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We did do the coaster today! We left the house at about 11 and drove to Kandersteg where the coaster is. We drove through a town called Riechenbach, not sure what the relation to Sherlock is there if any… But that was cool. Also the terrain and buildings and small villages were starting to look very typically Swiss; rolling green hills, tiny cottages, giant mountains, and cows. Once we got there, we didn't know where to go and couldn't find the tourist info station, so we asked at the train station and eventually after half an hour we found it. Apparently you take the gondola up the mountain, and at the top you catch the coaster. I thought it was going to be a coaster all the way down the mountain, but actually it's more like a typical roller coaster. You start and end at the top of the mountain, they have a track for you to go on and then a system to pull up the cart back to the start.

It's a ski mountain in the winter, which is made obvious by the fact that the washrooms have ski stands in front of them. The hiking paths at the top are glorious; albeit full of cow pats if you step off the path. After the coaster we went a short way along one of them just to take some pictures and take in the Swiss alps around us. I couldn't stop thinking, "Heidi". I was amazed by the diversity in the plants: at first glance you might think it was all grass, but there are lots of small plants and grasses and flowers and shrubs all crowded together. Must be heathy for the cows.

The coaster stops when it rains as the metal half-tube can be unsafe when wet, so we were lucky that it wasn't quite raining at that point. It was raining off and on throughout the day. There was one point where the guy running it went around the track with a wool blanket and a sort of modified broom to squigy away some of the rain that had just fallen. The carts they give you are a bit small, so it can be scary at first, but there is a brake on them which you control so as to not go too fast. Sometimes you can go too slow however, and start a bit of a pile up. It was fun to ride, all in all. I think Tobin had the most fun. I was a little bit disappointed, but only because I had built it up in my head to be the coolest thing ever to the point where nothing in reality could really fulfil that expectation. There was a small bridge over the metal track and a path as well for people to take pictures and see their group members come speeding down.

After lunch in the back of our car consisting mostly of honeydew melon, we started back. We decided to stop at a town called Thun, because we had heard it was neat and it was right on our way. We didn't spend long in Thun, just long enough to walk around a bit, but from what I saw it was neat. There was a covered old bridge over the river running right through the middle of town, as well as lots of walkways and bicycle paths and parks and trees. I saw two swans swimming upstream right next to me; they are big, strong birds. Thun reminded me of a European Victoria. The equivalent of what we saw of Thun in Victoria could be a twenty minute walk around the tourist part of the inner harbour. So we didn't see everything, but I know enough to say that I definitely want to see more of it.

After Thun we came home and had rice and meat sauce for supper. Now I'm just sitting outside on the swingy chair finishing this blog post up, and then I'll be heading in to help clean up. We're leaving tomorrow early to start our six hour drive to Padova Italy, where a house swapper lady has offered to host us for three nights. So we will have two full days to explore Venice, and that is all we are planning to do: walk around the streets and just wonder. No expensive tourist stuff for us (although I do hope we will get some gelato at some point). We'll probably hop on a water-bus too. And we will not be there after 1pm or before 3pm: otherwise I won't be able to continue this blog because I will be burning on the sidewalk somewhere in Italy.