and then we went up to their apartment in Torgon. We rested for a bit, then went on a late afternoon hike for a few hours, amongst the cows (boy those cowbells are LOUD), and found a little house with smoke coming out of the chimney that turned out to be a lodge for backpackers. A group from France was staying there at the time, and we were able to sit outside and have a drink (the boys had beers... of course). It was ridiculously adorable. The lady who served us was really sweet. We got lots of great pictures of very pretty mountains, I'll share those soon. We got back down the mountain at about 8:30 or 8:45pm, and it was still perfectly light outside. We had a great dinner and then were off to bed.

Friday Zach and Philip were itching to go on a longer hike. I'd already figured I'd stay home, and when we woke up and saw it was raining Mom settled on staying back with me. She and I had some nice mother-daughter bonding time, and I started reading The Kite Runner (I'd gotten it just before we left on Thursday, thanks to The Sisterhood). It's amazing how much of a book you can read when you've got all day to do so... I got through most of it, then finished it this morning. It was that good. The boys, meanwhile, had a great (though wet) hike. I'm glad Zach got to go on a good, long hike as he hasn't had the chance in a while.

This morning we checked out of the apartment, then headed down the valley to Sion, a very cute, very Swiss little town, and walked around a bit before having a quick drink at a cafe. Then we went over to Montreaux, which reminded me so much of Lausanne, had lunch at an Indian restaurant right on the lake, and saw the Chateau de Chillon (which Zach has had a wood-carving picture of in his bedroom since he was a kid, that his grampa had made long ago). We got back here in the late afternoon, Zach and Philip returned the rental car, and now we're hanging out at home for a calm night, I think. Tomorrow there's talk of driving out to Chamonix for the day.

I'll upload pics and show them off soon, I promise. =)