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Published: December 13th 2007
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I have always wanted to go to Switzerland so that’s where we headed after Italy. It was another very long day of traveling but we made it to Interlaken by 7 pm! We got lucky with the terrible hotel search and someone helped us find it! It was this great little Swiss chalet looking place. I was so excited to be there!
Ha, and we thought London was expensive! We had to rub our eyes to make sure we were seeing the menu correctly that evening at dinner. Really over ten dollars for a cup of soup and over 20 for an entrée? Cup of soup it is! Luckily it was great minestrone! It was dark as we were walking to dinner that evening and we kept hearing bells. At one point I even said “they sound like cow bells don’t they?” They were! We came upon a big field in the middle of the town with about 20 cows grazing. They were down from the mountains for the winter. They only had a small rope for a fence but didn’t seem interested in going anywhere!
The following morning we woke up to rain/snow! It was in that in-between
stage! For some reason we were kind of excited. It just seemed cool to be in Switzerland when it was snowing. Little did we know………
All of our allowances were going towards the worlds coolest, and most expensive, train ride to the top of Europe so we had a low key first day. We walked all over town and then decided to make good use out of the DVD player in our hotel room! We headed to the local movie store and rented Freedom Writers. It was great to be inside watching a movie on a cold, snowy day!
The train took us from Interlaken to a placed called Kleine Scheidegg. It was still raining/snowing in Interlaken, but as we climbed up the hill it became very apparent that we were going to be in a winter storm near the top! We had a cup of hot chocolate at the Kleine Scheidegg stop and saw a St. Bernard with one of those wooden barrels around his neck. They used to rescue people and would have whiskey in the barrels to warm the people when they found them. Now I think that it is just a show for the
Goin
I thought Yuri looked like Forrest Gump sitting there in the train! Do you agree? tourists. What isn't these days?!
Much of the ride up to the top was in a tunnel. We stopped at several viewing windows but all we could view was WHITE! At one point we looked down and saw a bunch of sled dogs. Going on a sled dog ride is an option during the summer but not during the winter. Does that seem strange to anyone else? That just tells you how cold it stays up there year round! Anyhow, we saw them at their winter resting grounds house!
At the top they have a HUGE ski-lodge type building with a restaurant, viewing platforms and an ice tunnel. The ice tunnel was inside so we were able to take part in that! We did brave the wind and cold on the viewing platform for approximately 5 seconds! We watched one dude try and smoke a cigarette out there! As you can imagine, he was NOT successful! We were bummed that we couldn't see the amazing Alps but it was also kind of cool to be in the first winter storm of the season! Good thing we bought Yuri a scarf for the occassion in the Florence train station!
Train snow plow
This thing would go ahead of the train and clear snow off of the tracks! We coudn't leave Switzerland without taking part in a Fondue dinner. We headed to a local favorite and on the way saw our very first "drunk wagon". Most of us have either seen, or probably taken part in, a drunk bus or a booze cruise but this was a drunk wagon! It was literally an old-time wagon being pulled by two horses with a bunch of young people in the back singing Guns N' Roses "Paradise City"! It was hilarious! Our bucket o' cheese (a.ka. Fondue) was very good but possibly missing something! Maybe a vegetable or two would have helped the situation! Dipping small pieces of bread and potato into cheese just didn't do it for Yuri! He was a sport though! It was pouring outside so on our way out the hostess asked if we would like her to call us a cab. Yuri politely declined until we were out the door and then said "I can't afford a cab lady, I just paid $50 for your bucket of cheese!" And on that note we walked home in the POURING rain (:
The train was fantastic, the cows were very cool, the scenerey was beautiful but,
they had CHOCOLATE GRANOLA for breakfast. I wish there were some way that I could give you a taste of this stuff through this keyboard! It even had baby chocolate chips in it! I paid very closed attention when the nice lady refilled the bowl to see if I could sneak a peak at the packaging. Surely I could get this stuff mailed to me in the States right? Well, they are no dummies. They kept it a plastic bag! Guess I will just have to go back to Interlaken for more in the future!
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Kristin
non-member comment
Those Ice sculptures are pretty awesome and I do agree with you and the Forest Gump comment about Yuri's Scarf. It's a little small lol. Your trip seems awesome and lots of fun! Glad you guys are safe and not frozen yet.