Switzerland (Becky)

Our plans after Venice were vague - we thought we would head east towards eventually Prague and Vienna, maybe spending some time on the beautiful Croatian beaches that we saw advertised on a Venetian bus. But, looking at the map, we realized that we had no good time picked out or easy connections to Switzerland or the Alps. So we changed plans and decided to head there instead, to a town called Grindelwald that was recommended by the first result of a Google search on "hiking Switzerland." We really do our research before heading places, as you can tell.

We wasted the day relaxing around our campground and the neighboring towns. In Maestre, we searched for a while and eventually found the Pam supermarket, where we bought a bunch of food for sandwiches and trail mix. We made and ate the sandwiches in a square outside the shopping complex, and got a surprising number of strange looks from the locals (apparently draining a package of mozzarella cheese over the public trashcan isn't normal?).

That evening, we took a train to Bologna and then an overnighter to Interlaken, Switzerland. The second train was delayed and expensive, 50 euros with our rail passes, but did make up for a bit by having couchettes where we could at least sleep for part of the night. They also gave us bottled water and packaged breakfast, but after our experiences on the Moroccan trains, we were afraid to eat them until leaving the train in case there was an astronomical charge (there wasn't, of course - they were free).

We arrived into Interlaken and then transferred towards Grindelwald in the early morning. This was the first overnight rail trip to reveal abruptly different scenery - in place of the Italian villas and farmlands, there were huge snowcapped mountains and stereotypical Swiss chalets.

Grindelwald was small, pretty, and incredibly tourism-driven. The prices were astronomical for everything from souvenirs to restaurants to groceries (all in Swiss francs, which are less than euros.. but about the same as US dollars..). And the vast majority of people we saw were above the age of 40. We walked to a campground halfway through the town, which sat at the bottom of a mountain along a rapidly flowing river, and set up camp there. Then we hiked on what was called the "Easy Trail," but that actually went up a very steep, sunny incline for the first hour and a half. Eventually it evened out and got cooler as we entered a forest and neared the altitude of the lower snowy peaks. We walked up to a few small towns along the route of a ski lift / chalet, enjoyed a view from somewhere near the top of a smaller mountain, and then headed back down as rain clouds threatened and biting black flies started to swarm around us.

We couldn't afford to eat out anywhere in the town, so we got cream cheese and bread that resembled bagels at the grocery store. We ate it back at the campsite as it thunderstormed (no major tent flooding this time, at least) and we tried to decide where to go next. Our decision: Prague and Vienna. But then we got an email from Jeremy's family friends in Germany, inviting us to visit next week. Our new destination: Amsterdam for a few days, then visiting our friends near Frankfurt.