Our day in Switzerland was all about mountains.  After breakfast on our terrace, we drove on a road south of Interlaken to a mountain resort town near the Eiger (Ogre, one of the big mountains in this area) and took a few pictures and bought local cheese and butter (dairy is the major business after tourism).  This was Grindelwald.   The other two notable mountains there were the Monch (Monk) and the Jungfrau (Young Lady).  We could never tell which was which.

We then drove the other small road south of Innsbruck to the point of where a big cable car goes to two mountain towns and the top of Piz Gloria.  You should know that taking a mountain train or cable car is very expensive, even by Swiss standards.  We opted for the cheapest and shortest journey which brought us to Gimmelwald, a town beloved by tour book writer Rick Steves.  We had brought picnic food and wine and ate that on a bench in the town with a friendly chicken to keep us company.  It was a very nice way to spend our lunch time.  After a brief walk through the town (it is very small) we bought local sausage and cheese from one house and I bought a handmade lace handkerchief from an elderly woman who does lacework.

View towards the mountains from our sliding glass door in Boenigen

Our sliding glass door

Randy at breakfast on our terrace - note the lake in the background

Our terrace with mountain and lake views - in front is the home of our host (Sam)'s parents

Close up of view from the terrace

Alice and Randy at Grindelwald with the Eiger (?) in the background

One of the handgliders near Gimmelwald

Mountain river from the cable car

Welcome to Grimmelwald - only accessible by cable car or lots of steep hiking

The picnic at Gimmelwald

Randy enjoys salad, wine, cheese and bread

Our friendly chicken companion

The lacemaker at Gimmelwald

The house where we bought cheese and sausage from a friendly Gimmelwald native lady

Her offerings - regrettably we could not buy eggs or milk (too perishable) as I am sure that they would have been great

Our town of Boenigen with Lake Brienz

Our house in Boenigen - our room was on the second floor in the back and our terrace was the roof over the carport

The Aare river of Bern

Randy with the Bern clock tower (they love their clocks in Switzerland)

Our four beer tasting at the Altes Tramstation (probably no translation needed on this one)

Alice likes the Altes Tramstation

Our very good waiter at the brewpub Altes Tramstation

The beer making equipment

Info about the Bern bears

Papa bear himself taking a little nap

We went back down on the cable car and drove around Lake Thun which was scenic but not remarkable.  Randy was tired and went home for a nap while I was dropped in "downtown" Boenigen and picked up some groceries and walked home along the lake.


Randy woke up refreshed and wanted to experience Swiss city life so we drove to Bern, about 45 minutes away. After driving through a serious rain storm, we arrived and parked in yet another underground central city parking garage.  The old town is cute.  We walked to a brewpub restaurant along the Aare river called Altes Tramstation (for obvious reasons) and had a good dinner sitting outside along the river.  We sampled all of their beers (four) and they were very good.  We were also next to where they keep the Bern bears.  Only one bear was out (the father, we think, of a father, mother and two cubs family they keep there).  He was massive and lazy, as bears are, and it was super to see this icon of the city during our short visit.

Take aways from Switzerland (at least the parts we saw).  Scenery that does not disappoint.  Good roads and everything is very clean.  Expensive but no surprises on costs (no hidden costs).  Cuisine based on cheese, potatoes and pork products.  (Randy wanted some chicken or beef from the grocery store for his sandwiches and there was literally only pork products available so I bought him a pork product that looks like sliced chicken.)   Loads of Asian tourists.  They are everywhere and are both Far East Asians and other Asians such as Indians and Arabs (the women all in full Burkas).  The other tourist group is middle to older aged American or European couples who are walkers.  They abound also.  All in all, we were glad we detoured to Switzerland but will be happy to return to France.