It was hard to believe, but our time in Italy was coming to a close today. With expert timing and precision, we boarded the train back to Levanto to be reunited with our bus. We were off to Switzerland!
Today was another big travel day. It was well punctuated with comfort stops and an overwhelming lunch buffet somewhere in the middle. Even from the bus, the first views of Switzerland were staggering! New Hampshire doesn't have big mountains (our biggest is just over 6,000 feet) so I practically had to scoop my jaw off the bus floor once we crossed the border.
We rolled into town with the storm clouds in the early evening. Paul had given us an orientation of the Lauterbrunnen Valley and Peter generously drove us up the length of the valley floor to give us the lay of the land. We unloaded the bus outside of our hotel just in time before the sky opened up. This was one of just a few periods of rain we had on the trip, but boy did it make itself known! Our hotel lost power somewhere in between our arrival and prepping our dinner. Thankfully, the power was restored a short time later and we were able to enjoy our regularly scheduled fondue dinner. Phew!
This hotel, Hotel Oberland, was hands down my favorite hotel of the entire tour. In addition to being clean and comfortable, the room was spacious, had an incredible view of one of the many waterfalls in the valley, and a balcony to take it all in. That's a win in my book! A huge bonus was that the waterfall was illuminated at night. Double win!
I ventured out after dinner with a few tour mates to stop at the ATM now that the power was back on. This was the only stop of the tour that required a different currency. Since it's not part of the EU, Switzerland still uses the Swiss Franc as its national currency. Even though it was late, visiting the ATM wasn't a problem and we enjoyed a wet, quiet walk back to the hotel.Â