Lauterbrunnen
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2006
1
161
169
Trip End
Oct 15, 2008
Lauterbrunnen,
Swiss Alps,
Switzerland
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
With Oktoberfest over and done with, we were now on our way home, well London home anyway. To tell the truth, I was glad about this, we were almost at our 6th mth mark and I was getting sick of being in a new town, a new country every week. So it was on to Switzerland, France and Spain.
On the way out of Germany we stopped off at Neuschwanstein castle in Fussen. This is meant to be the real life Disney castle, the one they got the idea from. In real life it was designed by King Ludwig II, back in the late 1800's, who was meant to be just a little crazy. Well after wandering about is place it is not hard to see why. Although it is only half finished (he died half way through construction) it is a magical place. It is set on a hill with mountains looming behind it, and a wonderful Waterfall setting the picture. Inside is where it gets a bit funky with almost every wall covered in paintings all covering different scenes from one of Wagner's Operas, he even has a room that has been transformed into a cave, yes that's right a cave. Nether the less this place is an amazing to walk around and well worth the entry fee.
Now if Austria was stunning and dramatic, Switzerland was charming, one of those places that pulls at the heart strings. Our first stop was in Lucerne, a little town set on a lake. We really only looked about for a few hours, but a few days here would not be wasted. Dave had been here before so it was a Dave magical tour day, and we got to see the highlights.
Lauterbrunnen was stop no. 2 and what a place. The camp site we stayed in was surrounded by mountains and had two waterfalls falling silently from above; I think I had fallen in love. After chilling out for a bit we got a combined ticket and got a few gondolas and trains around the Lauterbrunnen area. It was a great day in beautiful surroundings, there was a chill in the air but the sun was shinning and the birds singing. The last stop of the day was looking at a bunch of glacial waterfalls that made their way through the middle of a mountain; with the lighting it was quite cool.
We woke up the next day to rain, and lots of it, but the most exciting bit was that the hills we had walked around only the day before were covered in snow! After a look around Interlaken we went for beer at the local bar. We got to talking to an Aussie guy who was there for Base Jumping, I had never met any one who was crazy enough for this, so it was quiet cool to chat to him for a while. Besides a cheese fondue, which quiet frankly wasn't that good, there wasn't much else to report from Lauterbrunnen. It was raining again the next day so we headed off.
The drive out of Switzerland was fantastic though, and going over yet another mountain pass it started to snow! The fields and trees around us were covered with snow, and I was wishing I had my snow board in the back. We stopped on the side of the road at one point to play in the snow and make a snow man, the locals seemed to drive past and shake their heads, but I tell you I saw a few jealous looks coming form the passengers on coaches. And that was Switzerland, short and sweet. Oh I did forget to mention that we tried a dish our friends from Cappadocia recommended, jam and cheese on bread, not too bad I must say.
Now after a day camping in a car park in France I decided that I had had enough and was ready to go back to London. Dave talked me into going to Barcelona and after a day and a half of driving we arrived. We did stop at Lyon on the way, a nice enough city, and watched some cool street performers, but other than that it was driving, lets hope Barcelona will be worth it.
Miles so far:
