Swiss Oberland, Summer of 2003

by Milt & Charlene Robbins, Salem, OR

Travel and Wednesday, Week One

Friends picked us up at our house at 11:30 a.m. for the trip to the airport and our first ever Untour. Both of us were awake early and finished some last minute packing. We arrived at the gate at about 2:00 p.m. with the flight scheduled for 4:20, hoping to get a bulkhead seat. No luck. Charlene worked on getting our little translator machine set up, while Milt mostly watched people and tried to decide of any of them were Idyll tourists who were coming through the Portland airport.

The plane left a little late from Portland. It was an Airbus 320, and was quite cramped, as we are both tall people. We never got out of sunshine during the trip, so had to count on people pulling down their window shades. After a ten hour flight we landed at Frankfurt. As we deplaned, we got the first blast of what we were to deal with for the next two weeks - hot and humid weather. Our flight from Frankfurt to Zurich was on a 737, with actually more room than on the Airbus.

We had no problems switching from plane to train. Most Idyll tours have a staff greeter meet them at the Zurich airport, but we were on our own because of the direct flight to Frankfurt. Untours had given us great instructions on where to go and what to do, and it went flawlessly. The Swiss immigration agent didn’t stamp our passports - just waved us through. We got some cash from an ATM machine and went looking for our train. In Zurich the bahnhof is right inside the airport, and so we got our first taste of the marvelous transportation system that all Swiss enjoy. We were able to catch a train one hour earlier than we expected, so we jumped on and headed south.

Included in this marvelous system is a process by which you can check your luggage at point of departure, have your bags automatically placed on your train when you arrive in Switzerland, and taken off the train for you at your final destination. We never touched our bags from Portland to Thun!

The trip to Thun was interesting, but we were both so sleepy we had trouble staying awake. We were worried that if we went to sleep we might miss the bahnhof in Bern where we had to change trains. Had a short chat with a Swiss couple on their way to Bern. They had lived in the U.S. for a few years. Since we arrived at Thun an hour early and our landlady was not yet there, we did a little preliminary grocery shopping at the COOP store across the street from the Thun bahnhof.

When we got back to the bahnhof, we found that our landlady was there looking for us. Her name was Annemarie Zimmermann. She has lived in her house in Gunten where we stayed for 23 years. She rents the 3rd floor to Idyll tourists, lives on the 2nd floor, and rents the 1st floor out to a single middle aged woman. She apologized for her English, which was quite good. We soon learned to recognize her blank stare when she did not understand what we were saying, and I assume that she noticed the same about us. Previous Idyll residents at her house tell that her English improves every year, and when she began renting, she spoke very little English.

A word about weather. The Oberland region was enjoying (?) the longest hot spell since 1839 while we were there. The temperature averaged between 850 and 950 F every day. Humidity was like an August day in Houston! Almost every evening at 5:00 to 6:00 pm we had a thunderstorm. It was wonderful to hear the thunder rolling around in the mountains across the lake and to see the showers moving across the lake toward our house. All this rain, of course, increased the humidity. Please remember that we are Oregonians. During our summers anything over 80 degrees is approaching “hot.” We have no humidity to speak of. We notice heat and humidity much more than people from other parts of the U.S.

Our 3rd floor apartment and balcony was one of the high points of the trip. From it we could see much of Lake Thun, or Thunersee, several villages across the lake, some of the lower hills and some of the snow-covered Alps in the distance. We were so taken by the view that we spent nearly every evening sitting on the deck, just watching the sun go down and working on our trip journal. We were able to get the first breezes on the balcony, as the heat of the day slowly abated.

To reach our apartment, we got off the local bus at the bottom of our hill and walked up a mildly steep hill of about 150 meters. We then navigated 98 stairs from the street to the apartment. We finally got used to making the climb, but hot weather and carrying groceries added to the huff and puff factor. The gorgeous view from our balcony definitely made it all worth it!

The apartment was furnished in a comfortable and serviceable manner. The bath had a shower stall with the obligatory telephone shower head. The kitchen was well equipped with range, small refrigerator (stocked with “get-started” food), microwave oven, largish sink, and all the plates and utensils and pans we needed.

Our main room was a combination sleeping room and living room. It had twin beds pushed together (very comfortable), three wicker chairs, a sofa, radio (which we didn’t use) cable TV (which we did), lots of paperback novels in English, and lots of maps and brochures about Switzerland. The beds were made with a terry-type bottom sheet and a down comforter on top. No top sheet, which we found out was very “Swiss.” The comforter was way too hot, so we switched to top and bottom sheets and light blankets, which we found in the closet. We slept nearly every night with windows and doors open, and still seldom used the blankets.

Tomorrow morning we go to Spiez for an orientation meeting with our Idyll area hosts and the other members of the tour. We have to find our way there on the busses and trains (Spiez is on the other side of the lake), so it will be fun. Maybe we can get some grocery shopping done on the way home. Our landlady pointed out some grocery stores right on our daily bus route, so we will see how it goes in a mainly non-English speaking store.

Thursday, Week One

We had a great night’s sleep!! A little warm with the down comforter, but we’ll change it tonight. We woke up about 6:00 a.m. We’ve stopped trying to figure out what time it is at home.

