I snapped awake at 5am and glanced up to see blue sky through our sunlight window. We left it cracked open last night and fell asleep to lightning flashes and thunder rolling through the valley.
The blue sky and birds singing had me sticking my head up through the window and glancing at the Alps.
We hadn’t seen the Alps this clear since we arrived and since we had to leave today at 9:30am we threw on some clothes and took a walk for our most clear view of the Alps yet.
We began to walk to back to our room and glanced over our shoulders only to see the sun had risen enough to light up the mountains.
We enjoyed a far less stressful bus and train ride to Interlaken since we knew what we were doing this time. We had a couple of hours to burn so we threw our luggage into a locker at the train station and wondered through town. Interlaken is pretty touristy. I did have 10 Swiss Francs left that would be useless outside of Switzerland so we walked around town looking for a place to spend it.
Interlaken tourist trade boomed in the 1800’s into the early 1900’s and most of the pretty buildings are built during this boom. Now it’s a bit tacky with Swiss Army knife and Swiss cowbell shops on every corner. This of course helped us spend the 10sf.
Mike asked if we’d be able to bring it on the airplane with us. I said, “of course we can! It’s got the word plane right in it!”
Crickets…
We saw over 15 paragliders Coming in for a landing in a little park we passed on our walk. (See video on Facebook.) It was cool to see how much of a controlled landing they were able to make.
As I write this we are on a train to Salzburg enjoying lunch watching pretty Swiss scenery fly by.
Mike and I went into a fit of non-stop tears falling down our faces giggles trying to pronounce our lunch choices. Fortunately we got it out of our system before the train attendant came to take our order.
Despite the train reaching speeds of up to 137mph it took around 6 hours to finally reach Salzburg. The trip took us through the Arlberg Pass, a scenic journey along a rushing river and great mountains all around.
I may have gotten a little jaded from our time up in Gimmelwald with the larger than life view of the Alps but these seemed less impressive. Still, beautiful scenery, but we were ready to be at our destination a few hours before we got there.
At 9pm we pulled into a balmy 79 degree Salzburg train station grabbed a taxi to the hotel and got right into bed. We were not for the weather. Jeans, a hoodie and scarf made it a sweltering taxi ride. Shorts and a T-shirt would have sufficed! No air con in the room so we through open the windows and cranked up the fan and we are finally cooling off. Looking forward to a good night sleep and lovely day in Salzburg tomorrow!
Art’s Travel Adventures 