Thompson Tidbits: Europe Day 7: Welcome to Switzerland!

April 20 was an early morning and we had a long train ride ahead of us, so I ordered what I thought was 2 eggs for breakfast to supplement all the carbs...and ended up getting 2 plates of eggs with ham. So Bryan got some protein too : ) We then hurried back to our hotel to get our bags and check-out, during which we discovered that the "tickets" we got from the hotel to use for breakfast each morning did NOT mean it was included...it simply meant the restaurant charged the hotel, which in turn charged us. We grimaced when we realized just how much we had spent on croissants that week, but then had to laugh and decided if that was our worst lost-in-translation moment of the trip, it wasn't that bad. We caught our train to Basel, which was the first leg of our trip to Interlaken, and enjoyed beautiful scenery on the way.

Bryan on the way to Basel

We really enjoyed our train rides, which were filled with great scenery and a chance to relax and think, write, or listen to music. I used this particular ride to reflect on Paris. We both really enjoyed our time there. It's a large city, but it feels friendly. There are cute little cafes with outdoor seating everywhere, a bakery on most corners (they love their fresh bread), and neat stone buildings with curved ends and black iron balconies at the windows. Lots of trees and parks - it was quite green while we were there. Cars don't honk in Paris. We heard an occassional siren, but that's all. Aggression in general was absent...once in a metro station we heard a man yelling "pickpocket. Someone stop him. Do not let him get away." But he just pointed at the guy, making no effort to actually do anything about his stolen wallet. Perhaps most significant was the gorgeous weather we had, which made our sightseeing even more pleasant.

After passing lots of yellow fields (which we later found out where canola fields), we arrived in Basel and had a quick lunch at the station before getting on the train to Interlaken. Riding past Lake Thun into Interlaken (which literally means "between the lakes") was gorgeous! Once in Interlaken, we jumped off the train and hurried to deposit our bags at our hotel so we could find a boat ride on Lake Thun. A few minutes later we realized we hadn't grabbed the painting we'd bought in Paris, and it was riding away from Interlaken on the train. Big bummer #1 for the day. We filed a lost and found report and tried to find the train, but we never did see it again. So then we went to catch the boat ride, and discovered they pushed the start date back until April 22. Big bummer #2. Still, we were in a beautiful little town, so we set off to explore it.