Today was our last day in Switzerland. It was another beautiful day. We have had a lot of adventures, but we decided that we would let the kids sleep in. Everyone had a lazy morning and we caught the 10:36 bus to Spiez. Terris and Addison drove to Spiez because Terris has an appointment later today and it saves him from going all the way home. The rest of us caught the bus. We arrived in Spiez at 10:47, met up with Terris and Addison, and easily made it to platform 4 to catch the 10:50 train to Thun.
We arrived in Thun at 11:00. We walked through town to the river and watched people surfing by the dam. They used a rope to get to the rapids, then they let go and rode the waves. From there, we walked across the bridge above the dam. There were huge fish swimming under the bridge. We came out to a street that looked like it belonged in a movie set. I love how the Swiss flag is hung all down the street. We turned into what looked like a store, but was a tunnel that took us to level -7 of a parking lot. We took the elevator up to floor 0. Then got out and into another elevator that took us to a different floor 0. From there we walked out and we were at the foot of a huge castle!
We walked through the castle gates and had an amazing view of the city. We continued walking through the castle grounds on a path that took us all the way down to main street (back on floor -7). We toured the main street and some of the stores. We also walked to a few swimming spots. One reminded me of the waterslides. It was a section of the river that was fenced off. They had a slide and diving boards. You pay to get in and you can find a spot in the shade on the grass to put your towel and snacks while you swim. Further down, they had birds in a cage like the zoo. Ari was disappointed that none would talk to him.
Next we made our way toward the steam boat ferry. We stopped at Coop to by sandwiches for lunch before boarding the 2 hr ferry that makes several stops on its way to Interlaken, at the opposite end of the lake. We boarded Blümlisalp at 12:40. There were no seats outside in the shade so we sat down on a bench just inside the door and ate our lunch. After we started moving, Ari asked Tavis if he could see the engine room. Sandra asked a crew member who said “No, it’s not possible” while Ari had already found a different member who offered to take 2 down. Ari and Addison went down and learned how the steam boat was powered. Ari was asking questions about how it worked, so he walked them through and showed them how the water was filtered before entering the engine. It was a great experience.
When we got to Spiez, many people got off so we grabbed seats in the shade out front. We tried to get photos of the water, but the camera couldn’t capture the shades of blue in the lake. It is comparable to the Caribbean… but a lake. When we got to the next stop we got off the boat because we realized we were getting low on time. We saw a great swimming location but when we found out it was going to cost $50 to swim there, we hopped on a bus and headed back to Thun.
We got off the bus at the mouth of the channel to swim. There were stairs going into the water and a nice current that you could ride down to another set of stairs. It was a great way to cool down in the heat. After cooling off, we caught the bus back to the station and walked to the specialty chocolate store to get some good Swiss chocolate. Then we picked up groceries for our last dinner before taking the 16:25 train back to Spiez.
When we got back to Krattigen, Sandra made hotdogs while we all finished packing our bags. Terris got home just before it was time to go. We got some last photos in their back yard. We were really sad to leave Terris and Sandra. Our visit was far too short. We walked to the bus stop for the last time to catch the 18:36 bus. Sandra had tears in her eyes when we left and we felt the same way. Our vacation had come to an end and all that is left is the journey home.
We were on the bus to Spiez with only 1 other couple. There were no stops and we got to the train station in Spiez early! We caught an earlier train than expected to Bern. We arrived in Bern at platform 49 with 10 minutes to get to platform 6. It was plenty of time. Our train departed right on time at 19:31. We arrived at the Zurich airport station at 20:51. We went straight to the hotel shuttle pickup and arrived at 21:00, just as the Hilton shuttle arrived. It was perfectly timed! When we got to the hotel, Tavis checked us in while we grabbed the bags. Tonight we are going to bed early because we have to be up at 04:30. We have an early flight tomorrow and we have to take the 05:30 bus to get back to the airport.