Silver Springs State Park

My daughter Lydia graduated from the University of Florida on Saturday, August 5.  Since she also had two exhibits featured in a student art show the evening before, we decided to drive up to the area on Friday, visit Silver Springs State Park near Ocala, attend Lydia's art exhibit, and then stay over night.

My daughter Naomi drove all the way

Glass bottom boats at the dock

Me on the glass bottom boat

A sunken boat from the
early exploration era

Springs deep below the surface -
one of them releases 550 millon gallons per day!

Baby alligator

Turtles on a log

Sisters!

Daddy having fun

Statue of Chief Osceola

And the flowers!

Foggy Days in Lauterbrunnen (Europe #12)

My Europe posts so far:

#1: Off to Europe!
#2: Our First Afternoon in Geneve
#3: On the Shores of Lake Geneva
#4: All Around Geneve, All by Myself
#5: Sweet Sunday Morning in Geneve
#6: Saint-Pierre Cathedral
#7: Musée d'Art et d'Histoire
#8: On Our Way to the Swiss Alps
#9: O Little Town of Lauterbrunnen 
#10: Mürren and Gimmelwald by Cable Car
#11: Staubbachfall in Lauterbrunnen
#12: Foggy Days in Lauterbrunnen
#13: Trümmelbachfalle, Ten Waterfalls in a Big Swiss Cave
#14: St. Beatus Caves at Lake Thun in Switzerland
#15: An Evening in Bern

Mürren and Gimmelwald by Cable Car (Europe #10)

Welcome back to my Europe photo series!

After nearly an hour of walking from our hotel in Lauterbrunnen, we finally arrived at the cable car that would take us up the mountains.

There were four possible stops along the route, the top being Schilthorn, where there is a revolving restaurant which appears in a James Bond movie. Unfortunately, since it was so late in the afternoon, we could only go to the first two stops, Mürren and Gimmelwald. We debated waiting and going the next day, but remembered it was supposed to be rainy. We decided to go as far as we could just to make sure we got up there at all, and then try again the next day if the weather was better than expected. This turned out to be a wise choice, since it was extremely foggy for the remainder of our time in Lauterbrunnen, and we never did get to go up again.

This is the map of the Jungfrau region. You can see the two lakes, and in between them, the city of Interlaken.

Looking down from the cable car.

I didn't realize until we were almost to Mürren that there as a calf on board with us!

His keeper wheeled him out in a cart. Note the birds in the background.

The frisky calf frolicked all the way up the path, making it difficult for his keeper.

Alpbutter, anyone? Sounds yummy!

No cars in Mürren, but there sure are a lot of cows!

Oh, the views!

After walking around Mürren, we climbed aboard the cable car again to ride up to Gimmelwald.

Most of the shops and restaurants are closed between mid-October and mid-November (when the Christmas ski season starts), but we did find a little cafe with carrot cake, cocoa, and cappucino.

When we got off the cable car, we were so tired! We had expected to be able to go to the kiosk to buy a bus ticket back to Lauterbrunnen, but it was closed! We could only use cash, and we found out when we got on the bus that we didn't have enough. There was no way I wanted to walk all the way back in the dark! Fortunately, a kind Asian couple offered to pay our bus fare, and we sank gratefully into the seats.

After we got back, we met up with Joanna's friends Murray (from Australia) and Yoshija (from Bern, Switzerland) and drove down to Interlaken for a couple of hours. Isn't it pretty?

What an amazing first day in the Alps!

Blessings,
Virginia

My Europe posts so far:

#1: Off to Europe!
#2: Our First Afternoon in Geneve
#3: On the Shores of Lake Geneva
#4: All Around Geneve, All by Myself
#5: Sweet Sunday Morning in Geneve
#6: Saint-Pierre Cathedral
#7: Musée d'Art et d'Histoire
#8: On Our Way to the Swiss Alps
#9: O Little Town of Lauterbrunnen 
#10: Mürren and Gimmelwald by Cable Car
#11: Staubbachfall in Lauterbrunnen
#12: Foggy Days in Lauterbrunnen
#13: Trümmelbachfalle, Ten Waterfalls in a Big Swiss Cave
#14: St. Beatus Caves at Lake Thun in Switzerland
#15: An Evening in Bern