This last part of the trip covers the countries of Switzerland and France during our Summer of '99 trip. The first part of the trip can be found in the Africa blog and the second part of this trip can be found in the Mediterranean blog.
Switzerland
This part of the trip will always be special to us as it was here that we got engaged!! Keith had decided that he wanted to end the trip in Kandersteg, where he spent two summers in '88 and '90 working at the Scout Center. Little did Shawna know that Keith was planning all along to propose here, assuming we survived the summer travels together! Well, apparently Shawna passed the test.
We arrived in Zurich and took the train to Zug to visit Stefanie, a friend of mine from Georgetown, and her fiance Thomas. We stayed one night with them and had dinner out -- it was great to connect as Shawna had not seen her since we graduated. From here, we took the train to Kandersteg where we stayed in the International Scout Center (our own private room) for 5 nights. The village is very cute with traditional Swiss chalets, flower boxes, and cows with bells. While there, Keith ran into a few people he worked with -- Ron and Mike -- so we hung out with them a few times for dinner/drinks.
We spent most of our time hiking and relaxing. We were both out of shape from a summer of gluttony so the hiking was quite hard! On our first day, we attempted a hike to Oeschinensee Lake, a beautiful glacier lake close to the village; however, it was rainy so once we arrived at the lake, we ate a bowl of soup at the hotel on the lake and hiked back to the Scout Center. The following day was the hardest -- a hike up to Blumlisalphutte. The hike started out beautiful but then it got very steep and started to get cloudy so it was difficult to see the views. Along the way, Keith kept saying 'isn't this beautiful' and Shawna responded with 'no, this sucks' -- she later found out that Keith had planned to propose at the top of this hike but given the poor visibility and Shawna's crabby mood, he decided to wait for another day.
Shawna somehow injured her toe on this hike so the next day we decided to take it easy. The day turned out to be gorgeous so we returned to Oeschinensee to have a picnic on the lake. We bought bread, cheese and wine and rented a boat on the lake. After a few glasses of wine, Keith got the nerve to finally ask Shawna to marry him. Shawna was so surprised that I kept asking him 'is this for real'? After I realized that this was not a joke and the real deal, she said yes!! Keith had bought a cubic zirconium ring as a placeholder until we got back to the States and could buy a ring together. We took a bunch of pictures on the lake to document this awesome moment and then headed to shore to celebrate with a dinner at the Doldenhorn, one of the nicest restaurants in the area - and celebrate we did with multiple courses, the dessert cart and a bottle of wine.
On our last day, we relaxed, walked around town, read and watched a video from 1990 when Keith was tied to a flag pole as a prank. That evening, we had dinner at The Crystal, a local lodge/restaurant/bar that is close to the Scout Center.
This part of the trip will always be special to us as it was here that we got engaged!! Keith had decided that he wanted to end the trip in Kandersteg, where he spent two summers in '88 and '90 working at the Scout Center. Little did Shawna know that Keith was planning all along to propose here, assuming we survived the summer travels together! Well, apparently Shawna passed the test.
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| Swiss Chalet |
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| Oeschinensee Lake |
Shawna somehow injured her toe on this hike so the next day we decided to take it easy. The day turned out to be gorgeous so we returned to Oeschinensee to have a picnic on the lake. We bought bread, cheese and wine and rented a boat on the lake. After a few glasses of wine, Keith got the nerve to finally ask Shawna to marry him. Shawna was so surprised that I kept asking him 'is this for real'? After I realized that this was not a joke and the real deal, she said yes!! Keith had bought a cubic zirconium ring as a placeholder until we got back to the States and could buy a ring together. We took a bunch of pictures on the lake to document this awesome moment and then headed to shore to celebrate with a dinner at the Doldenhorn, one of the nicest restaurants in the area - and celebrate we did with multiple courses, the dessert cart and a bottle of wine.
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| We Are Engaged! |
France
We made a quick trip to Paris to visit Steve and Jan and the kids on our way back to the States. We stayed with them for two nights and hung out at their house and around the town they were living in at the time (which is about an hour outside of Paris). We shared our news of the engagement (the first people to know) and celebrated with them.
Back Home
When we returned home, we visited Keith's parents for a few days and then my parents before we went to NYC to start our new jobs at Deloitte. We shared the news of our engagement with both families -- everyone was happy and excited!
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| Keith and Shawna with Megan and Alistair |
When we returned home, we visited Keith's parents for a few days and then my parents before we went to NYC to start our new jobs at Deloitte. We shared the news of our engagement with both families -- everyone was happy and excited!
For more photos of this leg of the trip:
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