Merry Christmas everyone…

Week 3 – 23rd – 29th December 2023 Muggenbrunn, Todtnau, Germany to Interlaken, Switzerland. (133 miles)

Saturday 23rd December 2023 – Muggenbrunn, Todtnau, Germany to Lake Lucerne, Switzerland. (85 miles)

We woke up this morning to silence. No more rain on the roof. We were starting to get a bit fed up with that. Peering out of the window it’s foggy and damp but at least it’s not raining.

We are moving on today to Switzerland.

Outside the snow that was here when we arrived has turned to slush so everything is muddy, when you walk out it’s muddy, everything you touch is muddy, the electric cable, the ramps that we are on to keep us level are all wet and muddy and have to be stowed away in plastic bags.

Finally, we are packed, we pay the lady and set off down the hill where the snow is getting less and less but it’s also drier. We stop to do some shopping and fill up with LPG for the heating and cooking. Christmas here in Germany is a different thing. The shops are not packed and people aren’t panicking to get their turkey order in before a certain date, no it’s just like any other day, sure people are putting different things in their basket, but it just feels like any other day. Also, Christmas Eve is the “big day/night”, and there’s no such thing as Boxing Day.

We are stocked up and ready to go. The sat navs are programmed up. We have two, a Google map and a Tom Tom map, but we also have good old-fashioned paper maps and books. You have to really. The weather has improved, the sky is clearing, it’s dry and it’s turning out to be a lovely morning.

With all our maps of different types and our two brains, we can’t find Switzerland. For some reason, we keep on seeing the same junction and roundabout. Very frustrating, funny the first time, not so funny the second, and annoying by the third. Finally, finally, we find the right road and we are on our way.

All Swiss motorways require a toll and it’s usually paid for by buying a sticker to put on your windscreen. You pay 40 something euros and the sticker lasts just over a year. We bought one when we did a shortcut through Switzerland on our last trip out so it’s still in date meaning we just glide over the border and just carry on through Switzerland.

It’s fabulous. The roads are clear and smooth, well maintained. The weather has improved dramatically with blue skies and a baking temperature of 8 degrees. As we drive along the motorway we can see, in the distance, the snow-covered Swiss Alps shining in the sun. Quite stunning.

We are heading to Luzern or Lucerne or however many different ways there are spelling this place. We are staying in a campsite called Camping Lido Luzern which is right on the famous lake. We arrive just before dusk and get a pitch for a staggering 49 euros for the night. (That’s cheap. Some are as much as 70 for the night). It’s not often you go to Lake Lucerne in Switzerland so whilst we groan about the price, we feel it’s worth paying.

Before we go anywhere, we need to clean up the mud and gunge that we accumulated in the Black Forest.

We need a walk after being locked up in the Black Forest so we set off along the pathway by the lake that leads from the campsite to the town. What a fabulous walk. The temperature is just right, the sun is setting behind a snow-covered mountain and the sky is breathtaking.

We do a good 40-minute walk to the town which is beautiful. The Christmas trees and decorations are very classy and understated. Lovely.

Needing the toilet, we find one. That’s changed – it’s no longer ‘spend a penny‘ but £1.35, and you can pay by card now!

Of course there is a Christmas market here, yes our third one so far, so we head for that. It’s busy, very busy.

We have some wurst and rosti and later a pot of spatzle, all very tasty all very expensive. It’s getting too crowded now and people are still coming in so we elect to leave and walk back but not without having a gluhwein which is probably the best one yet.

Finally, we are back at Jess. A great day in a great place, so much so that we plan to come here for New Year.

There is a huge fireworks display on the 1st of January, hopefully we will get a place here for a three-night stay.

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Sunday 24th December 2023 – Lake Lucerne to Interlaken (50 miles)

It’s a beautiful sunny morning this morning, cool and crisp and dry! Today we are moving on to a place that we have stayed at before in Interlaken called Camping Alpenblick, between Lake Thun and the Bernese Alps where we will spend Christmas. The weather is truly messed up, at this time of year, it’s expected that there will be snow, but we have a temperature of 6 degrees, grey skies and expect rain later. It must be a little worrying if you run a business that relies on the seasons behaving as you expect them to.

The drive is very pleasant driving through the town of Lucerne and out onto the very scenic motorways. We stop to fill up will diesel and keep the LPG topped up, just in case.