Took the bus to Thun, then the train to Spiez. Somehow we took a wrong turn after arrival in Spiez (didn’t read the instructions carefully) and got lost trying to find the Idyll meeting place. We talked to a woman walking along the street who spoke no English. She signed 3 circles - one above another, which we finally realized was a traffic light. Turns out that we were only about a block and a half away from our goal. We got to the meeting in plenty of time.

At the orientation we all told a little about ourselves. There were people from Minnesota, California, Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, etc. One of the couples relayed the amusing fact that many of their friends were waiting to see how an Idyll Tour worked out. There was general laughter, as most of us had friends who had expressed the same interest. The presenters, both Swiss teachers during the school year, explained Swiss train schedules and how to read the guide. They brought lots of brochures on schedules, places. They also showed some slides to give us a taste of what’s available. We talked in depth about hints for the next two weeks and planned Untours group activities. We signed up for two of them.

After the orientation, most of us went to lunch together. It was fun and the 13.50 Swiss franc (SF) salad was good. (A word about money conversion rates. At the time we were visiting, the Swiss franc and the dollar were equal in value, so I will talk about SF instead of dollars in this log). We then walked to Schloss Spietz, took several pictures, then walked on to the Thunersee for a boat ride. We arrived just as they were pulling away, They stopped and reversed the boat to let us on! We sailed back and forth across the lake visiting the villages. The hot, humid weather turned grey and threatening and finally got rainy. We got off the boat in Merlingen, caught a bus toward Thun, and went grocery shopping in Hünibach. Since we have to carry everything on the bus, we will buy small amounts more often. There are two main grocery stores in the Oberland - COOP and Migros. Neither store in Hünibach takes credit cards, although in the bigger cities they did. Looks like it will cost us about 100 SF per day to eat and get around. Gifts and special trips will be extra. We arrived at home carrying back packs, bus and train schedules (4-5 inches thick) and groceries for our first attempt at climbing the hill to our house. Hope we will be a little more fit by the end of 2 weeks! Also hope it isn’t always over 80 degrees and humid.

After dinner we made tentative plans for the rest of the vacation. Weather will force changes, but we prioritized travel goals. It is now 9:40 p.m. and we are both thinking bed looks pretty good. Off to Interlaken and Brienz tomorrow.

Friday, Week One

Today we headed east to Brienz and Interlaken. Lake Brienz (or Brienzersee) is smaller than the Thunersee, but no less beautiful. The town of Brienz was rather sleepy. After buying pre-made sandwiches and Coke from a COOP store, we decided to take a cog-rail trip up into the mountains (Rothornbahn). Simply spectacular. Postcard pictures at every turn. We topped out at 7500 feet, where the clouds had come in. Our funny little steam engine pushed (not pulled) our 2 passenger cars up the mountain. This is Switzerland’s oldest steam-cog railway, originally built in 1892. It was a bumpy ride, so could take no pictures while we were in transit. We saw a few cattle which had been moved back up to the high pastures, as well as tiny chalets set around the hills. Some of them were still boarded up in early June, while others were obviously being lived in. Some of the buildings had solar panels...otherwise they would not have had any electricity.

After a two hour trip up and back down, we took the train back to Interlaken Ost. We walked the length of Hoheweg...the main street lined with hotels, a casino, souvenir shops and restaurants. The town has a gorgeous view of the Jungfrau, but otherwise is rather commercial. It was still rather cloudy, so the view of the mountains was not good. Several people had suggested to us that we eat at a restaurant in Interlaken called Schuh’s, so we stopped for drinks at their outside tables and stayed for an early dinner. We had rachlette, which we understand is a “national treasure” meal. Delicious melted cheese, small boiled potatoes, sour pickles, other sour veggies, hard rolls. We shopped a little after dinner. Everything seemed quite expensive and designed for tourist sales. We caught a bus at Interlaken West for home. The climb was a little easier tonight - cooler and no groceries to haul. Maybe there is hope.

We wrote postcards when we got home. We plan to spend most of the day in Thun tomorrow, which will be having a market day in the old town section. It is also supposed to rain all day.

Saturday, Week One

We finally arose at around 7:00 a.m. Planned activity for the day - to really spend some time in Thun. We have been passing through it every day without really getting out of the bahnhof building. Also, as mentioned yesterday, they have downtown open markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays, which Frau Zimmermann assured us were quite interesting.

It was a wonderful experience. The street’s name was Hauptgasse. Most of the booths had flowers or food - cheese, baked goods, pastries, chocolate, sandwiches, some wonderful tubs of olives. There were also a few clothing and jewelry booths. It stretched for 5 or 6 long blocks on both sides of the street. Adjacent on a less attractive street was a flea market. We ate our lunch of sandwiches and cola we bought at the market.

The old town portion of Thun is on an island in the middle of the Aare River. The river exits the Thunersee on its way to Bern, and moves through town in a strong and rapid current. Lovely, quaint, colorful. Narrow streets. The island is dominated by Schloss Thun (Zähringen Castle) and a large stadtkirche. Today was a very hot day with high humidity, and these buildings sit at the top of hills on the island. The church, which we entered for a short time, was Protestant. It looked like it might seat about 400 people. The Castle construction began in 1186. The turrets are Norman style, and the walls are 12 feet thick at the base. The turret windows, to which we clamored, are 84 feet above the castle courtyard. How many steps and ladders? Who knows? It was hot, remember? The last ladder to the turret was steady but had no hand rails, and was very slanted to the right. View and photos of the old city were exquisite from this height.

