October 2013 - Jenny R. Hill

Headed out from Lucerne this morning to Interlaken. It’s a really pretty place! Alps all over.

When we got here, we checked in to the hotel, and headed off to get lunch. We found a place that, while having an italian name, served lots of Swiss things. I got raclette, and Trevor got a sausage and some rosti.

Walking across the city, we saw a bunch of paragliders coming down in a flat park area. It looked fun! But I wasn’t about to try it. 🙂

After we ate, we headed to the train station to get tickets to go up to the Jungfraujoch. From Interlaken, you take three trains up the mountain and it takes two hours. The last train station is the highest railway station in Europe! It was a gorgeous ride, but in the last little bit, we wound up in the clouds, so there wasn’t anything to see from the top. We saw some nice views on the way though!

We walked around the tour area up there, and there’s a big ice cavern. Lots of ice sculpture!

It was really cold up at the top. Snow and wind and everything.

We got the last train down, popped back to the hotel to check out our room (it wasn’t ready when we checked in before). It’s super nice, and definitely a far cry from the modern Radisson Blu we stayed in last night. We can get out on to a huge terrace fro our room, and the bathroom has a proper bathtub and two sinks, and there’s this big chaise longue that I’m sitting on right now. It’s too bad we’re not here longer than one night!

Tomorrow, kicking around town some more until our train to Milan leaves in the early evening.

Arrived in Lucerne this morning. Didn’t sleep all that well last night, so a little snooze on the train (a short, 45 minute ride) and being able to check into our hotel room when we arrived around 11 were both blessings.

We headed out right away because I was turning into a food werewolf.

dilbert comic describing a character who turns into a werewolf after going too long without food

I couldn’t last much longer so we hit up a Burger King in the train station and it was amazing. Nothing tastes as good as when you’re really hungry.

Anyway, after that, we had a little stadtbummel.

We walked across the Chapel Bridge and did some wandering and shopping. It was nice and felt so flat after so much walking on hills in Zurich. We came back to the hotel for a brief rest before heading out again to catch the boat across the lake to the Swiss Transport Museum.

This was one of the best museums I’ve ever been to. Tons of exhibits, extremely well kept and large. We got our admission half-price because we were there late in the day, which was awesome. We saw lots of trains, and cars, and boats and airplanes. It was so awesome.

We came back and then headed out for dinner shortly after that, and wound up having mexican again, because it was the nearest thing that sounded good. It was better than the place in Zurich, and the food was good.

One more thing- I bought some new hiking shoes before coming on this trip because I wanted something that would hold up and be good for walking down mountains and my old running shoes were dying.

I cannot say enough good things about these shoes. We’re not doing a crazy amount of walking, between about 5 and 7 miles a day, but these things have saved my feet. I wore a different pair of shoes one day and it was so painful compared to these. They were expensive, but so worth it.

Heading to Interlaken tomorrow, where we will be heading up the Jungfrau and enjoying what looks to be a nice hotel. Will check in again tomorrow!