July 20 – More Buses, Trains, Cable Cars and Alpine Lakes
Another early morning for us today as our day included one of the most popular areas, Grindelwald and Grindelwald First. We had hoped to get up there before the crowds did but it seemed everyone else had the same thinking we did so unfortunitely we were unable to do any of the adventure things (zipline, mountain carts etc) at the top of the cable cars. But that definitely did not take away from the amazing views and just knowing we were standing in the Swiss Alps with mountains and glaciers all around us.
After spending 3-4 hours up there, we were ready to hop the train back down to Interlaken. It keeps amazing me how seamless it is to get from on place to the other here with public transportation. Buses are free with the guest card which really cuts down on the number of cars on the road. We bought a Swiss Half Fare card, so that means all of our train/cablecars/etc were half the cost. You can also get a card that includes everything for no extra costs. But you have to do your homework to make sure the cards will actually save you money.
After a quick stop back to the campground we set out to look for swimming spots around Lake Thun as we have not ventured to the lakes at all yet. Grabbing our swimsuits we were off. Finding spots that are not paid was not an easy task but we were able to find some stairs to get our toes wet.
For our final dinner tonight we (really it was my choice:) ) was an all-you-care-to-eat cheese and chocolate fondue night. The cheese was a local cheese with a white wine added to it. Dipping options included potatoes, pickles, pickled onions, veggies, bread, olives, bread and pineapple. This was all very tasty but we were not prepared for what was going to follow…swiss milk chocolate fondue! I would have been happy with just this for dinner.
Back on the road after playing fondue related games, we headed for Lake Brienz. Found another place to put feet in then a place that was absolutely wonderful to get a nice cooling refreshing feet dunk.
Finally, we had one more thing to do. We have had a travel bug for Geocaching in our possession (it was our’s this time) since 2005 when we got married. We found a cache nearby so Patrick and I took a quick walk to the cache, signed the log and made the quick walk back.
Turning in early as tomorrow we are switching accommodations again…only 4 more places to stay until we head back to NS.
Today’s steps….21,103. That means since June 30th, my total steps for our trip is 309,789 or as much as 235 km 🙂
