This was our seventh visit to Switzerland and fourth with Idyll. It completed a plan we began in 1985 to take all four of our children, their spouses and our ten grand children on Swiss Untours. We felt that the happy memories of these trips would be worth far more to them than any modest inheritance we might leave them.
Monday, June 17-
We drove up from our home in Kingsport, TN, to Vienna, VA, to spend the night with our younger son, Henry, and his family. Our older son, Robin, wife Nan and children Brett and Michelle, who were accompanying us to Switzerland, drove up from their home in Richmond on Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday, June 18-
About 5:00PM all of us left for Dulles Airport, about 20 minutes away, to catch our Swissair Fl. SR 117, an Airbus A310, for departure at 7:00PM. Shortly after take off, drinks were served, and about 9:00PM we were served a nice dinner of smoked salmon appetizer, chicken, noodles, broccoli (ugh!), vegetable salad and a chocolate mousse. Dawn arrived about 2:00AM EDT.
Wednesday, June 19-
We arrived at Geneva airport at 9:10 AM local time and changed to a connecting flight to Zurich, some 145 miles away. There we quickly cleared immigration and customs and easily found our Idyll representative, Sonja Zurbuchen. A bit later we descended to the lower level of the airport to catch our train to Kandersteg with a change in Bern. We were met at the station by our landlady, Frau Margaret Wafler-Sieber, who drove us to her (and "our" for the next two weeks) home, Chalet Alpentraum. After dinner at the nearby Rendezvous Restaurant, we got to bed early.
Thursday, June 20-
The day was cloudy with some showers. After a breakfast of cereal, toast and coffee, we caught the 9:37 train to Spiez, about 20 minutes away, where we were to have orientation at the Bahnhof Restaurant. About 55-60 Untourists were present for the orientation by Agnes Moser and Sonja. We had lunch at 1:30 and finished the orientation at 2:30. It was decided that we would take a boat ride on Lake Thun before going back to Kandersteg. We lost our way down to the lake front and missed the boat we had intended to take but got a later one. Our boat zigzagged west on Lake Thun and finally docked at Thun. The rail station was only a few steps away. We caught the train home, had dinner in and got to bed early. Jet lag was still bothering us.
Friday, June 21-
We all slept until 9:00 and then had a leisurely breakfast of cereal, bananas, toast and coffee. Decided we would explore our new town. On earlier visits to Switzerland I had seen many hang gliders soaring through the air and envied them the experience. Later the hang gliders were mostly supplanted by paragliders, and during our last visit to the country in 1994 I learned that paragliders were now taking up passengers. I also learned that this service was allegedly available in Kandersteg. Arrangements for such flights were reportedly made at the base of a cable car station. Accordingly, we walked toward the base of the Sunnbuel cable car. The others got tired and turned back, but I continued for about two miles to the station. The staff there knew nothing of any such arrangements.
Later in the day, I discovered by chance that the office of Freddy Krahenbuhl, who arranges for tandem paraglide flights, was located only bout 200 feet from our chalet! I talked with him and made arrangements for a flight later in the trip. Had planned to do some grocery shopping en route home but forgot that the stores were closed from around noon until 2:00PM, so had to come back for that later. It began to rain heavily, so we just spent the afternoon resting and reading. Ate our dinner in and had bratwurst, rosti, green beans, vegetable salad and coffee. Our son and his wife went out for drinks at a nearby hotel while we kept the grand children.
Saturday, June 22-
This was the day for an optional Idyll excursion to Murten to view a folk parade. I'm not sure what the occasion for the parade was, but it was made up of hundreds of participants, mostly children and mostly dressed in white. There were also three bands. The Swiss apparently love festivals and will stage one as often as possible. Later in the day we witnessed an interesting cross bow demonstration. The bowmen were very good. After the parade we decided to take the long way home by going down to Lausanne on Lake Geneva before heading back to Kandersteg.
Sunday, June 23-
We had planned to take a hike today, but because of the chill and a steady rain, we decided to go to Lucern instead. We went via Spiez, Bern and Alten. At Lucern we took a city bus (Swiss pass good for this) to the Transportation Museum in the edge of town. It was lunch time by the time we arrived, so we had lunch in the museum cafeteria. There were fascinating exhibits of trains, planes, boats, gondola cars, etc. and a huge and complex model train layout. In one building there was a marvelous "Rube Goldberg" contraption that took a steel ball from the top through dozens of modes of transportation down to the bottom. You have to see it to believe it. Our return was via Brunig Pass, Meiringen, Interlaken Ost and Spiez. Each way took about three hours.
