Neuhaus Golf And Strand Interlaken

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 ...

... still had a two hour train ride to Lucerne ahead of us.

For the second time on our trip we succumbed to Maccas, although Witek was cheering for Hooters. Yes, there is a Hooters in Interlaken. I don’t know how or why, but that’s the way it is. I’ve never been to Hooters before but I must say I was somewhat surprised on the way past to see a male waiter. Maybe one of our American friends can shine some light on that?

Anyway, got our Maccas for lunch and ...

... made up to the moutain at 3pm and set off. I found some paths and started my journey. Just like Mt Olympus, I found that I was either out of practice, or the mountain was really steep. I think a lot of both. At first I was cursing then once I got going, I seemed to do pretty well. I made it up about 1,000 meters up from the start and at my destination. Then headed back down another path. As I was going down, I came upon a cable car ...

... at the platform right on time to see the train pulling out, 6:25am. We were so mad at ourselves and disappointed that we missed the train, as well as almost clueless as to how we were going to get to Lucerne, Switzerland, our next destination. We didn't know when there would be another train, or if we would have to rent a car. Luckily, there was another train at 10:24am which would get us to Lucerne later in the day. We wouldn't have as much time there as we had ...

Such an amazing weekend!!! Interlaken is the adventure capital of Europe, i think at least. I was going to go paragliding but it fell threw twice because of the wind. So, no crazy sports for me, but the hiking was just as nice!! We spent three days here ...

So yesterday after we got back from the rafting we showered and went downstairs to get some beers and cheese fondue. It was all delicious! Tipsy, we went to town and tried to find ice cream. Got that and it was awesome. Today we got up early to go hiking and first relocate to yet another hostel (ugh)...AlpLodge. And then it started to RAIN!!! NOOO. I was so angry because I really wanted to hike! The clouds were so incredibly dense all over ...

... went fishing in (get this..........) Austria!! As it is just down the road!!! All lea's band mates from the weekend cd launch were there at this lovely little lake with a restaurant around it. I got a line and one of the blokes baited it for me with live worms (poor little things) and cast it for me. And I stood there with camera poised and rod steady ready for my mother load catch of fish to eat! Nothing happened...so went to try and cast myself and caused quite a ...

... souvenir stamp but its a stamp all the same). It was amazing views but the oxygen was a little low up there - it was really hard to talk while you are walking, we had to stop and catch our breath a lot! We explored the ice palace, Tara was skillfully skating through it while I was shuffling along terrified of bailing - I blame my shoes they had the wrong sort of grip - grip only fit for shuffling on ice! After the ice palace we ...

... store. We had finally caved in and decided that crossing three or four major alpine regions in Europe, in a van, in winter, may require some heating, and so we bought ourselves a small heater to be used in campsites at night when hooked up to power. We then returned to the campsite with our new best friend stowed in our backpacks. The evening brought a cold but spectacular sunset over Lac Leman and a (now) substantially less cold night in the van.

... mouthwatering Thai Chicken Pizza. We're standing in the parking lot waiting for the shuttle bus to pick us up and drive us to Balmer's. We hear a loud screeching noise and from around the corner, out flies a mad shuttle bus twisting and swerving, practically running us over, slamming on the brakes, and landing perfectly in front of our group. We open the door "Welshie!" we all say. "Hey, what's happenin'?" he asks. "Welshie, you been drinkin' at all?" I inquire. "Just came ...