with a view

I woke up today thinking I had slept off my bug, but by the time I got to the train station, it was clear I was mistaken. But the highlight of today was the train ride - and luckily, when sitting down, I'm fairly comfortable! My sister had always raved about the scenic trains in Switzerland, and now I understand why. The train car had wraparound glass windows, which only added to the movie-like scenery. Unfortunately its so rainy and cloudy that the peaks were all hidden in clouds, but it hardly mattered. We climbed hills and wrapped around lakes and through countless picturesque villages til we got to my stop for the night in Lauterbrunnen. My breathing isn't exactly up to par, and being up in the Alps isn't helping much, but its still a beautiful place and I'm glad to be here. The only downside of the night is a huge group of loud "ugly" Americans in the hotel and restaurant who oddly enough, seem to be part of a Rick Steves Tour Group. (Why are we always so loud??!) I took a quick walk up to check out one of the huge - and I mean incredibly huge - waterfalls that dot this valley. It was lit up in the night and the hill was covered with grazing sheep. Just surreal. My throat couldn't take much more of the cold so I came back to have a dinner of Rosti - yum. Definitely unlike anything I had had before. Tomorrow I hope to explore a little more and probably try to tackle the Jungfraujoch: "the top of Europe" - its so cloudy that I won't have any sort of view, but I'm probably going to do it anyway - just to do it. That's kind of the point of the whole trip anyway, right?