Interlaken, Switzerland

---

Last night I went out to eat and had a Swiss tradition for dinner: fondue. Appenzell, the town where I stayed, has its own cheese and its own beer (see photo). I thought both were pretty good, although I couldn't help thinking that eating fondue is a little like eating a cheese pizza in bite-sized chunks. This morning I drove into central Switzerland and paid a visit to Fortress Furigen, a decommissioned WWII defensive fort buried deep in a mountainside (see photo of entrance disguised as a shed). At the beginning of WWII, the Swiss were concerned that Nazi Germany might cut through their territory on their way to invade France. Later they were concerned that either the Nazis or Italy might invade just because Switzerland was the only unconquered nation left in central Europe. Their defensive strategy was to fortify their mountain homeland with hidden gun emplacements (see photo) and to mobilize and train every able-bodied man in the country. The Swiss did not believe that they could survive a determined invasion force, but their plan was to make it so costly and time-consuming that no one would try. No one did. Later these secret underground fortresses were updated to serve much the same purpose in case of a Soviet invasion. Today they have largely been decommissioned and sit empty, but the one located in Furigen was turned into a museum and I found it fascinating to tour it today. After my tour, I drove up and over an alpine pass with a beautiful view (see photo) and then down into the town of Interlaken. This is a base for winter skiers and summer hikers who want to get into the high Alps, e.g. the Eiger and the Jungfrau. I hope to get pictures of those peaks tomorrow, but for today I contented myself with a dramatic shot of an approaching storm (see photo).

---