Day 21: Dishwasher, 👍, Iseltwald Switzerland, Lakes Thunersee and Brienzersee and the Edelweiss Lodge.

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It’s 9.40 pm and it’s been a long day. I’ll drop in a bit of information, some interesting facts, and let the beautiful scenery do the rest.

Tim and I did another early dash to Jumbos, the Swiss Bunnings, to pick up some more things, like a 450mm drill extension, for the dishwasher, and after taking on Tim as a work experience boy - no need to pay them - I had the help I needed to get the job done. No leaks, it powers up, but with French instructions, I didn’t have time to run a test. Should be good, but just in case I made sure we were well down the highway before it was tested.
It drizzled constantly as we headed to Spiezer, with me taking over driving duties. Tim wanted a break, and I didn’t want to nurse any of the luggage, so it was a win win. We dropped for a short break while Sue went to a shop, and I could see the Spiezer Castle on the edge of Lake Thunersee as it stretched all the way down to a canal that connects it with Lake Brienzereset.
Iseltwald sits on the edge of Lake Brienzersee and it’s main claim to fame is as a location for a Korean soap opera , Crash Landing On You. It’s based on a love story about a highflying South Korean heiress who accidentally paraglides into North Korea, lands on a soldier, and falls in love with him. I’m pretty sure it’s fictional.

You couldn’t make this stuff up. Still, Australia produced Neighbors for years, it launched some big names, but I don’t know anyone who lived like that.

There is a pier at Iseltwald where one of the most moving scenes was filmed, because Switzerland and North Korea are so similar, ? , and bus loads of Korean tourists form an orderly line at the pier to recreate the pose of two lovers, hand in hand, gazing across the water. We had a pretty thorough walk around the village, and I would confidently guess that 95.4 percent of the visitors were Korean. Presumably South Korean.

Iseltwald is like many lakes in the Alps , with mountains rising from the shores of the lakes, and pretty timber dwellings bunched up on the land at the lakes edge. We had coffee and cake, and were served by a charming, jovial waiter who ran a few standard gags past us, we laughed, but he didn’t when I paid with a card that didn’t include a tip. He went as cold and unwelcoming as the snow at the top of the peaks.
Our Tour Guide, and my self proclaimed Creative Director, Tim, put us all back in the car, and we rose about 300 metres in a short drive to Grindelwald, a busy Alpine village at the foot of the highest mountains I’ve ever seen. It is a starting point for many adventure activities, such as mountain biking, paragliding, high altitude flying foxes. Cable cars run up the mountain, but Sue wasn’t entertaining the idea of that during her current lifetime, but maybe a chance will arise tomorrow.

We, I mean Tim, found a traditional cafe with a deck overlooking scattered small chalets, flocks of sheep grazing with musical bells hanging from collars, and snow peaked mountains disappearing into the clouds, so close that i felt like climbing one; I had a hot chocolate instead. It was so cold that you could taste it, and I heard the waitress explain to some Koreans, who must have finished at Iseltweld, that even if they ordered hot drinks, they cooled down quickly outside. I silently apologised for my comment at our table about the temperature of my drink. It was foolish, so the lady was right.

From Grindelwald, we had a short drive down the mountain, to our accommodation in the village of Wilderswil, where we were welcomed at the Edelweiss Lodge, with balconies on our rooms that overlooked the village and the mountains in the distance. It’s a very traditional sort of timber building with its own restaurant and breakfast room, and Tim graciously let us have the room with a bathroom, while he is in a shared arrangement. I think he will it to himself anyway.
The Swiss Alps are just as I imagined them to be. The picturesque villages, tiny isolated farmlets, and the sheer, imposing mountains with vertical rock faces shared with groups of trees that only grow at a certain altitude and then leave the peaks to the snow and ice. There was fast moving cloud cover today that denied us the full magnificence of the mountains, but hopefully tomorrow is clearer.
Tomorrow I’ll be posting from Strasburg so we will have left the Alps and be a couple of hours from Luxembourg. It’s been a very Grand Tour with an at times hectic schedule, but we have done and seen things, some of which we will not revisit, and it was great doing it with Tim.

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Photos

This was the Geneva I got to see
On the way to the hardware store.

Schindler’s Lift
Sound familiar?

What do you call someone from Wankdorf ?
It literally means Wank Village. I’ll leave it up to the more creative among you.

Lake Thunersee
Heading back to Wilderswil

Koreans Queuing Up For A Photo Op.
Apparently once the deed is done, they’re usually out of there. They only have one goal in mind. Click ! Tick ✅

Bit of Carving, Iseltwald
Love this stuff.