Yodeley-he-ho!

Well we're a long way from England now! We flew to Paris, picked up a car and drove through to Switzerland. John's old school friend, Matt, lives in a ski village in Switzerland (he's a ski and snowboard instructor) so we went to stay with him for a few days. And what a few days it was!

Just getting to Matt's place was an adventure. We drove up a beautiful valley then parked our car near one of many waterfalls that spilled down the sides of the valley.

We then caught two cable cars to Murren, Matt's village. It sure beats walking up those hills!

We explored the town - it was beautiful! It was so Swiss - timber houses with flower-boxes at their window sills were framed by incredible snow-capped mountains. The Eiger, the Jungfrau and the Monch towered over us.

Let's just say that the first night was big. We had brought some duty-free grog with us and Matt had allowed for a big night. The next day, the skies cleared and we had magnificent sunshine for most of our remaining days. Perfect! John started the day with a coffee with a view.

We went for a walk that day, just taking it fairly easy. I don't think I need to comment too much on these photos - they speak for themselves!

In our three days there, I think we tried just about every Swiss dish there is! We had fondue, Swiss cheese, rosti, more cheese and many traditional dishes. One of my faves was the very unusual combination of pasta, fried onions, prosciutto and cheese - all served with sweet, spiced apple! It's a weird combination but gosh it was good! So much of the food is high-carb comfort food - perfect for farming at altitude or skiing but not so good for my hips! It was sooo yummy though!

The next day turned out to be a real highlight. John and I hired some bikes with the plan being that Matt would show us how to ride more or less downhill all the way to the Thunersee, about 20 kms away. The guy we hired the bikes from seemed to think that the track Matt wanted to take us on was too risky. We figured if it was that difficult we would just walk. And that's exactly what we did.

We started out just cruising down the sealed track with the stupendous mountains providing a stunning backdrop at every turn.

The track then became steep and rough in places but we just walked the bikes down some sections and it was fine. The track soon turned into a road again and we rode through some gorgeous villages. We stopped for coffee in a lovely town then crossed this covered wooden bridge. How cool!

We bought cheese and onion pies (another Swiss specialty) at a shop then ate them at an old castle. What a perfect picnic spot.

We then rode into Interlaken, a larger town which was full of tourists. Matt's friend Nics takes people up in paragliders so we waited for her to fly down to us. Paragliders were coming in every few minutes - it's an enormously popular thing to do here. They reminded me of planes queued up to land at a busy airport.

While we waited for Nics to pack up her gear we rode around a nearby church complex. It was all so photogenic..

Nics joined us on her bike and the four of us continued on, over rivers, through forests and past colourful houses.

We came to the Thunersee at last. Nics had a swim but it wasn't quite hot enough for the rest of us to be bothered trying to dry off without a towel. We then rode on to a restaurant and bar on the water's edge. It was beautiful.

As we whiled away the afternoon, we saw the skies darken......

As we ate dinner it got darker and darker. Thunder rattled overhead and rain started to fall.

The rain eased and we decided to make a break for it. Big mistake. Suddenly the rain bucketed down. We were riding along a bush track at the time. We remembered seeing a bird hide earlier so we all bolted for it. We made it there but it was too late - we were completly soaked! It was such fun though!

To add to the fun, the way to get home from Interlaken without riding was not what I would call ordinary means. We had to catch the 9pm train and if we missed it the next one wasn't til 11pm.  We bolted through the streets of Interlaken in the dark and just caught the train by seconds. To my amazement they had a carriage just for bikes! It was all so civilised. We then hopped off the train and caught a bus - again it had space for our bikes. From the bus we caught 2 cable cars up to Matt's town, wheeling our bikes onto each one and arrived back at Matt's place late in the night. What an awesome day!

The next day Matt had arranged for a friend of his, Simon, to join us for a walk. Nics came along as well so there were five of us. It was another great walk.

Paragliders were everywhere. The views from them must be amazing.

On the trail......

Can you spot John and Matt in the photo below?

Along the way, Nics and I found wild blueberries and raspberries! The raspberries weren't quite ripe but the blueberries were yummy, although they were quite small. I've never seen wild blueberries or raspberries before so it was pretty special!

We had another magnificent calorie-laden lunch at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. While we ate, a helicopter landed to take an injured woman. Helicopters seem to be everywhere here.

Over lunch, Matt, Simon and John decided to conquer Mt Schilthorn, another 900 vertical metres above us. Nics and I opted out and took a different route home. The guys had a camera but didn't take a single photo so all I can say is that they had a great time. They arrived at the top of the mountain at the building where the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was filmed. They got to the famous revolving restaurant at the top just as the clouds rolled in. Oh well. They saw the view on the way up at least!

Meanwhile, Nics and I had a wonderful walk back. We passed the farmers in the photo below. All the farmers here collect the cow poo from the barns and pump it out onto the hills. I'm not sure why. These guys were taking it one step further and holding the hose to spray the poo around. Now that's a serious amount of liquidised cow poo! They laughed when I took the photo.

Our walk back was even more spectacular than the walk out.

The nature at our feet was just as gorgeous as the mountains around us.

Nics knew where there was a waterfall that we could walk behind so she took me to it. It was amazing! This is the view from behind the waterfall.

Switzerland is such an incredibly beautiful place. I think it would look so different in winter but that would also be amazing. It's a very expensive country when you're travelling on Aussie dollars but I'm so glad we got to see so much of a small part of it.

Thanks for looking after us so well Matt!

See ya!
Heather and John