Del gets ripped off for chocolate, in Switzerland no less. A box of Lindt chocolates (made in Switzerland) 16 Swiss francs (14 quid) that cost 6 in a UK supermarket! Nice one Del. At the garage is a car wash big enough for Jess. It’s reasonably priced so should balance out the cost of the chocolate. Jess gets a well-deserved wash, she’s filthy but comes out 8 Swiss francs later looking showroom clean.

It’s only a short 50-mile drive but very up hill and down dale so it will take us an hour and a half. The passing scenery is wonderful despite the lack of snow or sunshine. There is a 3 pm check-in at the campsite and we are over an hour early so we get parked up and have a cup of tea while we wait to be let in.

Once checked in our very nice hosts invite us to some mulled wine heated over an open fire. It’s delicious.

We are given a very nice pitch right next to all of the amenities including the bar and restaurant.

We plan on spending Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day here to get properly settled in.

As we are staying we get some lights out on the van along with some Christmas cards that we received before we left. Jess is looking festive.

We start Christmas Eve off with a Christmas special of the Royle Family and a Catherine Tate Christmas Special. ‘We are not bovver’ed‘. Dinner onboard tonight.

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Monday 25th December 2023 – Interlaken – Day 2

‘Merry Christmas everyone, with our very best wishes“.

It’s a beautiful day here in Interlaken. Lovely blue skies and 12 degrees. Breakfast is a simple affair as we would like to go into the town of Interlaken for a walk. Everything is on a Sunday service, so the bus into town is busy, as is the town. Lots of tourists milling around enjoying the Christmas Day sunshine. There is a small wildlife park nearby that has a collection of Ibex. Of course, we can’t not go and see them. The park is just on the edge of the town, a short walk. Worth going to see them, they’re odd creatures with rather large, difficult-to-manoeuvre, horns…

We spend a good couple of hours in the town ending it with a glass of wine for Hayley and a coffee for Del in the sun watching the paragliders landing in the park opposite a hotel.

After the bus back we open a bottle of Cava and take a couple of glasses and a plate of Schwarzwald smoky ham to the closed campsite restaurant terrace where we sit in the low sun. A lovely afternoon. Very relaxed and very simple.

Our Christmas dinner will probably be no different from any other dinner on board Jess. Hayley is knocking up one of her Paellas, something she did comment is that she has probably made more Paellas at Christmas than turkey dinners. We usually seem to be in Spain at Christmas or out and about on Jess.

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family, we hope that you all had a great day whether you are with family and friends or alone. Our very best wishes.

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Tuesday 26th December 2023 – Interlaken – Day 3

A bright morning with more sunshine forecast today. We have spent a bit of time this morning discussing what to do for the next few days. There is plenty to see and do in the Interlaken area, but we want to be in Lucerne for the 31st, or thereabouts, for the New Year fireworks on the 1st. We make a rough plan of what to do over the next few days and write it down. Probably no point as we will change it as we usually do.

We decide to visit Grindelwald which is a bus ride and then a train. We rush through breakfast and the clean up and get to the bus stop with a few minutes to spare when suddenly Hayley asks if the heating on the van is off. Neither of us knows how we left it so we sulk off back to the van. The buses are every hour so it’s a bit of a wait for the next one. With that in mind, we decide to just do a local walk around the lake, it doesn’t go well with us unable to find a decent path and by this time the next bus is due so we get on and decide to go to Lauterbrunnen, just like that. So glad we wrote out a plan.

In about 10 minutes we are in the train station of Interlaken East with a good 20 minutes to spare for the train to Lauterbrunnen. The train leaves dead on time and it has to do a rather steep climb. The scenery is amazing. The mountains are so high and imposing and all of them have a good covering of snow on top. No snow where we are of course, the snow is proving to be a bit elusive.

As the train climes, it changes to a cog system to help get it up the hill. Soon we are arriving into the town of Lauterbrunnen bang on time.

The town is very quaint and Swiss. There are 72 waterfalls here to be seen on a long walk down into a valley. It’s not long before we come to the first one. It’s quite something to see. The water looks like it’s falling in slow motion as it’s so high. We walk for quite a while and see a few waterfalls, although not as many as we thought – because of the lack of snow there are fewer than there should be. It’s such a nice walk with rolling green fields and chalets in the hills. We see the train climbing the hill in the distance – the whole scene looks like a model.

