Switzerland

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles:
Our journey to Interlaken, Switzerland began with a bus ride to the airport Sunday afternoon. From there we took a flight to the EuroAirport in France. Next, we took a bus to the Basel, Switzerland train station. You can see me sitting on the platform, waiting for our train to Interlaken to arrive. All of the announcements in Switzerland are in German, French, English, and occasionally Italian.

We finally arrived to Interlaken at 10pm. After checking into our hotel we walked to the only restaurant in town still serving food. As you can see from the next picture, we sat outside to enjoy the surrounding atmosphere.





We began our only full day in Switzerland with a train ride through the mountains to the adorable town of Grindelwald. We spent 2-3 hours hiking through the town and its surrounding mountains admiring God's creation. Every step we took led us to absolutely breathtaking views. We were in awe of the natural beauty of the Swiss Alps. Much to our disappointment, the weather was somewhat overcast with a forecast of rain. Although it was cloudy, it didn't affect our time in Grindelwald. The following pictures were taken in the Grindelwald area.
















After Grindelwald, we took the train back to Interlaken. Unfortunately it was raining, but it didn't keep us from sight-seeing. We rode a bus through town, admiring the fairytale Swiss town. Interlaken is remarkably located between the lakes of Thun and Brienz, at the foot of the 3 famous peaks of Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau. Just about every extreme adventure sport you can think of is offered in Interlaken. There is river rafting, canyoning, parasailing, paragliding off mountains, bungee-jumping, skydiving, ice-climbing and much more.
For dinner, we went to the local hotspot called Bebbi's. Bebbi's is known for its Swiss Fondue... with good reason! The 3 course fondue meal we enjoyed was delightful. It was far more food that we could eat, however we managed to finish off the chocolate. The Swiss chocolate (with nuts) was melted and served with a variety of fruit, bread, and marshmallows. Not only was the food beyond our expectations, the service was as well. The atmosphere was casual, upbeat, and entertaining. Bebbi himself was bouncing around the restaurant dancing, entertaining, and serving.

After our wonderful experience at Bebbi's, we trekked through the rain to the Kursaal (Casino), for my first gambling experience. I can now understand how people become addicted to gambling, but I doubt Jared or I will go to another casino for a very long time. I lost about $8 on the slot machines in the first 20-30 minutes and quit. Jared put about $40 into chips for blackjack. He played while I watched for about 3 hours. At one point he was up about $250 but couldn't walk out. We were having such a great time that we stayed until he lost it all. We walked out without winning anything. Although we were disappointed that we could have won some money to help pay for our trip, we quickly put it behind us.

This picture is of our hotel. If you enlarge the picture and look closely you can see me sitting on our balcony. Our room is on the 3rd floor to the far right. This is the towns oldest hotel, receiving guests since 1323, first as hospital, later as a cloister and, beginning in the early 1400's, as a tavern and inn. The following 2 pictures are the view from our balcony and window.