Swiss Misses

A Year Ago Today...

March 21, 2009

Itinerary:

Saturday, 3/21 Interlaken (Charissa and Harmony)

-7:15 a.m. breakfast at hostel

-8:00 a.m. check out-store bags in lockers: free with deposit for padlock.

-Rent gear from Swiss Rent a Sport next door to hostel. Snowboarding for two: CHF343.80 ($318.71) = 2 passes (includes transportation to mountain), 1 pants, 2 goggles, 2 gloves, 2 boards, 2 boots.

-9:00 a.m. catch bus to mountain, Gondola to top.

-Snowboard Grindulwald at Manlichen all day.

-Train back to Interlaken

-Dinner Pizza/Coke CHF 14.30. Cheeseburger CHF 2.50.

-Souvenir Shopping

-Showers/pick up bags at Balmers

-Catch overnight train (coachette bed) to Florence, Italy. No lodging needed Saturday night.

Lodging: travel all night to Florence: Reservations with Pass: CHF 41.00 (made in Interlaken).

Train: 11:03 p.m., Interlaken Ost (train996) arrive 11:22 p.m., Spiez Switzerland (21 min) Connecting: 11:35 p.m. Spiez (train 313) arrive 6:30 a.m., Firenze Campo Dl, Italy (7 hr. 6 min.)

Waking up in Interlaken was a treat. Our skylight was our favorite part of our hostel room and we were so surprised to see the amazing view out of it in the morning since it had been dark when we arrived.

After breakfast at our hostel, we walked next door to the equipment rental shop and hooked ourselves up with boards and boots for the mountain. The guy who fitted us could tell what size feet we had just by looking at them! He certainly was in the right profession!

We caught a bus to the resort and then hopped in a gondola with 2 German fellows who informed us that Austria is one of the best places to ski/ride. Perhaps on another trip we can see for ourselves. :-)

Once at the top, we were thankful we had chosen to spend a day snowboarding simply because the view was amazing!

Mannlichen

Something we thought was funny was that the Swiss had lawn chairs set up at the top where many of them were sun-bathing.

Snowboarding in the Swiss Alps...not everyone can say that they've done that!

Before we went all the way down, we decided we must go up as far as we could. So we left our boards at the lodge and hiked up to the top of this hill.

We were at the top of the world!

Doesn't this look like something straight out of Heidi? We rode down on a little back slope and enjoyed the sights.

After riding all day and going on breakfast and granola bars, we were starving! We treated ourselves to a nice dinner in Interlaken... Would you believe that we ate this pizza between the two of us...And the went to McDonalds for cheeseburgers for dessert? :-0