European Adventure - Day 6

And just as it goes, it was a very early morning, again we had the earliest train possible out of town (Jeff loves that). It was kind of crazy. So jeff dosen't do 'no breakfast' so he marched us down to the bakery first thing. It was early enough that the bakery didn't even have all their goods out yet! I just needed something for later, cause it was too early for me even to be hungry. But Jeff needed to stalk up on his 'French Pastries for the rest of the trip. I think he got 2 or 3 of everything. Then we had to race for the metro. It got a bit tense for a minute cause I wasn't totally sure which way we needed to go. Sure I made 1 or 2 corrections to many of our plans, which took us the wrong way possibly, but we adjusted, made the connection, then literally sprinted to our train. We made it with maybe 1 minute to spare. Wheeeew, what a relief. So the rest of the day we traveled by train. It was a real nice break from walking and photographing everthing. We had like 4 transfters to our next destination: Gimmelwald, Switzerland.

At one of our stops (in Bern, Switzerland) Jeff ran into a grocery store and started shopping for the week it looked like. A loaf of bread, 3 pints (or were they quarts) of yogurt, 1 quart of fresh whole milk, 1 brick of ultra-stinky cheese, and plenty 'warm up' chocolate. I just got snacks and water which was more than enough for me, but he obviously had some pre-set grocery list. Just as I had a list of places I wanted to go, he had a list of things he needed to eat. So the next train ride was like a mini-Buffet City for a while, as he laid his smorgasboard out on the mini train table. The cheese he got was the worst smelling thing ever! It had to have been 'Out-House' flavored! I'm almost sure of it.

We made it to Interlaken, transfered to a small mountain train, then transfered to a bus, then to a Gondola. Then after a 5-10 minute hike we made it to Walter's Hotel. (a rick steves recommendation). The views were spectacular and we were all in awe as we looked up or down the side of the mountains from our hotel balcony. We had 2 hours to hike around before dinner, so we had fun doing that. They had mostly paved pathways leading from place to place. We hiked up to the next city of Murren. Jeff stopped to tie his shoe, and Ryan and I told him we'd just be up around the corner at/by/in/behind the gondola stop. So while we're up there (which was just around the corner) Jeff comes up, doesn't see us, therefore keeps wandering. This was my first into to Jeff in 'Wander-Mode'. I swear that "When in doubt, start wandering" was his motto. We had barley gone around the corner, and he disappears. We were at a fork in the pathway so he could have gone one of 4 directions. 'Why on earth would he just start wandering around like that' you ask, Good Question! We looked around for about 10 minutes before Ryan decided he wanted to go check out the Funicular train about 0.5 miles off, so I waited in this large open space right next to the Gondola station in case he was lost, or was looking for us. 10 minute, 20 minutes, then 30 minutes went by, and I was starting to loose my awe of nature behind my curious worry about these two lost sheep. I noticed Ryan troddeling down the pathway to relieve some of my angst, then noticed Wondering Jeff come 5 minutes after him. When he got to where we were, I asked him why he took off. He said that he thought we took off, but I then reminded him that we were only around the corner, in the city center, most open place, at the Cable Car station. But he must have figured that if he can't see us, we must have kept hiking so, So did he. I asked if he needed a leash, like one of the kids at Disneyland; you know, the shoulder harness with a 5 foot cord attached to the parent, but he didn't seem to keen on the idea. He actually tried to make it seem like our fault for 'letting' him wander off.

For dinner we had the most Swiss spaghetti ever made; by Walter. It was good. During our dinner Jeff kept talking to everyone else there about their travel plans n' such. Since the place we were at was famous only cause of Rick Steves had been writing about it for such a while, his name came up in every conversation, thus when Jeff was relaying every conversation to us that he had that evening mentioning this Rick Steves, I forbid him from speaking that name again, but let him only mention his initials, RS for the rest of the trip, and that was only if he HAD to. After dinner we walked around in the dark crisp chilly mountain air for a bit. It was dark and chilly, and the clouds were starting to move in, which made me nervous about tomorrow (my first time to this location our spectacular views were killed by the evil cloud cover which was thick and low). As we got there that afternoon there were some clouds but we could still see most of the peaks. It was absolutely glorious and I only hope that the few pictures I took do it some justice when we show them to everybody. We were hoping to see stars, but the clouds had moved in. It was really dark, but still fun to hang out outside, and wander through the now silent peaceful town.

And right before bed we filled up on some of the spoils of chocolate that we had won earlier by fighting some of the locals to death. They use bars of chocolate around here like currency. Except this currency is eatable. Walters house (hotel) was an old typical swiss house: all wood, really creaky, super soft feather beds, and every room had a balcony.

[Also, I don't know if I'm allowed to share this story; but before going to bed Jeff asked why there was a sink in our room. Ryan said it was for convenience cause the bathroom is all the way at the end of the hall. But I introduced it as a 'Mid-night Urinal'. Ha Ha, funny funny jim, then to bed. Well, during the night I guess Ryan took advantage of this idea, and used it as such. Well, apparently he wasn't to quiet about it(light must have been on) cause Jeff woke up and was freaked out and wouldn't shut up about his o.c.d. like behavior and that a UCLA dentist should never sink to such behavior. The next day I would laugh my head off every time Jeff would mention this, Ryan would chuckle and Jeff would rant, and I just told Ryan he was "just dumb for getting caught" as I smiled evilly at both of them. (I might have to retract this last paragraph, so be prepared to never mention it to either of them, but I'll still talk with you about it in full detail:) ]