On To The Coach,

and on our way to Switzerland,

on the way we were amazed at the size and number of wind farms which seems strange as so many articles seem to suggest that with out huge subsides they will not make a profit and fall into disrepair, like some of these,

another of the Expat coaches caught up with us,

we stopped for a coffee break,

and had a look around,

then a bite to eat,

and this is the road we will be travelling,

our next stop in Switzerland  for lunch,

a look around the cafe,

the food and services were exceptional, not that we use any British motorway restaurants, but this one and all of the others on our travels in Europe were first class,

and this one had some novelty Swiss items on display,

then Diana's first sight of snow,

in the distance,

hopefully there will be some on the trip we have to the summit of one of the mountains,

everything was so picturesque,

with houses at the lakes edge,

and villages at the base of the mountains, 

more snow,

Diana was so excited, 

well we all were,

there was at least one other passenger that had never seen snow on board,

we soon pulled into the town of Wilderswil,

and to the Edelweiss Lodge,

our bedroom,

and the view from it, looking to the right,

and left, the tourist office almost directly opposite the hotel,

a very happy Diana,

and a panorama of our view,

the snow looked so nice in the far distance,

the tourist office opposite, it appears that walking and hiking are always popular here as is visiting the peaks of the mountains,

the houses postcard perfect,

and in the distance this building reminded me of The Grand Budapest Hotel,

a part of the lounge of our hotel,

at the rear a nicely laid out garden,

with a fountain and hot tub,

I could not help zooming in,

with the camera to show Diana the snow,

Diana relaxing in the sun,

a Christmas tree, there are literately hundreds of thousands of them out here, but most a lot bigger than this one,

time for a walk,

past some of the houses opposite,

and a look back at the lodge,

we made our way along the street,

the houses looking so neat,

and tidy,

we made our way to the station,

past a huge water trough,

over the road,

for a look around,

there are two services that run from this station,

this one that goes to the peak,

and this one that runs in the valley,

we were both amazed at how long the train was,

back to the mountain train,

it has a rack and pinon system,

that means that the train literally drags itself up the hills, where as a normal train wold lose traction and the wheels just spin,

and if you thought that a pair of points was a headache for engineers,

here both sets of racks have to interlink as well,

and at higher levels a snowplow is a must,

our train arrives,

we are going into town,

and pass another local train,

we decided on a walk around,

and found this beauty moored,

it is one of two paddle steamers that take tourist around the lakes,

what a beauty, unfortunately we did not have time to make a tour,

but we did have a look at one of the paddles,

there is a gearing device which uses an eccentric as the paddle goes round, here as the paddle enters the water,

and here as it leaves, the term used to describe the mechanism is called a feathering paddlewheel,

a quick pose from Diana,

the water almost looked blue,

and was surprisingly clear,

above,

thrill seekers are earth bound,

Diana can hardly wait until tomorrow,

when we will be at the top of the mountain,

we continued our walk and was slightly surprised to see a Thai restaurant,

we looked around the local department store,

and a infinity water feature at the bus depot,

where customers were waiting,

we arrived back to the station near the hotel, I mention the water trough as we left being big, this is how big it really is,

a tractor passed us as we made our way back,

to the lodge,

an afternoon tipple ,

and on to our evening meal,

we then moved to the lounge,

and had a nightcap before we were off to bed.