Along the walk some enterprising houses are selling local produce, using an honesty system but using contactless payment. Another one has a proper vending machine. It’s all very new to us and different.

After a good few kilometres, we decided to turn back and head home. The trains are every 30 minutes and the bus back to the campsite every hour. While waiting for the train back to Interlaken we decide that we will return to Lauterbrunnen to catch the cable car and mountain top train to Murren which is a good kilometre higher. Apparently, there are no cars in Murren, but there is snow.

The journey back is timely, of course, and we are back in Interlaken with some time to spare enough for a small local beer in the street before catching the bus to the campsite.

We have decided to stay until Friday 29th December so pop in and pay in advance. The campsite is excellent at giving good value for money at 23 Swiss francs a night (£21), a lovely spot, all the facilities we need, laundry and excellent internet. Compared to the usual 45 to 50 francs a night, where we are is excellent and good value. Oh, and they even give you a free bus pass which allows for a discount on the trains.

We get back to Jess for a tea and get some laundry done before dark. The laundry system here is all high-tech and controlled via an app – you reserve your machine and then you can track it online as it happens with a notification when done. It will even message you when a machine is free if it’s busy.

A few weeks later you get an invoice and your card is debited. The price per wash/dry is very reasonable. We liked that. We liked that a lot.

Hayley is knocking up a ‘German feast‘ for us tonight. We shall see.

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Wednesday 27th December 2023 – Interlaken – Day 4

Today we are in search of snow. There is no snow where we are, which is very unusual for the time of year, so we have to go to it. Hayley has done some internet research and found out that Murren has snow – it’s not snowing currently and hasn’t done for a while, but the last fall was quite large so there’s a lot of snow lying about.

To get there we must take a bus to Interlaken train station, a train to Lauterbrunnen, a cable car up to Grutschalp, and then a small hilltop train to Murren.

We set off late morning just in time for the bus and we are off. As usual, the trains are on time, but it’s busy, very busy. It’s the peak season, but despite the lack of snow falling there are lots of people heading for the higher slopes to find it and Murren is one of those destinations. The trains and the cable car are packed with people tottering about in snow boots and carrying skis along with a large contingent of non-skiers of which we are a part.

The cable car to Grutschalp has to make a steep climb. The scenery is spectacular and for just that it is worth the trip. An amazing view of the surrounding mountains and deep valleys makes us feel really small. It really is one of the best views we have seen. We have done a lot of busy cable cars in the past on various trips, but this one is full, capable of taking 100 people and freight as there are no cars in Murren. A large industrial fridge is loaded onboard as we watch concerned about all this weight.

Once at the top, we all fall out of the cable car and onto the small train on a narrow snowy track heading to Murren which is very picturesque, very beautiful, and ‘traditionally Swiss‘.

It’s not a huge town but it’s big enough to spend a couple of hours of walking, or rather slipping about on the frozen old snow. There are some lovely hotels perched right on the edge with spectacular views of the mountains. One hotel is called Hotel Drei Burge or Three Peaks Hotel in reference to the stunning view of the Eiger, Jungfrau, and Monch mountains (we won’t be staying here as it’s £400 a night, we are quite happy with our £21 a night campsite and lovely Jess). We walk to the other end of the town to watch the skiers finishing their journey from higher up only to get back on the cable car and go back up to do it all again. Exhausting.

During our walk we find a place that is hiring sledges and at the rear of the shop is a fantastic slope with plenty of people sledging and skiers coming off the slopes. (Del says he’s not interested but as soon as the lady offers us a double sledge he changes his mind and is soon dashing down the slope giggling to himself – see video). It’s brilliant. Well, why not – for 12 Swiss francs you can hire a two-seater sledge for the day. We are off…

We are a bit apprehensive at first, as we haven’t done this kind of thing since we were kids, but after the first descent, we can’t wait to get back up and do it again. It is hard work and soon we are in need of a drink. We walk around the town looking for a place with a view and a drink. Shops and hotels are equipped and ready for customers who turn up with skies and sledges, all very civilised and easy going. After searching for a particular place that we saw when we started our walk, which we couldn’t find again, we decide to go to the Hotel Drei Burge which has a fantastic panoramic view of the mountains.

