SWITZERLAND - POST FOUR

I have to apologize for dragging out the posts on Switzerland. It's probably super obnoxious to look at someone else's vacation photos but since I am only living at home part-time I am running out of recent projects to blog about! I am fitting our final three destinations into one post so this is the end, I promise. Here it is.

Our next stop was Interlaken, literally "between lakes". This is certainly a tourist destination, especially because of its perfect location for outdoor adventure sports. Paragliding is hugely popular and with good weather conditions you can watch paragliders all day. They landed in a big grassy square in the middle of town and when the weather was nice we sat on benches after dinner and watched. We also rented bicycles in Interlaken because it was nice flat terrain through town (surprising for Switzerland, right?). We had a lovely bike ride to the lake and swam. We could have ventured further but we didn't feel the most safe biking on a twisty road through the hills with no shoulder (and possibly no helmets if I remember correctly). The lake was fed by mountain water and it was chilly but refreshing! At this point on our trip we were dying from the heat so we welcomed cold water! This was a fun stop and biking was a great (inexpensive) activity.

Next stop. We took the train into Bern for the day. When we were in Zurich (trying on those Prada shoes, remember?) the salesperson was shocked and appalled that we weren't going to see Bern's old town so we planned this day trip specifically for that reason. Just call us day trippers. We were definitely glad we went - the old town was beautiful with lots of character - cobblestone streets and flags of the regions hanging everywhere. We went to the Einstein museum (in one of his old apartments) and found out old Albert was actually a very interesting character! (He was anti-atom bombs and warned the Americans the Germans may have been building an atom bomb. And we all know how history played out from there.) Bern means "bear" and there is a small park near the water that is still home to a few bears. Other fun fact - the original gate into the city is still in place. That's why I think Europe is awesome. (Oh - and in the bottom picture the red thing is a raspberry popsicle because I know you're going to wonder.)

And now our final stop in Switzerland! Lucerne. My friend E lived in this region as an exchange student in high school so I was excited to see her old stomping ground. We only spent one night here and I wish we had more time. This was one of my favourite places, especially because we did a ferry ride to Mt Pilatus and then took a cogwheel train up the mountain, a gondola partway down the mountain, and did "toboggan-ing" on the way down as well. I found the toboggan ride in a guide book before we went, and it was like a slow version of the bobsled on an aluminum track. If you're interested in what that would look like, here's a youtube video. Hubby and I commented to each other that we could actually picturing ourselves living in Lucerne. It was a small city with a familiar feel, somehow.

That was the end of our trip! The next day we went back to Zurich and spent one last night there before we flew out. It was an amazing vacation and we felt very fortunate!