3. Lakes, Rivers, Winding Roads, Rain, and a Few Castles (From Lucerne to Thun). 8/30/22

Greetings from Thun,  a small city/village in the Bernese Oberlander area of Switzerland. The castle of the town was built in 12^th Century and the church is from the 14^th Century. But we haven’t really explored the town yet, since we arrived around 6:30 pm, having taken a very slow rural route from Lucerne. 

Started the day at our now regular breakfast hangout: Mill’Feuille. after being there for two days in a row… Then we finished packing and headed out in our sparkling Alfa Romeo. Decided to avoid highways so that the GPS would force us onto country roads – much longer but much greater sense of the country. We headed to Brienz through multiple tunnels cutting through the mountains and great vistas and scenery; amazing wooden barns; traditional chalets; green hills and the most amazing teal color lakes and rivers. The relationship between the green forested areas abutting the teal blue river was an artist’s delight.

From Brienz with a plethora of 18^th Century chalets and lots of little carved wooden figures which acclaim the woodcarving history of the region, we headed toward Beatenberg which is home to the famous St Beatus caves (which we didn’t visit but where we stopped to photograph the amazing houses built under and around rock cliffs.

And then we stopped in Oberhofen ams Thunsee. Eventually, we arrived in Thun, just as the rains started to soak the town (and us). We got lost a few times and had to make u-turns, but we made it. It took a while to find our “boutique” hotel—partly because we had a very different visual image of the place than what it actually is! We booked based on descriptions on the web—“pays homage to its 19^th Century past with exposed oak beams juxtaposed against mid-20^th Century design….Each of the hotel’s individually designed rooms…. “ What they failed to note is that the tiny hotel is bordered by railway tracks on one side… a supermarket on another side… and god knows what on another side. And there was no real way to drive up to the hotel to drop off our bags. Honestly if you could move this place to another location, it would be a gem. Finally, we parked the car under the supermarket.

We eventually got our bearings and settled in … just in time for dinner, which we had at the hotel’s entry floor. Food was quite good; not exotic, but very good cuts of beef and prepared well. So we ate.. and once I finish this note I’m going to crash. Switzerland is a beautiful country but even countries that appear to be near-perfect have dark sides. Still not my cup of tea but I can see that living here would be a great way to find peace. But, for now, enjoy the final days of August—I’ll be in touch after we arrive in Bern, which should happen late tomorrow.

All the best – Fern… Onward to Bern, tomorrow.