Desalpe Festival

While we were back in the states for my brothers wedding an important tradition in Switzerland was taking place. We didn't get to go this year, but last year we did and since I didn't start the blog till  October I thought I would write a little bit about it.

The Desalpe festival is definitely what you think of when you hear about Switzerland. It celebrates the cows coming down from the alps for the winter to graze in lower pastures. In the summer they head up to greener pastures and in the fall they come back down. It's a huge tradition and every year they strap bells around their necks and flowers on their heads and parade them down the mountains sometimes taking 2 or more hours to get down to the nearest town. The cattle herders are called "Les Armaillis" in the French region and "Senn" in the German Alpine regions. They take great pride in leading their herd down the mountain after staying with them for the entire 3 months in higher pastures.  They do this in several different towns but some people David worked with recommended we go to St. Cergue.  It took two trains to get there. We took a train from Geneva to Nyon and then we took a cog train to  St. Cergue.  A cog train uses a gear system. It has a tooth racked trail with a cog wheel that provides traction when going up a steep incline.

I'll post a few pictures but if you want the full effect check out our Smilebox that I had made last year. It's the shortest by far and my favorite that i've done. I took some video of the cows, people playing alpine horns, and some real Swiss music so you definitely get an idea of what it was like!!

Cog Train

 Bell Ringers

 Alpine Horns

 We got our cow bell to take home!

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Greece Part Two

On the third day, we took a cab over to the town of Oia!! While everything we had read raved about Fira (which we still love) Oia turned out to be our favorite area.  It was so unique and they had some really cute boutique shops. It's known for it's spectacular sunsets and blue dome churches. 

Couple more pictures of our cute little hotel in Imerovigli!

Pictures from Oia! Loved this door!

We were able to spend the day walking around and enjoying the city. We did some shopping and ate some wonderful food!

Love this picture!

After touring the village for several hours we headed back to relax and enjoy the infinity pool!

 Then we headed back to Oia for dinner and the sunset!

We spent our last day in Santorini walking around Imerovigli and relaxing by the pool!! 

While we were relaxing we watched as clouds were forming right in front of our eyes over the island.

This boat out on the water almost looked like a painting . 

Our last Greek sunset!

Boats coming in!

There was a strike going on in Athens the day before we left! Flights and ferries were being canceled left and right. We were hoping ours would be on strike too and we would get stuck in Santorini another day, but unfortunately our ferry line was the only one still working that day. A little disappointed to be leaving after such an amazing vacation we jumped on our ferry and headed back to Mykonos!

We read mixed reviews on Santorini's beaches. Some of the beaches are excellent but they are either hard to get to, requiring some pretty intense hiking, or they have black sand which get's very hot. We decided not to make that a big priority this time. We really didn't have the time to make it to any of them either. So when we got to Mykonos..better known for their beaches we had to make sure to put our feet in the Aegean Sea just to say we had been there!

We enjoyed a few more hours in Mykonos and then headed back to Athens. We got into Athens really late and caught a cab to our hotel which was 30 minutes away. Then, all of a sudden, while we were on the interstate we felt the cab jerk and our driver yelling something out in Greek. He pulled over to the side of the rode. The cab wouldn't restart and we were sitting on the side of the road at midnight in Athens exhausted and ready for bed. Not too long after we had been sitting there another cab pulled up and picked us up. This cab had another passenger in it already. The lady was able to speak English and was telling us how lucky we were that there was a cab coming in the same direction because it usually takes about an hour for them to send another taxi out. 

This trip has definitely been one of our favorites!! If you love to travel it is definitely a must see!!

We had so many great pictures i couldn't begin to get them all on here so if you are interested in seeing the rest of them you can check out our Smilebox.

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