*Tuesday – July 22: Day 11 in Switzerland: Today was our last day and we didn’t want to do too much. We had wanted to take a trip on one of those steamboats on Lake Thun or Lake Brienz, so I did a bit of research online and found out that the boat trip to Iseltwald was fairly short and only about $10 a person. Before we left we saw the lady and man that owned the house that we stayed at and they wanted us to come over in the evening for a drink to say goodbye. We agreed on it and would see Erica & Kurt later on in the evening. We drove to Interlaken west where we parked our car and we took the steamboat on Lake Brienz to Iseltwald. It was kind of a cool and cloudy day, but now and then the sun came out. The trip to Iseltwald was about 20 minutes and after 1 hour the boat would come back. My goodness, Iseltwald was a very quiet town with not too much happening. We walked to the little castle we saw there and enjoyed some nice views over Lake Brienz. We enjoyed the trip on the steamboat and had some wonderful views. When we came back we had dinner and relaxed for awhile.
View of the house we stayed at in Switzerland and Michael in an old chairlift in the garden at this house
A few photos of our boat trip to Iseltwald 
Around 8.00pm someone knocked at the door…it was Kurt to let us know that we could come over for awhile. They stayed in a caravan in the backyard while they rent out the floors of their house in the summer time for 3 months…unbelievable, but very interesting to know. Kurt had told us that he lived in Australia for about 6 months and got this nice recipe for rhubarb champagne which was delicious! They served it with some sort of salami and home made bread. How nice! These people are so wonderful and we enjoyed their company. Erica mentioned that Kurt has his own Alpenhorn and that he was so good at playing it. Kurt went to get his Alpenhorn and he played a few songs for us. My oh my, it was so nice to end our holiday with a typical Swiss evening and real amazing Swiss hospitality. It was fantastic to listen to the Alpenhorn which was so big. I had never seen one in real life. So, it was a great opportunity to witness this. We said our goodbye’s and told them we had an amazing time. This was a great place to stay and if I would go back to this area in Switzerland I would stay with them again! We will never forget these kind people. This is the website of the place they rent for tourists: http://www.ericazahnd.ch/ Some photos on their website are mine. :)
A few photos of the inside of the house we stayed at in Switzerland (we had the hole floor to ourselves)
One last sunset view from our deck!
*Wednesday – July 23: Day 12 traveling back to Belgium: Today we travelled back to Belgium. I think we left around 7.00am and arrived in Belgium around 6.00pm. We took our time, stopped a few times for a snack and lunch. We had a great time and now we would enjoy some time in Belgium until the 1st of August.
Our last views over the Eiger and Lake Thun seen from the deck of the house we stayed at in Switzerland before leaving back to Belgium
Bye bye beautiful Switzerland, we are leaving Ruchenbuhl now
*Thursday – July 24: Last night we decided we wanted to go to the market in Genk, so we went to bed on time as we wanted to get up at a decent time. We were in Genk around 9.00am and walked around on the market. People sell everything and anything here. I was looking for the stand with the perfume imitations. I found the stand and bought about 4 perfumes for about $30. They smell so similar to the real deal and they are a fraction of the price. We also looked for some good quality table cloths that we had bought here before. We bought one for ourselves and one for Michael’s parents. Michael had another one of those delicious warm waffles called “Luikse wafels”, he just loves those things. We walked around for quite some time and bought a few things that we could use. We were back around lunch time as we were expected at my brother’s place around 3.30pm as we would have dinner at their place.
We left our place at 3.00pm to go to my brother’s place. It was nice to see them again and to exchange our Swiss travels. They went to Switzerland at the same time as we did, but they were a bit more down south. They seemed to have had a great holiday as well with lots of interesting hikes. I enjoyed seeing their photos and we showed them ours as well. My sister in law her parents were there as well and it was nice to see them again after 4 years. They are nice people. The kids were there too and finally we met Jessie’s boyfriend Niels. He seems like a nice guy. My brother had order Chinese take out for dinner which was sooo good. It’s a little different than the Chinese we know in Canada, but also very tasty. We sat outside as it was a nice sunny and warm day. After dinner we went for a walk in their neighbourhood and had a nice chat. We had a wonderful time and left around 10.00pm to go home.
Please see my next post "My life in Canada (July 2008)...Part 8" for the rest of the story!
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