Today is Ascension Day, a Swiss holiday celebrating Jesus' ascension into heaven. Due to the holiday, Nate has today and tomorrow off. So, we decided it was a perfect time to take a trip to the Bernese Oberland (mountain area about 2 hours south of Zurich). We started our trip early so we could spend some time on the way in the picturesque town of Luzern before making it to our final destination of Lauterbrunnen. Luzern is famous for being the epitome of a Swiss city. It is on a lake surrounded by mountains, with a scenic river, a few covered bridges, gorgeous old buildings, and a huge medieval wall with 9 towers overlooking the city. Sadly, it was raining and cloudy the whole time we were there, but a lack of mountain views did not keep us from appreciating the city.
We hiked to the wall and made our way to the three towers open to the public. Because of the holiday, everything seemed to be closed, but not McDonald's! Yes, there are McDonald's everywhere over here. Sad, but true. But, lucky for my parents, they serve the closest thing to American coffee we could find and they have excellent bathrooms so we visited 2 different McDonald's in Luzern.
After a few hours of sight seeing, we boarded our next train to Lauterbrunnen. We were on a special panoramic train with huge windows and the views were lovely and pastoral. We arrived in Lauterbrunnen in the early evening with time to explore (the sun sets at about 9:00 pm). We checked into our adorable hotel and couldn't resist having hot drinks on the balcony before we started our tour. Our outing started a little later than expected because Dad accidentally locked us all on the balcony while he went to the bathroom and to refill his coffee downstairs. Nate was considering some ninja like plans to scale down the wall Bourne style to save us. Thankfully, Dad came back to free us and we were on our way.
Lauterbrunnen is in a valley surrounded by huge mountains and has 72 waterfalls. We walked to Staubbach falls the first night and fell in love with the area. Small houses, little farms, sheep everywhere, and huge mountains. 
We ended our short walk at a local restaurant. Mom and Dad treated us to an amazing meal! (The first time we have eaten out in Switzerland. The prices are a tad high here). Mom & Nate had traditional rosti dishes (a type of potato hash) and we all finished the meal with some tasty Swiss apple strudel and vanilla ice cream. We were stuffed!
(Nate's Rosti smothered in cheese topped with an egg. MMMMmmm)
No comments:
Post a Comment