Switzerland

Interlaken

Interlaken, which means between the lakes, is situated about 2.5 hours from Geneva and 1.5 hours from Zurich. A very small town that is known for its skiing, classic chalet style houses and beautiful views of the Alps, Interlaken is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.

Balmer's Hostel

Lobby of Bamer's

Some views of Interlaken and area surrounding Balmer's

Train station where we caught the train to where we started our hike.

Waterfall

An old Swiss man who helped us find our way to the hiking trail - too bad none of us spoke German

Someone loves their gnomes...

Looking down onto the little village

drainage system that pulls the water from the Alps - very delicious and safe drinking water!

Our Hike

Swiss Alps chillin'

We were sitting a cafe after our hike drinking some coffees and sampling the local beer when all of a sudden this lone cow came walking down the street. Clearly in distress, it tried to enter the sporting goods store across the street via the automatic doors when one of the employees tried to chase it out with some ski poles. Even more frazzled at this point he started moo-ing at his reflection in the window.  Poor guy was really lost. He was very sweet though, we got to pet him. After causing a traffic jam one of the local men started to lead him away. We asked the people working at the cafe if this was normal and their response was No. We all felt pretty special being able to experience the cow sighting!

Zurich

On Saturday of my trip I took a bus to Zurich because I thought it would be cool to see what a Swiss city looked like. Zurich reminded me a lot of Amsterdam and Copenhagen because of the canals that run through the city as well as the architecture. A very posh city where if a store front wasn't a bank it was a chocolate shop, Zurich was a very cool place to visit. 

Christmas Market in Zurich

Gingerbread!

The Lake at Zurich

The largest clock face on a church (St. Peter's Zurich)

The Singing Christmas Tree - a boy's choir was performing

On Sunday morning before getting our bus to the airport Alex and I decided to rent a "fun car" to drive around Interlaken and down to Interlaken Ost to see the lake. Part go-kart part golf cart the fun car was fun to drive through the streets of the Swiss Alps

Lake Interlaken Ost - this picture does not do it justice - the water was Caribbean blue