A hill of a climb and a pot of cheese

Another great day in Switzerland. We had a semi early breakfast at the hotel, checked out by 11:00 and stored our luggage at the hotel. We tried going to the grochery store (the co-op that we mentioned before) but we found it closed. We were not sure why, but decided to continue on with the errands we had and would figure out why later. At the train station we determined when the train would leave. We then went to a sporting good store to buy some long johns for Michelle as the trip up to Murren will involve a sharp decrease in temperature. We were semi successful, and went back to the hotel to grab our things. We learned along the way that June 1st is a holiday, so many restaurants and shops are closed. Bummer, as we were hoping to grab some food for the mini fridge from the co-op before we headed up the hill.

We waited at the train station. At 1:35 for the promised train, but it never came. I guess when there is a holiday the train schedule changes slightly and there are fewer trains. Since the woman at the train counter assured us that there was an 11:35, there were quite a few people waiting there. Fortunatly we were not in a rush.

We took a train from Interlaken to Lauterbrunen, then a cable car up to Grutschalp, then took another train to Murren. Our hotel did not include the address in their website, so we were a little worried that we would miss it. Rest assured, the town really is not that big, consisting of two streets that run parallel to each other. It is pretty much impossible to get lost.

On the train we met a couple from DC, and they tend to travel in one country at a time, and they were amazed to hear about our trip. They had rented an appartment in town and were also not sure where they were staying as there was no address. I guess this is the town of no addresses!

We checked into the hotel (which is lovely) and decided to take a small hike down to Gimmewald. For those of you who are not familiar with
Gimmewald, it is a town that some of the studends from Michelles school used to visit. Since we were a 30 minute hike from the town, we decided to see if we could visit the town and meet Walter, the wonderful owner of a hotel there. This was the place where the students used to stay. Walter was there and he remembered the Westmont students. He was nice enough to take a picture with Michelle. It was great.

After visiting Walter we walked through the town. Five minutes later we were on the other end and heading back. :) Small town. We bought some homemade sugar coated Londs from one man, who came out and talked politics with us for a while after we made our purchase. It is always interesting to hear what others have to say about our political system. We also bought some homemake yogurt and cheese from another woman. The yogurt was apple flavored, a new one for us but recommended buy the maker. It was wonderful, and thin enough that we opened the container and ate it in front of the shop. It was gone in a matter of minutes. The cheese we have yet to try.

We then made the hike back up the hill to Murren. The hike to Gimmewald was all downhill, so the uphill trip took a bit longer. We had to climb about 800 meters, and the air up here is so thin that we were winded easily.

When we returned to town we had dinner at a place called Stager Stubli. We opted for a half bottle of Merlot, a dinner salad, and our first try at Swiss fondu. The wine and salad were good, and we were very excited to find that we liked the fondu as well. We topped it off with three scoops of ice cream. Now back at the hotel, we are setteling in for an early evening. Tomorrow will be an early morning with a fun day trip planned. Talk to you soon!