We have spent the last thirty hours or so in the wonderful city of Thun (pronounced tuun). It is located on the end of Lake Thun and the site of the city goes back to 2,500 BC. We are staying at a great hotel which is in the centre of the old town. It is called hotel Krone and until we arrived in our hotel had no idea that The Swiss National Day is August 1, the day we arrived by train and it just so happened that our hotel room overlooked the town square where all the action was happening both last night and again today – magic ⭐️.

Thun has a wonderful castle which we explored today the photo above gives you an idea of how it looks at night. It’s a beauty dating back to the 12th century, there have been a few renovations over the years and has a number of untoward goings on including a brother killing another brother for the place. Having now seen two Swiss castles they are different from many of the Celtic ones we have visited over the years – almost understated in the way that they are displayed and are more like museums with sensors being activated when you enter a room or a staircase before display begins. In this castle they had some incredible archeological findings including displays dating back 4000 years. The turrets are (of course) fabulous and gave you a great view of the river and the city below.

Its a tricky castle to photograph so I haven’t got a great one from the outside (sorry). After a quick bite of lunch we decided to take the ferry to the township of Spiez as we knew there was another castle for us to see. The boat ride was unbelievable, sadly it was only forty minutes each way. We were surprised that it was about $100 AUD each but man was it worth it, I can now say I have seen the Swiss Alps 🥂.

Spiez is another wonderful little town with a population of about 13,000, and they have found three cemeteries here that date back to the Bronze ages, and some Celtic graves from the fourth century BC. Ah but we were here for another castle and this one didn’t disappoint.

The castle dates back to 933 and is another that has had a number of renovations over the years. This one was passed around a little and won and lost in a number of battles. There were a couple of facts that did surprise me though between 1575 and 1651 Franz Ludwig von Erlach owned the castle and boy did he need some room. Franz was married twice and had 35 kids! Needless to say he was responsible for the building of the Great Hall, how unsurprising 😀. The other fact that jumped out at me (and there were many) was that apparently during one heated period of time arrows were shot into the castle with the following message “ We will soon enter the town and capture, kill and hang you by your throats”, yikes ! But what a view..

We finished our very short visit to Switzerland at a local cultural festival this evening (outside our hotel ) which I have videoed portions of to share with Kate, as man Fleetwood Mac and Doris Day by recorder is something to behold 😀. As well as recorder players, there was a brass band (mainly big horn players), some traditional dancers (all women) and a group of singers who had also serenaded us last night in between the fireworks and throwing of bungers (i.e they made lots of noise but no fireworks). The fireworks were like the good old days in Canberra where it appeared that any one in the population who wanted to could just let them off – yet another reason to move to Switzerland I say.

We’ve had a whirlwind tour but it’s been great fun onto Germany by train and then bus tomorrow.