Switzerland with Grandma and Papa

Happy 45th anniversary Cindy and Rich Reilly!!!!!
8 day Grand Tour of Switzerland ...Photos

July 24th we boarded the train in Landstuhl and headed to Basel Germany/Switzerland and then on to Zurich, Switzerland for our first night.  Day 2 we took the train to Lucerne and enjoyed the beautiful lake and swans.  On day 3 we had our excursion to Mount Titlis (3020 m/10,000 ft).  To get up to Mount Titlis we took a train to Engelberg and then a gondola up to the Trübsee, followed by another gondola, followed by the rotating gondola which took us to the very top allowing us to walk around on the glaciers.  Day 4 we headed to St. Moritz, it was a beautiful train ride and we were fortunate to find a great playground where the kids could get rid of their energy.  The downside is that Sean started feeling sick, fever ... he thought altitude sickness here.  Our 5th day was on the Glacier Express, the slowest express train from St. Moritz to Zermatt.  Everyone was sure that they would need their electronics to get through the 8 hour train ride, but the scenery and food turned out to be all of the entertainment that was needed ... even the kids couldn't believe how beautiful the trip was.  Sean was still not well, but he didn't seem as sick as he was the day before.  Day 6 was spent in Zermatt.  Everyone, except Sean, took the cogwheel train to Gornergrat, for a panoramic view of the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc and other snow-capped peaks rising to above 4000 m/13'000 ft.  Sean spent the day in bed with fevers and a horrible tonsil infection.  Grandma and Papa headed down the mountain on the train while Mayland, Clark and MJ hiked 1/2 way down the mountain.  We saw the Matterhorn peak, which had been cloud covered, and the rare and elusive Das Alpenmurmeltier (gophers of the Switzerland alps).  Day 7 was a trip to Geneva.  
A couple of observations about Switzerland ... it is clean, very, very clean.  It is full of water fountains that are there for people to fill up their water bottles.  There are more stores to buy watches then there are in the rest of the world put together.  Ok, so maybe the last statement is not true, but it sure does seem like it.  The mountains provide a cool refuge from the heat.  One can go sledding in July on glaciers.  While Luther may have put his 95 Theses on the door of the church at Worms in 1517; the men who would follow in his footsteps would almost all be in Switzerland.  Switzerland is a country made up of mostly immigrants.  There are 4 national languages spoken in Switzerland: German, French, Italian and Romansh.