For Presidents’ Day, I had a 4 day weekend, so we decided to take a little trip to Switzerland. The plan was to leave on Friday, spend all Saturday in Luzern, then take a train to Interlaken on Sunday for a day trip, and drive back home on Monday. Erica planned it all out and when I got home after a week in the field, we packed up the little one and left for the Swiss Alps!
New shoes. New jeans.
New top. Yup, I'm ready to go!
I'll drive!
The trip was supposed to only be a five-and-a-half hour drive, however after an unexpected 2 hour detour in Stuttgart (there’s another US Military post there and it’s “on the way” according to the map, so we thought it would be a good idea) and then we hit quitting time traffic in Zurich, our five-and-a-half hour trip turned into nine.
When we arrived at Luzern, we unpacked at the beautiful Ameron Flora Hotel. Due to the late hour, we decided to have dinner there. This was an excellent choice, for the food was delicious.
We woke up early the next day in order to start our vacation. Our hotel was perfectly placed. It was one block away from the 200+ year old wooden water tower and bridge (a major attraction for the city). This provided great scenery in order for us to get a few family pics utilizing the new tripod. Other than the pictures, we spent the day window shopping and exploring. We found the Glacier Garden, which is an attraction showcasing a lot of fossils and remnants from when the glaciers made their way through that area. An additional attraction there (which has no relation to glaciers) was the Hall of Mirrors. This was basically just a mirror filled maze. This gave a lot of enjoyment to all. We then spent the evening walking around and having dinner by the lake. This too was DELICIOUS.
Bridge and water tower built in the 1800s.
The Stanforths in Luzern, Switzerland.
Taking a break.
Glacier Garden
Luzern 20 million years ago.
Hall of mirrors.
Lunch time.
Napping in my tent.
A peek of the Swiss Alps.
There were lots of cafes, but we chose to go to Starbucks ;)
Chubby baby!
Sunday was our Interlaken day. We decided to use the train to get there, which wasn’t a big deal, since our hotel was a convenient 3 minute walk to the train station. The train ride wasn’t bad. I slept most of the 2 hour trip (due to Penelope not allowing me to sleep most of the night before L ) while Erica and Penelope watched the sites pass by. The plan when we got to Interlaken was to enjoy the mountainous scenery as best we could, however the fog decided to come to Interlaken the same time we did. Though the visibility was limited, we still decided to make the most of it. We hoped onto another train that took us up the mountain. This train, which was a lot smaller, was packed with skiers and snowboarders and this, Penelope did not like one bit. This trip was about an hour-and-a-half long and all of the passengers knew of Penelope’s digressions almost the whole time.
Off to the train station.
Here we go!
Dad gets some sleep.
So does baby!
Finally made it to Interlaken.
Klein Sheidegg-6,762 ft
Our final destination was half way to the “Top of Europe” (high enough for us) and, no surprise, the fog was on top of the mountain as well. So we decided to get some lunch and try to enjoy the limited view we had. We picked one of the few hotel-restaurants there to settle in to. This entire area definitely caters to the ski crowd (being that it is a ski resort) so all of the restaurants were loud and packed with skiers trying to get a quick bite in between runs. Again, Penelope did not like this at all. To try to ease Penelope’s anguish, we quickly finished our lunch, found the best view we could for a family photo, and then waited for the train to bring us back down.
While waiting for our train back down the mountain, a group of Asian tourists noticed Penelope wearing her owl hat. They thought this was the most amusing thing they had ever seen. They came up to us, grabbed Penelope’s hands, patted her head, and took multiple pictures of us (complete with classic Peace sign and arm around my shoulder). Oh yeah, and none of them spoke a word of English. What was astounding was this same thing happened in the hotel lobby, that evening with a different group of Asian tourists. Definitely wild!
Penelope, our celebrity!
We ended the Interlaken trip with a train ride down the mountain and then a train ride back to Luzern.
That night we spent relaxing in the hotel room with Penelope practicing her rolling maneuvers.
The next morning, we packed up and left. After going the wrong way down a one-way street and some-how getting stuck in Stuttgart again, we made it back in only six and a half hours. And that concluded another successful Stanforth trip.