After touring the island, we stopped at a market for groceries. This will be a 3 day holiday weekend in Switzerland (Pentecost), and Idyll had suggested that we stock up on food, as stores will be closed Sunday and Monday. Upon leaving Thun, we decided to take the Thunersee boat all the way to Interlaken. We sat out on the back deck of the boat and cooked. Not a breath of air, even when we were underway. Charlene used her umbrella. We didn’t want to buy any meats in Thun because we didn’t want to haul it around all afternoon un-refrigerated, so when we took the bus home we by-passed our house and went almost all the way back to Thun (17 km) to buy meat at our usual store. Closed! Too late! So, back onto the Post bus and up the hill to home. We consumed much liquid upon arrival. Both of us took naps. We ate spaghetti with tomato sauce (no meat) for supper and it tasted great.

After supper we sat out on the balcony as usual. After a while we stepped out of the apartment for 30 minutes to explore the street above our chalet. We found the source of some cow bells we had been hearing. There are three milk cows in a clearing one house up from us, contentedly grazing and ringing their bells. Actually, it turns out, we can see them from our kitchen window. At 7:45 p.m. a strange and wonderful thing happened. The church bells began to ring in one of the small villages across the lake. It was soon joined by additional bells, until bells were ringing in all the villages around the lake. This was random ringing which lasted for 15 minutes. We thought at first that it might have something to do with a wedding when we only heard one village, but later we were told that the ringing was because of Pentecost on the following day. A beautiful, eerie, joyous sound which neither of us will ever forget. Surely one of the high moments of our trip!

Sunday, Week One

We didn’t even get out of bed this morning until about 8 a.m. Vacation must be setting in and jet lag leaving us! We had to run for the bus and forgot several things...watches, earrings, etc.

At the bahnhof stop in Frutigen we experienced the first glitch in the Swiss Transportation system. The train pulled out, slammed to a halt and just sat there. A young man in tie (with badge) ran up and down the aisle a few times, pushed a button in the front of our car and we took off. No more problems, at least while we were aboard.

Kandersteg requires a long climb in the train, going through several tunnels. Absolute blackout. It’s a good thing that there are lights in the cars. This town of 1000 sits on a large plateau at about 1300 meters elevation. It is completely ringed with mountains, tall mountains. Very quaint. A smallish river runs through the middle of town. A very fresh, green feel, and as in all Swiss towns and cities, spotlessly clean.

There are many hikes initiating at Kandersteg, but we decided to ride and hike to Lake Oeschinensee, a nearby alpine lake. The first part of the trip was by chairlift. Charlene was not too sure about this kind of activity, but it was fun. We got a discount on our tickets because of our Swiss Pass. Don’t know how many meters we went up, but it must have been about 1600-1700. Sensational views of the entire valley from the top. Hope the photos come out!

The walk to the lake took about 25 minutes on a well maintained trail. This walk draws lots of people. We passed through alpine meadows overrun with tiny colorful wildflowers. At the end, the trail dropped sharply to the lake, so it was a pretty good climb coming out. The lake was similar to alpine lakes we have seen in Oregon and California many times - particularly at Mammoth Lakes, CA. It got cloudy while we sat overlooking the lake and eating our picnic lunch.

After riding the chairlift down, again in awe of the view, we wandered around town for awhile. Being Sunday, all stores were closed, so we escaped spending any money. We did pass a nice looking hotel/restaurant with a wonderful display of chocolate ice cream, so we just sat and watched Switzerland go by. This is a 3 day holiday, and the Swiss were out and about. We have heard very few English-speakers so far. Almost all the tourists were speaking German. Milt enjoyed a nice big stein of the local beer while Charlene was busily involved in a chocolate ice cream fest.

It was a little early to go home, and since we have a Swiss Pass, we decided to head south to Brig. Brig is almost on the Italian border, and looks to be mainly an industrial town. Many apartments, not the same Swiss charm and gingerbread as we have become used to. We passed several deep valleys and tunnels on the way. Most of the valleys have an airstrip and what appears to be one dominating plant or factory of some kind. Our northbound train bringing us home was of Swiss origin, but its trip began in Milan, Italy.

We had a light supper at home, then washed some clothes for the first time. It will be interesting to see how Dockers come out after being washed in the sink, wrung out by hand and hung to dry on our balcony.

Note of interest: 99% of all Swiss automobiles are polished and very clean - even the older ones. At least 75% of the cars are no older than 5 years. Where do the beaters go? Haven’t seen a pickup truck yet...of any size or manufacturer.

Monday, Week One

Today was an Idyll “planned activity.” A group of about 20 met at the Thun bahnhof at 8:30 a.m. for a trip to Affoltern in the Emmental to visit a cheese making factory. The Swiss call the cheese made in this region “Emmental” and it is known in the U.S. as “Swiss Cheese.” We took the train part of the way and a bus to Affoltern. Lovely, lovely rolling green countryside, chopped up into farming plots. This was real farming country!

