Tuesday August 2nd- South to Switzerland and the Alps

Today was a BIG day.  We packed all of our bags, closed out our apartment in France, and set out on a two hour journey South into Switzerland- in search of the village of Eriswil.  This is the village where the earliest records of Alan’s ancestors (the Wirths) are known to exist.  Alan’s earliest known ancestor is Claus Wirth, who was born sometime in the 1500’s and lived in Eriswil.  Claus’ great grandson (Johan Ulrich Wirth, Sr.) moved his family to the Alsace in 1698.   The son of Johan Ulrich Wirth, Sr. was Alan’s ancestor who immigrated to America in 1748.

Eriswil:

Eriswil bus station:

Eriswil farmhouse and barn: 

Eriswil was a joy to discover, and seemed to be a rather prosperous little village, complete with its own protestant church, and school.  The topography was similar to Pennsylvania, with rolling hills, and lots of dairy farms. In fact, Eriswil is located near the Emmental Valley, where the famous Emmentaler cheese originated from.

Eriswil village center, with water trough. Protestant church in background:

Eriswil village convenience store:

Eriswil Elementary School:

Creek flows under house in Eriswil:

Photos of Protestant Church in Eriswil where ancestors of Alan's worshipped:

 After having a horrendous experience in Eriswil’s only “Italian” restaurant, we got back in the car and set a course for Interlaken, where we had booked a room in a small family owned hotel- the Alpenblick, in Wilderswil, just outside of Interlaken.  Our hotel room was a surprise-not in a good way. It dated back to-well, hard to say-old and was small-lucky to be 10 x 10 with a corner layout. We couldn't even open a suitcase.  

Alpenblick Hotel- cute on the outside, cramped inside:

After seeing our accommodations, we decided to immediately take a bus into Interlaken for the day.   As it turned out, this hub for hikers wasn't our "cup of tea."  Interlaken was crowded like a big city and didn't compare at all to the pictures we had seen on google images.  We were disappointed, but kept a good attitude and did enjoy seeing the masses of tandem paragliders floating down from the sky, just barely missing the tall buildings.  

River in Interlaken:

Paraglider landing in Interlaken park:

We spent most of our afternoon watching them and walking along a beautiful river that connected the two lakes. Morning came and after a quick breakfast, we checked out, looking forward to our last leg of the journey, Gimmewald, Switzerland.