Swiss Cheese!

We were granted the opportunity of having a three day weekend in which I did not want to take for granted. I wanted to utilize each second and hour we got for traveling. I had formerly planned on traveling with Courtney to southern Switzerland to visit one of her friends, but this plan fell through. Late Thursday night, Tanner, Courtney, Andrew, and I decided to make the jaunt to Interlaken, Switzerland for our short break. This trip was entirely spontaneous. We did not have tickets, a place to stay, or any clue what was in this town. We definitely went on a whim and it was fabulous. This was our first independent trip where we did not have anyone telling us how to do things, where to go, or how to do it. Our journey to Switzerland was almost flawless. We made a minor mistake on boarding the wrong train because it had switched tracks. Fortunately, Andrew spoke to the conductor who informed us that we were onboard the incorrect train and pointed down the track to the train we were suppose to occupy. We ran like lighting in fear of missing our train. Thank the Lord, we made it on our train and finished off the journey to Interlaken.

Courntey and I getting comfortable on the wrong train

. On our arrival, it was dark outside with a light snow fall. It just so happened that they had a computerized machine outside of the train station that told you all of the hostels which all of its information, even directions! We then began to sort through our possibilities and came to a consensus on Balmers Heritage. We took a pit stop at a grocery store to grab some dinner where we had our first encounter with Swiss Franks. We then made our way to our hostel and proceeded to register and get some rest for the next day. The next morning we awoke to blue skies, sunshine (which is rare in Germany), and mountains! Big, glorious, massive, snow capped mountains. It was incredible! Our day comprised of exploring the city, eating fondue, and buying Swiss chocolate.

Swiss Fondu!

There were several differences we noticed between Germany and Switzerland.
v The Swiss tended to be friendlier.
v When at a cross walk, cars will actually stop for you in Switzerland; whereas in Germany, a pedestrian must wait for a crossing light or a lack of cars on the road to safely cross.
v On the trains, the stops and directions were given in English
v There was sunshine

Our journey home was more entertaining than our arrival. We missed our first train, got on the correct train, thought we were on the wrong train (turns our we were correct, got on the wrong train (almost for a 40 Euro fine but the conductor was gracious). On the German-Swiss border we had to buy our Bayern ticket and we had some time to grab dinner before our train left. Our stop was in Lindau and right when we stepped out of the train statoin we had a magnificnet view! It was gorgeous. We walked around the lake and took some beautiful pictures. By evening we made it to Regensburg, got on the wrong bus, wrong bus again, correct bus, and arrived at our hostel about 4 hours later than planned. All in all it was an exhausting day but a very good learning experience of traveling!

Lindau