This post features student writing.

On Monday, we took a gondola up the mountain that our hotel is on. At the top, there was a small pen with alpacas and goats. The view of all the mountains, valleys, and clouds was beautiful! After taking pictures, we started the hike down the mountain. We stopped at a small lake and a cheese maker. After having lunch at the hotel, we took a short train ride to Montreux, a nearby town right on lake Geneva. We had a couple of hours to explore the town, go shopping, and eat gelato.

The next day we took a bus about an hour away to Chateau d’Oex to go canyoning! When we arrived we all got fitted for helmets, wet suits, and water shoes. We started the adventure by hiking down a very high mountain to the river. From there, we started trekking through the same river. We walked, floated, and swam through the canyon and jumped off rocks. We had awesome guides who made sure everything was safe and that we had fun. None of us had ever done something like this before and for some it was intimidating and scary, but everyone persevered and enjoyed it in the end.

After a fun and tiring day of canyoning, the group got a good night’s sleep to rest up for the glacier we were going to visit next. We took two lifts up 9,640 feet to eventually arrive at Glacier 3000. Once there we immediately hopped onto “the world’s highest alpine roller coaster.” The whole group enjoyed it so much that we went on it a second time! Next, we walked along a bridge suspended between two peaks; there were incredible views. After a quick lunch in a cafe we took a chairlift down to an area where we could walk in the snow and go sledding. It was an incredible day filled with once in a lifetime experiences. We are currently on a train making our way to Florence! We will all miss Switzerland very much!

— Sophia & Grace