Leysin, Switzerland July 31-August 1

We wound our way south out of the Black Forest into Switzerland.  Luckily for me, there were few mountains to drive until the descent into Lake Geneva.  I wish we had stopped for a photo, but I was white knuckling my way around the northeast end of the lake to the town of Aigle.  In repeated emails, Brian subtly hinted that the drive from Aigle to Leysin might not be the easiest I've encountered.  He didn't lead me astray!  After dozens of hairpin turns, the three of us found ourselves, literally, on top of the world.  From some of the photos, you can see clouds hovering right outside the village.  It felt like a world apart, a sort of In between, netherland, that makes a person forget that the rest of the world exists.  Upon arrival, we were graciously greeted by my colleague, Brian Bohne, and shown the sites.  The village is much larger than I had anticipated and much of its development was as a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients in the early part of the 20th century.  The next day, Brian ran a half marathon up and halfway back down the mountain, so the kids and I did some exploring on our own.  We took the cog train down to the village, note the angle of the train...it is indeed the actual angle as it heads down the mountain!  We walked around and window shopped a bit and headed to the half marathon finish line.  There, we saw some kids enjoying a contest with stacking crates into the air.  The local firefighters were overseeing the event and the safety harnesses.  All of these events were coordinated with Swiss National Day, so there were even fireworks at the end of the night.  (Both nights, actually!). We saw many garden slugs and snails, rode a zip line in a park, played soccer on the lawn in front of Leysin American School, slept in a dorm room like the students, and overall had a fabulous, and seemingly, "out of this world" experience.  All this, before, of course winding our way back down the mountain  (Second to last picture shows bottom part of the road) to Aigle.  The last picture is the chateau in Aigle that rests above the village.  (I shouted with joy when I got out to take that photo because I was finally down the mountain!  14 kilometers took me approx 1/2 hour.)  Fortunately for me, or unfortunately, or probably both, August 2 has not yet seen the end of drives, as we have yet to tackle Napoleon's notorious Simplon Pass, but I will save that for another day.