Lucerne to Futigen

Another drizzling day outside and by the time Lew got out of bed I had packed everything up ready to go. We had asked our hosts if it would safe enough to leave all our stuff in our car outside the museum or if we could leave it in the place and come back to pick it up later. Surprisingly she said it would be fine in the car and to be honest we felt ok with that as well since Switzerland felt very very safe. After all it is considered one of the top 5 counties with the lowest crime rate in the world. We had a good chat to Samuel back in NZ again and were very excited about both him and his GF Eden coming over to London next year to join us! I know they are analysing our trip and working out what would be the best way for them to do Europe also. There is also a potential for them to go via South America which we are keen to do ourselves and will be keen to learn somethings off them. We left the house at about 11am and drove 30 minutes into the museum. We had no idea what to expect at this place so only gave ourselves two hours paid parking. Tickets were of course expensive but I saved us 4 CHF ($5.80 NZD) by having a student pass so it cost us a total of 56 CHF ($81 NZD) . They also have a chocolate museum, planetarium, and some sort of movie complex which you can add to your ticket for an additional cost. We decided just to go with the museum as Lew though the chocolate part looked a bit childish since you are in a car thing and it drives you around. We have both also been to the Cadbury museum in Dunedin back home so we are reasonably familiar with the chocolate process. It would cost us an extra 24 CHF ($34.70 NZD) on top of what we had paid for also. The museum started in the area with lots of old trains - steam, coal and electric and they were all beautifully preserved. They also had different cable cars and had interactive models to show you how they worked. There was a really cool one called the Marzilibahn opened in 1885 in Marzil that was driven by water ballast in tanks underneath the cable car. Water was loaded into the tank of the cable car at the top making it heavier than the car at the bottom with people loaded into it and allowed the cable cars to move up/down the mountain. They had a few issues with it during winter when the water would freeze in the pipes and also during summer when they had water shortages and in 1974 it was upgraded to an electric system. There was a like size version of one that is currently being built in Stoos, Switzerland currently and will be the steepest funicular in the world when it opens in 39 days. The thing looks a bit like a few bubbles joint together that rotates as the car goes up the steel wire allowing the passengers to stay level. It’s also electric powered of course - the Swiss are very innovative people.

One of the coolest things that I had never seen before was a machine that is used to clear the train tracks of snow and it can push the snow sideways for 90m and also upwards to 18m! It would be very impressive to see going through the valley pushing large amounts of snow all over the place. From the train area we walked a short distance across to the car museum in which they were currently constructing a section that included how they keep people and road workers safe on their roads. They had this big stack of cars from all different places and years with a large mechanism to pick them up. There was a car show where they explained the development of the supermarket trolley that we use today. Whilst Rudolf Wanzl Senior did not invent the shopping trolley himself he met with the American who did and then developed his own better version. The show also gave us options to use our buzzer in front of us to vote for two different cars that we wanted the machine to bring down and give us the history of. We managed to out buzzer all the children around us and got to check out an electric vehicle and also Enzo Ferrari's 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 with all its fancy bits removed so you can see the motor etc. The car museum also included motorbikes and pushbikes including an old Penny-farthing and multiple different bike options including one random one where the seat is more of a sling - the inventor had got sick of his bum being sore! They also had a crash test car which you could ride in and it showed you the force of hitting another car at 10km/hr. There were also images and videos of what happens at much higher speeds, although I feel like i've seen enough of those sorts of outcomes.

Next came the boat museum and we realised we had already burnt through out two hours of parking. I decided to walk out there to add some more into it whilst Lew continues to look at the boat engines...can't say it really floats my boat (haha sorry dad joke there). Probably the highlight of this museum was actually the section right at the top that showed you the history of ski lifts! They had the progression of the non-detachable lifts right up until the current detachable ones and you could see the mechanism of how they detached. There was a interesting display of the different types of lifts also from ones that look as though they are meant to go deep underwater to small two seater ones which would be very claustrophobic. We only had an hour left to finish the museum since we had used up all our coins and we did still have a 1.5 hour drive to Frutigen where we were based for the next three nights. The final area was the planes museum and Lew of course was fascinated by the large engines and went about explaining to me how they worked. There were planes hanging from the ceiling as well as a rescue helicopter that even had a ventilator in the back of it hooked up ready to go. It made me miss work just a tad even though I don't know the ins and outs of working ventilators but I like the process of paralysing and intubating someone - thats always a good resus!

Hands down the most impressive thing would have to be the aircraft and also the helicopter simulators. We thought they were for an extra cost initially but turns out they were included and we lined up behind another couple to have a go. I was a little unsure of the thing when it lifted up off the ground and began turning around in circles but I knew we just had to do it. Normally you pay so much to get into one of these things! The older guy showed us how to use the controls on a smaller simulator whilst we waited for our turn. Once we got in and were strapped in properly the man shut us unto this slightly claustrophobic box and it lifted off the ground. Lew though he was in control but as we tried to take off we realised that it was actually my controllers that were on and next thing we knew we were off the runway trying to take off from the grass. oh well! We managed to get it into the air and sure enough as soon as we were high enough Lew took the controls back and began turning it into a full spin. Luckily we were strapped in well as we were completely upside down and had no idea which way the ground or the sky was. He gave me the controls back and I tried to make it flip over backwards but it seems you couldn't roll over that way and we ended up spinning sideways again. Whilst we were upside down again the simulation ended and I was kinda pleased about that since my stomach was certainly not enjoying being rolled around. We didn't have very long left to finish the rest of the museum and discovered there was a space section upstairs yet to do, They had an actually satellite that had been up in space and recaptured just hanging in the ceiling and I couldn't quite understand how they got that thing up into space undamaged. Thankfully they had images of the carrier that got it up there and also brought it back. Impressive that it has a lot of gold connections and gold foil around it since Lew said that is the best product for connections and protecting equipment from the sun. We came across another simulation that was supposed to make you feel as though you are an astronaut in space when you don't know which way is up. Its a large square box that gets rotated around allowing you to walk on the walls and ceilings and make you completely confused at which was is truely up. That was the last thing we had time for and we headed out to the car at about 4pm. We ate some bread and other snacks in the carpark before setting off the Frutigen. It was getting dark and it was hard to see the area well especially since it was also raining. We drove through Interlaken and a few other small towns that we would have to come back and check out. When we finally arrived in Frutigen it was pitch black and I walked up and down the street with my head torch on looking for the place. There was actually cows right at the end of the road and a milking station as well! Eventually we got our host Karin to come out and she lead us to this gorgeous place behind their house that was recently renovated. I think we splashed out a bit on this place and spent $172 NZD since there wasn't much else in the area and it really did look nice on the photos. Karin let us through to her washing machine since we haven't managed to do any since Venice and clothing supplied was getting rather low! Lew made some super crunchy oven baked potatoes for night and we cooked up the rest of our expensive sausages from last night. I also found out today that I have been accepted to work at St Thomas's and Guys Hospital Emergency Department as an RN (Registered Nurse) when we get back from our trip, pending my final exam results of course. This hospital is literally in the center of London looking over parliament, Westminster Abbey and the Westminster Bridge! We even went for a walk around the outside of ED when we were back in London and it has brand new trauma bays and resus rooms! Eeek exciting!! Anyways I guess I should enjoy the rest of my holiday before I get thrown back into 12 hour shifts at at time of the day, night and week!