Il nostro anno italiano: Switzerland

The plan for Switzerland was different: instead of hanging in a big city, we would do a mini road trip to small towns and the countryside. Our first stop was Bern, the capital of Switzerland, and a quaint town besides...

...complete with clock and glockenspiel.

For dinner, we had fondue and our Swiss food discovery, rosti (if I had a German keyboard, that "o" would have two dots over it). Rosti is shredded potatoes roasted with whatever meats and vegetables you choose. Don't plan on dieting in Switzerland. The next morning, we bid Bern good-bye and headed for the Alps off in the distance.

It was a hot day, and we stopped at a swimming beach along the lake named Thunersee. We couldn't resist dipping our feet in the water. Fed by melting snow, the water was a lot warmer than we expected. We might have had a different opinion if we actually went swimming in deeper water.

We climbed up into the mountains, past a roaring stream, to Grindelwald for lunch.

After lunch, we were heading for the town of Murren and our hotel for the night, through beautiful countryside that looked like a postcard.

Looking at our maps, we were puzzled by the fact that we could not find a road that actually went to Murren, west of the valley we were in. Our puzzlement turned to concern when the valley became defined by a sheer cliff to the west, with spectacular waterfalls.

Reading the fine print on our booking, we saw for the first time that Murren is only accessible by cable car. We found the cable car base (with its huge parking lot) and thoroughly enjoyed the ride up to Murren. In one way, this made our Great European Tour complete: we had traveled by airplane, train, bus, boat, trolley, car, and now cable car.

We checked in to our hotel and then walked around the town. Gary wanted to play chess, of all things!