Monday, June 24-
Today was "cheese day". This is an optional Idyll excursion to a high meadow to observe cheese being made. No Untourist should miss this trip. Went by train to Fruitigen where we caught a bus to Reichenbach and met the rest of the Idyll group. Because of the steep, narrow, twisted road for the rest of the journey, special short wheel base buses were used. The last mile of the road had a 28 percent grade! From the end of the bus line, the group had to hike about one half mile to the cheese makers chalet.
Idyll's Agnes Moser gave us an interesting and detailed description of the process. Milk is heated gently in a 300 liter copper cauldron over an open fire until the cheese maker decides that it is ready for processing. Big pieces of cheese cloth (what else) are dipped by hand down into the hot vat and what appeared to be several gallons of curds are drawn out. After draining briefly over the vat, the curds are placed in a cheese hoop about 18 inches in diameter and 6 inches deep. A board and a large stone are place on top to help expel the whey. Later the wheel of cheese is soaked in brine overnight and placed on shelves in a cool basement to age. Each wheel has to be scrubbed with brine each morning until a hard crust has developed.
For operating the facility for the summer, the cheese maker gets a certain percentage of the cheese as pay. We were able to buy some cheese (berg kase or mountain cheese) and some butter before we left. After a picnic lunch at the bus stop, some of us elected to hike about two miles down to the bottom of the mountain. This is a rather steep and slippery walk so good shoes are needed but the continuous display of waterfalls and cataracts were well worth the effort.
Tuesday, June 25-
Today we decided to go to Murren, a town high on a mountain shoulder above the Lauterbrunnen Valley and where no motor cars are allowed. The route was via Spiez, Interlaken Ost and Lauterbrunnen. There we caught a furnicular car steeply up the mountainside to Grutscalp where we caught the "Toonerville Trolley" some four miles west to Murren. This resort town is known for tennis and hot air ballooning. Because of heavy fog, we were unable to see the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau across the valley. After a stroll through the village, we took a two stage gondola car down some 1500 feet to the Stechelberg in the valley below. The clouds had cleared by now and it was a beautiful time to walk down the valley back towards Lauterbrunnen. A stop was made en route at Trummelbach Falls which is located inside the mountain. Had lunch there and then Robin and his family visited the falls which we rested outside. We had visited the falls twice before. Our hike to Lauterbrunnen was continued and there we caught the train home. Had dinner at the Alpenblick Hotel in Kandersteg.
Wednesday, June 26-
Today we elected to visit Oeschinensee, the beautiful mountain lake in the eastern edge of Kandersteg. A two person chair lift took us up some 1500 feet where it was a 20 minute walk down to the lake. Had planned to have lunch at a restaurant there, but it was so cold and gloomy, we decided against it. Robin and the children hiked back up to the top of the chair lift for the children to ride on the rodelbahn, a long wooden chute on which little cars could glide at considerable speed. Doris and I elected to hike back down to Kandersteg. This evening we had our Idyll sponsored group dinner at Hoechst, a spot high on the mountain above Adelboden. Two bus loads of Untourists attended. The ride was up a steep, winding and astonishingly narrow road which allegedly permitted two way traffic. We had a nice dinner of lamb and mushroom stew, rosti, apfelsaft (carbonated apple juice), green salad and ice cream. There was music and singing and a good time was had by all.
Thursday, June 27-
Today we went to Bern for an alumni tour of the city. We arrived early to window shop under the extensive arcades along the streets and to go to the bear pits to see the famous Bern bears. These huge, gentle animals are well fed by the tourists who can buy suitable feed (carrots, etc.) nearby. The goodies are tossed down and the bears almost never miss catching the tidbit in their mouths. After lunch we met with Idyll representative, Vincent Bolli, who led the tour. Our first visit was to the home of a wealthy gentlemen who lived in a house built before 1398. He graciously showed us the whole house including an enormous porcelain stove. The second stop was at an apartment development built by English interests about 1880.
We visited the apartment of a school teacher who answered our numerous questions and served us soft drinks and snacks. Following this, we took a bus to the edge of town (Wittigkofen) to visit a very modern complex developed about 1960. It is a complete community built on a former farm estate and containing grocery stores, specialty shops, a cafeteria and a rest home. We were welcomed to the 4 bedroom apartment of a Swiss diplomat whose wife was our hostess. She told us about the community, answered our questions and served us wine and juice. Among other things, we learned that the apartment rents for 2800 CHF per month (about $2285 US).