What a place, what a view. We order two mulled wines with a dash of vanilla. Very tasty.

Suitably refreshed we pay, pick up our sledge, and off we go back to the slopes for another couple of runs. Very enjoyable, great fun.

Time to get back as the last bus back to the campsite is quite early and we can’t afford to miss it. On the way to the cable car, we stumble upon the cafe/restaurant that we were looking for earlier and we are lucky to get a great table right on the edge with a phenomenal view of the mountains and the valley.

An absolutely amazing place for a coffee and apple strudel.

We found snow! and we joined in…!

Hayley has a check of her email only to receive some very sad news regarding the passing away of her uncle. Very sad news and our thoughts are with family tonight. After taking in the sad news we do raise our glasses to remember him.

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Thursday 28th December 2023 – Interlaken – Day 5

Today we are off on another train trip, this time to the town of Grindelwald. This is another town that has some snow, not as much as Murren yesterday as it is at a lower altitude but there is snow all the same. But first Jess needs some water and her grey water tank draining. We manoeuvre to the service point 10m away, the cold is stinging our hands while we fill up and after some time and discomfort, Hayley reverses back into our space. All good, until we try and get back onto our leveling ramps. Getting up them is okay but once Jess’s handbrake goes on the ramp slips, rather alarmingly, from under us on the icy surface. We try a few times but eventually give up to catch the bus, we will sort this out later on.

After a 30-minute train journey that has a steep climb, we arrive at Grindelwald. Again, it’s very busy with skiers as there is a rather expensive cable car that takes them much higher where there is plenty of snow. There has been no fresh snowfall here for probably two weeks and this is peak season.

We take a walk up a rather steep path to a place where there is some snow.

Because of the lack of snow, there are a lot of people crammed into this small place. Great to see though, especially kids as young as 4 years old on skis and doing a good job of it too.

Back down in the town, we have a local traditional donut called a Berliner, which is just a fresh jam donut with icing sugar sprinkled on it. Nice though and very light. We have done another good walk today and again our eyes ‘hurt’ at the spectacular views of the mountains, the same as yesterday but of course from a different view.

This time we get an amazing view of a glacier frozen on the mountain. The blue ice just looks so precarious.

We get the train and the bus back to camp and manage to get Jess back on her ramps as the ground has defrosted a little. Tonight we are eating at the campsite. We are going to have a Swiss fondue. They have a small, cute, wooden hut here with a wood burner in the middle, we are not sure how that goes together but it does, a wooden hut with a fire in the middle.

It’s very cute and cosy inside with the log fire on and just us and another two couples. We are given our table and the service is very good, as is the cheese and mushroom fondue that we have with two glasses of red wine.

We settle the rather large bill (well this is Switzerland) and walk the 10 metres back to the van. It’s getting colder and cloudier.

Tomorrow is our last full day here, On Saturday we are driving back to Lucerne for the new year.

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Friday 29th December 2023 – Interlaken – Day 6

It’s our last day here today. We will have done 6 nights – the longest time we have spent in one place. Jess needs her weekly clean-out which doesn’t take long but has to be done. She gets a full airing, bedding changed, dusted down, wiped down everywhere inside, and a complete freshen up. There is also laundry to do today so we’ll be kept busy on-site.

It takes most, if not all, of the day to get the laundry done, but we are fully laundered as if we have started again. It’s always a good idea to do laundry if the facilities are there as you never know from one day to the next if you will get the chance.

Finally, we do get all of the jobs done on Jess, she’s all freshened up for another week. We get out for a reasonable walk of about 40 minutes by the lake. It’s a lovely late afternoon. The sun is just setting behind the mountains and the air is cool and clear. Lovely.

Once back at the campsite we go to the lounge and have a very tasty mulled wine, this could be the last in this trip who knows. We have only just discovered the lounge at the campsite. Its fabulous.

The lounge is all wood with fur-covered rocking chairs, with fantastic views over the lake and the mountains on the other side. A great place to enjoy our mulled wine and to toast our last night here at Camping Alpenblick.

It has been a good stay here. The campsite is only 23 Swiss francs a day. We had a good spot right next to all of the facilities, a free bus pass to get into town and the best internet of any campsite we have been at.

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