Hagenau

Villiers
It snowed overnight. We awoke to a picturesue winter wonderland all around.


Penguin?
Saw a few minutes of a kids soccer match outside the National Museum, where Italian Fashionistas just had to be seen. The soccer match was the most interesting part of this sojourn.


Geneva
Our romanticised notions quickly gave way to the reality of a traffic Hell on Earth, not even the elegant Prostitute could attract either of us to stay. We did a U-turn and fled immediately. It got late and we had to settle for a hotel in a residential suburb and got ripped off badly.


Interlaken
Stopped at a supermarketty thingy because Tricia was desperate for the loo. She was told it was up the back but that someone else had the key. Tricia went and waited by a back door with lots of green writing on it including something undecipherable about the WC. It was clearly the wrong door but Tricia insisted on just standing there. I told her I had seen a woman exit from a nearby door but no this just had to be the door. I could see the door was obviously an emergency exit but Tricia insisted on impatiently waiting. I was was now very irritated, the only way to prove this was the wrong door was to open and show her the outside world. There was a green block stopping the handle from turning, as soon as I turned the green block out of the way ... Alarm, Alarm, Alarm, .. I was expecting a dozen heavily armed Storm Troopers to appear and shoot me dead, fate was however not kind to me today. An Uber stern shop assistent came instead. Just one glance reduced me to a snivelling mess. She had to call someone to disable the alarm. After 10 minutes, the alarm was still blaring and finally Tricia gave up on the hope of a toilet.

Relief finally came at a coffee shop.


Stechelberg - Lauterbrunnen, Murren
The revolving restaurant on the top of Shilthorn was built for the Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Service". It got blown to pieces but seems to be OK now. The heat inside made us feel nautious. We were unlucky with the weather.

We got off the cable car at one of the stops on the way down, Murren. And then cow pat hopped all around the fields and walking trails. The clouds broke briefly to let us see the Jungfrau Mtn on the other side of the valley.



We spent two nights in a backpackers Hovel/Haven in the prettiest valley on the planet. And it's wall to wall Aussies here! They own and run many of the businesses, including our lovely Alpenhof B&B Stechelberg.

We saved a fortune on meals because the B&B provides a self catering kitchen, fully equipped, even has a dumb waiter.


Grindelwald
Unexpectedly, the tourist info centre is the same Ice Rink we saw on our previous visit. This time an ice hockey team was training. Preferred the Olympic figure skaters we saw last time.

Much larger villages than in the Stechelberg valley. Almost as scenic, but the view from the top of the mountain "First" was jaw dropping. We had brought tuna sandwiches and blackforest cakes for lunch, but upon seeing the restaurant balcony decided to check them into a locker and buy lunch.










Reluctantly, we then headed off on our hike to some lake, up and up and up. Luckily the Swiss air force put on a free show for us while doing some training exercises.

Found another inexpensive hotel. It was ridiculously hot inside, luckily we found the thermostat which was set to Max and turned it down. Ate tuna sandwiches and blackforest cake for dinner.