Day 24: Zurück nach Switzerland

We left Hornberg today. Getting back to the train station was much easier, too, because we had arranged transportation with the hotel. After another hearty breakfast, we finished packing our things and headed down to the reception desk a little early to settle our bill, and because I had seen some merchandise for sale at the hotel that I wanted to snag :) The woman who runs the hotel asked us during our checkout process how we enjoyed our stay, to which we, of course, answered we had very much. Hotel Schloss Hornberg really was a wonderful place to stay! When we settled the bill, we also settled our food bill from dinner last night, as well as the cost of some things from the minibar. All totaled, though, the amount for everything came out significantly less than I had *generally* calculated. I hadn’t recalled what the daily room rate had been, though, so I think I had high-balled it a little. Moving on though…

At approximately 8:30, a lovely woman from the hotel staff helped us put our things in the hotel car and took us to the train station. She was very friendly and asked about where we were headed next and was surprised, as have many people, to hear we were traveling for 9 weeks. She wished us well on our travels, and our train was already waiting when we arrived at the station! So, we hopped on and waited for it to head out.

Our final destination today was Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland (yes, we were just in Switzerland. Now, we’re back!). We had to take the trip in stages, as we have most places, and the first leg actually took us a little further north into Germany before turning back southward. We went from Hornberg to Offenburg, which was about 45 minutes by regional rail. Then, we picked up an ICE from Offenburg to Interlaken Ost (Switzerland). The final leg was another regional rail from Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen, and that involved our first instance of having to get an additional train ticket because the route we took was not covered by our Eurrail pass! Again, I’m getting ahead of myself…The middle section of the trip was the longest leg, but arguably the most beautiful. Particularly as we came into the Interlaken region, we passed the Thunsee, which was BEAUTIFUL! The water was a gorgeous turquoise-y color, almost like images you’d see in parts of the Caribbean. It was incredible!

On the last leg of the trip going to Lauterbrunnen, we found there to be a large number of American tourists on our train. We knew based on their use of English and lack of European accents. One family irked me slightly on that train because they all stored their suitcases in the open space by the doors, completely blocking one set. This didn’t last long because a couple on the train got off one stop in and moved all the bags aside so they could get off, as the platform was on that side of the train. The one man from the family repositioned the bags in that same area, but at least left a path. He also didn’t seem too irked that their bags got pushed aside, but if he had, I would have probably said something. I just felt frustrated that they seemed to be so ignorant of the fact that there were doors there and *maybe* they shouldn’t stack their 5 suitcases all together in that spot. Anyhow, Lauterbrunnen was not their final stop, unlike many of the others on the train, as they got off and popped on to the regional train parked one track over to do their next leg. I hope it went smoothly for them and they were more considerate of their bag placement!

Lauterbrunnen is yet another stunning Swiss town, It sits down in a valley *literally* surrounded by the Swiss Alps. We can see one of the 72 (if I read that information correctly) waterfalls in the area from the balcony of our hotel room. It is called Staubbachfall and it is amazing! We actually came in a little ahead of check-in today and so we ate at the hotel next to ours, which also manages the one we are staying in. Once we got our key, we popped into our room to drop our stuff off and we wandered into town for a bit. So far, this has been the busiest place we’ve been. There seem to be a lot of Americans here, and other tourists, but as I mentioned, the scenery makes the business make sense! I am so excited to go up into the mountains a little bit tomorrow. Where we’re going, the high is only going to be 39°F! For reference, the high tomorrow in town is 60. So, we’ll be having some outfit changes!

I continue to appreciate all of you keeping up with our adventures and hope you find the stories and occasional insights fun/helpful! As always, enjoy the pictures!