• Its neutral status has resulted in a paranoid Switzerland, it is rumoured that all tunnels leading into the country are lined with explosives in case of invasion.
• Similarly, every person has access to an underground bunker they can hide in in case of invasion.
• I knew the Swiss spoke either German, French or Italian depending on the region (we were in the German) but there is also a fourth, Romansh, that is spoken by only 0.5% of the population.
• The Swiss eat 10kg of chocolate each a year.
Anyway, onto my adventures.
LAUTERBRUNNEN
We knew this town was tiny, and we were only staying for one night so we didn't have very high hopes for it, especially after our 10.5 hour bus ride, but we were so wrong! Just the drive into Lauterbrunnen was truly breathtaking. The road we drove on was surrounded by huge, steep mountains, some of which were covered in snow! Lauterbrunnen is right in the middle of a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides, so it was quite cold so we layered up, which was funny as we were on the beach getting sunburnt only 4 days ago! It is a tiny, one street town but there is plenty to do, mainly hiking and catching trains to the top of mountains and seeing snow, unfortunately couldn't do any of this, so we just had dinner (pork steak) and took photos of the picturesque surroundings and some sheep.
LUCERNE
We were sad to leave Lauterbrunnen after only one night, but Lucerne is so beautiful we were pretty happy to be here. We spent the first day looking around Lucerne's old and new towns, we saw the Lion monument (dedicated to the Swiss Guard who died protecting the king and queen during the French Revolution), walked along Lake Lucerne, Sophie stopped a young girl from pick pocketing an elderly woman, I bought a scarf (which is a big deal after our double summer), and we marveled at the views of the mountains across the lake. These views were amazing... at the time. After we climbed a mountain the lake views were a bit less impressive! So the mountain was Mount Pilatus and it took us almost the whole second day to climb! It has the world steepest train in all of Europe, and is an impressive 2132m. We climbed as high as we could, 1416m, which took about 3 hours with lots of water/food breaks and photo taking, then got the cable car up the last section to the top. The last section is sheer rock face so you can only really climb it if you're Bear Grylls. So we stood on the top of a mountain in Switzerland and I tried not to embarrass myself with ooing and aahing. It took us a swift 1.5 hours to get back down, and we treated ourselves to some chips afterwards.
Tomorrow we go to Munich, which will include such things as visiting the Dachau concentration camp, having a fake birthday, going to Oktoberfest and, for some unknown reason, staying in a 3 star hotel! I'm really looking forward to the next 5 days, and also to getting to the UK on Monday.Danke schön for reading!
The view from the bus driving into Lauterbrunnen
Falling off railing in Lauterbrunnen. Note the amazing Swiss house in the background.
Sheep in Lauterbrunnen. They had black faces which has finally solved the riddle of where black wool comes from.
The shoes we had to wear in the hostel. Odd socks optional.
A swiss church.
Half way up the mountain.
The cable car I half wished we'd just caught up the mountain.
Memory. Annie v Joni. I won.
Even though Switzerland is so modern and forward thinking, they can still advertise cigarettes!
Mount Pilatus pre-climb.
All I saw the whole way up.
All Joni saw the whole way up.
Snow capped mountains off in the distance.
I took this right up the top while we were in the cable car, a tiny house!
The view from a rooftop restaurant in Lucerne.
Swan in Lake Lucerne.
The Lion.
The top!
Hey.
Sheep on Mount Pilatus.
Postcard.
That's a brontosaurus mug right there.
Tee hee.
No comments:
Post a Comment