Travel creates amazing memories. Though, travel days are so full of new experiences, days start to blur together. That is why my husband and I like to keep a daily blog during our big trips. 

I'm not going to lie, it's a challenge. At the end of the day, the last thing I feel like doing is wracking my brain to remember which painting was in which museum and what the name of the restaurant we had dinner in was. But I find this nightly routine necessary. Why? Because if I don't write it down right away, it will be gone from my memory forever and I've lost that fraction of my vacation that I have spent so much time and money to experience. Blogging documents these memories, so I can remember specific details at a later date. If my husband and I can't remember where some guy we met on Mt. Pilatus was from, we can just pull it up on our phones and check! 

So why did we decide to keep a blog instead of just a paper journal? Sure it would be easier to jot down what we did in a notebook each night. We wouldn't need to upload pictures and videos, we wouldn't have to search for wifi to post it online, and we wouldn't even need to use complete sentences. However, I find that those pictures and videos that can be such a pain to upload become crucial when I try to remember a place and relay a story. That sometimes spotty Internet connection helps us share our experiences with our friends and family immediately. And those complete sentences (that, to be honest, have a lot of errors when quickly typing on an iPad at the end of the day) help to show our complete thoughts and feelings during each experience. 

While keeping a travel blog is not for everyone, I think everyone should try to keep some kind of journal while on vacation. 

To demonstrate the benefits of journaling, I wanted to share with you one of our posts from last summer in the Swiss Alps. I chose this particular day because it is a day that I never want to forget. It was definitely the best day of that trip, and is one of the top experiences I've ever had!  Have you ever felt so excited and overwhelmed with joy that your heart feels like bursting? I know it's a cliché, but I had that feeling from the moment I woke up to watch the sunrise until the end of the day. You can feel my excitement in my writing and see it in the giant smiles on my face. In fact, I still use one of the photos to remind myself of my happy place (you may recognize it below).

One more quick note: I'm purposefully leaving all of the original typos in to keep the authenticity of the post. Enjoy!

Day 4: Murren and the peak of Mt. Schilthorn!

What a fantastic day!

 After crashing so early last night, I woke up at about 5:30. Tempted to fall back asleep, I noticed clear blue skies outside and thought, "Today is the day!" We were hoping for clear weather so we could to up to the peak of Schilthorn, eat a big buffet breakfast at the rotating Piz Gloria restaurant, and enjoy 360 degree views of the Alps without clouds or fog blocking our view. So I checked the forecast and it looked promising. I noticed that sunrise was at 5:42, so I decided to stay up and watch. Besides, I was too excited to go back to sleep now. I'm glad I got up early for the sunrise. Spectacular! 

The two peaks next to each other are Eiger and Mönch. The large peak furthest to the right, which you can't see in this pic, is Jungfrau.

At 7:30, I ran downstairs to get some coffee for Matt so that I could bribe him out of bed. Success! We left our hotel right before 9:00, walked to the other side of town for the lift, and made our way up! And had a 30 franc buffet breakfast in the rotating Piz Gloria. 

The view was overwhelming, and quite literally takes your breath away a bit. We were both feeling some altitude dizziness. We would breath hard just walking up a flight of stairs. I don't know how serious mountain climbers do it!

In this picture, you can see Jungfrau right over our heads. To the left is Mönch and to the left of that is Eiger. Jungfrau means little girl and eiger means ogre, so the saying is that the monk is protecting the little girl from the evil ogre.

This guy hiked all the way up from Berg! Notice the "no high-heels" sign.

There is a short fenced-in walk to a second viewing deck.

From there, there is a little trail that heads out along the ridge. With the bits of snow, part of it was a pretty sketchy. You have to scramble down a little hill, try not to slip on the snow, and walk on a narrow sloped path between snow and a rocky slope of death. With my fear of heights mixed with some altitude dizziness, I practically crawled through that short stretch. I thought I might die, but it turns out that I made it. And it was well worth it because you don't get this kind of an opportunity every day!

There is a sheer drop off behind us here and the pole was wobbly.

In this pic, if you look to the right of my face, you can see a little patch of snow. That is where I feared I might "Die Another Day".

At the father's request, Matt helped this little kid over it. We went down to the left at the end of the snow patch instead. Notice the top of the ledge to the right. That has a snow covered cliff on the other side. One guy walked right along the top of that ridge.

We peaked through the James Bond exhibit, since On Her Majesty's Secret Service was filmed here. 

After taking the cable car back down and stopping at our hotel, we were ready for a little hike. We hiked through a carpet of wildflowers from Murren up to Suppenalp and over to Sonnenberg.

There we stopped for a salad and some fresh watermelon juice. 

Then we trekked the rest of the way over to Allmendhubel so that we could take the steep funicular back down. 

Here's a view of the funicular from below:

We stopped at the big sport center/tourist office/cafe to get some Swiss wine and beer.

That night, we walked down to the restaurant in Hotel Bellevue. There we had our first Swiss fondue, which was quite tasty. It's served not only with bread, but also pickled vegetables, potatoes, and Kirsch to dip into before the cheese. 

This was the most spectacular day. 

Can you see how a detailed journal is going to help us remember this day forever? Can you also see how our family and friends might like following along? 

Here are a few more days from our travel blog that you may enjoy reading:

• getting engaged in the Cinque Terre
• a day full of fails, including one of my most embarrassing moments  
• another embarrassing moment (at the end)
• one of the prettiest towns ever 

I have also found our travel blog to be helpful during consultations. Just this week, I used it to recommend restaurants in Rome. 

If you haven't tried keeping a travel journal, give it a try on your next trip and see how you like it!  Happy journaling!