Interlaken & Brienz
Switzerland is STUNNING! Even if it’s rainy and super cloudy/foggy. I love mountains. They make my heart happy!
Day 0
Getting to Interlaken from Florence turned out to be an adventure of sorts. We knew that we’d have a long travel day, because we chose to take trains to Interlaken from Florence instead of dealing with flying to Zurich then having to catch a train anyway. We had three trains to catch – Florence to Milan, Milan to Zurich, then Zurich to Interlaken. I had hoped it would be scenic and enjoyable at least. Our first leg of the trip went smoothly, but the second and third trains we caught ended up being kind of a mess. When our second train arrived in Milan, we couldn’t figure out where our car was, and all the numbers were way off. Turns out, it seems like they connected two trains together and nobody knew where they were supposed to be. I had to stand in a very full carriage with my fully packed backpack on for about 45 minutes until the train made its first stop because there were more people than seats. Even after that first stop, it was still very unclear where our car was, and I eventually had to make an employee lead us to our car, and there were people sitting in our seats. Luckily, the train employee kicked them out and we could finally sit down for the last hour of that train ride. The third train was pretty much equally a mess – it was way overfull and we couldn’t find seats anywhere, and there was NO space for luggage storage so everyone’s luggage was spilling over into the aisles making it very hard to navigate. I ended up sitting with some random people, and Kiley sat a few seats away where there was an available spot. Practically everyone got off at Bern, so we moved seats and sat together until we arrived in Interlaken. We tried to enjoy what scenery we could despite all the frustration and the weather – very gloomy, overcast, cloudy. I could already tell, though, that I’d love Switzerland if it’d let me see a little bit more of it!
We got off the train and walked to our hostel – easy 10-15 minute walk from the train station. It didn’t rain during our walk, thankfully, but it did start to rain pretty good shortly after we checked in. Once we dropped off our stuff and found a place that was still open for dinner, we headed out in our rain jackets! It was raining pretty good. We found a Thai place a few minutes’ walk away so we didn’t get TOO wet. The food was super delicious! But expensive. We shared an entree, and Kiley had a beer while I had water and it still cost us about $40! After dinner, it was back to the hostel to wind down and go to bed – a long day of travel is always tiring!
Us in the rain! 
Cloudy and rainy Interlaken!
Day 1
We woke up to more rain! We were worried we’d get rained out the whole time we were in Switzerland, but the rain stopped around 9 or 10. We had a bit of a lazy morning, and finally ventured out in the late morning. We caught a ferry boat to Brienz and we could see the sun and blue sky fighting to peek out! The ride to Brienz was awfully scenic, even though the mountaintops were still hiding behind clouds. We enjoyed the hour-long ride very much!
Once we disembarked in Brienz, we quickly figured out the bus routes and got on a bus to head to the Ballenberg Freilichtmuseum Der Schweitz – a Swiss Open-Air museum. We figured it’d get us outside and exploring nature a little bit. This was a very large and very nice museum! We spent a few hours here checking it out.
A chalet in Ballenberg 
A fancy chalet! The guy who built this ran a textile mill in Switzerland way back when 
A hobbit’s home! Nah, a storage shed that was used to keep cabbages 
Cute cow 
Nature!! 
After the museum, we walked a short way up the road to check out Trauffer Switzerland, which was a tiny little museum about hand-crafted wooden toys, most famously a hand-carved wooden cow. These are big in Switzerland and a point of pride for them. It was a neat way to spend a half hour. Each (very cute) cow is hand-carved and hand-painted one at a time – they are all unique. Trauffer has been in operation since 1938, and it has been passed down through generations of the same family.
One of the cows! 
Really neat room, tons of cows and mirrors! 
Us outside near Trauffer. The Ballenberg museum is behind us 
Kiley is mooing 
Giant wooden cow out front!
At this point, we were becoming very hungry since we hadn’t eaten a meal yet so we caught a train back to Interlaken and went to a Mexican place. The outside banner said “authentic” Mexican – but it was very mediocre. Ah well, I was too hungry to be too picky, lol. Tomorrow we’re gonna find fondue! Below are some photos of stuff we saw on the walk to the restaurant…
A paraglider just about to land 
Pretty flowers 
Paragliders everywhere! 
A group of paragliders
After dinner, we stopped off at a grocery store to pick up some snacks then headed back to the hostel to relax! That’s about it for our first full day in Switzerland!
More later… but in the meanwhile, do us a favor and cross your fingers in hopes that the weather continues to cooperate. We still have rain in the forecast for the next couple days!
