Mountains and Chocolate in Switzerland

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)!