Wanderung in the French Alps

For the past 6 summers, Opa Friedel and cousin Maxim have been going on a week-long hike (Wanderung) through the Alps with Maxim’s old friends from Kindergarten and their families. They explore a different part of the Alps every year. Simon has been hearing about these trips for years and has always wanted to go, but was never around. Last summer he finally had a chance to go since the girls and I were in the States (he had to stay in Germany for work commitments). He took a week off work and had a BLAST.

Wanderung_2015 (69a)

This is last summer’s  group. Since I wasn’t on the trip, all of these photos are from Simon and the lovely people above. My jaw dropped when I first saw some of these pics. The Alps are incredibly beautiful…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

IMG_0838

IMG_0842

Wanderung_2015 (205)

IMG_0953

There were some days when they would hike for 9 hours! Simon said there was (surprisingly) no complaining from the kids. I think Quinnie is the perfect age to start doing a trip like this, and I think she’d love it. Simon would love to bring her (and Kiera also, eventually), but I don’t think she’d be willing to give up summertime in America for it.

Wanderung_2015 (649)

my hiker 🙂

Wanderung_2015 (110)

Friedel

Wanderung_2015 (298)

IMG_0920

Maxim

Wanderung_2015 (449)

IMG_0902

rest stops..

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

IMG_0778

Maxim and Friedel

Wanderung_2015 (699a) (1)

IMG_1037

snow in summer

Wanderung_2015 (158)

Wanderung_2015 (37)

Luckily there were some great spots to cool off in the water…

Wanderung_2015 (385a)

IMG_0927

IMG_0895

IMG_1178

gorgeous

IMG_1188

IMG_1185

IMG_1007

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Friedel and Maxim

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Wanderung_2015 (304)

They came across lots of these cool rock piles…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Wanderung_2015 (316)

..and interesting buildings in very remote areas.

Wanderung_2015 (162d)

Wanderung_2015 (96)

IMG_0819

Wanderung_2015 (861)

Friedel

Wanderung_2015 (793)

Wanderung_2015 (898)

two more Wanderung posts coming up…