dwarbi's roof: I'm Going to Beat You With a Pig Bladder!

In accordance with my new method to counteract my backblogged status, I'm going to have to give a rather quick summary of two amazing days in Switzerland, then direct you to a lump of 111 photos. I hope you're OK with this.

We drove through the heart of the Swiss Alps to get from Montreux to Interlaken. Halfway into the drive through the snow-capped mountains filled with waterfalls, we stopped for a sandwich in a town that didn't appear to have a name. This was the first town we entered that spoke German rather than French. We pointed at the meat, cheese & bread we wanted while making pathetic attempts to pronounce the German words for them. Whatever we ate, it was good!

Our hotel, Hotel Alpenblick, was in Wilderswil, just outside of Interlaken. The town was exactly the sort of quiet, sleepy village we wanted... much better than the heart of Interlaken. We had a terrace that we sat on to watch the storm clouds roll in and out. Mostly in.

The family-owned hotel gave every guest a morning paper. I mean a piece paper, like a print-out, that included the forecast and welcomed incoming guests while bidding farewell to those departing. The day we arrived it said, "Wir freuen uns, folgende Gäste begrüssen zu dürfen:
Herr und Frau Hurley aus Australien"

The drive around Lake Thun (or the Thunersee) was lined with waterfalls just off the road. Even though it was not raining, we had to keep our windshield wipers on to clear off the dumps of water that spilled from the overflowing falls.

We made a stop at the 12th century building called the Oberhofen Castle. The gardens were gorgeous and the waters around the castle filled with entertaining ducks. Not quite as entertaining as a speaking duck, like Daffy or Donald, but still pretty amusing. If they tried to use the old latrines inside the castle, then they would have been funnier than any angry duck personified in a cartoon.

Thun offered a lot of beautiful streets on which to stroll and a massive castle overlooking the town and onwards to the lake. The castle had much better dungeon and torture facilities than the Château de Chillon. These dudes were up in towers, overlooking Thun. They would be much more effective now since captives would have to look upon the new housing developments.

In the museum of the Castle of Thun there is a traditional mask on display that is still used in the annual Thun fair! A man dons the mask and runs around the street, shouting and hitting women and children with pig bladders. Really? Yes. I did not make this up.

After two nights at the Hotel Alpenblick, we continued on our way. The food and service was excellent, and we would stay there for even longer in the future if we have the opportunity. On our first night they were offering their fondue dinner: over 120 sauces to accompany the chicken, beef, potatoes, etc that we cooked at our table. Highly recommended.

After leaving Switzerland we briefly drove through Liechtenstein. The country shares an open border with Switzerland, and we wanted to stop for a cup of coffee to meet an ~~Liechtenstite~~ ~~Liechtenstinian~~ Liechtensteiner, but we had no such luck. The country is tiny (62 square miles), is very similar in landscape to Switzerland and has only about 35,000 citizens. Before we even knew it, we were in Austria!

Enter Austria. OK, we knew it. Customs from Liechtenstein was about as rough as you'd expect, but what was much rougher was finding a cup of coffee! Liechtenstein seemed caffeine-free, so the 'cafe' sign in Austria was promising. It was actually a Chinese restaurant affiliated with the Asian food market next door. The coffee was pretty good. We didn't eat anything, and I think that's what the people working there were shouting about... but I'm not sure.

Driving from Switzerland to Liechtenstein to Austria felt a bit like popping in and out of different shopping centers after hours, looking for a Starbucks that might still be open.

We drove through the fantastic Austrian Alps for a couple of hours and were blown away by the spectacularly painted trucks they have. The waterfalls and mountains are great, of course, but entire scenes realized on a milk truck! I can die now.