Global warming?

I know I promised part 2 of our UK trip, and it is coming soon I promise, but first I wanted to write up about our few days in Engadin.

After dropping our kids off at camp in Tschierv (Unter Engadin in Graubünden), we then spent the day hiking in the national park and then spent the night in a small hotel in Zernez taking advantage of not having any children with us. We made a three hour tour climbing from 1887m up to 2328m but took an hours break on the way down making it then fours hours. The sun was out so we decided to take a nap and enjoy the quietness of the park.

Zernez:

After we'd checked in at the hotel, we then took a walk around the village trying to decide which restaurant we should have dinner in. We chose the Hotel Baer Post and were happy with the quality food and atmosphere it offered. 

The next day we decided to go in to Ober Engadin and walk along the valley to the Morteratsch galcier. We'd visited here 18 years ago in 1992 when I was pregnant with Aaron. My parents were also with us that time and we've got a picture of my dad and I standing in front of the tongue of the glacier (I'll see if I can find it and scan it in). 

What I saw yesterday shocked me! I know we're always hearing about global warming and the effects it is having on the glaciers, that they are receding. Well yesterday I saw it with my own eyes and could hardly believe it.

Here I am standing at the point where the glacier came to in 1878:

The hubster at 1920:

Here I am standing at the point where the glacier finished in 1990. This is what shocked me - when we visited in 1992 all of the space behind me was filled with a massive, thick glacier and now look at it!  Gone! I must have said "WOW!" about 50 times, which made the hubster smile :)

Just look at how much it has receeded in the last 10 years  - a whole 183 metres!

Me standing on a broken part of the glacier holding a freezing cold piece of ice:

The tongue of the Morteratsch glacier as of 03.08.2010:

Mr D. infront of the glacier:

 Me infront of the glacier:

Me STANDING on the slippery glacier!

It was both spectacular and shocking at the same time. It made me wonder what will happen to our water supply once the glaciers have melted as we get our water supply from the lakes who in turn get theirs from the mountains and glaciers. Interesting and scary thoughts......
We will come back in 10 years to see how far the Morteratsch glacier has receeded......
After our walk we took a wander around Pontresina and then drove through St. Moritz and then over the Julierpass to make our way home back to Speicherschwendi.

The weather has turned nice so the hubster and I are off to the lake for a bit of R&R this afternoon - he's been at the office this morning while I've cleaned the house of 3 weeks of grime ......yuck! We deserve it........swimming, snoozing, reading, sunbathing, in other words just chilling without the kids!! Life is good (although we are missing them)!
UK Part 2 will be uploaded tonight. Until then....

Hugs,
Becca

UK Trip Part 1

We left home on Friday (2nd July) at around 9pm and made ourselves comfortable for our approx. 9 hour car journey to Calais. Our ferry was booked for 8.35 am getting us into Dover at 9.05am UK time. The journey went smoothly and we only stopped off once for an hour for the hubster to have a snooze.

The port of Calais:

The white cliffs of Dover:

After embarking we made our way to a small village along the Kent coast (Greatstone-on-Sea) and spent the afternoon on the beach relaxing after our long journey. The weather was warm and windy and we didn't realise how hot the sun really was until later that night when we looked in the mirror and felt our sunburn!

Our first night was spent in Hastings, where the great battle in 1066 took place. The hotel was fine except for the water. We realised how spoilt we are having our Swiss tap water tasting better than most bottled spring water. Even the orange juice at breakfast tasted of chlorine! Poor Jordan couldn't sleep well because his back was burnt - poor guy - his back was lobster red :(

The first part of Sunday (4th July - Happy Birthday America and my Dad) was spent in Hastings.We took a walk on the beach - the lower part of the beach was sand and the upper part pebble - and it was lovely. There was hardly a cloud in the sky.

After walking along the beach we went into the town and then on a short walk up a hill to look down on the bay:

The sun was burning down on Jordan's shoulders and it hurt him so he took a towel to hide and protect himself. He didn't care what he looked like:

The English love their ice cream vans - they are everywhere!

The hubster was itching to walk this coastal path! Perhaps next time when we come to England.......

After lunch we made our way back to the car and drove to Stonehenge. It was amazing, we were in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden there are cars and coaches and there in the distance is Stonehenge. We arrived at the world heritage site at around 4pm and took the audio tour around the stones. It was so cool and very interesting to realise that even though there are many theories as to how the stones got there, nobody really can say.

The audio guides were in multiple languages, so the boys listened to their guide in German:

A wind-swept me:

Here is a picture how they think it would/should have looked like in its "fullness":

Around the henge in all directions were "barrows", ancient burial grounds. It was a very special experience visiting Stonehenge. It was as if we were standing on holy ground.

At around 7pm we went back to the car to travel to Bath where would be spending the night. After checking in at the hotel, we took the short 10 minute walk along the river Avon into the town :

Although Bath is a Roman town, it had its hay-day in the early 1800's where the nobility and rich of England would come to Bath to "take the waters" and to enjoy the social scene that the town had to offer. Many of Jane Austen's novels are played here as the author herself lived in the town for a time, and many TV productions are filmed here. The honey coloured limestone buildings are soooo pretty:

Bath Abbey:

The boys getting into bed:

I'll show more of Bath in Part 2. I'm sorry for the photo overload but there are so many photos and I'm already having a hard time to shorten it down to what I have chosen. I think I'll definitely need more than 4 parts to document this trip!

Watch out for part 2 on either Tuesday or Wednesday........

Hugs,
Becca