We left Aix Les Bains before 8. Before leaving, I left two boxes with the hotel desk for them to mail for us. I’m not sure if they’ll make it, though.

We took the train to Geneva, then changed and went around the lake, past Lausanne and several pretty hillside towns with vineyards overlooking the lake, then past Fribourg and to Berne. There we changed again for Interlaken, and then changed once more for Grindelwald. On this last train, we discovered that our Eurail pass was no good, so we had to pay for tickets.

It had drizzled most of the morning, and really strted to come down at Grindelwald. We could see that it was a charming Swiss town surrounded by mountains, but the cloud layer was so low tht all we could see was the foot of the mountains disappearing into the mists.

We walked through the rain and found our hotel and dropped off our bags at the hostel, and then wandered the town some. It was pretty discouraging to have come so far and to be so close but not be able to do anything because of the weather. We ate sandwiches on steps under a porch from a grocery store, and the girls played for a bit at a playground.

Eventually we had an early dinner of pizza and pasta at the hostel bar. It then stopped raining, and I took a walk down into the valley below the hostel. It was gorgeous, a very rural area filled with Swiss chalet houses, each with full gardens, and surrounded by towering mountains on all sides, with grassy foothills at the bottom. Cable cars were running, and hang gliders were flying.

Eventually I couldn’t stand not to have the rest of the family with me to see everything, so I ran back and convinced Phyllis and the girls to come out. We retraced my steps, and walked in the evening.