After enjoying the fireworks over Lake Luzern last night and getting to bed after 11 p.m., Bryan and I were both certain we would sleep longer than we had the night before. It turned out, we were wrong. We were awake and hungry shortly after 3 a.m. Oops! We kept the lights off and tried to sleep for some time more, but finally gave up and turned the lights on, ate a snack and got on Facebook. When 6 a.m. rolled around, we showered, tidied up our room and were prepared to wait until 7:30 to check out, but the gal at the desk was kind enough to take our key and sheets early so that we could walk in to the train station.

We went back to the same bakery for breakfast . Bryan had a repeat of the chocolate croissant, and I had a pastry that strangely resembled a deep fried bean burrito from Taco Time. It was a flaky pastry with a hazelnut filling that was quite tasty. Then we went down to the Coop to do some grocery shopping. No luck there, because it was closed.

So we went back up to the platform and waited for our train. We rode on the Golden Pass Panoramic train today from Luzern to Interlaken. The views were beautiful despite the clouds. (Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention that it has cooled off! Yay!) Then we tried another Coop. It was closed all day on Sundays. Fortunately, there was a Coop the size of a minute mart stocked with everything we needed. Then we got our tickets to Gimmelwald. We thought we were going to have to buy our train, bus and cable car tickets separately as we got to each town. Instead, the man at the counter in Interlaken gave us a ticket that was good for all three legs of the trip. So that was extremely convenient . :)

When we got off the cable car, our hostel was already in view. Tonight we will be staying at The Mountain Hostel. We are staying in the room marked "Lovers." (There are also rooms marked "Girls" "Boys" and "Family.") There are eight bunk beds in the room, with four pushed together on each side of a center aisle. In between each set of two is a little privacy screen made of wood (like you might find on a school desk).

After we had checked in, we walked around the town. The whole town. And it didn't take long. :) It was a refreshing change of pace from yesterday's crowded streets. (You know the town is small when there is a trough listed on the walking tour!) The old shingled houses with their window boxes and shutters are so quaint. Goats climb the hillside, ringing bells around their necks. We checked out the "Honesty Shop", where there is no attendant and if you want to buy something you take it and leave them payment in an envelope .

We decided to go on a hike up Sefinen Valley. As we hiked, we saw a herd of cows. The movement from them chewing their cud made the cow bells ring. The sound was quite soothing actually. There were also more goats and some horses. Wildflowers lined the trail. Occasionally we would see a snail on the path. There were two little waterfalls and a stream. We decided we were hungry and started back. About ten minutes later the raindrops became a steady rain. We climbed the hill and arrived at our hostel soaking wet.

After a change of clothes, and spaghetti dinner, we checked further on the weather forecast for this area. It is supposed to rain and be cloudy the rest of the week. :( Because of this we are going to duck out early, and have changed our reservation in Interlaken for tomorrow night instead of the following night. I am still, not-so-secretly hoping that we will wake up to beautiful views of the Alps (because I haven't seen them due to the fog) .

We hid out in the upstairs room after dinner because there are an abundance of flies in the common room. Yuck! When it did stop raining, we went out for an evening walk around the town.

That is all I have to report. It has been a slow day, but we managed to stay up for all of it. It is 8:30pm now, and we are going to go to bed. I am praying that we will get our first full night of sleep since starting out. I think that would do wonders for us, whether or not we get to see the mountains.

This was one of the stops on our trip that I was looking forward to the most. When I had been here before, the sight of the Alps was just awesome and I was excited to show Merilee. Sadly, the weather just didn't cooperate. All of the other travelers were doing their best to make the most of the weather, but when you are in an area where you want to be outside, but are stuck inside it can be disappointing. We briefly agonized about leaving early, but I think it was a great decision. Rather than a day cooped up with the flies and dodging raindrops we got to add a day in Innsbruck which ended up being one of the pleasant surprises of the trip.

We had made all of the reservations for the trip online and it was easy enough to switch our reservation for Interlaken the next night. In fact, we ended up with a less expensive room, which was a plus. We didn't get our money back for the canceled night in Gimmelwald, but the bunks we were staying in weren't expensive and it was a great decision in the long run.