Days 8-9 Travel Day\Interlaken

Hi! This is going to be a little out of order because Megan is doing dazs 7-8 but she started after me...so read hers first!
So, anyway...I^m writing to you from our Hostel in Interlaken, Switzerland! We got here last night after a long day on the train from Venice. Yesterday morning, we took the vaporetto from our Hostel on the island Giudecca (just across the Grand Canal from St. Marks Square) to the train station. For the first time on our trip, it was pouring rain. This, combined with the fact that the vaporetto was so packed that we missed our stop, made the morning a little bit stressful. We missed the first train to Milan (one of the many stops on our way here)but it all worked out eventually. We took trains from Venice to Milan, Milan to Brig, and finally Brig to Bern. Even though our final destination was Interlaken, we decided to get off the train in Bern and explore a little bit...definitely a good idea (thanks Megan). Bern is the capital of Switzerland (you probably know that, I did not) and is a gorgeous city. Google-image it or something because it is seriously amazing. We rented bikes next the train station and rode them around for about an hour...Bern is on a river, so we went over a bridge a couple of times. We were all amazed by the color of the water...its not normal river-color, but more like the water in the Caribbean. We ate dinner in Bern too, before taking our last train to Interlaken.
Today was probably one of my favorite days of the trip so far (which is why I was assigned to writing about today...Megan and Gina might give you a different description of the hike we went on). So, we had breakfast in our hostel this morning (muesli and a banana and unlimited ovaltine...pretty good as far as hostel breakfasts go) before setting off for a REALLY cool hike. We climbed up Harder Kulm, which is a smaller hike from Interlaken up to a restaurant. The hike (and the restaurant, where we stopped for ice cream) gave us incredible views of Interlaken and the surrounding mountains. It took us a while, though, and we didn¨'t get back down until about 3 this afternoon. We grabbed lunch and ate it in town before going back to the hostel for a little bit. We spend the evening swimming at one of the lakes (Interlaken is between 2 lakes...I^m not sure what this one was called, but it was near the Interlaken Ost train station if someone cares). Afterwards, we relaxed for a while by the lake. We were amazed by how quintessentially Swiss everything was, between the cows and the mountains and the millions of Swiss flags everwhere.
Tomorrow, we¨re headed to Grindelwald to see more of the Alps, though I don't think the 5 hour hike I suggested will actuallz happen.
Miss you°
xo EMma