Being a holiday, the factory was jammed with tourists. They had nice displays set up to explain the process, and we could see the workers making cheese through glass windows. There was a large restaurant, and plenty of opportunity to buy cheese. One quarter pound (100 g) for $2.60 SF. We also bought some bread for lunch, since we had not realized that a picnic was planned for our noon meal.

At 11:30, about 14 of us took off on a 1 ½ hour hike through the farmland, guided by Marianne of Idyll. Beautiful crops, clean farmhouses, cool small forests. The sun was warm, but there was generally a cool breeze. When we reached the top, we stopped in the shade for lunch. Bread and cheese - yes! Milt had bought some strong sharp cheese, and Charlene some that was less pungent. The sharp cheese smell on fingers lasted for hours.

After lunch, we hiked a sharp downhill trail to a little village by the name of Lueg, where we caught a bus to Burgdorf. Our driver, having a few minutes extra before we left Lueg, pulled out a concertina and played 3 songs for us. Marvelous! His instrument was made in 1898, based on a design from 1823. We had wanted to see the Ratplatz (seat of government) in Thun, so after arriving, we set off from the Bahnhof. It turned out that we had seen it twice on Saturday without knowing what it was. We decided to walk the Panorama Walk along the lake part of the way home. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end. Will try again some other day.

Tuesday, Week One

Today was our first experience with traveling higher up in the Alps. We had decided we would take no high Alps trips on cloudy days, and today was spectacular. The train began climbing through verdant valleys with increasingly higher mountains on both sides of the tracks. There were tiny hamlets down in the valleys - just as the posters show it. The train went through several tunnels and in some of them circled inside the mountain as it gained altitude.

When we reached Lauterbrunnen, we stepped off the train to see the magnificent threesome of mountains which dominate the Bernese Oberland - the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau. It was fully as spectacular as we had ever hoped. All this in bright blue sky, fleecy white clouds, brilliantly green valleys. We walked across the street from the bahnhof to take a wonderful funicular up to Grütschalp. From there we took a small train to Mürren.

Travel books and friends have told us that Mürren is a wonderful place. They were correct. A small village surrounded by snow-capped mountains, it sits on a plateau right on the edge of a huge drop off point. Mürren has no cars - everything must be brought in by train or helicopter. “Quaint” only begins to describe it.

While walking in the town, we heard nearby cow bells and realized that farmers were driving their cows through the little town’s streets to get to the higher pastures above. After a 15 minute walk to the other side of town, we reached the cable car which took us to the top of Schilthorn, with its revolving restaurant and viewing terraces.

Schilthorn actually has the best view of the three giant peaks of anywhere in the area. It was cool, but not cold (we continue to have very warm weather). About 11 degrees Celsius. Milt bought a poster of the mountains at the gift shop and we sent an E-mail to family and friends (at 15 SF per 5 minutes). We took loads of pictures - hope they come out.

After about an hour on top, we descended to Mürren by cable car. Bought some gifts (for us) at a nice store and began our walk for the day. We walked from Mürren to Grütschalp - a distance of about 4 miles, along a well maintained and well-used trail. Scenery as only can happen in your dreams. We stopped and ate a picnic lunch along the way. Most of the path was slightly downhill, so it was an enjoyable walk. Hot in the sun, cool breeze, and a nasty sunburn for Milt. The entire hike took a little over 2 hours, including lunch. Once we left Lauterbrunnen, we simply took the train to Thun, stopped at Hünibach for groceries, and trudged on home. After dinner tonight Frau Zimmermann rang our door bell to invite us to dinner with her tomorrow evening at 7:00. She also brought us some fresh honey from the bee hives her husband maintains in our back yard. Her dog Igor is beginning to recognize us now, and seldom barks at our arrival.

Tomorrow we plan a trip to Lucerne. We’re looking forward to it. The forecast is for hotter weather to come.

Wednesday, Week Two

Charlene spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how we could get to Lucerne and back for a 7:00 dinner appointment. No way, so we decided on an “easy” day at close by Bern.

This was the first time that we had been outside of the Bern bahnhof. It was large, busy and confusing. We stopped by the Tourist Office and bought a walking map of the city for 1 SF. Most of the walking tour goes through the old Medieval (1500’s) section of town. The streets were filled with an absolute maze of motorbuses, electric buses, electric trolley and private cars. Streets and sidewalks were cobblestones. The main street, Spitagasse, is lined on both sides with stores and covered sidewalks for over 2 miles. Perfect for a rainy day, but for us, providing some shade on this 90 degree day!

About every one or two blocks we found an ancient fountain with a painted statue in the center of the street or intersection, adding to the traffic congestion. We also saw the prison gate (1200’s) and Bern’s famous clock tower in its west gate (built from 1191 - 1250) with its moving figures. Huge crowds assemble on the hour to hear the chimes and watch the figures. Interesting, but quite overrated in Milt’s opinion. It is impressive that the moving parts have been working since the 1500’s. Charlene remembered watching the clock when she was in Bern with her family over 50 years ago. She also remembered that there was a wristwatch store on the corner at that intersection. Guess what, there is still a wristwatch store in that same location today.

