July 12 05 Tuesday.
Oh my gosh, we woke up to clear skies. Hurry catch the bus and the gondola to Murren and on to the Schilthorn. We had validated our passes for a free day. But this trip from Murren to the Schilthorn was another 65 francs. Grampa was not happy, but prompted by Grama paid up. The Schilthorn is where the James Bond film “ In his Majesties Service” was made in 1968. It is at 9,000 + feet. When we arrived it was totally socked in by clouds. We watched a couple of movies and had some snacks and hot chocolate in the revolving restaurant. Then a quick walk to throw some snow balls and take a few photos and we were off. Stopped in Murren for lunch. Again Pizza, rosti and sausage. After lunch Rick and the kids decided to hike back to camp about 1 ½ hours. Mikleane, Joel and I explored Murren and took a tram to Allimendhubel. Checked out he village and walked back to Murren. Then Joel and I took the train along an upper panoramic ridge and the tram back to Lauterbrunnen. Mikleane decided to walk from Murren to Gimmelwald. When we got to Laterbrunnen we caught the bus to the Gondola to Gimmelwald, and low and behold there was Mikleane, so we went to a hostel for a beer. We had fun talking to the young kids staying at the hostel. This is a tiny village that only has some summer tourism as in winter it is snowed in. They make cheese and smoked sausage that is very good. Well back to the campground for dinner. Tomorrow the Top of Europe !!!

11 July ’05 Monday
We awoke to rain. Oh well, off we went. Determined to ride as many mountain trains, cable cars and gondolas as we could. We wanted to get our moneys worth. We headed for Lauterbrunnen and the rack and pinion mountain train. It was awesome. Our first stop was Wegan. A beautiful mountain village built on the side of a mountain. We stopped first at the bakery for a treat. We checked out all the shops and some of us purchased some souvenirs. The rain continued so we caught the cable car to Mannliken. This point is one of the highest surrounded by steep cliffs. All we could see were clouds so off to Grindelwald. We took a cable car down the valley to Grund and walked the steep path to Grindelwald. The rain had stopped and we had some peeks of fabulous mountains. After a great lunch of soup, snitzel , rosti and pomme frites we were ready to explore the Village. We caught the train back to Lauterbrunnen and caught the bus back to Stechelburg. Stechelburg is a small village at the end of the road up the valley from Interlaken. It is at 3,000 + feet, surrounded by rock walls and a dozen or so waterfalls. Lots of Para gliders, jump from the cliffs. They are exciting to watch. Raining again at bedtime. We need to dry out. The weather forecast, more sun tomorrow.

10 July’ 2005
Well that is one part of the day. We stopped at the gondola office at Stechelburg and spent 400 + francs on passes to ride the lifts, trams trains and gondolas thru the Jungfrau region of the Alps. The pass is good for six days with three days being free and 3 days being half price. It was very cloudy and threatening rain so we opted to wait till the weather cleared up some before taking our free days. After dinner at camp we decided we would pay half price to ride the gondola to Murren for dessert. Well the bus had stopped running so we had to walk about 1 mile. By the time we reached the station we had missed the gondola. Needless to say we were really frustrated. We walked another 1 ½ miles back to the Stechelburg hotel where we had big…. desserts. Tomorrow we will start to use our passes.

10 July ’05, Sunday. The Lauterbrunnen Valley Girls. One thing we could all agree on was, we could all have slept much longer this morning. With the mountains looming high above us, the sun doesn’t come into the valley (if and when it comes at all…) until late in the morning and then leaves early in the evening. We have a lot of “white noise” from the river and the numerous waterfalls, to help us sleep. Yep, we could just sleep on and on… Today we went for a discovery walk around the area of the village we are in and the next back one down the line. We followed the river trail, that runs through the Lauterbrunnen Valley, until we reached our next site, about 2 miles away. Trummelbach Falls, must be well known to a lot of people, as we definitely weren’t the only one there. I had never heard about it before, but now that I’ve been there… The water for the Trummelbach, comes from a number of the largest mountains in the Alps, and thunders down through a mountain most of the way, before it reaches the outside. They have built a large elevator that climbs through the mountain for about 200 feet, and then you climb the stairs through tunnels and then finally reach the main display of falls. There are a number of stops on the way to the top, that you can see and feel the pulse of the water falling, twisting, and smashing it’s way to the bottom several hundreds of feet below. The way up and down was in tight quarters and narrow stairs that sometimes was cantilevered over the falls. The water was constantly on you from the splash or just from the dripping off of the walls and ceilings. They say there is over 5,200 gallons a second flowing through this fall…really spectacular. We continued our walk along the river, watching all the waterfalls pitching their load of water from just about every crack or shoot off of the mountains above us. After reaching Lauterbrunnen, we had a very nice lunch, and then caught a bus back to Stechelberg and the campsite. We were ready to just take it easy, and get ready for tomorrow…Gimmelwald, Murren, Schilthorn and more…

