Brussels to Interlaken, Switzerland

This is going to be brief because we're about to head out for dinner shortly. However, let me just tell you that somehow Google Maps got it ALL wrong. Doing a little research, I determined our journey via car would take about 6 1/2-7 hours from Brussels to Interlaken, Switzerland. We started out great, retracing our route back to Aaachen, Germany and then turned south toward Heidelberg and Stuttgart. We were all really excited and having a great time, playing stupid alphabet games (is there a female's name that starts with a "Q?") and watching the lush green meadows pass us by.

Entering Switzerland we stopped to get a Swiss autobahn pass and then proceeded south through Basel and on toward Bern. This is when it began to get a little tricky. It seemed as if our lovely navigation system was taking us through all the towns possible. I mean, aren't there major highways that bypass cities like in the U.S.? Well, not really knowing where we were or what we were doing or how to operate the nifty navigation system, we trudged on like good little soldiers. I think we circled about 400 round-abouts in various towns and cities. All of them are completely charming, and smelled of goats and cows. (Contrary to others' opinions, this made me want to get out and find some cheese.) After passing through like sixteen of these wonderful olfactory delights, I began to wonder just how much longer those pesky 80 miles were going to take. Yea, quite awhile. Instead of our trip taking 7 hours, it was more like 11. Needless to say, upon arrival the excitement and giddy-ness of the earlier hours had dissipated.

But, I must say that Switzerland's countryside is breathtaking. As we got closer to Interlaken, the Alps slowly emerged from their sleep in the clouds. Snow upon their peaks, I was enthralled and captivated by them. One of the most popular things to do in this area is to climb to the top of one of these giants and paraglide down. We thought about it...and then thought that it's probably not a good way to go.

Well, we're off to eat dinner now. Tomorrow morning is up early again for biking. More later!