DriveThru Tours

Holiday in Europe 2025

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Switzerland - Part One

It's so lovely to be in a civilised country after spending far too long in third-world UK.

" The greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do.
Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled. "

~Aldous Huxley - Book: The Art of Seeing

Monday 2 June 2025

Rest Day! We've both been so tired that we stayed around the caravan site all day. The only job we did was to erect the awning which we did around lunch time - it took some time as it's a new awning - lack of practice. We just about completed the job as it started to rain. The ground here is so saturated that it rises through the floor and carpet of the awning so it's very difficult to keep mud out of the caravan - especially from Mia's paws after a walk.

I spent most of the rest of the day processing my photographs and videos.

I walk Mia along this path several times a day. The view changes by the hour as the light and weather change but it's always stunningly beautiful.

Tuesday 3 June 2025

We got lucky with the weather today so we visited Interlaken.After dropping into the tourist information centre we decided to visit the Top of Interlaken - Harder Kulm. After quite a long walk to the railway station which provides a near vertical climb of the mountain in ten minutes we queued up to buy our tickets - until we saw the price list - CHF44 each for the return ten-minute ride - no doubt they'd charge for Mia too but we didn't get that far. We're certainly not paying £79 return (for two people) to see the view from the top of Interlaken. No one comes to Switzerland expecting a cheap holiday, but there's a difference between expensive and being ripped-off! I also went into an office supply shop and bought a ream of ordinary 80gsm paper for almost £10 - nearly three times what I pay in the UK.

We visited Velo Cafe for lunch (above) and Grace had a salad sandwich and I had pancakes with blueberries. All lovely. The cost was £28.72 - including CHF2 for two glasses of tap water! See more photographs in the gallery:

Interlaken is a popular place for paragliding and Switzerland is a land of trains!

The Japanese Garden in Interlaken

Wednesday 4 June 2025

Faulensee Area

Thursday 5 June 2025

Grindelwald Area

At last I was able to buy some Swiss chocolate's. The best in the world. No doubt they won't be the last I'll buy either. Sadly, the top of the Eiger was shrouded in cloud so that was rather disappointing.

The videos below show the road trip from the end of the road above Grindelwald as it descends through the village and out the other side. It wasn't possible to stop to take photographs but these videos will show you the magnificent scenery we passed through. The video is in two parts.

Friday 6 June 2025 - 81st Anniversary of D-Day in 1944 - We Will Remember

Remember that Normandy, and most of the world, commemorates this tragic period of world history every single year.

Today we visited Brienz - and viewed many of its ancient buildings - shown in the two galleries and the video (below left):

We also drove round the side of Thunersee - see video above right

We also visited Spiez

Saturday 7 June 2025 - Rest Day for us at Camping Breithorn

Apart from walking Mia we didn't leave the caravan all day. That said, it was raining for most of the day so that didn't encourage much movement.

One of the pleasures of being in such a wonderful location is that even in bad weather the beauty doesn't go away - it just changes from one beautiful scene to another. You can see examples of this in the gallery. When walking the local paths with Mia it's lovely to hear the cowbells clinking as our bovine frineds move. They are very curious and friendly beasts and Mia was initially quite fascinated by them - but she soon got bored. The galleries below will change as time passes until we leave this site.

**Our Bovine Friends video:**

Sunday 8 June 2025 - Visiting Thun

We walked along the river bank into Thun.

Monday 9 June 2025 - Stayed at Camping Breithorn cleaning out the awning and other tasks

Because of all the rain we've experienced and the fact that our pitch was at the bottom of a small slope, the floor of our awning became like a swamp. Consequently, all the flooring we'd put down was covered in mud and water so as we had a good day weatherwise, we decided to take up our flooring and clean it ready for the time we left this site. Having wet muddy flooring either loaded in the car or our caravan isn't fun, so we dealt with it whilst it was possible to wash and dry everything.

Later in the day we met Anca and her friends. Anca's boyfriend and his friend were here to participte in 'base-jumping' action, one of the most dangerous sporting activities.



A safe landing for the two base-jumpers.

Tuesday 10 June 2025

The highlight of our tour - a trip to the top of the Schilthorn

The magnificent view from the top of the Schilthorn.

Wednesday 11 June 2025

Stayed in camp all morning doing the laundry and other jobs. We needed to get this done ready for leaving the site so everything had time to dry in the sunshine.

In the afternoon we completed a 133 mile tour over three mountain passes with a visit to Andermatt thrown in for good measure where we couldn't find anything sensible to eat so I ended up buying picnic food from the Co-op. Starting from our caravan site, we travelled through the Susten Pass to Andermatt, then through the Furka Pass and the Grimsel Pass and back to our caravan.

We arrived back at camp quite late in the evening, then spent a lot of time packing - including taking down the awning. We didn't get to bed until midnight.

Andermatt was almost unrecogniseable since the time when JP and I visited the town at the start of our bicycle tour along EuroVelo 15 in July 2016.

Videos below show our drive from Andermatt into the mountains towards Susten Pass.

At one point, Grace wasn't feeling very well because of all the twists, turns and hairpin bends, so we stopped for a break.

After our visit we continued our trip through the Furka Pass:

and the Grimsel Pass:

Thursday 12 June 2025

Up early to walk Mia and complete our packing for leaving Camping Breithorn. I felt very sad as I took Mia for her last walk along the path near the campsite - a walk I did with our dear Kanga in 2019, and now with Mia. Always sad to leave a favourite place, never knowing if one will ever return. We got away at about 0900 hrs, not knowing where we'd find a place for the night.