Rainy last night and continuing today, so we will have to skip our visit to Zermatt, for now at least. We’ll make the long drive across the Röstigraben into the French speaking areas and visit whatever indoor things we can find. Chateau du Chillon, Lausanne and Lake Geneva, and eventually resting in the area of Gruyeré, Morlon actually. We’ll see what comes up.

About to get Frühstück and then ride the cable car back down from Fiescheralp.

The language here is Switzerland is really interesting, with German being the most common but English is used somewhat as a fall back. I actually expected more English than there has been. Our hotels and restaurants seem to have one or maybe two who speak English, though most people understand at least the basics. Much of the music we have heard in restaurants has been English speaking, though we did get some yodeling music at one place. The last two nights have been a Michael Buble album on repeat.

Most tourists seem German-speaking, with only one or two English and some French and italian speakers. We are definitely the odd ones. But the Swiss have been anywhere from extremely nice to a few uninterested, with most being quite pleasant and trying to accommodate.

I have been frustrated at attempts to speak German as people always seem to repeat everything I say as if they are not sure that I meant what I was saying. So there doesn’t seem to be much point in trying, as they usually respond in English or German asking for clarification so that’s kind of disappointing.

It is a skill negotiating language as well, for example I dropped Holly’s sunglasses along the trail and a bit later an older man came up from behind and started in German. I had no idea what he was saying, and just kind of stared at him while processing, and he said quickly “in English then?”. Very smoothly, and without much detectable annoyance, although I’m sure they’d rather not have to.

Greetings are typically Grüezi, but plenty of Guten tag, morgen, etc. Almost always it is schone abend for good evening. Just when you get ready to say Grüezi, someone will hit you with Hallo or Bonjour or Morgen, so you have to be on your toes.

Accents are quite noticeable as well, particularly in Appenzell where the speaking was much more rhythmic and melodic almost. Kinda fun there. More typically German so far elsewhere.

Well after hiking 3 hours to the panorama viewpoint Platta, we have cell service, so you get a real time view of the awesome Aletsch Glacier!

Very nice up here! More later, we may stay and extra night. Tomorrow hike to see Aletsch Glacier.

Oh yeah, 3G up here on the mountaintop!!

Driving up through the pass near Andermatt is where we hit that traffic jam, which was bad and turned out to be minor construction in a tunnel up high. The roads were good but still precipitous!

These are a view views from above Andermatt.

It kept on with great views but i didn’t iPad much because we had to make it to our next stay before the cable car lift closed.

Before leaving town we walked up the towers and city wall remnant in Luzern. The view was worth the hill and stairs inside the stone tower.

We also visited the lion monument, but didn’t take the iPad out for that one…

Stuck in traffic jam just prior to Gotthard tunnel/Andermatt pass.

Must be miles back now, about 30 minutes so far.

As jams go, it’s not a bad place to be in one.

Strolled around Luzern (you don’t just walk here) and across both old bridges, including the Chapel bridge. This has a large and cool stone tower in the middle. Sadly the entrance to the tower has been turned into a not cool souvenir shop…

But the bridge is still quite the attraction, with lots of cameras clicking. At each rafter there is a triangular painting dating from 1600s showing event in Swiss history.

Next we had dinner at a waterside pizzeria, complete with arguing Italians/Italian-Swiss in the open pizza kitchen. Below is the SFr 12.50 ($16) salad (not the main dish). Food is expensive here, but we had Nutella and bread for lunch, so its ok.

Final random thought, the Swiss toilets don’t have tanks, the water just runs from a water pipe. Seems like a good system.

After visiting the Stiftsbibliothek in St. Gallen (books and manuscripts some as older than 1000 years!) we drove backroads all the way to Luzern. We’ve just arrived but so far it is a pretty busy city with a really nice river, lake, mountains, and medieval wall.

The view from the Tourist Hotel: