Country 8: Switzerland

The border crossing between Italy and Switzerland was the strangest so far. It came unexpectedly in the middle of a town. All the other border crossings we went through were out in the middle of nowhere- which made this unexpected and extremely odd.

We took the mountain roads to drive to the campsite- they reminded me of driving in Croatia or Norway, very narrow, steep and twisty turny. After awhile we came to a blockade in the road and were forced to turn back: the road was closed due to bad weather. The other route to the campsite was through the longest tunnel in the world (I am told), which was 21km long and was followed by another at 13km; pretty crazy.

The Scenery is beautiful here. We spent two full days in the Alps. On the first day we went for a small hike up the nearest hill and then on the second we took the cable cars to the top of Schilthorn with the plan to walk down. It took 4 transfers to reach the top at a height above sea level of over 3000m (not sure exactly how high). Accompaning us were many American tourists, and while comparing myself to them, I began to get nervous thinking I had over dressed- I had a hat, sweaters, long pants, jacket- I was dressed for cold. In comparison, the were dressed for 30+ in shorts and t-shirts- but mind you they did not leave the building and in the end I was quite thankful for all my clothing.

Well we walked down the first jaunt and that took us 1.5hours and my legs were tired because of the steepness of the climb. We decided to cable car it the rest of the way, but getting off and exploring at each of the stops. One of the stops was at the mountain town Murren, very swiss. The pictures I think, tell the rest of the story.


The day we left, there was not a cloud in the sky- perfect weather for going to the top...oh well.