Why we travel

NYT's new photo exhibition asks readers to post their favorite summer travel pictures. Check out this gallery

This would be my addition. It's not as glamorous as the others, but this was the highlight from our summer travels.

The picture is of Gimmelwald. It's a 700 year old, car-free village located in the Lauterbrunnen valley in Switzerland. The village was able to escape development because a school-teacher got it declared as an avalanche zone. You can "tour" the village in 20 minutes by foot. You'll see a line of houses with drying laundry, tricycles and piles of firewood outside (See Rick Steves' article here).

We hiked the 2.5 hour distance to Murren, a more developed car-free village. The hike was picture-perfect with a background soundtrack coming from cow bells.

Switzerland has tons of tourists, but the real Switzerland is only a 20 minute train, car or cable car ride away.