The Town of Thun
As always, we started day three of our trip nice and early. Our first stop was in Thun where I enjoyed the best bowl of porridge that I had ever tasted. It was probably also the most expensive breakfast that we have had in Europe as well. My wife came back from ordering inside the restaurant
"Well... it wasn't cheap."
"Do I even want to know?"
"No. Probably not."
Two coffees, a yogurt bowl and porridge cost us just over 30 euros. Again, the country deserves top ratings for beauty 10/10, but ranks pretty low on the budget scale if you're coming from outside of the country or Europe in general. Converting those prices to CAD is basically a slap in the face.
What Switzerland lacks in budget though, it certainly makes up for in beauty. Thun was probably the prettiest town that we visited on our trip. A large blue water canal coming off the lake meanders its way through the city. Flowers line the streets and bridges. It reminded me a lot of the Netherlands which I also found to be spectacularly pretty. The mountains of Switzerland in the background though, take it to a whole other level.
Walking up to an old wooden bridge we stopped to watch a surfer catching some early morning waves.
The bridge was actually an old dam built between a fork in the canal. It is still used to control the flow of water in the city.
We spent some time walking the promenade along the canal. Had we brought our bikes it would have been a great place to take them out for a spin.
I really loved the chalet style homes and hotels in Switzerland. This one was located along the promenade. Here we also saw a group of people in a dragon boat paddling up the canal.
Thun is also famous for its 12th century castle on the hill which is now a museum. We walked around it bit didn't bother going in. We are a bit castled out at this point and are starting to get choosy about which ones go into.
You can see the castle from various points throughout the city as well. Its kind of just always there, standing tall in the background.
The picture above and below are of the main square in town. This is where we enjoyed our expensive breakfast.
I thought the statue below was of the Krampus, a mythical half goat half devil creature who punishes naughty children around Christmas time. There wasn't any information attached to the statue that I could read so I googled it back home. I believe that this is actually a statue of Fuhlehung (Lazy-dog). He was a court jester who wore a devils mask and got the name after he failed in his task to wake the King early in the morning for battle. Either way, I quite liked the statue.
Views of the town and mountains from up near the castle.
A large garden of black eyed Susan located at the top of the hill on the church grounds.
One last look back at the city before moving on.
Just a short drive down the road is another castle in the town of Oberhofen. We didn't spend much time here, just a quick stop over on our way to our hotel in the Interlaken area.
We spend about 10 minutes walking in the garden before someone came to tell us that dogs were not allowed on the property. We had accidentally walked right past the clearly marked sign that said no dogs allowed. I must have been looking up at the castle when I walked past because I had completely missed it. I felt quite rude for having blatantly disrespected the signage which was made worse by the fact that not 10 minutes before the same woman had told us that dogs were not allowed into the castle itself. She must have been thinking "These people are either incredibly rude, or they are morons." At that point, either judgement seemed fair to me.
Before getting kicked out we saw that the castle gardens and grounds had some large California redwoods which are pretty amazing in and of themselves. Small informative plaques were scattered throughout the garden identifying the various plants and what they were used for.
That's it for Thun. This post is getting a little long so I think I will stop it here. The next stop will be Harder Kulm. Thanks for Reading
If you are interested in seeing more of the beautiful country of Switzerland I will be posting about the rest of our trip over the next few days. For the previous post click the link below.