We continued to the end of the street, crossed the bridge and visited the city’s bear pits. Bern means bear, and there have been bears kept in the pits since 1480 as mascots of the city. A bear also appears on the Bern Canton flag. There were 3 or 4 large grizzlies lying in the shade or resting in the pool, wishing for cooler weather.

We decided to walk up the hill to the city rose gardens. We had read that they have a wonderful view of the city, which was true. Steep cobblestone path! The gardens are lovely, and the view of the Medieval section of Bern spectacular. Bought ice cream bars and sat in the shade. We returned through the city on a different street so that we could visit the Cathedral of St. Vincent on Münsterstrasse. This large cathedral was begun in 1421 and finished in 1573. Lovely stained glass and some wood carvings. The pulpit had a large hourglass within the congregation’s view!

We stopped at McDonalds (our first and only American fast food visit) for lunch and fell victim to being tourists. We had communication difficulties with the counter person and ended up getting 2 supersized Big Mac dinners. $23.00 SF. We wanted the Big Macs and especially the large drinks, but didn’t want all those fries! The meal tasted exactly like it does in Salem, Oregon. We found our way to a nice fast train for the trip home and took a nap before dinner.

Dinner with Frau Zimmer was very enjoyable. She served us a green lettuce salad (“salat”) with chunks of cheese in it. She also served some dark bread slices and a local Rose wine. The main course was venison in brown gravy (her husband hunts) and rösti (sort of like hash browns). For dessert, strawberries from her garden with whipped cream.. The lettuce was also from her garden.

During and after dinner we talked about children, grandchildren, the Iraq war, President Bush, the European Union and the Euro, retirement, pensions, taxes, schools, kids today - it could have been a conversation held anywhere. Before dinner she took Charlene and me to see her many quilts, some that were finished and some that were in progress. We gave her the Oregon myrtlewood vase we had planned to give her at the end of our stay. She is leaving tomorrow to see her husband (he was working at a construction site elsewhere), and will be away until Tuesday night. He will have the car next week, so she will not have the car to take our luggage to the bahnhof when we leave Gunten. We left to return to our apartment at about 9:30. Truly a wonderful evening!

Thursday, Week Two

Today we planned our second “walk at the top of the world.” The first one was such a great success that we wanted to take another walk suggested by Idyll. This time we changed trains at Lauterbrunnen and went to Wengen. At Idyll’s suggestion, we bought all our tickets in advance, saving 25%. The cost over and above the Swiss Pass was still $77 SF for the two of us. All high mountain transportation above Wengen and Grindelwald is not fully covered by the Swiss Pass.

Wengen is a more modern village than Mürren. It had very expensive shops with lovely things to buy. We successfully resisted. From Wengen, we took a cable car to Männlichen, an outpost several thousand feet above Wengen on a ridge. The weather was beautiful, and we had lots of company on the cable car.

From Männlichen, we set off walking to Kleine Scheidegg, a distance of about 3 or 4 miles. The trail was generally level and not too taxing. In two or three places the snow still covered or almost covered the trail, making it narrow, muddy and slippery.. The flower-filled meadows and mountain views were achingly beautiful. At the beginning of the walk we had a clear view of the Jungfrau, Mönch and Eiger, but as we progressed, our view was more dominated by the Eiger. We also had a clear view of the valley where Grindelwald is located. I hope the pictures come out, especially the wild flowers. Upon arriving at Kleine Scheidegg, we discovered that it is mainly a bahnhof, a couple of restaurants, a couple of hotels and some souvenir stores. We had expected a Mürren type of village. This was much smaller. It serves as the main starting point for people who plan to climb the Eiger or travel on to Jungfraujoch by rail.

Having brought a picnic lunch with us, we sat in the shade on the steps of a gift shop and ate our lunch. We then took a cog railway train down the mountain to Grindelwald. What views! What a steep grade! We found Grindelwald to be a smaller version of Interlaken. Beautiful location, but very touristy, with mostly gift shops, hotels and bars. We only stayed for about 30 minutes - just until the next train left for Interlaken.

Friday, Week Two

Today is the day we planned to go to Lucerne to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary. The bus and train schedules didn’t match as well as some of our other trips, and we were cutting it close on some connections. The train went through Brienz and then turned north and climbed over the Brünig Pass. A big climb and a beautiful view. Rain clouds threatened as we got to Lucerne, but we arrived about an hour after the rain stopped there.

The Lucerne bahnhof is a big, busy, ugly building. We went to the Tourist Office for a walking map, but they were so busy we just picked something up and went out on our own. The ahlstadt (old city) is right across the river from the bahnhof, so we went there first. Narrow, winding streets. Very picturesque. Many buildings have murals painted on them. We visited the Jesuit Church by the river. Gorgeous pink marble in much of the interior. The Church was painted white inside and out (quite a change from most churches). It was in such good shape it was hard to believe it dates to 1666. Nearby were the chapel bridge and the water tower - one of the most well known and photographed structures in Lucerne. Built circa 1300 as part of the city wall, it has served as a treasury, a prison, a torture chamber and an archive location.