9 July ’05, Saturday. Chateau de Chillon
Leaving Lausanne, we headed east and followed the shores of Lake Geneva. Since we are taking a minor road, we are hitting every little “burg” all along the way. It’s not the little towns and villages that are any annoyance, but it is the stop lights…they are NOT synchronized at ALL !!! And when your traffic lights are in a mess, so is the traffic…and then, when you toss in a weekend, every village/town having a function, and then to top that all off, Montreux is having one of the biggest “Jazz Festivals” in the world…and we, are driving right through all of this, trying to get to another castle. “Chateau de Chillon”, one of the most beautiful medieval castles in Europe, and it’s on the shores of Lake Geneva. It was amazing, as we came around this last curve, there sat the Chateau de Chillon, projected out into the lake, and the lake making a natural moat all around it. They told us it would take an hour to see it all, but they don’t know us…it took us over 2 hours. We were able to see some wonderful collections of furniture, paintings, pewter ware and weaponry, all displayed in their proper rooms of the castle. I don’t think there was any room or passageway, that was “private or out of bounds” to us. We had a great time and saw a beautiful castle. This castle dates back to the 13th century. In the dungeon, we saw were Lord Byron had etched his name on a column, and also some religious carvings etched by a prisoner on one of the prison walls. By the time we had walked the castle through, it was lunch time, so we headed up to the van and raided the refrigerators. Then, we were back on the road. Still heading east, our destination was Interlaken, about 60 miles away, but through some of the Alps. It didn’t take long, and we were winding and climbing at a good pace. I don’t know how long it took for us to get over our first pass, but it seemed forever. “Bumble Bee” handled the climb wonderfully. The closer we got to the top, the closer we got to the wet weather. No snow, but it did rain steadily, and it definitely got a lot cooler. Our pace was slow, so the 60 miles or so, took hours, so when we arrived in Interlaken, we hit a grocery store and then a “Bikers Bar” for dinner. We weren’t through traveling yet, as we are aiming for Stechelberg, which is about 8 miles south of Interlaken, and our campground. This campground is located at the very end of the road to Stechelberg, so it was easy for us to find. As we arrived in Stechelberg, we were introduced from both sides of the road, giant waterfalls. They were falling hundreds of feet, and were absolutely incredible. We have at least 7 waterfalls that we can see from our site here at the campground. Directly above us are Switzerland’s highest peaks, and our goal is to travel by tram and cable cars to the top of some of them. Let’s hope the weather breaks and we can see the magnificence that they can offer. Directly above us is Gimmelwald and Murren, and once we arrive there, we will again travel by tram on up to some much higher levels, such as Schilthorn at 9748 feet. Another peak we want to travel to is Jungfraujoch, which is the “Top of Europe” at 11,333 feet. Tomorrow…we start

