{"id":1843,"date":"2016-07-13T22:37:56","date_gmt":"2016-07-13T21:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2020-02-17T16:38:57","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T16:38:57","slug":"europe-summer-2016-days-5-and-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/?p=1843","title":{"rendered":"Europe &#8211; Summer 2016 &#8211; DAYS 5 and 6"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>EUROPE SUMMER 2016 \u2013 DAYS 5 AND 6<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\"><strong>Day 5 \u2013 Relaxing 4th July<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>After our long day of travelling, we decided to have a day off from being on the road. We spent most of the day relaxing in the sun and reading \u2013 with maybe the odd snooze thrown in. Around 6pm we decided that we needed to stock up, so we went off to the small town of Unterseen&nbsp;where we knew there was a Coop. That done, we went for a quick spin around the edge of Lake Thun and then back to the on-site Italian restaurant (Restaurant Landhaust) where we had a very pleasant meal before returning to the van for some strawberries and cream.<\/p>\n<p>I should mention here that, as we had expected, the cost of living in Switzerland is considerably higher than France (or home).&nbsp; What I would consider to be a fairly meagre shop, came to over \u00a370!<\/p>\n<p>Not much more to say about day 5, other than that relaxing by a lake surrounded by mountains is a pretty cool way to spend the day.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1840\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1840\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/img_1927.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1840 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/img_1927.jpg?resize=300%2C225&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"IMG_1927\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/img_1927.jpg?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/img_1927.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/img_1927.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/img_1927.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1840\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The view from our pitch &#8211; Thunnersee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\"><strong>Day 6 \u2013 Exploring the Mountains 5th July<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We set off for our first destination of the day which was <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brienz\">Brienz<\/a> , a town on the banks of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lake_Brienz\">Lake Brienz<\/a> or Brienzersee, the second of the two lakes between which Interlaken is sandwiched and, of course, which gave it its name. I had visited this town as a young teenager and at that time it was famous for its wood carving shops. Uncle Derek had visited not long before me and had given me the money to buy a carved figure for him. Today we could only find one such shop (Huggler) and the cost for a similar figure was a small fortune. Shame.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1845\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1845\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/euro-16-042.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1845 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/euro-16-042.jpg?resize=300%2C199&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Euro 16 042\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1845\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brienzersee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1846\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1846\" style=\"width: 199px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/euro-16-043.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1846 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/euro-16-043.jpg?resize=199%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Euro 16 043\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1846\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Traditional wooden, carved figures &#8211; Brienz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We went and got a coffee and a pastry at a restaurant on the shores of the lake, and sat for a while drinking in the view. The colour of the lake is incredible.<\/p>\n<p>As we were driving towards, our next destination, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Meiringen\">Meiringen<\/a>&nbsp;(alleged birthplace of the meringue!), we saw that someone was using an ex cable car cabin as a shed\/garden room in their front garden. Great idea and a nice bit of up-cycling. We saw much hay-making going on. The Swiss make even the smallest patch a source of hay and it looks like very hard labour for the small man. We saw whole families raking, turning and gathering the hay. Important winter fodder in a snowy country, I guess.<\/p>\n<p>From Meiringen, we pressed on up into the mountains, driving through the low cloud and eventually reached the still snowy <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Susten_Pass\">Susten Pass,<\/a> which at 2224 metres, is the highest Archie has ever been. We marvelled at the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stein_Glacier\">Steinglestche<\/a>r Glacier, today, sadly considerably smaller than it would have been 100 years ago.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1847\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1847\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/euro-16-047.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1847 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/euro-16-047.jpg?resize=300%2C199&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Euro 16 047\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1847\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">On the way up to the summit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1848\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1848\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/euro-16-061.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1848 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/euro-16-061.jpg?resize=300%2C199&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Euro 16 061\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1848\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stein Glacier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1849\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1849\" style=\"width: 199px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/euro-16-062.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1849 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/euro-16-062.jpg?resize=199%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Euro 16 062\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1849\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Archie and the snow at the summit of Susten Pass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Meandering around in the mountains takes far longer than you would estimate and we eventually found ourselves well over an hour away from home, even by the fastest route,&nbsp; and by now it was late afternoon. We thus picked up the fast road to<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lucerne\"> Lucerne<\/a> and then bashed back to Interlaken. We so love the mountains and had had a great day.&nbsp; Incidentally \u2013 the temperature down in Brienz had been around 24C and up at the pass we recorded only 14C. Brr!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EUROPE SUMMER 2016 \u2013 DAYS 5 AND 6 Day 5 \u2013 Relaxing 4th July After our long day of travelling, we decided to have a day off from being on the road. We spent most of the day relaxing in the sun and reading \u2013 with maybe the odd snooze thrown in. Around 6pm we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[141,274,478,531,580,612,906,907,924],"class_list":["post-1843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brienz","tag-coop","tag-huggler","tag-lake-brienz","tag-lucerne","tag-meiringen","tag-stein-glacier","tag-steinglestcher","tag-susten-pass"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesumpnersagain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/img_1927.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5923,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions\/5923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}