Blogs from Switzerland, Europe

It's been mainly a travel day today from Lucern to Grindelwald, that old haunt of the Tooles. We arrived early afternoon and hauled our luggage up the street that runs parallel to the railway for a bit, and to 38a Spillstattstrasse. It is a great location as it's walking distance to the town area but out of the bussle of the town. We were met by Daniel and Mireille and made most welcome to their apartment where we'll spend the next week. It's warm, modern and comfortable with one BUT.........it has a spiral staircase to the bedroom upstairs. It is not suitable for Kevin so we older persons (Linds and I) have to be careful going up and down them! Once settled in, we walked down into the town to the Coop to get groceries for ... read more

Day 5 – May 30 Today we left Lucerne to have a walking tour of Basel and then board our river cruise boat in that city. But that is not quite how it turned out – more later. Once we boarded the bus our first stop was only four blocks from the hotel at the famous Lion Monument. This carving of a wounded and dying lion was created to honour the fallen Swiss soldiers who defended the French Royal family during the Revolution. Mark Twain viewed this monument not long after it was carved and was deeply moved by it. Back on the bus we proceeded to Basel, an hour away, for another walking tour of the historic center of the city including a viewing of the Basel Münster. Following a very tasty lunch, where we ... read more

Our morning started with packing, breakfasting, cleaning up amd walking over to Irvahn's for a coffee before catching the train to Lucern. Sadly, it's time to move on and it has been fabulous to spend physical time with my favourite niece, her kids and her husband, Marc. We returned to our house and Marc drove over to pick up our luggage and take us to the station. The weather was looking dicey so not a day to drive over the Klausen Pass so we had chosen to get the train to Zurich, have lunch, then train to Lucern. On arrival in Lucern, we had to find our Ibis hotel which looked not far on a map. Towing luggage isn't easy when it's for a kilometre. We booked into our rooms and were surprised how small they ... read more

Day 4 – May 29 Today was reserved for an optional trip up the Stanserhorn for a spectacular view of the Alps and Lake Lucerne from above. We travelled by bus twenty minutes out of Lucerne to the funicular station at Stans. The funicular took us a third of the way up the mountain where we transferred to the Cabrio cable car system. The unique feature of this gondola is that it has an open top deck permitting unrestricted views of the landscape all around. At the top of the gondola run is a large viewing platform and restaurant. Leading off from this area are a number of walking trails including one leading to the very summit of the Stanserhorn. Our guide took us on a 45-minute hike to the top and provided insightful commentary along ... read more

After the usual morning rituals, we got the 10.05 train to Linthal-Braunwald Station and then onto the funicular up to Braunwald. This funicular is very steep indeed going up to 1256m. It does not flatten out as I had expected so we trudged on uphill through the village that isn't really a village. It is carless and spread out up the hillside above the station. We figured that a coffee sounded pretty good so we went on a hunt for a cafe that was open. We followed a wanderweg until we found a sign that indicated a hotel with a restaurant. This was the Crystal Hotel near the seilbahn going up to Grotzenbuel. We ordered some coffees with bread and continued on a path she had indicated that we should take. This trail was absolutely spectacular ... read more