Tuesday, November 4, 2008

My life in Canada (July 2008)...Part 5

July 2008 continued:

*Thursday – July 17: Day 6 in Switzerland: Today it was raining again and we couldn’t do that much so we went into Interlaken to do some more souvenir shopping and shopping for some sport clothing for Michael. He really enjoyed looking at all the soccer jersey’s and such. Later in the day we went to Bern as there are covered shopping streets. It was about 1 hour driving from Interlaken and funny enough it wasn’t raining in Bern. It was interesting to walk through the city and see all the different stores. It sure is an expensive city, but very beautiful. We had dinner in Bern as well which was really nice. We had a nice day and enjoyed our visit to Bern.
*Friday – July 18: Day 7 in Switzerland: It seemed like a fairly nice day today so we decided to visit the small town of Thun on the other side of Lake Thun and opposite of Interlaken. We walked around this quaint town to enjoy the views over the River Aare, the buildings and the mountain views. We looked around in some stores and such. We had a drink somewhere in a nice café and enjoyed our time. On the way back we stopped at a few nice places along the lake to enjoy the beautiful views over the lake. In the evening we enjoyed a nice dinner at the apartment and we enjoyed some wonderful views from our deck.

Some views of Thun and the drive along Lake Thun
View from the deck of the apartment we stayed at near Interlaken

*Saturday – July 19: Day 8 in Switzerland: It was another fairly nice day with sun and clouds. It was my favourite aunt from Belgium (Annie) her birthday, so we thought we'd surprise her with a phone call. She was really happy that we gave her a call. After that we decided to visit The Blausee which is in the area of Kandersteg. This trip was about 45 minutes driving from our apartment. I had read that the Blausee is a nice little blue lake with picnic areas and walking trails. There is even a free boat ride, so we were kind of excited about that. We also took a lunch with us so we could have something to eat while we were there. After we parked the car we walked into the park and saw this amazingly blue lake...wow, how nice! There were tons of fish in the water as well, appearantly it is a trout farm as wel and you could buy fresh trout there if you wish. There was a river nearby and several hiking trails. We walked along the trail around the lake and enjoyed all the different views. We soon realized that the boat ride was just a little wooden boat pushed by an older man...haha. We thought it was going to be something like in the Canadian Rockies. But hey, we still went for the little boatride and to be honest with you it was quite pleasant. After that it was getting on for lunch time, so we found a nice bench along the lake where we sat down and enjoyed our lunch. We stayed here until mid afternoon and the we made our way back to our apartment.


Some photos from the Blausee and the boat on the lake


After we got back to the apartment we saw the lady that owned the apartment outside and she was talking to us for a while. We just chatted about how we liked Switzerland and what we had done so far. She is such a nice lady, she had all kinds of fresh vegetables and fruits in the garden. She gave us some fresh peaches and apricots that were groing on the trees in the garden...hmmm that was so nice! She also has this 16 year old dog which is a Bernese Mountain dog mix...his name is Brannie (not sure if I spelled it right), but he was so cute and such a sweet dog! My mom wanted to rest for a while, but Michael and I didn't mind going for a walk in the area. Erica (the lady that owned the apartment/house) told us that there was a hiking trail behind the house that lead to a suspension bridge and a waterfall. She said it was only about 15-20 minutes walking. So, we figured we would go and have a look while my mom was resting for a while. After walking uphill for about 15 minutes we could see the suspension bridge and the waterfall from the creek. That was a nice little trail and so close to the place we stayed. If you continued on you could walk all the way to Beatenberg. Well, that walk made us warm, so we went for another swim in the pool. It was so nice as it was quite hot outside.

View of the Suspension Bridge and Creek

16 year old Brannie

View of the house we stayed in seen from the little street that lead to it

Please see my next post "My life in Canada (July 2008)...Part 6" for the rest of the story!

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