Friday, June 28-
After a good breakfast of orange juice, bacon, eggs, toast, jam and coffee, we walked over to the office of Freddy Krahenbuhl who was arranging for my paraglide flight. We drove over to the base of the Allmenalp (not Sonnbuel) gondola lift. It turned out that my pilot was to be Bruno Freund, a Frenchman. I felt much more comfortable when he mentioned that this would be his 983rd. flight. Doris and Brett remained at the landing site in the valley while the rest of us rode the cable car up about 1600 feet to the upper station. We then carried the gear up another several hundred feet to a fairly steep meadow. There Bruno laid out the parachute and straightened the lines. Next he strapped me in and then strapped in himself behind me. His instructions were this, "Stand up and I will put my hands on your shoulders. When I give the signal, start walking and when I say RUN, start running. If anything isn't right, we will veer out to the right or left and start over."
He gave the signal and we started out. To my surprise we were airborne within 30-40 feet after we started running and we then sailed out over the valley some 2500 feet below. Bruno had an instrument strapped to his leg which beeped whenever we caught an updraft. He skillfully maneuvered over toward the face of a cliff where there were good updrafts and we rose to about 2800 feet. We circled there for about 30 minutes, and I think he could have kept us up for the entire afternoon if I had had enough money. The flight cost 120CHF or about $98 at that time. To avoid any alarm on my part, Bruno warned me that he was going to make several big swings back and forth to lose altitude. We gently drifted down to the landing spot where he pulled up just as we neared the ground, and with two steps, we were down.
At the time of the flight, I was 77. I asked Bruno if I was his oldest passenger. "No", he said. "That honor belongs to an 86 year old. Why don't you come back in 10 years". Maybe I will. marvelous experience which was worth every penny in my estimation.
Saturday, June 29-
Back to earth today. After breakfast we took off for Grindelwald via Spiez and Interlaken Ost. This is a very touristy town at the base of the Eiger. We had lunch at an outdoor restaurant where Doris and I had dined on our first visit to Switzerland in 1976. From there we took a bus a short distance out of town to the base of the Obergrindelwalgletscher (Upper Grindelwald glacier). To our surprise, we had to pay 5CHF to visit the glacier. Doris reneged when she learned that we had to climb 900 steps to reach the face of the glacier, but the rest of us did the climb. We were able to walk through a tunnel about 100 feet into the glacier. On a very small scale, it is somewhat like the Ice Palace at the Jungfraujoch. Then back to town for some ice cream and our trip home by reverse route. While waiting for the connecting train in Interlaken Ost, we observed a solar powered, robotic lawn mower operating in a small yard. We became so fascinated with watching this that we walked off and left our alpenstocks.
Sunday, June 30-
This morning we had 9:30 reservations for the minibus trip up the Gasterntal to Selden. The Gasterntal is a remote, sparsely settled wide valley just out of Kandersteg and seldom visited by tourists. It was an 8 mile ride over a road that was one way as it climbed into the valley. From Selden, we hiked back to Kandersteg, descending 1200 feet en route. Along the way, we had lunch at the very rustic Waldhaus restaurant. Except for the descent into Kandersteg, the path was surprisingly flat and even Doris made it.
Monday, July 1-
To have a full day for hiking, we arose at 6:00AM, had a quick breakfast and caught the 7:23 train to Brig where we connected with another train to Zermatt at the base of the Matterhorn. Arriving at 9:47, we strolled through the bustling town and had intended to take a cable car up to Scharzsee to get a closer look at the Matterhorn. However, low clouds, drizzling rain and an occasional snow flake made us cancel this venture. Although Doris and I had seen the Matterhorn many times before, the rest of the group were denied the pleasure of seeing it with their own eyes. Accordingly, we took a fairly early train back to Kandersteg. Reconfirmed out return flight schedules and got to bed early.
Tuesday, July 2-
Since we would be leaving very early tomorrow and Fraus Wafler had a full afternoon of meetings, she asked us to pack our main bags so she could take them to the bahnhof this morning. This we did and checked them through to the Zurich airport. We did not check them through to our final destination in the US because Doris and I were going to England for a week before returning to the states and the rest were going to Germany to visit friends for a week. We thought of going to Thun to see the castle there, but rain made this unattractive, so instead we went to Bern and could shop there under the miles of arcades.
Wednesday, July 3-
We took the 6:31 train to Zurich hoping to see my brother Dalton and his family who were just coming in for a two week Untour at Spiez. They had tried to be in Switzerland at the same time we were but started their planning too late to accomplish this. We were successful in finding them and had a good visit until our plane left for London at 11:30.
