Grindelwald, Switzerland

  On our way to Grindelwald we spent one night in Kerns, Switzerland at a local families farm.  We found this spot on a European site similar to Harvest Host called park for the night.  I found this site from following a British family that travels all around in their camper van on Tic Toc and Instagram.  Although the family spoke little English they were super friendly and hospitable.  We had access to their family pool, farm, playground, separate bathroom with hot showers, a kitchen and a fridge full of local cheese and beverages which you paid for on the honor system.  The views from their farm were incredible!  Three to four other campers were there for the night although we had our side of their property to ourselves.  In the morning we took  a pretty steep walk down to see their horses before heading off to Grindelwald.   Almost a week in and the girls say that this is their favorite spot we've stayed so far.  The drive to Grindelwald took around two hours with some of the tightest hair pin turns we've encountered!  The campground in Grindelwald is exactly what we expected.  No reservations needed, sort of a pack you into their open field as tight as they can.  This was fine as all of your time in this area is spent outside away from the campground exploring all that the area has to offer!  Their bathrooms were super clean and showers hot!  Everyone was very friendly!  Once we settled into our spot we took a walk, a very steep walk, into Grindelwald.  Jay perused every shop for a pair of sunglasses until the girls and I refused to stop because we were starving!  We had lunch at a little Italian restaurant, pizza, French Fries and Salad hit the spot.  The girls then played at the playground for a while before they noticed the tourist information center which also happened to be attached to a huge indoor sports complex which housed an ice rink, swimming pool, rock climbing wall, indoor ropes course and more.  For a few Franks we could swim so we made the trek back to the camper to grab bathing suits.  We quickly learned the bus system to take us back to Grindelwald so we didn't have to make that hike back up again!  Jay and the girls swam for an hour or so and since I had planned to watch and not swim I wasn't aloud inside without swimming clothes so I sat outside in the sunshine for a bit.  The next morning we made our way to Murren.  This is a town I had been researching which had fun hikes for kids, playgrounds and beautiful views.  The tricky part is that it's not accessible by car.  It took two trains, a tram car, another train and a funicular car to get there about an hour and a half in total.  Once there you exit to a pretty big playground that the girls spent a lot of time at.  There also was a restaurant right adjacent so Jay and I sat on the deck, had a drink and ordered lunch while the girls played with Alex from Ohio.  After a bit we set off back down the mountain in search of the children's adventure trail.  We walked down one path and back up (I'm pretty sure I almost passed out here it was so steep!)  down another and turn around again.  Every article I had read made this path so easy to find but turns out we never did until the very end of it we found the last slide which after hours of hiking the girls enjoyed!  Even with all of our turn arounds and a rainy day we made the best of it!  I also can't say enough about being prepared for the weather as we walked all day in rain and not our clothes or feet were wet!  Once back to Grindelwald the girls asked to swim again so from the train station Jay ran back to the campground to grab out swim suits.  He gladly took a ride from a couple who picked him up and drove him to the bus stop where we met him.  By the time we got back to the camper we were all exhausted, sore and ready for bed.  We had walked/hiked around 17 miles the two days we were there.  Had the weather been clear when we woke up this morning we would have gone up to Jungfraujoch, the top of Europe, but it was still raining pretty good and the idea of below freezing temps starting in rain didn't sound appealing.  This just means we will have to come back as we hear it's absolutely amazing!  We also didn't even begin to explore all that this area has to offer but our journey takes us on our way to our next adventure!