Day 14: Thun

Thun, with its castle in the background
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Today, after a much-needed deep sleep, we took the train to Thun, a city (or village) that's on the way to Interlaken from Bern.  It's about a half hour train ride  from Interlaken to Thun.  Thun is a quaint city, cobblestone streets, houses up the mountain, and two castles to boot.  Thun is on the north side of the Thunersee (Thun Lake) so the Aare River runs right through Thun.  Cafes and restaurants line the river with people casually drinking their beers and coffees.  The river and lake are so incredibly blue.  TJ said it looked like the water at It's a Small World at Disneyland - that really fake blue.  It was an incredibly warm day today.  The breeze of the water felt really nice.  Today was all about exploring a quaint Swiss village and that's exactly what we did.  We climbed what seemed like a gajillion stairs to see their castle.  We then walked along a great street they have there.  The street is called Obere Hauptgasse.  It's a bi-level street, with pedestrians on the upper level and cars on the lower level.  Shops and restaurants line this street with entrances on both levels.  We cruised around for the day and then stopped at a little cafe on Balliz street, a pedestrian-only street right in the middle of the river (the river splits for a little bit and there's a little "island" in between the river).  We decided, since it was such a hot day, to order some ice-cream.  TJ wanted two scoops - one of strawberry and one vanilla.  Melissa wanted two scoops of Banana Nut.  The waitress spoke NO English (not that we expected her to) and we of course spoke NO German (except for about 10 words - none of which are helpful in ordering ice cream).  TJ pointed to the vanilla and then strawberry.. and then he said "and also two scoops of the Banana Nut" as he pointed to it.  Big mistake =)  She brought out a huge sundae with all four scoops in the glass.  Oh well - - we just shared!  It was really quite delicious.  We then just people-watched for a while drinking our iced tea (taste similar-ish to Southern sweet tea) and coffee.  We then headed on back to the train station to take the steamboat back.  This is a two-hour ride back as it makes many stops along the way.  This was an incredible experience.  We were on Thunersee for what seemed like ever, flooded with images of huge green mountains, incredibly blue lake water, and swiss chalet-like houses dotting the mountains.  In the back of these tall green mountains stood the massive snow-capped Alps.  We had an amazing time.

On Obere Hauptgasse, the bi-level street
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We're getting an early night's rest tonight.  We have to wake up quite early to head on out to Zermatt (village at the base of the Matterhorn).  We should be there by about 11:30 a.m. tomorrow morning!  Here we come, Zermatt!