Lauterbrunnen

Oh, Lauterbrunnen.  We deliberately put Lauterbrunnen at the end of the week because it's a quiet, sleepy, little town in the Swiss Alps and we knew we'd be exhausted by the weekend.  (We were.)  Traveling wears you out!

We arrived in Geneva on Friday night.  (The views as you fly into Switzerland are breathtaking.  Absolutely breathtaking.)  And we were supposed to rent a car in Geneva and drive up to Lauterbrunnen that night.  It's about a three hour drive, but the drive is right along Lake Geneva and it would have been beautiful.  Plus, then we'd have a car and we'd be able to go to church on Sunday and see the Bern Temple.

Are you noticing my choice of words?  "Supposed to."  "Would have been."  We were supposed to rent a car in Geneva.  As in, it was all reserved and paid for.  All we had to do was pick it up.  Easy.  We've rented cars a million times before.  And it would have been a beautiful drive.  Except, we didn't have one of those stupid European credit cards with the stupid little electronic chips.  Even though the car was paid for, they needed a way to hold a deposit while we took the car and even though we had our cards, our rental car company said they couldn't do anything unless we had one of those cards.  (???)  And, none of the other rental car companies in the airport could/would do anything either.  (Uh... Hertz?  Budget?  Avis?  You're all American companies!!!  Why wouldn't you take my American credit card???)  It was suuuuper frustrating.  They told us that, "Maybe if you call this number, they can help."  We had to scramble to find enough change (we'd only just gotten there and hadn't broken any of our bills).  "Oh, wait.  Actually, don't call.  Book it online.  There's free WIFI!"  Except, to access the free WIFI, you have to have a cellphone--with a EUROPEAN country code-- that can receive text messages.  Okay, really?  I couldn't even talk to the rental car people.  Mitch had to do it all because I would have been a lot nastier. 

Eventually we convinced the rental car company to give us the money we'd paid for the car back, but we still didn't have any way to get to Lauterbrunnen.  And our hotel in Lauterbrunnen was already booked and paid for.  (Of course.)  And it was getting late.  And I was not happy.  I swear, if there had been a flight headed back to the United States from Geneva that night, I would have paid any price to get on that plane.  I. was. done. 

Instead, we took a train.  A train from Geneva to Lausanne to Bern to Thun to Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen.  With all the stops in the middle.  (Imagine how thrilled that made me.)  (Side notes:  The train station in Bern is a happening place at midnight on a Friday night.  Also, they have the best McDonalds I have ever had in my life.  I may have been starving.)  Then, by the time we arrived in Interlaken, it was like... one thirty in the morning and we accidentally got off at Interlaken West instead of Interlaken East.  Or something like that.  (Maybe it was the other way around.)  And we could take a cab from one station to the other, but we'd definitely miss our next connection and it was the last train of the night.  (A really nice guy explained all this to us and gave us his phone number with an offer to let us sleep at his place if we couldn't find a way to get to Lauterbrunnen.  Bless his heart.) 

So.  We were in Interlaken at one thirty in the morning.  We had twenty more minutes to go and no way to get there.  We were making memories. 

If there's one thing I've learned about traveling, it's to take the ride when you can.  (Case in point:  When you're stuck at the Detroit airport wearing flipflops and a light jacket in a snowstorm, take the executive SUV for $20/person instead of waiting outside in the cab line for 20 more hours.  And, when it's late at night and you been waiting at JFK for your hotel shuttle and its already been an hour, say yes when the shuttle for the hotel across the street from yours offers, even if it means leaving car that your hotel supposedly sent for you.)  It's always, always worth it.  We took a cab.  I'm not exactly sure how the exchange rate worked, but that cab from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen was absolutely worth it.  By the time we got to Lauterbrunnen, it was about two? two thirty? in the morning. 

Mitch and I both admitted later that we were worried our hotel would be closed and we'd have no way to even check in.  It was, but they'd left an envelope with a note and a key taped to the door for us.  I swear, seeing my name on that envelope-- I could have cried.

It was too dark to see much of anything that night, but the next morning we stumbled down to breakfast and this view: 

Needless to say, Lauterbrunne is gorgeous.  There are little waterfalls everywhere.

We didn't do much that day because I wasn't feeling well, but it was really nice to just relax after such a busy week.

 

We just had Saturday and part of Sunday in Lauterbrunnen, but we'll definitely need to go back.  (And next time we'll have to figure out the whole credit card with the electronic chip thing so that we can have a rental car.) 

Sunday night we just stayed close to the airport in Geneva because we had an early flight out the next morning.