Day 7 - Interlaken, Switzerland - Luxembourg

We awoke to the view over the lake with mountains all around, a rather impressive sight. Both John and I sat and looked over the lake, although not both at the same time. John recovering from the cheese overload that was the 'fondue' woke after me and came to the window when I was in the shower. What struck us was the absolute natural beauty of the place, so clean and fresh. Although it was freezing (well not freezing literally but really cold) John opened the window and wrapped up warm. The air was so clean and fresh.

We got in the car and went in search of a boat on one of the lakes. We went armed with the TomTom and a visitors book with no luck. After about 45 minutes of driving round - not wasted time at all, the views were amazing - we decided that instead of being at water level we should see how high we can get. We headed up the mountains to a town called Grindelwald in search of peaks and cable cars. We found a cable car and attempted to park. After failing to find a space and some pretty dodgy reversing where no one was hurt we decided to carry on and see where the road ended. We wanted to get as high as possible. After a bit more driving we came to a car park from which a number of walks were signposted.

After stocking up on supplies (i.e. we bought Ice Tea and Water and chucked it in my rucksack with the Brioche we bought earlier) we went a walking. A crack team of the most well trained and equipped mountaineers. We picked a certain path and reached the end of it within 20 minutes. It led to the base of the worlds first ever cable car. The building had been left in ruin as the cable car had not been used for years - the cables were not even in place any more. Surprising to stumble upon a little history even halfway up a mountain. Rather in contrast to our America trip.

We headed off on another path towards a path with directions towards a Glacier. We reached the end of the path and were presented with a lot of steps which disappeared up the mountain. Never ones to pass up a challenge we decided to climb the steps. After climbing up about 100 steps we were pretty knackered but pleased that we were half way through and nearing the top. After climbing the next 100 it became apparent that we were mistaken. It turned out that there were 890 steps in total all different sizes and heights. John kept muttering about health and safety not allowing this kind of thing, the treads were different lengths and the risers were abnormal too! There was a bridge over a river at the top. The river was made of water from melting Glaciers. The Bridge was a suspension bridge 60 metres above the water. Think of the bridge in Indiana Jones and the temple of doom but made of steel cables instead of rope. The bridge was pretty bouncy! The view up on the rocky top was breathtaking. Although we were still miles from the top. We took some pictures and decided that Switzerland was a cool place. John's favourite place of all, perhaps the most beautiful country on Earth. After the long trip down the steps - It almost took as long as the climb up but was a LOT less tiring - we headed for Luxembourg.

We arrived at Luxembourg about 22:00 hours and decided that we would stay out of the city and travel in on the morning. We found a hotel in the TomTom and headed there. It was a nice place and we asked for some red Luxembourg wine. Apparently Luxembourg only does white so we tried it, not as good as red but you must help out the local economy. In trying to find the hotel we found ourself with the car in a church car park. Arrows indicated we could provide another way out the car park, after some nimble manoeuvring from John who was the driver we managed to get through the width restriction. However we must have read the arrows wrong as we found ourselves in a school play ground. Thank god it was late, the school was shut, the kids were at home in bed and the local police were not around. We got out as soon as possible and ignored the arrows and finally managed to find where we had booked.