To Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Just waiting for the local bus back to Como where we pick up Busabout again. Spoke to the family last night on Skype although my webcam is not working. Sarah in the hostel tried to fix it again for me with downloaded driver, to no avail. Oh well, better that I see them than they see me… pictures on blog will have to suffice for now.

Reasonable roast chicken dinner and a couple of Merlots then bed after skyping family but so noisy last night. There was a huge group of teenagers on some language course staying on the floor above. I reckon they were having races, then jumping off bunks before moving all the bunks around and shouting to each other while they did it!

Now on the bus back to Como and the temperatures have definitely risen! The driver is Spanish and the rep is a New Zealander. As the bus twists and turns following the edge of the Lake, I am reminded how beautiful this journey was on the way. Pretty little villages are nestling in the hillside. Mustard coloured houses in varying shades with terracotta roofs sprinkling down to the lake. Lake Como itself is massive. The journey only part way round takes an hour.

Now sitting in a street cafe in Como waiting for Busabout.  Maddy is from Melbourne, although her father is Chinese. She and I met in the hostel last night and have just shared a panini, basically so that we could sit down comfortably to wait for the bus and use their loo! Maddy has already been to most of the cities I am heading for and, after Lauterbrunnen, will be heading off towards Paris.

We have been on the bus an hour now and have passed through many tunnels, just going through the longest tunnel in Europe St Ghottard – 17k. In fact We are on a freeway which appears to be suspended in mid air between tunnels with a high range of mountains on either side. There are just 9 of us on the bus and they are all Aussies except me!

Loo stop at freeway service station called MYSTOP wouldn’t you know it! …now I can use some of my Swiss Francs! But oh so expensive. I just replenished my chocolate store exchanging Cadburys for Swiss (like you do) and also bought a bag of crisps in case I can’t afford dinner this evening. Together these came to 6.60 Swiss Francs… ouch! Plus 1 Swiss Franc for the loo! We continue our journey alongside a large lake to the right (there are lots of lakes here and I figure they must be very deep judging by the steepness of the mountain). Through yet another tunnel and now a lake on the left with snow-capped peaks on the right. This pretty well sums up the whole journey this afternoon …..hmm this Swiss chocolate with almonds is so good; very creamy, maybe I should eat it all before it melts!

Ok a bit of drama! The bus has been pulled over by the Swiss police and led to their headquarters… yikes, what’s this all about? It seems they want to check that we are in their country legally and need to check the documentation… all is fine and off we go. our rep says the Swiss Police are very strict but we’re good so back on the road… Now we’re climbing higher and higher towards Interlaken. Now a beautiful deep turquoise lake on the right. At the top beautiful scenery below of a vast green flat area of land dotted with wooden farms between ginormous mountain ranges. Maddy tells me the image for Paramount Films came from this area. I’m just about to take a picture of the turquoise lake and we’re back inside a tunnel again. Photos are not very good through glass from the bus anyway. Will wait til we get to Lauterbrunnen. Welcome to Jungfrau Region, the sign just said. Jungfrau is the highest peak in Europe!  Ausfahrt – that means leave the freeway, unless you were wondering! Nearly there….

Ok seems I’m sharing a room in a chalet (with two double bunks) with the three very loud girls on the bus who are out for a good time! I’m not going to think about that now. Off to the restaurant to treat myself to schnitzel – my favorite…. it has just arrived … whoer it’s huge, how am I going to eat all this?! Second glass of house… Tyrollean music… what could be better. There is still the bill of course – 29 Swiss francs including 2 glasses of wine – oh well I didn’t sign up for any expensive extreme activities!  (white-water rafting available here… bin there, done that!)
Unfortunately I’m unable to get WiFi connection here so my blog entry will be delayed.

Went for a walk around the village after dinner. So Swiss – wooden chalets with decorative shutters against a back cloth of vertical rock stretching high into the evening sky and shutting out the sun. Although you could still see the last of the evening sun reflected on one of the snow capped mountains behind. Sheep were jangling on the hillside with the traditional bells around their necks and there was the smell of new mown hay in the air.
I returned to my chalet to find 2 of the girls there and we got chatting. They were very friendly and one even lent me her adaptor as mine wouldn’t fit the socket. The fourth girl in the room flitted in and out. She was a bit of a party animal! I went to bed about 10.30 soon followed by Morissa and Angie, but party animal came in briefly at about 3.30 to fetch something then finally climbed up onto the bunk above me at around 5!