June 1st – June 4th, 2022

Get in the mood for mountains and lakes, we’re taking this final post to epic heights via funicular! Was most of this traveling conducted in German Switzerland? Yes. But should you listen to Luciano Pavarotti first before reading the rest of the post? Also yes.

After their brief time in Hamburg, the Udgang spent the final few days on the continent in Interlaken, Switerzland, purportedly “the most beautiful place they have been.”

Views from the train do NOT disappoint. If I remember correctly, many months ago when the trip was but a gleam in Mark’s eye, we sat around a bonfire in Saint Louis, chatting about how we might structure a two-week trip to Europe. Many ideas were tossed around, but Ismael had only one request: he wanted to that picture-book looking village in Switzerland that had been circulating on Reddit. Turns out he was talking about Interlaken but didn’t know it at the time. It seems to have lived up to the hype though.

Here, you can see the relative distance between Interlaken and Zurich, as well as the situation of Harder Kulm (see below) next to the town of Interlaken.

After a late breakfast at a biker’s cafe and a necessary investment in cool Swiss sunglasses, a walk down Interlaken’s main street was in order to orient the gang.

The day was still young! That means it was time for some funiculation, that is, the action of taking the funicular up Harder Kulm, the mountain that is the “top of Interlaken.”

It’s not a group EuroMission2022 post without an Avery/Ismael selfie, or a shot to make you jealous of the hair volume Jeremy usually achieves without any product.

You know, it can be easily derived that Bernese Mountain dogs, like our darling Bo, get their name from… Bern, of course. However, that did not diminish the delight of realizing that Bo actually has an entire country of fans. Perhaps one day he will be well-behaved enough to do Birthright Berners.

Jeremy was feeling a little under the weather, so we turn now to the doings and adventures of Ash; first, a long walk along the Aare River to Lake Unter. Check out that hydroelectric power! ⚡⚡ And, date night!

They also visited Burgruine Weissenau, the ruins of an old Germanic castle. For me, it evokes memories of my most favorite childhood film: Ever After with Drew Barrymore. For others, it is perhaps just giving forest. Open to interpretation.

Thankfully, Jeremy was successful in locating food and entertainment when left to his own devices, and was eventually rescued from the clutches of Swiss commerce at this supermarket food court.

The gang was so taken with Interlaken (rhymes if you’re willing to approach with an American accent) that they extended the trip and headed up in the pouring rain to a backpacker hostel. I think all groups on this trip can attest to the rite of passage that is a day of unexpected spitting rain. Murphy’s Law for Americans in Europe, I guess.

Much like Varenna, though, the views were worth it:

Though I hate to end the whole blog series on an *editor’s note,* which is my version of summarizing a large chunk of unaccounted-for time, it must be done.

*Editor’s Note: Zurich did not score many points with either party that travelled there. For the same reasons that Mark and Susan were not particularly taken with Zurich, neither were Avery, Ismael, and Jeremy. I’m sure many UN committee members, businessmen, and IOC authorities love the aesthetics of Zurich, but the Pecks just aren’t that classy. It is for this reasons that Zurich served one purpose: a place to fly out of, and not much more.

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2022 was not meant to be a coordinated year of big events, but it just happened that way. After two years living through the Covid pandemic, each member of the family contending with different challenges, a summer trip felt relatively safe and auspicious. But it just happened to also coincide with the year of Sam’s high school graduation, Jordan’s college graduation, Avery’s and Ismael’s wedding, and Mark’s and Susan’s 25th wedding anniversary. To say it was serendipitous seems like an understatement. We also had never been out of the country as a family before, and it was such a privilege and joy to do so now that everyone is all grown up and independent. The timing of the trip gave us the unique opportunity to enact on a large scale our favorite Peck family tradition: small group activities. Kudos to any family that could stay in a group of seven for two weeks, but it couldn’t be us, lol.

Future trips likely will not receive this level of documentation, and that’s just fine. I simply hope this is the beginning of a new brand of adventures for us, and can’t wait to share future opportunities to travel with my family. Given that I’m writing this in Boston while Mark, Susan, and Sam are in New Zealand, just a few weeks before Sam moves to Paris, I think that dream is working out just fine.