8 July ’05, Friday.
Our campground in Lausanne is right on the edge of Lake Geneva, and about 35 minutes walk down the boardwalk to Ouchy. This morning we got underway just before 10am and made our way along the boardwalk to Ouchy and the Olympic Museum. It was a good day for a walk, about 70 degrees and sunshine. Ouchy was first established as a small fishing village, but now it is a Swiss Riviera Resort town, with a capital SRR… One thing nice about camping, is you can enjoy areas like this and still stay on a slim budget. Our main goal today was to enjoy the Olympic Museum. It is just a short block off the boardwalk and is spectacular. The grounds are really done well, with lots of bronze, stone, and metal sculptures, and a couple of fountains that all make it sensational. Once inside, we were treated to a very well laid out “museum” of Olympic history. We not only read the stories of how, who, and when the Olympics were started, re-started, and continue to run today. We also saw items of clothing, metals, shoes, skates, guns, bows, and etc, etc, that all make up the games of past and present. On the lower floor, you could sit in your own “theatre” and watch the opening, closing, and competition of past Olympic Games just by making your selection on the screens…it was a big hit. After pizza for lunch, we boarded the metro and headed up the hill to Lausanne. Now did I day hill ??? Lausanne is just like Seattle in this regard, as it is all hills. You, as a tourist, will get your exercise here in this town. Mikleane took on the responsibility of being our tour guide, for a walking tour that Rick Steves had in his book on Switzerland. There are a lot of things happening in this town, and construction is only one of them. There are little white tents put up all over the hills of Lausanne. If it isn’t for a music festival, it could be for an opera, or maybe just for food…all these little white tents… We saw the churches, cathedral, castle, city hall, and just about every other building and bridge in town, before we caught the bus back to the campground and a pasta dinner. I guess it is time for me to say once again, IT IS EXPENSIVE here in Switzerland. For lunch, we had 3 personal sized pizzas, 3 beers, 2 soft drinks, and it cost us about $60 US. I start to shake every time we walk towards a restaurant… Lou tells me to “get over it”, so I try, but it’s hard… Tomorrow…Interlaken

Swans hiss and other tales of the road… 7 July 2005 – From little Louise: “hi friends! – Didn’t have to go clear across the world to get Seattle weather, but we did. Woke up this morning in a campground on Lake Murten with the rain pouring around us. Upon hearing the rain on the roof of the camper, I made a quick decision to close my eyes and stay in bed. You learn something new everyday and today I learned that swans hiss. Hard to imagine, but if you have bread and don’t give it to them, they’ll start hissing and snapping. After a slow start to the morning and sharing all our bread with the ducks, ducklings, and swans, we drove to Avenches to view the Roman ruins of Aventicum. They were unique and fun to explore. We next drove to a supermarket and had sandwiches and smoothies for lunch. We are now in a French speaking part of Switzerland – Mom and Dad’s constant French is beginning to get on my nerves. We are now at our new campsite on Lake Geneva in Lausanne. It’s a large campsite with table tennis (Drew and Dad are playing right now) and a restaurant. We walked the lake in the late afternoon and came back to a nice dinner of chicken and pasta. Grandma’s cooking is just what we need on a trip like this. Traveling in the camper is exciting but is taking some time to get used to – lots of bumping around and hitting your head.

6 July ’05, Wednesday. Medieval Town of Murten
After an impromptu soccer game with Drew last night, I awoke this morning a little stiff. I guess I’m not quite in the same physical shape I thought I might be in… I’ve found that I am the first to and out of the showers in the morning…I guess it must be they are waiting in bed for my coffee to be served. Ha, Ha, they will have a long wait…
As Mikleane mentioned yesterday, we had a good and busy day in Bern yesterday. Bern is a very pretty city that is just about fully surrounded by water. Bern is the Swiss capital, and the city does have the “classy” feeling about it. I was disappointed in the “bear pit” that they displayed “their emblems” in…it really felt like it was nothing more than a temporary hole that was dug in the ground, with a few old dead trees put in, and then completely lined with cement. This is “The Capital”, and they are “The Emblem” of the capital…give them something that represents the status they deserve !!! OK, I’m off my soap-box… Today’s drive was rather short…I think we were on the road for 35 to 45 minutes, and we were off the road looking for the turn off to the campground. We are camped on the shores of the Lake Murten, along with at least 60 permanent caravan/mobile homes. We are among 6 tops, that are temporary. There is a path from the campground, along the shoreline, that goes directly into Murten. We hadn’t hardly set-up before we were on our way into town. On entering through the gates, we were met with a very picturesque town that is surrounded with a medieval wall on 3 sides, and the lake on the other. After a walk through the main street, and looking for a place to eat, we settled for a neat little restaurant with a alphorn and castle style chandelier, called Freiburger Falle. In Switzerland, for some reason, they have quite a few businesses that have “storm door” entrances directly off of the street. The 2 old wood “Storm Doors” swing out of the way, and you go down the steep stairs, into the business. In this case, it was a restaurant with a ton of atmosphere. Our goal was to have a cheese fondue, as the weather was cool and wet, and that sounded like it was just what we needed…it was fantastic (although, like everything else in Switzerland, it was EXPENSIVE…). We were also introduced to a local wine, that was really good. Fact is, it is one that Rick Steves recommends…now, we can recommend it too…Vully Nant…a locally grown brewed, crisp, and VERY tasty white wine. After lunch, we headed for the town walls. The walls are covered with a peaked roof, and it was really needed today as it rained off and on throughout the day. From the top of the walls, you can see over the whole town and all the hills that surround the lake. Murten is just a few miles from France, so there are quite a few locals that speak French as their first language. The Murten castle, has been converted into “City Hall”. From the front, it looks very much like it did many, many years ago, but the interior has been changed to fit their needs. This medieval town does deserve the press it gets, it is a treat seeing and tasting it…Tomorrow…Avenches and then onto Lausanne

