Sisters in Switzerland - Interlaken, Oberhofen, and Thun

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After our excessive hike the day before, we planned to take it a bit easier and visit some local towns and planned our first stop at Interlaken. Actually, our first stop was the Gondola station, which we used every time we could for its excellent wifi; our cabin's was soooo slooooow....

Interlaken

We had no real destination in mind to visit in town, so we pretty much parked at the first place we saw once we got into the area of town that seemed the most happening. Walking along the park, we saw lots of Chinese tourists and paragliders. We visited a couple of souvenir shops and Dana and I were both in awe of the cuckoo clocks. There were so many to choose from, and all were made either in Germany or Switzerland. The LÖtscher cuckoo clocks are the only Swiss made clocks and that is what Dana honed in on, and only a few shops sold them. I liked them all and as long as they were other Swiss or Germany made, did not care too much (no made in China or South Korea or anything). We did not decide that day, but came back the next day and each got one, unintentionally going to a completely different shop than planned, which wound up having more of a selection. 😊

We did some more window shopping and even checked out a few other places that had all kinds of souvenirs or Swiss made products that were interesting. Usually expensive. FInally, we were hungry and ready for lunch. Wow. Trying to find a place to eat in Interlaken on a Friday at lunchtime? Practically impossible. There did not seem to be cafes. And it was either expensive Indian food or expensive Swiss food. We tried a Mexican place, planning to split a couple meals, but they were closed until dinner. Only wanting sometime small, like a friggin sandwich, we found a very nice Lebanese restaurant, Layaly, and it wound up being perfect. We each got a wrap and three different sauces, which were all delicious. He also gave us some hummus (because I'm a hummus connosieur) and it was so yummy.

Oberhofen

Our next stop after driving along the northern side of Thunersee, the lake west of Interlaken, was the Oberhofen castle. The drive itself was gorgeous. We were able to park fairly quickly at the castle, which was closed (of course), but were able to check out the gardens, which were quite lovely. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we had a lot of pictures. We then stopped at the castle's restaurnt for a drink (they had coffee and I had a beer) to relax a bit. Then we went to the nearby pharmacy, because that is what we do in every town we go to apparently. It was a nice little shop though. Then we got some pastries for the car ride and a loaf of bread for later.

Thun

The next and last stop was the gorgeous city of Thun, at the western edge of Thunreese. We got lucky and were able to find a parking spot pretty quickly. Then we started to walk towards town; there was a lot of traffic. Our fist stop was into an Italian wine shop and bistro. It looked so inviting, but a bit empty at that time of day. We inquired about the wine we recently had in Torno, from the Lombary region, even showing them a picture of it. They did not seem to hold the Lombary region wines in high regards. Ha! Oh well. I asked about one that I had had years ago, Capitola, again receiving blank stares. They were very nice and I was so tempted to hang out while the other two toured. But we kept moving.

We walked along the river and I loved seeing the park benches, which were all painted and designed in various ways. We crossed the river and walked along, eventually crossing again. Here we saw a covered bridge and rushing water beneath. And people surfing the water right there! That kept us entertained for a few minutes.

One thing that was nice was seeing so many people out and enjoying the pretty day. They were sitting in the cafes along the river. We found the next street, which is basically just like a giant outdoor shopping mall. It was interesting, but I did not see much in the way of souvenirs. There were antiques, clothing stores, and a cat store that Lindsey went straight for.

Soon it was time to head back home, and we drove along the north side of the lake again, which appeared to be the shorter and more scenic route. Since this was our last night in the cabin we decided to just eat whatever we had - bread, cheese, prosciutto, fruit... plenty left. We got one more ticket for the way down the next day and went home to eat and pack.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

We loved our drive
All parts of Switzerland are beautiful.