This is Thursday, just after we arrived. We decided to try find some snow but got about half way there before sliding down. Faye was the photographer for the most part, and I realized while I was choosing photos that it is a pity, but this beautiful girl is not on very many photos! But I do hope you enjoy the pictures!
Faye and Joash are exchange students at Erasmus from Singapore.
Most mountain streams had to be crossed, whether or not they were over knee deep and came straight from a glacier...
It's hard to see the steepness of the slope from this angle, but this was a pretty impressive 10 steps!
We are trying to balance here. This is taken about two seconds before I got a pretty bad cut under my foot from the 'trying' part gone wrong...
Simply amazing
This is a picture from Friday. Our destination was a lake that was marked on the map. First we were told that it is only an hour from where we had stopped to rest. An hour later some hikers told us it was fifteen more minutes. Half an hour later we were told it was another 20 minutes. We finally arrived though, the only issue was... would we make it back to the gondola before it shut down?
Woohoo! We even got a free ride down as it was the last run of the day!
Snowball fight in June
Got to love the GoPro camera!
View from the balcony, right outside our rooms! Every morning sang its vibrant praise to God!
"I lift my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? From the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth."
Four relaxing evenings were spent in our cozy little cabin.They also included home made warm dinners, some wet sweaters, and exploring maps. Plus late night chats in the moon shadow of the mountain, doing devotions every morning under the same shadow and brilliant sunlight, evening crickets... so much beauty on our doorstep!
Just around the corner of our chalet.
J-man
Holding a random biker's dog who wouldn't sit still while she biked down. This is a pretty stellar spot for mountain bikers.
The next day we went swimming! This is also a glacier lake, although it is lower in altitude and gets warmed up by the sun pretty ok. It was freezing cold still, but we couldn't resist a short dip.
Amazing colors
A small town of peaceful farmland
Climbing another waterfall
Moments before the guy in the pink shirt (Geoffrey) fell, tumbling down on his back. It was pretty painful I think.
Feeding the goats
These guys climb EVERYTHING!
Watching an avalanche
So much love. Not very much balance.
Absolutely amazing!!
Natural spring water that came from the ground!
Flying Photobombers
Another stream... let's cross it too!
One of my favorite shots by the amazing photographer Faye!
Lunch break at a hungry 2:30 pm, a bit discouraged after being told three times that we were almost there and it's just around the corner... Really this day gave a different definition to 'almost there'.
Kind of fun colors
Walk on snow? No problem!
Until you have to touch it! I think I've had enough of this from Smithers that I don't have to do it in June in Europe!
Lay on snow without a Tshirt? No big deal!
You must appreciate the rolled down socks on this picture. These legs were a little grandpa-ish for a lot of the time. A cool shot again though!
Evening soccer practise under the glowing mountain.
Really too cool ;)
Evening roasting by a nearby river.
Meatballs on a stick! It makes for slightly crispy outsides, and is pretty tasty!
Aaand another river needing to be crossed
A perfect evening I think!
I am not sure what to put as a caption for this picture...
I get a kick out of our faces here, I think this is part of the balancing act
Attempting to balance on a rock with five people while standing at the base of a waterfall is a bit squishy, a lot sketchy, and more than a lot freezing.
My beautiful friend!
Another favorite
A natural spring, with a hollow log to catch the water for the cattle.
Blocking the view
We also went river rafting, but don't have photos as we didn't want to risk taking cameras along. All in all, one of my favorite European trips! It was awesome to have God take my breath away with his presence and his beauty. The quiet peace of the place really seeps into a person's skin after a time as well.
And now is the official one-week mark before it is home time! I'm really looking forward to seeing Smithers again, but especially yesterday on the way home from Switzerland it really hit me that I am for real going away from Rotterdam in just a few days. Maybe I was overtired, but my pillow was pretty close to receiving a few tear drops last night at this thought.
But again, God always gives us reason to bloom where he plants us!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well, and have a great week!
really, you're going home in a week????
ReplyDeletei shall miss touring europe with you (vicariously...)
can you jump out of the plane over winnipeg??? ;)
Kim!! These pictures are AMAZING! Wow what an awesome adventure showing you more of an awesome God :) The pictures of you lying in the snow in June reminded me of camp Yak last year and we were lying in the snow in July. Smithers is kinda nuts I'd say ;) Well I hope you are able to enjoy every moment of the last week left in Holland! There are a lot of people here who will be happy to have you back home :) :)
ReplyDeleteTake care and safe travels!!