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Spa and fries

Adelboden, Switzerland

This break was part of the many we won in 2007, it was from Spirit & Destiny online; the magazine certainly lived up to its name that year. Like most of the holidays we won this piece of wonderful news arrived through the post in an unassuming white envelope. We had won two nights in The Cambrian Hotel with a full body massage each, thrown in for good measure. The only downside and I'm not complaining, was we had to find our own flights. This meant we had to fly from Liverpool to Geneva, which we have done numerous times, then get two trains then a bus up the mountain to Adelboden. So we arranged everything with Spirit & Destiny and booked our flights and train tickets online, then we were off a couple of weeks later.

The day had arrived and it was another early start, and we hoped it was going to be a quiet taxi driver that took us to the airport; I don't know why we think this because everyone is programmed to ask you where you're going, and then tells you their life story. Finally get to the airport, check in bags, take off and before you know it, we're there, in beautiful Switzerland.

We go to pick up our bags and in the distance is some, what can only be described as a 1970's German porn star was throwing Trish's bag off the carousel. As he grabs his bag and walks towards me, I do my drunken sailor impression and send him flying towards the car rental desk; he doesn't say anything, "All mouth and no trousers, pretty apt for a German porn star", we now call this the "Geneva bump". After we get our bags, it off to the station which is very handy as it's in the airport about a ten minute walk, now the adventure begins.

Looking up at the board we have to find our train to Bern because we decided to spend the day and night there so it would give us two full days in Adelboden. After looking at a timetable, the Bern train pulls into the station at the precise time, we duly get on and yes it's true, they do run on time and like clockwork and leaves at the right time. The train makes it way around Lake Geneva, then proceeds to hurtle through the chocolate box scenery that Switzerland serves up before our eyes, before entering the suburbs and ultimately Bern station.

We get off the train and head towards the hotel, armed with printouts from google maps with directions on. These directions serve us well because we find the Hotel National Bern quite easy, ten minutes from the station, things are going well. We enter the hotel and present the receptionist with our booking reference and the obligatory passports. After much gurning and tapping away on the keyboard by the receptionist, she turns round and says there's no record of the booking on the system. Well we know we've booked because we spent enough time researching it online and my American Express statement says paid, but no she's not having it. It turns out Gulliver's travels was a con, they take the money and leave people stranded, we were lucky I just paid again with the Amex card and they refunded the money when we got home and we stayed the night. It wasn't a particularly good hotel, the noise from the square down below was terrible and there was loads of noise coming from the adjoining rooms, hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

We dump the bags in the hotel and go and explore the city, the old town is beautiful a bit like Florence but only smaller and less crowded. We saw were Einstein used to live, had a walk down by the river and back through the old streets ready for something to eat. Don't know what was going on because all the restaurants were closing early and we had not been fed. So we continued to look for somewhere, down the main street, past the nuns helping the ladies of the night and into the last chance saloon "McDonalds". We ended up coming out still hungry and clutching four Coca-Cola promotional glasses, which we had to abandon further down the street because we didn't want to take them on our trip; at least they came in handy for the local street connoisseurs of wine and cider.

The next day we are up early, have breakfast and start the next leg of our train journey, once again the countryside doesn't disappoint and only gets better when we arrive in Spiez and get off for a thirty minute wait and walk out of the station. What lies before is a magnificent vista of Lake Thun, the castle and the backdrop of the Alps. After marvelling and thirst quenched with what Trish described as "the best water in the world", we resume our second leg to Adelboden, where we alight and board the waiting bus. The bus takes about an hour and winds its way up the side of a very steep mountain, (those with a nervous disposition should sit in the aisle seat) and drops you off outside the bus depot in town.