Chopsticks Times 6: Switzerland

We woke up early and headed out. We were more than excited to see the clear blue skies!

This was also the first day to see all the mountains surrounding the valley.

Another water fountain closer to our ABNB.

I know it seems like I have already posted this picture many times. It just always seemed to look different to me in the different weather, and we walked past it every day.

We were on the 7:30 train into Interlaken.

We had a connection from the train station to the bus station to get us to High Tide Kayak School for us to go exploring on Lake Brienz. Pictures will never do it justice, but you can imagine. It was the most beautiful blue color. I've never seen anything like it.

Regan was in the pink and purple kayak. Our guide assigned us kayaks based on our height.

I had the yellow kayak. So you can tell who is who in the pictures now :) I really like this one!

Regan and I together! Our guide was so kind to take photos for us. He emailed them after the 2.5 hrs on the lake. He talked me into leaving my phone in a locker. It was at the beginning of our trip and I could just image me flipping over and losing my phone. Proud to say that there were no kayaking incidents!

Regan

Because we had a guide, we were in a group with two other people.

This was one of my favorite parts of the tour on the lake. It was so interesting. When we first started out, he asked us to touch the water. It was COLD. When we got to this part, he asked us to touch the water. It was FREEZING! There are two rivers that feed into the lake. One is really blue blue water and the other is solid white water (glacial water) You could literally see (and feel) a difference between the two. The water mixes from the rivers and creates the teal color of Lake Brienz.

This is one of my favorites of Regan. She was just sitting in the kayak enjoying the water and the view of the town with the mountains and blue skies.

I also really like this one!

You can see the color a little better in this one.

An extra treat! As we were coming back in, this mother swan was bringing her babies out onto the water. She was blocking our way, so we just waited and watched her swim right by.

Our guide, Mikel, at the end. He was from Sweden and has lived in Switzerland for 14 years. In the summer he is a ski guide/instructor and in the summer he does kayaking tours and classes. He even brought cookies for a mid-kayak snack on the water.

After a super relaxing morning, it was lunch time. We decided to walk back to Interlaken instead of taking the bus. It only took about 40 minutes.

We passed the bus stop :)

These trees cool. They had bamboo crossing the streets at the top to keep the trees growing a certain way.

I know we were walking to lunch, but it was hot and my head was starting to hurt so what better fix than some Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough Icecream! :)

The restaurant for lunch...Cafe de Paris

I ordered a Coke. She said they only have Swiss brand everything at their store. My Coke came and I had to check the ingredients just to check. Actually it was fantastic. I liked it better than Coke. It had more of a Dr. Pepper flavor.

My salad...absolutely delicious!! I ate every bite!

I ordered a pork cordon blue. yum

Regan ordered Paprika spaghetti (I think it had a different name but I don't remember for sure)

After lunch, we did our souvenier shopping at the stores. Then we rode the train back to our ABNB

Oh! Regan got a selfie at lunch.

Back in Lauterbrunnan

take a book, leave a book

Mooo!

Once back, we weren't quite ready to settle in for the night. So, we hiked up behind the waterfall near our ABND.

I didn't realize how tall the waterfall actually was.

Still climbing up

We ended up going behind the waterfall.

After we did the waterfall, we decided to walk through the cemetery. It really was beautiful how each was decorated. Many of the last names were the names of many of the towns we were in or going to.