We had lunch at a restaurant/brewery on the river - the Rathaus Braurei. This place was recommended by Frommer’s book as a good place to eat inexpensively. (We have eaten very few meals out). Charlene had a mixed salad and a Coke. Milt had 2 skinny pork sausages, sauerkraut and a beer. Total bill - 44.30 SF. For financial reasons, this casual lunch became our anniversary dinner! At least the setting was enjoyable, sitting outside on a sunny day with the river flowing by just at our feet.

After lunch we took a 2 hour ride on one of the lake boats. After that, we visited the Hofkirsche dedicated to St. Leodegar. It is the city’s largest and most important church. Most of Lucerne rejected the reformation, and so it is still largely Roman Catholic. The church was founded as a Benedictine monastery in the 8th century. Fire destroyed it in 1633. It was rebuilt in 1645, and is considered to be the most important renaissance church building in Switzerland. No stained glass - but many paintings from the 1500’s. We were able to catch a train from Lucerne to Thun which ran right through the middle of the country. We arrived home at about 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, Week Two

Today was a lazy day. We didn’t leave the house until about 9:00. We had seen a wooden picture carving we liked when we were in Kandersteg last week, but the store was closed. We decided to go back today to see if we really wanted to buy it.

The weather was a little overcast, but the trip was still beautiful. We arrived just after noon, so of course all stores were closed! Most re-opened at 1:30 or 2:00. We stopped at an open COOP market, bought sandwiches, cheese, fruit and some chocolate. After walking to a shady spot along the river downtown, we enjoyed a delicious lunch. We met one of the other Untours couples there and talked to them for several minutes. After lunch we took a walk through town while waiting for the stores to re-open. We began to feel some raindrops while we were walking.

The clerk in the gift shop spoke no English, but we got along fairly well. She finally called someone over from the store next door who spoke a little English. (The store next door owned the gift shop). After making our choices, we had to take everything next door to ring it up, as the gift store didn’t take credit cards. On the way home on the train we passed through several rain showers. Unusual - we had been extremely lucky to be back home in the evening for most of the rain we saw. We decided to cancel a couple of small trips planned on the north shore of Thunersee. We walked up the stairs to our house to a few raindrops and markedly cooler weather. There were hail pellets along the side of the road leading from the bus stop. Strong winds tonight from the east. The lake was empty of boaters except for a couple of wind surfers. We finally had to come inside from the balcony to avoid getting wet.

Sunday, Week Two

We had decided to put off our trip to Ballenberg until the weekend because there was to be folk music and dancing on Saturday and Sunday. We were awakened this morning to a big thunderstorm, but did not receive much rain. The bus trip from the bahnhof included riding through the neighborhoods of Brienz - about a 15 minute ride. There had obviously been heavy rain here earlier today, but the sun was now out.

Ballenberg is a national museum of old-time buildings and life styles. It reminded us very much of Williamsburg in the U.S. We saw displays of cheese making, wood carving, weaving, etc. being provided by people in period costumes. There were lots of farm animals around in this very large park - about 35 acres.

The buildings - barns, houses, storage houses, etc., represent the architectural styles native to the various regions of Switzerland. Most were disassembled at their original sites and reassembled at Ballenberg. Many of the buildings were originally built in the late 1600’s and the rest in the 1700’s. There are broad walking paths connecting all the displays, with plenty of resting benches and picnic areas with tables. Lots of cool forested areas to walk through. As we neared the lunch hour we ran into temporary restaurants serving sausages, rachlette, soft drinks and ice cream. Some of these eating places had Swiss bands in regional costumes playing for the patrons. We took a picnic lunch with us, and shortly after finding a comfortable bench for the meal, we were visited by a company of about 15 instrumentalists and dancers. They played and danced right in front of us. All in all, this was a most interesting place to visit, and we really could have spent a lot more time there to better understand the whole park.

On the way home, we stopped in Interlaken for some gift shopping. Fortunately, (this was Sunday), some of the shops were open and we found what we were looking for. Only two more days here! We need to think about packing and getting our bags to the airport. Frau Zimmermann does not have a car this week, so we’re on our own. We’ll take 3 of our 4 bags to Thun on Tuesday, send them to Zurich by train and pick them up Wednesday when we arrive for our flight. We were not able to check our luggage clear through to Portland as we had done on the trip east because Lufthansa has no agreement to do so. Had we been flying on Swissair, we could have sent the bags all the way home from the Thun bahnhof. We still don’t quite understand why we could do this from Portland but not to Portland.

Monday, Week Two

Idyll was quite insistent that we confirm our plane reservations at least 72 hours before our flight home. We tried this morning to call them for confirmation using our Sprint phone card. Disaster! Milt tried two or three times, then Charlene tried at least three times more. Couldn’t get it to work. All this with both of us stuffed into a little larger than usual phone booth in sweltering heat. We finally gave up and decided to ask Frau Zimmermann if we could use her phone. When we did, Lufthansa informed us that it was not necessary to re-confirm our flights!

