We took a tour of Switzerland--when I say a tour, I mean we saw a large majority of the country. We did not make it down to Geneva as it is out of the way. But we covered every where else! We entered the country at Basel then drove through Bern down to Thun and Interlaken to sleep in the Alps. I wanted to take the train to Italy. It was so cool. You drive onto the train and ride through the tunnels. We have never been to Northern Italy. However, Lady Hiva ruled it out citing that last time I had them on a mountain we got stuck! Touche...so we did not do that (yet). We drove up through Luzerne and Zurich to the Austrian border and then came back in to Switzerland to see St Gallen and the area where the popular Heidi books were based.
We loved Switzerland. We have traveled through the country before, but this was our first time really spending time there. I loved seeing all of the places that my ancestors one lived. My great-great grandfather was born in Thun and lived in Interlaken. Then several other ancestors came from different cities across the country. We spent time talking as we drove about how this is where some of our family is from and thinking about what their lives were like when they lived here.
It is a beautiful place. We could have just stopped and taken photos in any random direction and had amazing photos. That included the iconic Swiss Alps Chalets and the picturesque mountains and blue lakes.
We had our tastes (yes, several of them) of Swiss chocolate. Ironically, I think I like Belgian chocolate better. However, as we drove we were so surprised to see how many really well made things come from Switzerland. People were buying watches (Lady Hiva and I do not wear watches, so that was not a draw), but Lady Hiva really wanted a Swiss Army Knife. I wanted Victorinox kitchen knives. A few years a go I was given a small set at work. We used them almost every day. It was great to find more! Several of our other knives that we love come from Switzerland too, we had no idea!
As we were driving I was admiring the views. Well, as much as I could with the narrow winding roads. I saw this one really cute village and just took the exit. We spent a few hours just walking around and exploring. It was PERFECT!
It was Iseltwald. A small community that is between Interlaken and Luzerne, tucked between a large blue lake and the towering mountains.
I loved the lake...but the creepy Santa mannequin was not my favorite. You can see I took photos angling to NOT get the Santa...but Lady Hiva just full on embraced the creepy...hahah. The fog is hiding the peaks of the mountains.
Look how clean the water is! It was very deep but so pristine and pure. Lucky Dragon said, it must be because they don't burn bodies and dump them into the lake. Which may sound morbid for anyone that has not lived in India! :)
We stopped to get some ice cream. We laughed when the server yelled at me to sit down and she would come help us when she had time! HAHA
There was a lot of driving along the mountain side on winding roads and into tunnels. Lady Hiva was sure that we were going to wreck as is a very vocal passenger driver. HAHA
I chose a hotel in Interlaken that overlooks the lake and Thun. It is up in the mountains so it has such an amazing view. Lady Hiva was SO mad at me as we drove up the mountain in the dark. It was a small winding road with cliffs straight up on one side and straight down on the other. I had a lecture the whole way up about how I don't get to choose the hotels any more and can't I remember what happened the last time I took us up into a mountain?! We arrived at night and could see the lake and the cities around it gleaming in the dark. I was looking forward to the morning so we could sit on our balcony and enjoy the view better. The two Muggles were happy because they liked that the room was two stories with a spiral staircase. They were also happy that we were given a piece of Swiss Chocolate on our pillows.
Then when we woke up there was FOG. Lots of FOG. We could not see anything. The view I planned for was not existent! We made our way down the mountain and instead of being easier on Lady Hiva she was even more nervous! We could not see more than 10 feet in front of us. At one point I could see a black shadow in the fog just a head. It was weaving and floating. I could see it then I couldn't. I told Lady Hiva that either we were following a dark ghost or there there a crazy biker riding down this road in the fog in black clothes. THankfully, it was a biker. A crazy one...but at least he was not the Angel of Death leading us! HAHA
Once we got down into the forest level of the mountain the fog was not as bad. We could enjoy the villages and the small farm chalets as we drove along. We would stop every once in a while to take photos. I am sure that the locals are rolling their eyes just like we do at home when tourists drive slow to take photos along the beaches in Hawaii.
We were all excited to see that there is a town called Grindelwald! We even looked it up and the character is not supposed to be from there, but it was cool to see where maybe JKR was inspired!
We decided to look at an old medieval castle down in Interlaken. Apparently, it was the control point for water trade in the area. It had a moat and people would have to stop and pay fees as they passed. Then they "corrected" the river to be deep enough for larger ships and the water no longer went passed the castle.
It was such a beautiful walk for the morning! We were glad that we did it.
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