It wasn't very cold, but it certainly was wet!
Did it snow?
YES!!!
It snowed a lot!
Someone slid into the fence along the road in front of our chalet and the police and ambulance had to come. Our hostess (Hedi) was incredulous that someone would have an accident, since the road wasn't icy. When she took us back to the train station, she was driving with confidence and speed along the curvy snowy road.
Here's what I wore:
 |
| jeans: Style & Co from Macy's blouse, sweater, socks, shoes: Target |
We got to the train station and enjoyed the huge fluffy flakes of snow while waiting for our train!
Thankfully, the train station had a roof!
The snow piled up on it and it was beautiful.
We were headed to Interlaken Ost.
From Interlaken, we would hop on a ship (!!!) that would take us to Brienz,
and from Brienz, we'd get another train to Meiringen.
We could have also taken the train the whole way, but we decided that the ship sounded like more fun. And it was!
It all worked smoothly.
When we got on the train, the windows were fogged up and it was chilly.
I turned the heat up.
It was about 20 minutes to Interlaken, where we looked for the signs with the ship on the them!
See it on the bottom row?
We crossed the street (in the pouring rain) and waited under that little roof,
which turned out to be a very cute cafe (that wasn't open).
Look at the cute lighting!
The heart is a "Herz," and added to the "lich", spells "herzlich", which addded to wilkommen means a heartfelt welcome. Cute!
Here's Greg's pretend grumpy face!
There it is!!!
The Brienz!
There were some strange bright orange cow statues near the dock.
Details about the MS Brienz:
There was a little play area (Spielecke = play corner) for kids with a boat they could sit on and pretend to drive.
And there's a myth of a little lake fairy and the ship gave out little coloring books of the story.
The fairy got lost somehow, I believe, and the kids need to help her find her way back to the lake or something like that.
"The Gluntschli is a small water spirit from Lake Brienz. During a storm, she was blown astray into Lake Thun, where she made a crash landing on the MS BernerOberland. Eeek!
Then things really start happening!
The adventures of Gluntschli Pflotschnass are available at the ship cashier as a CD (in Bern German) and as a coloring book."
This guy was all dressed up in his rain slicker and lovely rain hat.
He was in the ticket counter (inside the building that held the cafe) most of the time and dressed up in his weather-protective gear to change the signs that told when the next arrivals and departures would be.
And then we were off!
Here are some scenes from our boat trip.
We were fascinated by the rope tying - they really did secure the ship to the dock with ropes!
Here's my after all the snow and rain.
Thank goodness for braids and hats!
The little bathroom icons were adorable!
More reminders of how to use toilets . . .
Each stall had its own sink - lovely!
There was a wonderful WARM radiator.
I was pretty cold after all our experiences in the snow and rain so far, so I pressed myself against the radiator in the bathroom. It helped quite a bit!
My behind got warm first.
Then my feet!
The water was a beautiful greeny colors.
There goes the bus, right along the shore!
Waterfall!
It came from way up there!
This place (Giessbach) has the oldest European funicular (cable car).
Our boat didn't stop there, but maybe next time we're in Switzerland, we'll go there!
This waterfall came from right underneath that bridge to the funicular.
And then we were in Brienz!
Where it turns out we could have possibly rented a boat
(Bootsvermietung = boat rental).
But maybe not in that weather.
We found our train, even though we had just a few minutes to transfer, and
it even had a fold-out table!
There was cool transom windows and we were able to stow even our larger suitcases above rather than needing to leave them near the doors.
We walked from the train station to our hotel (thank you, Google Maps!)
and fell in love with the town of Meiringen. Though there wasn't a town we DIDN'T love!
Look at this amazing tree!
Greg doesn't love rain or cold, but he was brave and intrepid.
Even up these curly stairs to our hotel room!
It seemed as if it maybe used to be a boarding school.
Wet and chilly, but happy!
We set off to explore the town and see the Sherlock Holmes Museum and Reichenbach falls, the reasons we visited Meiringen.
Almost all of the shops were shut because it was Monday.
Small-town Switzerland and Austria (and in some places, Germany, too, though it's changing)
is usually not open on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. And Catholic holidays are usually set for Thursdays (there was a strange one while we were in Switzerland with a parade and girls in white dresses and families off work), so the people have Thursday and Friday off that week. There are a LOT of unexpected Catholic holidays, too. So you'd better plan ahead to have extras of everything so you don't starve with no groceries on holiday weekends or weekends in general!
This place is open Tuesdays to Fridays from 8-12 am and 1:30-6 pm
Saturday from 9-12 pm and 1:30 - 4 pm
Sunday is not even listed - it's like it doesn't exist (which is no doubt a much healthier and wiser way of life!)
Not open Mondays.
We saw "Hotel Sherlock Holmes".
And something unique to Swiss German is the "Molkerei" - a "milkery" or dairy distribution shop.
This one had great big containers of milk in the bag to go into the delivery trucks.
What is an "Oklahoma Wurstli" (= little Oklahoma sausage)?
Peek-a-boo!
Poster for the Sherlock Holmes Museum!
And there he is; the man himself!
The square in front of the old church that now houses the museum had a lovely little pond.
And we discovered the museum wasn't yet open, though it WOULD be open.
We hadn't figured on Monday closures (and it said online it would be open), but we were slightly concerned after the entire town was pretty much shut down.
The building was adorable.
Once it opened (2 pm), we got to see that it was beautiful inside.
We got little earphones connected to a hand-held piece we aimed at particular hot spots throughout the building.
I decided to head downstairs . . .
All the accouterments made it seem as if Sherlock Holmes had been a real person!
There's a deerstalker like the one the character wore!
It was pretty impressive!
We enjoyed every bit of the museum, and then headed out again into the rain to see Reichenbach Falls!
See the sign?
Here we are by the tracks that go up up up!
We arrived just as this tram was leaving.
A tram came down while we were waiting, and it was full of preschoolers
enjoying a field trip.
Look at this tiny little elf person!!!
Do not lean out!!!
Camera got spotted by rain.
Steep!
Inside the tram was steep, too!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment! xo