Europe Day 10: More Berner Oberland

Saturday, June 30, 2018

• We took a ride up a cogwheel train to Wengen with Leslie and Dixon to Wengen, on the opposite side of the valley from Murren and Gimmelwald
• Wengen is a more recreation-oriented town but isn't as culturally interesting as Gimmelwald. We picked up some sandwiches and blackberries at the local Coop store.
• After an aerial tram ride up to Männlichen, we began hiking, first to a nearby peak with a crown-shaped viewing platform
• The area we hiked at is a ski area in the winter. Mark skiied here in the early 90's.
• Weather was clear and beautiful, but we had to keep Hugo in the backpack because there was no suitable area for him to crawl in - he just wanted to eat the rocks
• Hike from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg was about 2.5 miles, or 1.5 hours
• LOTS of wildflowers but no Edelweiss
• Great views of the 3 mountains
• Still snow in some places
• It was sunny and now we're burned
• We found Leslie and Dixon at Kleine Scheidegg, they decided to go down to Grindelwald
• Returned to Wengen and let Hugo play in the grass for a bit
• We returned to Interlaken on our own and relaxed for a bit
• We ate cheese fondue for dinner since we were in Switzerland which was tasty but probably not worth writing home about. Our waiter was very nice however and played with Hugo a lot.
• We went to the world cup viewing area to find a way to spend the last of our Francs. We ended up buying a Hong Kong waffle filled with ice cream, Kinder chocolate, chocolate sauce, strawberries and sprinkles. It was a bit of overkill.

OBSERVATIONS:

• PARAGLIDERS EVERYWHERE!

Peak at Mannlichen

"The hills are alive...!"

Paragliders

A cow we found on our hike

Wearing Hugo is a sweaty job

Killer view

Hugo loved the big windows on the train

Fondue dinner

Overpriced and over-decorated bubble waffle

Europe Day 9: Bern Etc.

Friday, June 29, 2018

• Headed to the Bern, Switzerland temple in the morning to do a session with Opa. Oma was kind enough to stay with Hugo. She made a friend with a young girl who was visiting with her family from Italy.
• Session was in English which was a bit disappointing because we were originally told it would be in Italian.
• Drove to the Bern train station to park and explore the city (UNESCO world heritage site)
• Followed the Rick Steves walking tour. Sights included:
• Very loooong arcade of stores. Most stores had cellars that you could access from the streets. Saw 3 H&M stores within half a kilometer of each other.
• A cool clock
• Unique statues
• Scenic views of the river
• Einstein's home
• One of the Bern bears (in a much better habitat than they previously had)
• Statue of a devil cutting off a monk's wiener at the cathedral
• Various statues
• Ended our time in Bern with a visit to the Sprungli chocolate store 
• owned by Lindt but this is their higher end chocolate that is only sold in their special stores in Switzerland
• Bought some chocolates for souvenirs, then bought a truffle each to try and a small chocolate cake - SCRUMPTIOUS
• I offered Liz a bite of my chocolate and she ATE THE WHOLE THING (so I ate the rest of hers)
• Went to Wichtrach where Mark's dad served on his mission and drank from the fountain (means you'll come back to Switzerland again)
• Drove through town where Mark's great grandfather John Aebersold lived before immigrating to the US
• Drove through the tiny town of Aebersold and took photos with the sign. Population is probably 10. 
• Chill evening, just got some food from the grocery store for dinner.

In front of Bern's never-ending arcade

Bought a fresh fig at the market. First fresh fig since my time in Peru.

Overlooking parts of Bern

Baby-eating statue

Where Einstein came up with E = mc2

Famous Bern clock tower

A store in a cellar. Pretty common in Bern.

The famous fountain

Hugo was a fan

3 generations of Abersolds

Aebersold countryside

Yummy chocolate cake we bought from Sprungli

Europe Day 8: Interlaken/Roaming the mountains

Thursday, June 28, 2018

• Went with everyone except Kurt and Dale (who went up to the Jungfrau) to frolick in the mountains
• Drove to Lauterbrunnen, then gondola/train to Muren
• Wandered through Muren for a bit
• This is where Mark first skiied
• Pretty mountain town, low-key
• Weren't that many tourists around
• Took another gondola to Gimmelwald, highly recommended by Rick Steves
• Weren't many tourists, but all the ones we saw had the Rick Steves book with them
• City runs on the honor system - souvenir shops and meat/cheese stands unattended
• Ate fresh mountain cheese and sausage
• AMAZING views of the mountains and surrounding areas
• Lots of farms
• Took another gondola to the valley then hopped on a bus to go do some hiking near Lauterbrunnen in some caves behind a waterfall
• Hugo wasn't allowed so we ended up hanging out in Lauterbrunnen for a some time while the others explored
• In the evening, went on an evening stroll through Interlaken with Mark's mom. For a while followed the path along the river. River is so blue and pretty.
• Chinese food for dinner. The cook offended me twice. But he was super nice.
• Didn't give me chopsticks (and yes they did have chopsticks). Assumed I was an ignorant American.
• There were several Korean menu items which were not translated into English. I asked him if he would tell me what they were but he refused. He said they were spicy and I wouldn't like them. Assumed Americans can't handle the heat.

They really cram people onto the gondolas!

Gimmelwald countryside

Need any cowbell?

Self-serve (and pay) cheese

Fresh water

Sausage and cheese in the mountains!

Sausage nunchucks

Just chillin in the MOST BEAUTIFUL SCENERY EVER

Hanging out in Lauterbrunnen

Aare river in Interlaken

One of Mark's favorite things about Europe

Europe Day 7 : From Garmisch to Interlaken

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

• Broke up our drive into several segments (Kurt rode with us)
• 4 countries in one day! (Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland)
• First stop: Liechtenstein
• Only stayed about an hour; an unremarkable area aside from some interesting statues
• We wouldn't recommend going there unless it's on your way to something else
• Second stop: Luzerne, Switzerland
• UNESCO World Heritage site
• really old covered wooden bridge
• town is split by the river
• walked around and saw some sights
• old city wall (climbed tower), Lion statue, interesting bathroom by Lion statue
• Switzerland is really expensive
• Drive to Interlaken was full of tunnels and incredibly picturesque
• scenic viewpoint matched Mark's desktop background
• City Chalet in Interlaken
• right next to the river
• our bedroom overlooks the 3 big mountains in the area
• courtyard for Hugo to play in
• Middle Eastern style doners for dinner - bread more like tortillas, lots of meat
• LOTS of Indian tourists due to Bollywood (many Bollywood films set there)
• Mark found a public viewing area for the World Cup and hung out there for a while during a match.

Other: 

• Hugo LOVES making noise when his stroller goes over cobblestone
• He was also very happy to finally get out of the car and play in the grass
• Liz's forward facing camera had a smear of baby food on it without her knowledge so all her selfies from today were blurry :(

Prince's castle in Liechtenstein. We didn't bother climbing up there.

One of the many weird statues in Liechtenstein

New prince of Liechtenstein

Luzerne

One of Luzerne's historic bridges

view of Reuss River and Luzerne

Frescoes on one of the covered bridge

Standing in the river water!

Pushing the stoller uphill

Famous lion statue

Scenic viewpoint

Darn baby food filter!

Toblerone has a name campaign going like Coca Cola did a couple years ago. Fun Swiss names!

View from our chalet in Interlaken

Public World Cup viewing area