Love in Switzerland... Ohhhh...

Sharon.... Will you marry me?...

The hand weaved ring (Andy made this himself)

The happy couple

Porst (or Cheers in English)!!

The backdrop...

The signs were all there!

And so were the bells...

Our little red train

This is a Marmot.... kinda cute!

So here it is for all you who have been waiting eagerly for the story…

Once upon a time there was a girl called Sharon and a guy called Andrew they fell in love, went over seas together and found themselves in Switzerland which is where this story takes place… more specifically in the little township of Lauterbrunnen.

The day began with a sleep in for Sharon (which I should have been a bit suspicious about as sleep-in’s are not high on Andrews agenda and so I am usually rudely harassed into waking up) very nice, and a busy time for Andrew in preparation for the big event Sharon was blissfully unaware of. Andrew sneaked to the shop and packed a very heavy bag filled with goodies and then finally awoke the sleeping beauty, who woke very happy… always a good start to the day! We headed off after breakfast into a beautiful sun-shining, not a cloud in the sky day and headed for one of the surrounding mountain ranges. This time Andrew invested some money into a gondola ride that took us up 500meters (as opposed to walking). At the top we were greeted by a cute little red train (I, Sharon felt like Heidi) that took us further along and up the mountain with amazing views the whole way to a quaint village called Murren. In Murren we looked around a little and found a nice walking track that would take us a bit further up and around the mountain. We walked for awhile and I (Sharon) got hungry and angry (hangry) so we stopped for a quick bite to eat to appease the monster that I become when hangry and headed on further up the mountain trail. The path snaked its way past the cute chalets of Murren, past flowers only seen in the Alps, past bushes full of fresh mountain blueberries (I had stained fingers by the end of the trip) and up to a bubbling mountain stream with butterflies fluttering by and the sound of cow bells ringing further up the mountain (no exaggeration, it was an amazing day)! There Andy found a nice spot in the shade of a rock and we had a wee picnic to finish our lunch with a few surprise goodies from Andys morning escapades, including Swiss chocolate… yummy… he sure knows how to please a girl ha!
After lunch and a few casual ramblings and the sighting of a furry animal called a Marmot Andy stood up and blindfolded me with his jersey claiming to have a surprise for me…. After about 10minutes sitting lonely in the shade he came back and stood me up, he then proceeded to lead me blindfolded out of a dry riverbed across unstable ground and up a bank… by this stage I had finally worked out that something was going on as I could feel the poor boys hands shaking (mum says he has to be a brave man to ask me… not sure that was much of a compliment to me, thanks Mum)! Once we had navigated our way for a minute or so Andrew tells me that I can now take off my blind fold. I do, and there he is kneeling on the ground looking very cute wearing a crinkled shirt, vest and tie on the top half and shorts on the bottom (true Andy style). After speaking some profound words, and with a backdrop of the beautiful Swiss Alps and tears in his eyes (he claims only due to the fact that I was crying) he asked to marry me…. Through further tears I managed to agree, yay and he handed me a hand woven ring, that he had even made himself (the day before)!! As a further surprise he brought out a bottle of bubbly and we shared the bottle on-top of a large rock in the sun to celebrate :) The rest of the day was spent continuing on our hike, past farmers making hay in traditional ways and gazing at all the wonderful views. Very tired we headed down the mountain on another Gondola, this one going over a huge cliff that made you feel like you where on a theme park ride, fun for us but not for the older lady beside me! We then caught a bus back to the campground and had a little snooze.

When we awoke Andrew extended the celebration to dinner, where he took me out to the local restaurant and we shared a very Swiss, cheese fondue…very yummy and very filling!

And so there you have it, the love story between an Andrew Woodward and Sharon Snell…. To live happily ever after…