Hotel Alpbach Meiringen

Here I am, sitting in my tiny little room, in a beautiful wooden chalet looking out onto a snowy landscape. Today is the second day of snow and it's only October. I have been predicting an early winter for weeks now and am rather happy that my predictions have come true.

To glad to be home I recall my recent trip to Ardeche, South of France. As customary for this time of year it was windy and cold. Non the ...

An early start as we intended to go to Lauterbrunnen and then catch a later train to Lucerne. We caught a bus from Lauterbrunnen to Trummelbach Falls and were the only ones at the falls for a while. It was so quiet that we could hear the cow bells. Trummelbach Falls is actually 10 glacier waterfalls inside a mountain in Lauterbrunnen Valley. This drains the water from the 3 major mountains which we saw on Friday-the Monch ...

We let the girls sleep in and then broke the news that we were going to have a quiet day in the hostel because it was raining and that they had to do a few hours of homework. Looking at the screen in the hostel, you could see that it was snowing heavily on the mountains.

By afternoon, the rain had turned to drizzle, so we ...

... the people get off to hike at Klein Scheidegg and the mountains are very well organised for hiking with signposts everywhere with times to walk. The train stopped at Eigergletscher (2865 m) where the train stopped for everyone to get out and look at the glacier very close up. We also stopped at Eismeer (3160 m) before arriving at Jungfraujoch at a height of 3454m.

Our first stop was the dining room as we ...

... true Swiss style, you changed trains on the same platform and everything went like clockwork. The Swiss really know how to organise everything. All stations are announced in plenty of time and in at least 4 languages. Everything in Switzerland is also very clean, we even saw a guy polishing the rubbish bins at a train station. I just wish they had a major anti-smoking campaign.

We arrived in Interlaken to fairly fine weather and ...

... time to take, must try when I at here...else I will regret.. On the road I feel the houses is very nice design and extra ordinary silent, sometimes can hear the ducks screaming....even alone walk on the street you never afraid have somebody rob you..Swiss give me very peaceful feeling, high class country and clean...I hope can migrate here one day when I'm retirement...

... on the door, no lockers...this place is interesting....loads of people around....advertised in guide book as the American hang out...but it was the easiest to find after a long day of travel. we find a cash machine and get two 2 for 1 rounds and have a sit out in the pretty good outdoor garden area. there's a grill bar that is selling food at insane prices from what we can tell...burger for like 15 swiss francs. its starts to sprinkle a bit so we position ourselves under the ...

... s weight lifter. I ask her about a pay phone. She says 'No English' and something about a card. Did I mention I left my German phrase book at the house? I decide to wait a little longer. Nothing! Seriously! Am I going to have to turn tricks to get home? How in the hell do I call a cab here? EVERYONE has spoken English everywhere I've gone up until this point. Also, it's raining cats and dogs. I can't feel my feet ...

... see the landscape even though it was in the middle of the night. Of course I didn't sleep on the bus. We finally got to Interlaken around 5 AM on Friday. When we arrived at our hostel, Balmers herberge, I went straight to bed and slept til 9. My friends had actually taken another bus which had gotten lost and got to the hostel as I was waking up. After they settled there stuff in the room, we went down to have breakfast. The hostel was a small lodge with everything ...

... 70's and 80's and still farming every day. It's fascinating to think of the life they've known and how different it has been from mine. I wonder what they were like when they were my age, when this town was without a cable car and extremely secluded.

There are the middle age farmers who care for the land now. They're very friendly, especially after you work like crazy in their fields, for free.

There are also the ...