Brienz is set on a lake, with little wooden and stone houses (some with beautiful little wooden shingle walls) with brightly coloured flower boxes under the windows - geraniums seem to be a popular choice. It is, according to the marketing, a "typically Swiss" village. It is particularly well known for its wood carvings. We've seen some stunning examples - but the prices reflect the amount of time and skill it takes to carve them - 6 hours for a basic elephant ab...

Free chocolate milk at the Lucerne station as we headed off was a great start to the day. Only a quick trip to our next location of Brienz just 1.5 hours by train. Check in times for accomodation are very late in Europe - this one 4pm but we had arranged to drop off our bags early and then make the most of our travel pass by doing some travel related sightseeing for the rest if the day. Our airbnb has stunning views across Lake Brienz, and is in a cute little vi...

Lucerne is a city of 2 halves the old and the new. It sits on the edge of Lake Lucerne. Both old and new buildings are multi storey surrounding the lake. Turrets are common in the old area and thre is a suprising amount of grassed and forested areas on the hills surrounding the lake. An old stone wall with 7 towers marks the perimeter of the old town, and there are lots of bridges across the river leading into the lake. Today was our day on foot to have a look ar...

For our 12 days in Switzerland we have a Swiss Travel Pass that allows us 8 days of unlimited travel and discounts to some attractions. Today was one of our planned travel days with a ferry across the lake and a train ride up Mt Rigi which is 1899m high. We had a lovely day for it - though we found the light to be quite hazy over the lake.The train ride up was steep - the trains have an extra cog wheel underneath that works like a gear wheel keeping the train loc...

A busy day of travel unfolded with minimal issues. A ferry, a bus and 4 trains, needed to get to our new destination of Lucerne, 2 trains more than the direct route so we could visit the Swiss Valley Knife centre in Brunnen along the way. The Swiss rail system is a delight , though the long haul trains have limited legroom (they make the Wairarapa trains look spacious), but we are travelling 2nd class, so I guess the first class is better. The regional trains h...