Europe Part 4 – Interlaken Switzerland

** For earlier posts, please see The Overview, Keflavik, and Frankfurt **

When we left off, Mike and I were both sad to be leaving Verena and the beautiful City of Frankfurt. That said, it was time to expose Mike to the German Rail System. Now, here is where we discovered an important lesson/I had to relearn one that I wish I’d never forgotten. The Rail System in Germany is a million times more efficient than the one in Canada. If a train pulls up on your track, and your departure time is not for another 30 min do NOT get on the train. Yes, in Canada you often have a long wait at a large station, in German, you have a couple of minutes. In other words, it’s not your train. We realized this after the train started heading off with a final destination of Berlin! Oops. Thankfully we were able to get off in about three stops and get on another train . . . best part, we didn’t even miss our connection! We did arrive in Interlaken with enough time to make it to the night before the wedding party.

We didn’t get to  see much of Interlaken that first night, but we did meet up with an old friend of mine Ansley and her husband Mike. Mike and Mike hit it off from the beginning (and I can’t distinguish them by last initial as they have the same one! Heck the last names have similar sounds/spelling. Made for some confusion).

The following morning we woke, and I had one, only one destination in mine. The Apotheke – my “cold” had turned into a throat so raw and sore I could not swallow – it was also coated in white, you know, kind of like strep . . . not a good time. We found one, I spoke with the lovely pharmacist and she gave me a bottle of cough syrup with codeine – I took it from here quite happily, I also didn’t care that it was about 18 Euro. After that our adventures could continue! (for the record, if you can avoid getting Strep and a serious cold/mild chest infection on vacation, I recommend it!).

Turns out Interlaken is a beautiful town high in the Swiss Alps. We spent the morning walking around town taking in the sights – including watching para-gliders coming gently sailing to the ground. After our walk around town, we headed back to our hostel to get dressed up for the whole point of this trip – Joy and Cam’s wedding! Hair, make-up (obviously just me, not Mike!) and fancy clothes. Nothing like backpacking across Europe while toting along some dress-up things.

The actual wedding took place high up in the mountains in a super cute town called Lauterbrunnen. To get there Joy and Cam had a double decker bus catered for us, and we all drove out in style. Mike and myself, along with Ansley and her Mike were lucky enough to get the best seats on the bus for the trip! Wow, the mountains were stunning. Once we got to the actual Church we were in for a huge surprise . . .

Yes, that above image is a waterfall coming off the side of a mountain! The service was great, lots of laughs. The whole time you could tell just how in love Joy and Cam are 🙂 During picture time I just sort of faded into a Sunny spot in attempts to warm-up and feel a little bit better. After the pictures we all clambered back onto the bus and headed to the reception which was held at Hotel Interlaken. Let me start by saying man that food was AMAZING! Don’t get me wrong the company was also great, but the food, wow the food. I guess I really enjoyed it 🙂 We didn’t manage to make it through the whole reception because my fever got way to high and I needed to be put to bed, but the part of the night we go to attend was a great time. Joy and Cam – you can get married like that again anytime! I’d love to enjoy your day again without being so sick.

After a much needed sleep Mike packed up both of bags (I was unable to get out of bed at first, I was just that sick and tired) and we headed off to the train station for our next adventure – Kassel!