Switzerland

On Thursday night John and I met his parents at their hotel and then headed to the Prague airport to get on our flight to Zurich. The flight was only an hour and when we then jumped on a train that was taking us to Lucerne, where we were spending the first night. We arrived in Lucerne and when we walked out of the train station we noticed the large Jean Nouvel building to our right, to KKL or the Culture and Convention Center. We walked over to check it out but it was dark so you couldn't really see much. We headed to our hotel with plans to see it the next morning. Our hotel was really nice and John and I were happy again to be staying in a nice place. John and I had a beer with his dad and then headed to bed looking forward to seeing the town in the light the next morning.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel before walking around Lucerne for a little while. We walked back over to the KKL, the Culture and Congress Center that looked right over Lake Lucerne. We couldn't get inside because they were hosting a function and there was a big carnival going on in the front plaza which impeded our view a little but we were able to walk around the building and under the giant cantilever that hangs over the building and the plaza. We also walked over to the old wooden Chapel Bridge that goes over the Reuss River that runs into Lake Lucerne. In 1993 half of the bridge was burned down and that part has since been replaced with concrete columns below while the rest of the bridge is still wood. It was a little before lunch time so we went to get our bags at the hotel and grabbed some pretzels with butter and jumped on the train to Interlaken.

The train on the way to Interlaken was really pretty and we had a lot of views to the Alps, small towns, waterfalls, and lakes. We arrived in Interlaken a little later in the day and walked to our hotel which was a block from the train station. We checked in and had a good view out our window where we could see people parachuting into the town from the mountains. We didn't have any big plans for the rest of the day so John and I walked around the small town before meeting his parents for dinner that night. We went to a fondue place where we had meat and cheese fondue and also tried roschti, a Swiss meal made with potato pancakes and other ingredients, mine had vegetables. After dinner we went back to the hotel and had a few beers and then John and I beat his parents really badly in spades.

The next morning we had plans to take the train to the Junfraujoch, a viewing point between the Jungfrau and Monch peaks. We had to go through several small towns and train stops on the way and the last train that took us to the top went right through the Eiger and Monch. When we got to the top we had really great views of all the peaks around us and everything was covered in snow. There was even a guy running down one of the hills parachuting off the side of the mountain down to the town Grindewald below. We spent some time up there taking in the view before heading down and grabbing lunch. We stopped at the Sphinx viewing point which is an observation deck before we hopped on a train and went a few stops down the mountain. We got out and decided to hike a three mile trail that runs just under the Eiger north face. The sky was really clear and the trail was mostly all downhill so it was a nice walk and we got to see just how steep and big the Eiger really is. After hiking for a little over two hours we made it down to the train station and took the train back to Interlaken. We met later for dinner and went to an Italian place where I had shrimp pizza and we had all had tiramisu. We walked through Interlaken again on the way back to the hotel and I saw a mark on the street that was the starting point of the Jungfrau Marathon which starts in Interlaken and goes all the way up the mountain to end at the Jungfraujoch. We had some beers and played spades and hearts again before heading to bed.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then caught a train to the Swiss city Bern. We walked around for a while and the city was quiet because it was a Sunday morning. The weather was really nice so we had lunch outside before we had to get on the train for the last time to head back to the Zurich airport. John and I were flying back to Prague and his parents were heading to Frankfurt to get a flight directly back to California the next day. Our flight was at 5:40 so we played hearts again before we had to part ways. The trip was a lot of fun and Switzerland was beautiful. It was also really nice to see John's parents and spend some time with them.