14/07-16/07
So, after the hustle
and bustle of Paris, it was a nice change heading into the peaceful
country of Switzerland. Now I have to admit I didn't know anything
about Switzerland, other than it was neutral in one (or both of the
world wars,yeah I paid attention in history.. Sort of) What I didn't
know is that Switzerland has been neutral for YEARS. And also if
there is a zombie appocolipse, it is the place to be, because they
have built the roads leading into the country so that they can easily
be destroyed making it really hard for people to get in. They also
have enough bomb shelters to accommodate something like 140% of their
population, and all the men are inlisted into the millitary once they
reach a certain age which I currently cannot remember (I mean don't
quote me on any of these facts but I'm sure most of them are along
the lines of what our tour guide told us. I tried..)
So other than
Switzerland having a really good defence system, it is ridiculously
beautiful. When we first drove into the country everyone on the bus
swarmed to one side of the coach to get a photo of the stunning lakes
that we were driving past. Little did we know that there was plenty
more where that came from.
 |
| Poor Bessy having a break from the tough hill climbing |
We had a little bit of difficulty getting
to the campsite, as our beloved bus Bessy didn't quite make it up the
hill, and sat broken down 3km from the campsite with us all sitting
willing her to start again. Thankfully she did after a 20 minute
rest, and we slowly crept up the hill to the camp (she spent all the
next dy at the mechanics).When we arrived at the campsite I could not
believe what I was looking at. The site in Paris was dusty and, well
exactly what you'd expect a campsite on the outskirts of a major city
to look like. The one in Lauterbrunnen was breathtaking. Like usual I
can't put it into words so instead I'll just show you....
So once we pitched
out tents and the cook tent -which took us ages compared to the end
of the trip- we all sat down in front of the cook tent and chatted
between ourselves until it was dinner time. Now as you saw in Paris,
Matty (our chef for the tour) was insanely talented when it came to
cooking (and also dancing, as we found out that night) but
considering he cooked for 37 people in a little tent with two gas
elements and not a lot else, the food was amazing!
Now because we were
in a valley, there were strict rules around the noise level after a
certain time, so when we were told to keep it down we all made our
way to the bar that was on the campsite.
It was there that I
realised just how small the world actually is, because in this little
bar in the middle of Switzerland, I was asked if I went to Sacred
Heart in Lower Hutt, to which I replied with a curious yes. It was
then that I found out that the lad who asked me was the older brother
of one of the girls in my year, and also the step-son of my teacher
when I was in year 5 and 6!
The next day some of
us walked into the adorable little village, and had a quick look
around before walking to the train station, where we would get on a
train that would take us up Jungfrau. Now thankfully Topdeck had
reserved a coach for us so we didn't have to battle the swarms of
tourists for a seat, and I am so glad that we didn't, because a two
hour train ride is a long time to be standing. Before we went up we
were warned that the altitude may affect us, and I think we all
brushed it off as something that wouldn't happen, however on the way
up we suddenly all got the giggles over nothing particularly funny,
so I think it may have affected us just a little bit..
 |
| My bag of crisps expanded so much i genuinely thought it would explode.. |
Once at the top we
had a wander around, and I found the Lindt chocolate shop which as
you can imagine made me ridiculously happy (swiss chocolate in
Switzerland, how could it not make you happy?)
 |
| I struggled to to spend 20euros on this... I was amazed by my will power |
Once they managed to
pull me from the chocolate shop we headed out onto the mountain, and
the view was incredible. Even though it was the middle of summer the
mountain was covered in snow, which meant there were kids tobogganing
and skiing down the mountain and people throwing snowballs all over
the place. We spent a bit of time on the mountain taking photos and
just standing taking in the views, and then we headed back inside,
ate our lunch and got a couple of souvenirs before queueing back up
for the train.
 |
| Toblerone, Swiss Alps and a person on a flying fox. Not bad eh? |
On the way back down
the rush of oxygen made us all really sleepy, so at some stage on the
way back we all nodded off. Once we were back in Lauterbrunnen, we
stopped at an ice-cream shop to use the wifi, and then wandered in
and out of the few shops that the town had to offer. I got a Swiss
army knife for Chloe's birthday present (which I was informed I
couldn't post when I tried to post it weeks later in London..
awesome..)
That night was much
the same as the previous one, we had dinner which was incredible
again, and then headed into the bar when the noise restrictions
kicked in. I didn't stay there long because I was shattered from the
day, so I snuck off to bed pretty early compared to all the others.
The next day it was
another bus day, so we packed up our tents, hopped on the bus and
left the beauty of Switzerland behind as we made our way back into
France and towards Avignon!
But that's it for
now! I'm sure the next post won't be too far away (I hope)!
