The Glorious Swiss Alps

After my time in Bern, I headed over to the town of Interlaken at the base of the Swiss Alps. I arrived there just in time to check in and walk around the town some. The town itself is not too big, there are only about 15000 people who live there total. It tends to be touristy because it is the perfect place to explore the region from. It was beautiful there though. I walked around and sat in a park for a while in the middle of town and watched the parasailers land in the park right next to the 10 cows who grazed there daily. In the background was the huge Swiss alps.

The next day, I took the train up into the mountains to actually get a closer view of them and to explore some of the small little villages up there. The first town was pretty small and somewhat touristy, but it had a great grocery store that was perfect to grab some breakfast at. Next I headed up to the highest little resort area before you have to pay a huge amount to go up to what is considered the "top of Europe." I settled for the view from the resort area because it was absolutely breathtaking. I sat in the restaurant out there enjoying the Swiss sunshine and the amazing view of these three huge mountains in front of me sipping my hot chocolate and having some "traditional Swiss dessert" that I was not quite sure what it was going to be when i ordered it, but it turned out to be these two huge merengue cookies with cream and ice cream.

After that little snack, I walked down the other side on one of the easy hiking trails to the next town. It was the most amazing time because it was litterally me and nature with the Alps right there. After about 2 hours, I reached this great little town that is completely car free and is linked with other areas only by railway. I hopped on the train to go to the next town and from there, I caught the bus up to the cable car station that links some other towns in the mountains with the world down below the mountains. I got off at the first town, because it was the cheapest and because it was recommened by my handy Rick Steves book (thanks again Tina). It was this great little town that is basically a farm village with no cars and I think more animals than actual people. The whole thing smells like you would imagine a farm to, but it was the most breathtaking town because the houses were very much the little Swiss log cabins you envision. There was mountains right there at your backdoor and it was so quiet and peaceful there. Once I was done exploring for the day, I headed back into town where I happily reached my hostel and slept very well that night with wonderful dreams of the Swiss Alps at night!

I stayed there 3 days because after being on the road for such a long time, it is nice to be somewhere longer than 2 nights every once in a while. I spent my last day as a very mundane day that began with laundry. Now, normally I am not a big fan of laundry, but sometimes washing machines can be few and far in between and I had not washed my clothes in a washing machine in about a month and handwashing just does not have the same effect. I was very excited to find a self service laundromate right down the street so I headed there, did some laundry and got my clean clothes. Next, I just strolled around town and grabbed a sandwich to eat at the park with my wonderful view of the alps before I headed home and planned out my last month here in Europe.

For anyone wondering, here is my count so far for Europe

Countries I have been to: 11
Cities I have been to: 52
Currencies I have used: 4
Languages I can say "Thank you" in: 10

Not bad for 3 months!