June 23 -- We left Liechtenstein to drive to our new destination in Switzerland: Interlaken. We soon discovered that Switzerland is the land of tunnels (I'm sure we drove through at least 20 in 2 hours) and very pristine mountain lakes (with the bluest water). The view just got better and better as we neared Interlaken, which is known as a vacation spot for adventure seekers, offering many opportunities for kite surfing, paragliding, skydiving, and mountain trekking. Paragliders are constantly landing in the field across from our hostel. We are too poor to do any of the high adventure activities, so we went to the lake to swim instead. It was really windy and the water was really cold, so by swim, I really mean get wet and then sit in the sun to warm up again.
June 24 -- The day started off rather cloudy, and we were unsure how good the views would be today as we headed up to a tiny mountain village called Gimmelwald via cable car. We drove about 25 from Interlaken, and then, it was only a 5 minute cable car ride straight up the mountain. This village is inaccessible by car, though there were a few cars and tractors in town that had to have been hauled up by cable or helicopter. The main industries of the town seem to be bed and breakfasts for tourists and farming. But it was unlike any farming I've ever seen before. We saw a tractor mowing hay pretty much up a vertical hill. Then, we saw the farmer and his wife raking the hay down the hill into piles. Later in the day (not sure if it was the same farm or not), we saw a helicopter picking up bundles of hay from a field and dropping them off at the barn.
We walked around the village for a little, and then we started hiking uphill, straight up a very steep hill. Part of the hike was through a cow pasture where the cows were hanging on the side of a hill, clanking their bells at us. It felt pretty iconically Swiss. I didn't make it to the waterfall we were hiking to, but the others said that it was cool. But I figured that the 6 waterfalls I was seeing on the other side of the mountain would suffice. The day never completely cleared up, but we did have some good views throughout the day of the snow peaked mountains around us.
To top off the Swiss experience, I ordered Raclette at the restaurant tonight. It was a lot of melted swiss cheese for this semi-lactose intolerant person, but it was tasty.
On a funny note: I wrote most of this blog post while sitting in the laundry room at the hostel waiting for my clothes to dry. At least 8 Asians were in the laundry room with me, vying for the next available washing machines and/or dryer and giving each other the stink eye whenever a washer was about to be done with its cycle. It made me laugh.
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