Travel from Chamonix to Grindewald

June 5th

We are winding down our trip with only a few days left to go and I can't believe it's almost over.  
Today was a travel day.  We drove from Chamonix to Interlaken, and then to Grindewald, Switzerland.   The drive was 252 km.  (I'm doing metric now-Ha) and took about 3 hours. 

The drive along the way was pretty at times, but we were on the motorway and there were very few places to stop for photos.   We did stop for lunch at the Swiss equivalent of a truck stop.

At this Auto-Grill place, we discovered that the people in this part of Switzerland speak German.  Dan thought that this was the part of Switzerland where they spoke French.  Switzerland is divided into two language section, one that speaks French and one that speaks German.  Rats!  And I was really beginning to learn some French.  When will I ever get to use it again?

We originally planned to stay in Interlaken for three days, but the hotels there were pretty booked except for one that was $400 a night, so we drove to Grindewald, which is about 20 km east of Interlaken.  That was a really good idea, because after seeing Interlaken and then seeing Grindewald, the latter is a much better choice.  

Dan found a room at the Derby Hotel that was reasonably priced and has a fantastic view.   The room is a suite and has two balconies.  I think it's the biggest place we have stayed on this entire trip.  We will be here for three nights before driving to Lyon where we will take a flight back to Paris.  We'll spend the night at a hotel in the Paris airport on June 9th and take an early morning flight out to Phoenix on the 10th.  This amazing journey will be over, but we will have so many memories.  And we'll have the blog to look back and read.

Hotel room at Derby Hotel

En Suite

View from balcony

Another view from balcony

When we were in the Narbonne area, we went to Fontfroide Abbey, and I wrote a blog entry about it.  Fontfroide Abbey is highly regarded for their great wines so while there I tasted some different ones.

I usually prefer reds, but I tasted one white that was amazing.  My future daughter-in-law, Stacey, loves white wines, so I bought her a bottle as one of her birthday presents.  What was I thinking?  The bottle would explode in the suitcase in the baggage compartment due to pressure and we could never get it through security.  Duh.

We only have four days left and we have to drink it.   I feel bad, Stacey, if you're reading this.

We opened the bottle and poured some wine in your honor, Stacey.

Cheers!  Happy Birthday, Stacey (belated)

Even Dan had some in your honor.

Don't be too sad, though.  We'll ask Arizona Wines if they can import some great French wines for you

The plan for tomorrow is that we will get the VIP pass for Jungfrau where we will get to do lots of stuff, including another ride up to another majestic mountain, but this time in the Swiss Alps.     We will see how much we can do because there is rain in the forecast, but mostly in the afternoons. 

I'm enjoying every minute of our last few days and I'm sure we'll have another adventure tomorrow.