Interlaken

So we'd had a pretty good run with the weather in Zermatt, and then it'd been pretty shit really on the way to Interlaken, but, we'd made it and we checked into our place. this was actually harder than it sounds because by the time we got into town it was dark and raining/snowing, the streets are windy and full of impossible-to-tell-who-has-right-of-way intersections and, as usual, we didn't have a map. Despite these minor inconveniences and one incorrectly rung doorbell we found our place. The hostel was above a seedy looking restaurant but it did have a decent (and free) internet connection!!

The next morning (Easter Saturday) we awoke early, well alright.. earlier, because we didn't have any accom for that night and had to find some quick smart. Luckily the tourist office was open (almost our first experience with such an occurrence) and one of the first places we tried had room. the place was called Heidi's Hostel and presumably it was Heidi i spoke with on the phone. Heidi was a charming old bird although obviously deranged. She must of been 100 if she was a day and repeatedly informed us that 'she tells us the true, only the not-so-good room is available!'.



Well that was good enough for us, after a quick inspection of the 'not-so-good' room well checked in. So the shower was in a tin box in the corner of the room, the toilet was in a cupboard and there was something living in the roof, but the room was clean, Heidi was an old dear and there was kitchen facilities so I don't know what Sarah was whingeing about. We stayed 4 nights.



Unfortunately the weather continued to be cold and snowy so we were confined to low altitude walking, chocolate eating and reading for most of the easter weekend. After the fun and total enjoyment of skiing the previous week this suited Sarah just fine thankyou.



We had planned to go para-gliding in Interlaken but the weather defeated us, so we left (it was still snowing) and set course for Austria. We did manage to pick up some music cd's for the car and some awesome raspberry white chocolate before we left tho. We'd read somewhere that the town of Chur in East Switzerland was worth a look so we swung by there for lunch. hmmm, bum steer. The weather had picked up tho and it was a beautiful drive. it was getting to that time of day when we started wondering where we were going to sleep so we dug through our books and started ringing around. closed, fully booked, no answer.. usual story. we eventually found a cheapish place just off our route in a quaint little town called Unterwasser. Small ski resort is probably an overstatement but technically correct. There was a really nice sunset, a good view and I think we were the only ones in the hostel - and the whole town as it turned out. We hit the local bar (star bar??) to find that they were pumping out tina turner, accadacca, and a whole lot of other old school stuff. this was pretty funny cos the barmaid (and everyone else for that matter - which admittedly was about 3 blokes) didn't speak a word of english, but was singing along anyway.



we ate dinner that night alone in a fairly decently sized restaurant then headed to Innsbruck the next morning. While i was checking out, the owner asked if he could 'make picture of me' because I was carrying my pack and backpack and i think i was the first real backpacker looking guest they'd had (they only opened their hostel this winter).