Day 3- O'er the river and through the mountains

Today was a long day. We headed out bright and early to do a whirlwind tour of a lot of cool Swiss mountain things. We drove a couple hours and began to see this in the distance.

Very epic, very majestic. The mountains were pretty epic, in this picture you can see the cloud hitting the left most one, and going no further.

Our first stop was across the lake from the place where Switzerland was founded some 700 years ago. Why they picked this spot to do it I'm not sure, unless it was because the spot looked really cool.
Our next stop was at the monument of a Russian general who fought Napoleon and gave Switzerland its independence. In return, the Swiss gave the Russians this little piece of land to build him a monument.

They were fighting over a small bridge that was part of the only path between Italy and Germany at that time. It was a vital trade route through the difficult and dangerous mountains. Here is it under the new bridge.

As you can see it isn't very big, not a good place for a fight. Also it was built straightout of the rocky cliffs, so if you fell you weren't likely to get back up.

After that we went to a glacier, which unfortunately only Claudio took pictures of. Suffice it to say, it was very cool (ha!). Honestly though, it was neat, especially because they had signs showing where the entrance to the eisgrotte (ice grotto, i think) started, and we walked a ways past them to get to it. The glacier has been melting for years, and is now a shadow of its former self.

But, when we got down to it, we could go inside, which again was very cool. The ice was a peculiar shade of blue, and a lot of it was melting. The ice melt gathered in a small pool which tumbled down the cliffs in a waterfall and became a river below.

After that we looked for lunch. The first place we went left us waiting for a long time, so we left. It did have a very cool mountain lake though.

After that we went to a hotel situated on top of a hydro electric plant. It was surrounded by some reservoirs, which were 't near so pretty as the lake above. They did, however, seat us. Claudio and I ordered the Bratwurst, while his father ordered something he said was like pizza. The wurst was very good. And big.
Since you lack perspective, let me tell you that the sausage was about as big as my forearm. It was very good, and served with an entire bowl of coarse ground mustard. Robert's pizza thing was on a very thin crust, and he let me try a piece, it was also delicious.

The last thing on our trip was the Aareschlaft. The Aare is a river that runs through Claudio's town, and at this particular point, it runs through a gorge. Sort of like a Swiss Grand Canyon. You walk along the inside of the canyon about ten feet above the river. Here's a picture to show you how cool it is.
Pretty dramatic, huh? The river flows very fast, and is very loud. You can just see the sky up at the top. The only bad part was we got stuck behind a group of old people, who stopped all the time.
Yeah. A ton of them. We finally managed to pass them, and the canyon and river grew narrower. The water went faster, as any of you who understand physics already knows. The canyon got to the point where the sides were nearly touching, and you could barely see the sky. Here is a picture from the camera pointed straight up.
Try escaping from THAT. Anyway, the river and gorge opened up again, and we weren't crushed to death. We got back in the car and drove the two hours back to Claudio's house and I collapsed. It may not seem like what we did was physically exerting, but EVERYTHING in Switzerland is up hill, and to a steep degree. Bluh.