Europe Diary - Post #9 by Rebecca

10 days into our trip and we’re an hour away from our apartment in the Cinque Terre, Italy. It has been a long and stunningly scenic drive from Switzerland, so, before I forget its splendor, I will write about it.

Though slightly frightening at some moments, the road to Lauterbrunnen, the city in which our hostel was located, had beautiful views. We saw waterfalls every 30 feet and snow-capped mountains around every turn. There were fields of yellow dandelions and pastures with happy, grazing cows.

That brings me to my main point. While in Switzerland, the thing that struck me most was that the animals were extremely happy. At the hostel, we saw this cat that looked very content nibbling on grass in the nice weather.

This was a chicken we saw. It looks very healthy from living in an unindustrial, family owned farm.

This was the most adorable cat (of course, not as cute as my Serafina that I miss so much) that just walked right up to us while we were on our walk and started rolling on the ground and rubbing against our legs.

We also saw these cows jumping around from the road and decided to walk closer to photograph them. They looked so happy and so loved.

The farmer was even coming up to them, petting them, and playing with them. He looked like he really enjoyed what he was doing, like he was a farmer because he loved farming, because he loved his cows.

Although the Swiss animals were considerably the most happy, all the animals in Europe look like they’re at the peak of their life. This includes the swans and ducks we saw in Keukenhof,

the assorted sheep, goats, pigs, and cows in Holland and the rest of Europe,

 the fake horse in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

Well, Maybe not him.

Between the animals and the landscape, Switzerland has definitely made an impact on me. I will never forget its beauty.