The Bears in Bern - 5 July 2005 – We hope everyone had a great 4th of July. After settling in Dragonfly for the night here in Bern, we were surprised to hear fellow Americans setting off fireworks. You are never too far from home. We awoke this morning to sunshine and after showers (each time you turned the handle you received 30 seconds of water – a heavy participation shower), we caught the bus into old town Bern. A beautiful city right in the bend of the River Aare, Bern founded in 1191, is full of beautiful fountains, sandstone buildings, and bears – the symbol of Bern. We enjoyed walking through the city, browsing the markets, and enjoying the occasional beer or Starbucks coffee (actually, a coconut Frappacino). Louise purchased a souvenir this morning – a Swiss army knife. She then promptly dropped it through the cracks in the square in front of the Swiss Parliament Building. After trying many solutions (including gum on a stick) Mom borrowed a wire tie off one of the merchant signs, and after several tries, Dad was able to hook it and bring it up through the crack in the floor – to give to a very relieved Louise. We enjoyed feeding the Bern bears (mixed fruit) – they obviously were used to this routine as they expected you to throw the food directly to them, as they lay on their backs – very funny. We returned from town and Lou went for a swim in the pool, while the rest of us relaxed out and planned our route for tomorrow. Dad and Rick heated up the barbeque and we had another wonderful dinner of sausages, pomme frites, olives, dark beer, Chianti, and fresh pressed apple juice from the market. We are really settling into our routine and enjoying our new home “dragonfly”. We bought a dragonfly lawn ornament today to put out with our awning. Many campers go all out with gnomes, flower planters, flags, lounge chairs, and sofas – we are just trying to fit in.

3 July ’05, Sunday.
Here we are, in the land of William Tell. Luzern is a town that is split by the river Reuss, is crossed by 7 bridges (one, the oldest, wooden, and is roofed), is lush, with flowers, trees, and other various vegetation, and is more than inviting, with the beauty of the old city, the lake, and the surrounding mountains. Today we enjoyed all of them at once… We were up early to catch a boat for an hour and a half cruise around the lake. Our destination was Mount Pilatus and the location of the “cog wheeled” tram that would transport us to 7000’ above sea level, on the steepest grades in the world. There were areas where the grade was more than 48 percent, and areas where the tracks just seemed to hang in mid air, with a huge drop to the void below. The day we chose was bright and sunny, and our hopes were of the “large” views of the Alps. Unfortunately, just like Mt. Rainier, there are days that are bright and sunny, and the mountain has a cloud that circles the top. Today, was that day. There were moments, when the clouds would part just enough to give you a peak of the total view, but those were rare. This didn’t ruin our day though, as we had lots of trails to follow, and the vistas, although local, were stunning. Our ride up on the tram was really wonderful. It took us about 30 or more minutes to reach the top, and the views looking out from the tram were great. Once we reached the top, we all searched for the first place that had the best food for our taste (and took off on a lot of hiking…most of it seemed up, but it was all enjoyable. We spent more than 2 hours at the top and then took another “modes” of transportation down. Our first, was a large cable car. That took us to the location of the “luge” ride with the most stunning view of the day, but who had time to look…we all boarded our own “luge”, and set off on the longest luge ride in Europe….winding, twisting, jumping, bouncing, going through tunnels and completely out of control most of the time… I heard Mikleane screaming a lot through the hair-pin turns!!! Exhausted, we were onto the next mode of transportation, a much smaller cable car to the next port. There, we boarded a city bus to take us into Luzern. In Luzern, our final leg of our day journey was by boat. We boarded right beside the train station, and it took us on a very comfortable ride across the lake to the campground. This was a big day, and there wasn’t one of us that wasn’t dragging our butts at the end, but we did have a great outing. Tomorrow, ….Bern….