After the phone debacle, we decided to take the Panorama Walk along the outlet of Thunersee down into the town of Thun. We had seen people walking, riding bikes, rollerblading and jogging along this beautiful stretch of shore from the bus every day, and as mentioned earlier, we tried it once and took a wrong turn into a dead end. Today we figured it out and were rewarded by a most beautiful 45 minute walk along the lake from Thun to Hünibach. Absolutely delightful - as a cool breeze came up along the water. At Hünibach, we caught the bus to Hilterfingen to visit Schloss Hönegg. Oops - closed on Monday mornings. We walked around the grounds briefly and decided that it was not such a great castle to visit anyway. We walked back down to the highway and caught a bus to Oberhofen to visit Schloss Oberhofen. Closed Monday mornings! This one we will come back to if we find the time before we leave. We had stopped at a pastry store to buy some goodies to go with our picnic lunch, which we ate at the Thunersee tour boat dock at Oberhofen.

We had been hearing about a little village in the mountains above Gunten call Sigriswil. We often saw a bus to Sigriswil waiting in Gunten for our larger bus to come by. Since we had a little time, we decided to take the short round trip. What a lovely surprise. The view as we climbed the hills was lovely. At the top of the road, (at the one bus stop in town), was a beautiful church with a peaceful and attractive cemetery. Lots of flowers growing - not just placed - on each gravesite. After a 15 minute wait and walk around the grounds, we caught the next bus down the hill.

After arriving at home, we took a nap until 4:00, then caught a bus and train to Spiez to meet the other Idyll people for a farewell dinner. The bus to Thun was jam-packed with 3 different classes of screaming, shouting, laughing kids on their way home from a field trip. When we boarded the bus from Spiez to Aeschi, our bus was also packed with kids. (Note to America - if we had better public transportation, we could dispense with expensive “field trip busses” and just get around on the transportation system already in place).

The restaurant we visited was called Chemihütt. Located high on a ridge top above the south shore of Thunersee, it had a lovely view of the surrounding mountains and Thunersee in the distance. Idyll was paying for the meal (except drinks). Two entrees were offered, and we signed up for fondue. Dinner was very good and featured the entertainment of singers and an accordion player in native dress during and after dinner. We all eventually moved outside to sing, dance, take turns trying to play the Alphorn, etc. The two women singers were slated to compete in a yodeling contest the following weekend, so they tried their songs out with us. This is nothing like movie-cowboy yodeling. It was very beautiful, with strong harmony and clear tones. We were both glad to hear this true Swiss yodeling instead of what we imagined it was like. This was a fun evening, and we enjoyed talking to some of the other couples about their adventures during the last two weeks.

Tuesday, Week Two

Well, one more day to go. We took 3 of our 4 bags to the Thun bahnhof to have them sent to the Zurich Airport bahnhof awaiting our return trip tomorrow. It saves a lot of hassle taking all our bags off and on busses and trains.

Last night at dinner we heard about a small village above Frutigen which had been visited by some of our Idyll friends. After sending our bags on, we boarded the train to Spiez and on to Frutigen. The bus to Adelboden was a brand new “tour” type bus. We couldn’t believe that a bus like this was going to take us 17 km through and above a valley and way up in the mountains!

We arrived at about 11:50 a.m. Absolutely spectacular and gorgeous trip. Adelboden is a charming little village whose claim to fame is mountain bike trails and a cable car to the top of a nearby mountain. We rushed to buy a couple of cookies for our picnic lunch before everything closed up at noon. As with other places in Switzerland, either at 11:30 or noon to 1:30 or 2:00 is a lunch break. The only things left open are restaurants, bars and the bahnhof. Adelboden was certainly no different than elsewhere. In fact, it might have been even a little more deserted that some other villages we had visited.

We found a shady step to sit on where we could view the Alpine vista south of town with its approaching storm and had our last picnic lunch of this trip. The streets were virtually empty. On the bus trip back to Frutigen it poured. In Thun we picked up a couple of food items for dinner tonight, and tried to get rid of the rest of our Swiss francs on gifts, a calendar, etc. We did pretty well - at the end of the day we were down to 2.60 SF - not even enough to buy a cup of coffee tomorrow morning.

We stopped again for a second try at Schloss Oberhofen and got in. Very interesting displays of furniture, costumes, armor and weapons, table service. Lovely gardens. Not a tour highlight, but we are very glad we made the effort. The exterior of the castle is most interesting.

Tonight we basically cleaned out the cupboards - fixed scrambled eggs with everything left in the fridge mixed in. Finished the bread, peanut butter, etc. Tomorrow morning we will have an early breakfast of some pastries we bought and then will start the trip home.

Departure Day

We awoke to rain on our last day. Unfortunately, we had sent both our umbrellas and Charlene’s jacket ahead in the luggage yesterday! We had some Swiss pastries for breakfast and set off for the train with one carry-on bag and our two backpacks. Frau Zimmermann met us at the door to say goodbye and wish us well. She of course, was going to clean our apartment in preparation for a new couple later in the day.

Our train was scheduled as a direct trip from Thun to Zurich. In our excitement of getting everywhere on time, we grabbed one train too soon and went to Bern instead! No problem - we just took the next train from Bern to Zurich which got us there at about the same time. On top of that, it had some panoramic cars, and we sat up at the top of a car and enjoyed the trip all the way to Zurich.

