Grindelwald - Geneva

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It has been wet weather in Switzerland the past two days. Yesterday it poured down with thunder and lightening in the mountains. The rivers are high and waterfalls quite dramatic. It was useless to hike so we headed into Interlaken to book our train tickets from Avignon at the end of the month when we return from France. Surprisingly, the TGV was fully booked and we have to go 1st Class. What a shame!

Today is still pretty miserable and cold in Grindelwald. What to do? The Swiss Pass covers rail to anywhere so we headed to Geneva. Only to book our bus tickets to Grenoble next week to meet Ray and Judy. The bus leaves from the Airport but you cannot book them until 2 days before online. That's cutting it a bit fine particularly when school holidays and summer holidays have kicked in. Fortunately the weather was a bit warmer in the south away from the mountains. Largely, it was a boring day sitting on trains but successful none the less. We even stopped into Bern to buy some hiking sandles since mine rotted and fell apart! Hmm. They were so comfy too.

All in all, two fairly uninteresting days. But, the countryside is quite nice on the way south. Gently rolling hills, a lot of forest, old fortified towns (Bern, Fribourg and Romont), old farmhouses, crops, and much forest. Along Lake Geneva are the vast acreages of vineyards. Speaking of wine, we bought a Marlborough, Matua Valley Sauvignon Blanc wine in the village yesterday for 8.50CH. It was so good! The local wines tend to be quite tasteless and lack the zing and flavour of our SB's. I somehow doubt that we'd be able to buy it at the same price at home.

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Photos

Vineyards along Lake Geneva
Vineyards line the hills above Lake Geneva seen in the background.

Rolling farmland
Farmland on the way south from Fribourg to Geneva