Last day of vacation.

Everything went so well, so you have to know it wouldn't last. We got up at 6 am, midnight EST. We didn't want to be rushed. Had a really nice breakfast, then we were driven to the airport. So far, so good. After arriving at the airport, we found out our flight to Philadelphia was 3 hours late. That meant we would miss our connecting flight to Orlando. All other flights to Orlando were booked solid as it is a weekend. Our only way home was through Miami.
Thank goodness Judy was so understanding as she was our ride.
Picked up Maggie and headed back to Gainesville. We got in close to 3am and after greeting Abby and letting both dogs out to do their thing, we fell into bed after being up for 27 1/2 hours. When I was younger, no problem, but not so much now. I wish there was a way to get to Europe by train. They are always on time, are clean and roomy. Air travel is not the fun it use to be. As one man put it, they are putting us in steerage, or better yet the cattle car. Everything is crammed into as little space as possible, or is that impossible.
Slept till 8 on Sunday. Mike did his washing first and I finished mine about 5pm. Took a little nap with the dogs, then got up and watched tv until midnight. I am trying to get back to US time. Woke up this morning at 6. Think another nap is in my future.
Until next time, signing off


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Location:Zurich

Ballenberg Open Air Museum and Interlaken

Today we took the train and one short bus ride to the Ballenberg Open Air Museum. The museum covers 163 acres with over 110 buildings from all over Switzerland. There are huge farm houses to hay storage buildings and hunters huts. The oldest house dates from 1336. They have staff in period dress explaining how life was back then. There are all kinds of farm animals. They dismantle the buildings and reinstall brick by brick or timber by timber.



This was a wealthy industrialist summer home


Farm


Turkey


Here is where the made their medications from herbs


Geese



Cooking kitchen


Farm equipment


This guy was replacing wooden slats


Check out the bell


Nothing is flat here. We walked over 7 miles, up hill and down


Grape arbor


Making baskets


Feeding her calf


Pear tree against house





Lots of hungry piglets

Interlaken
Casino


Beautiful flowers everywhere


We saw at least 9 para gliders landing in a grassy area right in the center of town








This is the 5 star BeauRivage. Not in my budget.
Tomorrow it is off to Zurich. Vacation is almost over.

Location:Switzerland

Pricing

When you think you want to complain about the high cost of living in the US consider this:
Gasoline when converted from liters to gallons is $6.45 per gal.
2 hamburgers, fries and two non alcoholic drinks $41.00
In a grocery store a liter of coke lite is $1.90, but if you get a small bottle of the same in a restaurant it will cost $4.40. Most of our evening meals have averaged $30 each. We do have a nice breakfast included in our hotel price and we have been getting pastry around lunch time.
Still having said that, I am glad we came and I would do it again.
We walked the town tonight before stopping for dinner. We walked to Staubbach Falls not far from the hotel.




Sculpture made of rocks


Lauterbrunnen cemetery



Outdoor seating to keep your tush warm

Location:Switzerland

Shilthorn and Trummelback Falls

A beautiful day to go to the Shilthorn. We have a tv in the room that shows live pictures of all the mountain tops. Sometimes the visibility is terrible, but not today.
First we had a nice breakfast on the sun porch of the hotel. They set everything up on one side and the tables on the other side.



Hotel Silberhorn is about 100 years old, but with modern amenities.

We got a bus to the cable car base. It is pretty expensive to go but we'll worth it. About $160 for the 2 of us.
Snow on the mountains


Cable car station. You change cable cars 4 times


View from cable car window coming into Murren


We are pretty high up already, but not to the top


This is taken from the viewing platform of the Shilthorn



The revolving restaurant at the top


Since we had breakfast at the hotel, I opted for tea and apple strudel


You can get a breakfast buffet for a mere $30 per person. Yikes


There are places you can walk down. I don't like walking on loose stones but Mike went down






On the way back down we stopped in Murren.





Murren farmer cultivating his potatoes





Flower and vegetable gardens on hillside







Parasailing.








This cow knows its boundaries




The falls cut through inside the mountain. There are many, many steps up, but you can cheat a little by taking a tram part way. The rest of the steps are inside, wet and chilly. The roar of the falls is something else. I have also taken videos with sound.











This picture is for all my RV buddies. Theirs are much smaller than ours, but we have even passes places that sell them.


We got back to the hotel about 4 to put are feet up for a little bit before going out again.

Location:Swiss Alps