Picking up our luggage that had been sent the day before was easy after we finally found out where to go. We saw a new Idyll group arriving as we were preparing to board the plane for home. Check-in of our luggage was complicated by the fact that we didn’t realize that a single counter took care of checking baggage for all airlines. Wasted several minutes trying to find the Lufthansa counter so we could check in...no such place.

After we boarded the Zurich to Frankfurt plane, we were informed by the captain that due to high winds, all but one runway was closed, meaning that we would be delayed for over 30 minutes. Since we had less than an hour to change planes in Frankfurt, this obviously made us very nervous. The wait was almost an hour, and a majority of the people on the flight were very upset about missing connecting flights in Frankfurt. When we arrived, of course we had to take a bus into the terminal from the tarmac and then back out to the tarmac to get on the next plane. We literally ran through the Frankfurt airport (just like a TV commercial). Somehow we got “outside the loop” of checked passengers, so we had to have our carry-ons checked again. Milt got behind a man who had a fingernail file in his luggage, and they were not going to let him through. Milt shouted to Charlene to run ahead and see if they would hold the plane until he got to the gate. About that time, the inspector looked up, smiled, and said, ”Oh, you are in a hurry? Your bags have been checked, please go ahead.” At least 3 hours off his life span during that unnecessary wait.

The flight home was uneventful. We had a couple from Washington State sitting in front of us who had been on the Idyll Heartland tour for the last two weeks. We anticipated that our luggage would not make it, since we had such a little time to change flights, and that’s what happened. When we arrived in Portland, our names were called over the loudspeaker, and we were efficiently informed that our luggage, although not in Portland, was not lost. It would be delivered to our Salem address the following day after the Lufthansa flight got in. Best thing about misplaced luggage was that we didn’t have to go through customs. We walked outside the airport, waited for less than 5 minutes, and saw the wonderful smiling faces of our friends arriving to pick us up. We arrived at home in the early evening. We had not gotten any sleep on the flight home, so had very little trouble getting to sleep when we got to our house. Milt got up the next morning and was at work by 8:00 a.m.

Interesting things to remember about Switzerland

• Immaculate bahnhofs
• People washing windows in houses, stores and offices
• School field trips on city busses and trains
• Churches and Cathedrals with no identification names outside
• Older single women out hiking in the mountains
• All Swiss with collapsible walking sticks
• Many automobile brands and/or models unknown to Milt
• Watching articulated busses maneuvering through narrow city streets
• Graffiti everywhere in small and large cities
• All transportation modes leaving on the minute
• Free luggage carts in bahnhofs
• Having to weigh and mark (with a bar code) our fruits and vegetables in the markets
• Bus drivers never checked our Swiss passes. Train conductors always checked our Swiss passes
• Swiss flags everywhere
• Thunder or rainstorms nearly every afternoon
• No unneeded lights left on by anyone in Switzerland
• Immaculate hiking trails
• Tourist info available at every bahnhof
• Locked trash barrels, with trash stacked on top of the full ones out on the hiking trails
• Couldn’t find napkins in grocery stores
• Trash/garbage bags must be purchased by homeowners - leading to certain recycling
• Un-refrigerated milk in cardboard boxes on store shelves
• Snow “spikes” on roofs
• Copper rain gutters
• Different decorative cut-outs on balcony fronts
• Farmers raking cut hay by hand
• The size and weight of the bus and train schedule books
• The complexity of the bus and train schedule books
• The ease of using the bus and train schedules once you learn how
• Yellow and white schedule posters in the bahnhofs
• The general politeness of people
• Tiny new car dealers in tiny villages (6-10 cars in inventory)
• Swiss made use of every space
• Every building (house, garage, storage sheds, etc.) has an address and is taxed individually
• Roofs half replaced or patched with non-matching materials
• Almost everyone carries a backpack
• Working shutters on houses
• Sink stopper looks like a vacuum attachment
• No top sheet on beds. Bottom fitted sheet out of terry cloth
• Manual workers and construction workers all wear some piece of orange clothing - vest, pants, t-shirt, walking shorts
• Para gliders anywhere there were mountains
• Train conductors often asked for our tickets in German, but said thank you in English or French after seeing that we had a Swiss Pass
• Sitting on the balcony every night writing this journal
• Solar collectors on mountain huts along the Rothorn Brienz route
• Gardens in people’s front yards
• Businesses close down for 2 hours at lunch
• A lovely gentleness with each other and especially with seniors
• Public transportation system forces constant intermingling of generations
• Rösti and Rachlette
• Cows with bells grazing 50 yards from our house
• Articulated busses
• The rush for empty seats when boarding the trains
• Many Swiss crowding around the train car exits before the train came to a stop
• Very few fast food restaurants
• Geraniums in window boxes
• Searching for and rushing to 2nd class train cars as they pulled into the bahnhofs
• Free newspapers in bahnhofs
• Postcards cost 1.80 SF each for postage
• Green, green, green
• Sailboats and windsurfers on the lake
• Kiosk (brand) stores everywhere
• How fit the Swiss are
• Campgrounds were packed on holidays
• We were the only Americans around at the trip’s beginning, but by the end we heard English more often
• How noisy the Italians were on the trains compared to the Swiss
• When a Swiss person characterizes a walk or hike as “level,” take it with a grain of salt
• People helping mothers lift baby carriages on and off the bus

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