Saturday, September 14, 2013

Switzerland, the reason I ran out of superlatives

Vicky and I in our own personal paradise

It's good to try new things. On our trip from Munich to Interlaken, Vicky and I did just that by taking 1st class on train. The tickets were barely more expensive than 2nd class and the quieter cars and better seats definitely made it worth the small upgrade fee. This left us free to enjoy the ever improving views as we neared our destination.


As we neared to Interlaken, Vicky loudly stated she wanted to stay there for the rest of the trip and possibly move there. I was inclined to acquiesce to her request (means yes). We had blue skies and white clouds that first day and we decided to take advantage of it by eating lunch at a restaurant that overlooks the city. It even has its own viewing walkway, complete with glass floor.



After that we wandered around town enjoying the sights. We ended up at a park watching para-sailors land in front of us with the Alps in the background. It was pretty much perfect.



We got up early the next morning and went looking for a reasonably priced breakfast. This was much harder than it sounds. We ended up going to the grocery store since it offered the best deal. Plus it had Dr. Pepper for me. Then we stopped by the hotel to get our stuff and took the train towards our home in the mountains, Gimmelwald. A train, bus and cable car lift combined to get us there in just about an hour.

Going up

This is where we stayed in Gimmelwald.  Could it be any cuter?

The weather forecast for the day called for rain and cold but fortunately nature had other plans. We had another beautiful day and boy did we seize it. After arriving at noon, we fixed a hearty meal, then spent the next 5 hours hiking all over the mountainside.

We stopped to enjoy a meadow that could have come straight out of The Sound of Music.


We stopped to photograph the Eiger when it popped out from behind its normal cloud cover.


We stopped to watch para-sailors launching off of a steep slope above our trail.


We burst into song from time to time (zip-a-dee-doo-da). Basically we walked around in a live action 
Disney movie.


That night we slept well indeed and were happy to find we weren't sore the next morning. We were less happy to find out that it was raining and foggy all day. So we improvised. We scrapped our mountain top breakfast since we couldn't have seen anything anyway. Instead we hiked around near our hostel and watched the fog roll in and out and up and down around the mountains.



Around 1pm we caught the lift down and headed back into Interlaken. Fortunately it was not raining when we first got down. Unfortunately it started raining soon after we dropped our bags.

For the afternoon we walked around the covered shopping area downtown. We even found a cute souvenir or two. With the rain continuing, we called it an early night and prepared for our morning train through Milan to Venice.

Cute story the week. We were sitting at the bus stop waiting for the bus back to our hostel when I noticed an adorable little girl sitting next to me. She was probably about 5 and hadn't said a word but she was starring at me and at my Nexus tablet. I was about to put it up when reached for it. Laughing, I opened a game and showed her how to play while  her mom gratefully used the break to eat some food. After a bit she had to go but she told me goodbye in German and kept waving to Vicky and I even after she got in the bus. It made us both smile.

Bye Switzerland.  See you again as soon as we possibly can!

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