Overnight: Lake Oescheninsee and Thun

We took our first overnight weekend trip with both kids just a couple weekends ago.

On Saturday morning, we all packed into the VW Touran and headed southwest again to the Bernese Oberland.  Even though we were in the same area when we went to Murren, it was almost an hour away with new sights and places we hadn't seen.  There's an indescribable amount of beauty there.



We drove straight to the small town of Kandersteg ("Con-derst-egg") which is in a valley along the River Kander.  We parked at our tiny hotel that we reserved for that night, checked in, grabbed our hiking gear, and walked to the base of the gondola Kandersteg-Oeschinen.  Once we got to the top, we were greeted with a huge alpine slide (which very unfortunately we didn't get to go on).

In the town of Kandersteg

Downtown Kandersteg walking to the gondola

Traditional Swiss chalet style house

We hiked down to Lake Oeschinen (Oeschinensee) which is one of the World Heritage sites in Switzerland and one of the more popular places to see here.  It wasn't a hard hike down to the lake.  It was quite a popular area to picnic with many families eating, playing, and laying out in the sun.  The water was crazy blue with huge mountains all around.  We ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples, and granola bars, then headed straight up on a side trail (hiking toward Hohtürli).  

First look at the lake

We hiked for about 45 minutes.  We were planning to eat at the restaurant by the lake, but came to find out that the gondola stops running at 5pm and we had bought round trip tickets already.  AND the slide closed at 4:30pm...so we headed back down and ate at a restaurant just at the base of the gondola.  There was a fun playground with a trampoline so we ate outside while she ran around and played for over an hour.

People all over just hanging out

He's a pretty good hiker.

This is where we ate dinner-restaurant on the right with a playground.

Once everyone was completely exhausted and cold (and fussy), we returned to our tiny 70s hotel room and prayed that the kids would sleep so we could also rest.  After an hour, both kids were sleeping and we debated about taking showers in fear of waking them up.  The night was rough.  I don't know if I slept more than 4 or 5 hours and Maddie was ready to go at 5:30am...and we tried letting her sleep in bed with us...well that definitely didn't work.  She thought it was so fun *playing* in bed all together.  We were the first ones waiting for the breakfast buffet to open.  Breakfast here is usually cold cuts, cheese, different kinds of fresh bread, orange juice, coffee, yogurt, and cereals.

We packed up and drove to the town of Thun ("Toon") which was just 30 minutes away and on our way back home.  While Bryce worked on his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech, he worked closely with a fun Swiss guy.  He actually recommended visiting Thun.  If you can believe it, the town has been inhabited since the Neolithic age (mid 3rd millenium BC)!  As you can imagine, it was gorgeous.  There's a beautiful river that runs through the town from Lake Thun.

Since it was Sunday, it wasn't crowded at all.  We just found a parking garage near the old town and walked around.  We started in the old town and walked along the river, through an old medieval bridge, past tons of quaint cafes and people drinking their coffees, all the way to Lake Thun.  It was quite a walk.  At one point, Maddie fell asleep taking her mid day nap on my back in the Ergo carrier and I fed Carter standing up at the same time.  I felt like a mule and dairy cow all at once.

Long walk along the river

 I had two big goals for the day-visit one of the castles and go on a boat.  We stopped at a fun play ground and let her play while we figured out the steam boat ferry schedule.  We ate sausage at the little restaurant next to the play ground and right in front of the ferry stop.

I got curry sausage with fries and Bryce got smoked sausage and potato salad.  Maddie got a cookie most similar to a strawberry pop tart without the frosting.

The boat was really fun and different than just walking or driving while sight seeing.  It's considered public transportation.  We just hopped on, Bryce went over to the ticket counter on the boat and bought our tickets for just two stops away, and then we rode on for about 20 minutes.

We just pushed the stroller right on and this guy just sat there.

We hopped off to tour the Oberhofen castle.  There was another fun playground right at the entrance so we stopped to nurse the baby and let the other baby run around.  It was a little unnerving to let a 2 year old walk around the castle with us, but it was surprisingly fine.  They even had a few fun little things to entertain little ones IN the castle.  It was a walking self tour with no map, written brochure or anything, so we literally just walked around inside the castle.  There weren't many people walking around inside.

Entrance to the castle

There were a few chandeliers and Maddie kept pointing to each one saying "boobies!"  I was laughing and most of the people who passed didn't understand the English that she was speaking except one guy who was near us and he started laughing out loud.  She touched a lot, but there weren't tons of super fragile things out in the open or within her reach.  It was really neat to walk around, see the armory, the library, a chapel, the jail and torture chamber, even a Turkish smoking room on the very top floor.

"Boobies!" on multiple chandeliers

Coloring station in the armory

Just to see the actual size of the swords they used.

Caught red handed using candy to get her moving a little faster.

A nursery with a listening station for kids.

After the castle tour, we hopped on a bus back to downtown Thun.  Then we grabbed some PEZ candy at the store by the parking garage and headed home.  We got home around 6pm, just in time for baths and bedtime.  It was so nice climbing into our own beds with the kids in their respective beds sleeping soundly.