Interlaken, St Beatus Caves, and Lake Thun

 Thursday, April 20

Today, our group traveled to Interlaken by train to explore the St Beatus Caves.  Despite pretty cool, intermittently rainy weather, we had a fantastic day together.  Our modes of transportation included two trains, one bus, one boat, and our feet!  Everyone did a great job with every phase of the excursion - the chaperones were very proud of our group!

After two hours on the train and another 15 minutes on a crowded bus, we weren't sure what to expect.  The approach to St. Beatus Caves did not disappoint!  There was a steep climb up from the bus station to the cave entrance, and the views of the waterfalls and Lake Thun were stunning!

Here is a short video of our hike up to the cave entrance:

https://youtube.com/shorts/ULbxrciRSBE?feature=share

We had a treat with a private, guided tour of the caves.  Our guide was enthusiastic and very well-informed, and he really listened to all of our questions!  We hiked 1 kilometer into the caves, climbing up an elevation of about 80 meters on our way in, then down again on the way out.  These caves are relatively "young" in Switzerland but hardly unique.  We learned that there are approximately 9000 documented caves in Switzerland!  

After exploring the amazing caves, we had lunch and walked about a mile to the boat dock where we would meet our ferry to Thun.  This was a fun way to travel, which we hadn't been able to do before now on our trip.  It would have been even better if it hadn't been windy and rainy, but you can't always have everything you want!  The students managed really well, especially when we all realized that no seats were available.  They waited patiently until a large group of travelers got off at a station about 30 minutes after we got onto the boat. We were proud to see that they also shared space at their tables with other travelers they didn't know so that everyone could get a seat!

Grace had a creative solution to the dual problems of cold and no seats indoors: she did laps around the boat's deck for about 40 minutes!  

Click here to see Grace!

https://youtube.com/shorts/AzF4HSb7kEM

Titlis!

On Wednesday, our group traveled to Engelberg, in the central region of Switzerland.  Our destination was Titlis Mountain, the highest summit in the Uri Alps, located on the border between the cantons of Bern and Oberland.  We were very fortunate to have a bright sunny day at the top of the summit, even though there were clouds closer to the ground, and all of us enjoyed the amazing sights and the experience of standing atop a mountain of 3,238 meters (10, 623 feet).

We took two trains to get to Engelberg, and our students did a fantastic job making the connection in Lucerne with less than 5 minutes time between our arrival on the train from Basel and the departure of our next train traveling to Engelberg!  Our group has gotten so much better at making these tough transitions!

 

After a 15-minute walk from the Engleberg train station (bahnhof), we got tickets and boarded cable cars to travel partway up the side of the mountain. 

  

Shortly after we started our journey, we saw a dramatic change from green, grassy slopes to the snow-covered mountainside, covered with fresh snow from a storm last weekend.  After about 10 minutes, we needed to hop out and get into a different cable car.  This one could fit our entire group and about 15 other travelers, some with skis and snowboards!  One truly special thing about this cable car is that it rotates 360 degrees during the journey to the top of Titlis, and it is the first rotating cable car ever built in the world!  We all enjoyed the view and were truly amazed by the beautiful scenery around us!

Our group was fortunate to spend over two-and-a-half hours at the top of Titlis, exploring the snow, enjoying stunning views of the Alps, and crossing the suspension bridge on the mountain's south side.  This bridge is called the Titlis Cliff Walk, and it is the highest suspension bridge in Europe, and it opened to the public in 2012, shortly before our first group from RMHS traveled to Switzerland.

Everyone did a great job traveling on the long and tiring journey, and so many students talked about how truly special this experience was for them!

Lucerne

 18 April 2023

Once again, RMHS students set out for an excursion without Swiss guides, this time to Lucerne.  Lucerne is one of the most famous cities in Switzerland, and visiting it is a "must-do" for anyone traveling to Switzerland for the first time.   Before we began our journey, though, our group took some time in the morning at the Gymnasium to reflect on the positive aspects of their experience in Switzerland thus far and some aspects they might wish to change.  Our students remarked that they are so happy to be in Basel, in Switzerland, experiencing European culture and seeing their Swiss students again.  They also said they have been having fun getting to know Swiss students who are not in the exchange program!  

There weren't too many changes students wished for, but we all agreed that less rain and warmer sunshine would be just fine!  Students also reflected that they had enjoyed having access to large houses close together in Reading so that all the Swiss and American students could get together many nights while the Swiss were visiting Reading.  Here in Basel, many students live in apartments instead of houses.  Also, our students are more spread out from each other, and it is not so easy to just jump in the car to drive to someone else's place, making it more challenging to have large get-togethers during the week.  

After this, we took a quick walk over to the train station, and soon we were on our train to Lucerne!  

We had a terrific tour with Claudia, a tour guide for the city of Lucerne. She took us through Lucerne,

teaching us all about the city, its bridges, and the ancient walls and towers.  We climbed up to the top of the ancient city wall and then climbed even further up to the top of one of the watch towers.  

On our way back, we walked past a secondary (middle) school, and Noah and Ethan F. had a quick race on their running track, just for fun! 

Once our tour finished, we walked back to the train station and had a quick lunch before hopping on the bus to go to the Swiss Museum of Transport.  This amazing, interactive museum has cars, boats, trains, and so many airplanes.  Students had fun exploring this museum and playing with different interactive exhibits!

All too soon, though, it was time to hop on the bus and head back to the train station at the center of Lucerne.  We had time for a quick group photo by the lake and then on to the train and back to Basel!

First Day of School and Statehouse Tour

 Today, we joined our host students and teachers for their first school day after the spring holidays.  After a brief introduction from the school's headmaster, our students split into small groups to visit different classes.  These subjects included fine arts, music, Physics, and Chemistry.  In addition, Melanie Scherrer (the Swiss students' English teacher) hosted a "Crash Course" in Swiss German for our students.  

Our students had a healthy hot lunch in the school cafeteria (slightly different from our own in Reading, complete with a cappuccino/latte machine!).  After our students finished lunch and the Swiss students finished their classes, everyone walked over from the school to the statehouse, located in Marktplatz.  The statehouse is known as the Rathaus (red house) and it is a beautiful building that dates back 500 years.  We were very fortunate to have a personal tour for our group, led by Herr Osi Inglin, the "grandfather" of the Boston-Basel School Exchange program.  

Students had the chance to sit in the seats that Parliament members sit in while the Parliament is in session and they learned about the similarities and differences between our two forms of government.  Our visits to the Basel state house are a very important part of maintaining the connection between the two sister states, Basel and Massachusetts.  

It is a wonderful connection and we are happy that we could renew the connection once again after the difficult years of lockdown and the pandemic.

Link to a video of Dr. Inglin speaking to the students in the Statehouse Parliament room.

https://youtu.be/_FA3Nghp21M

On to Lausanne!

 Friday 14 April 2023

Today, our group set out independently for our first outing without our Swiss hosts! We went to Lausanne, a French-speaking city in the southern region of Switzerland.  This week, it has been much cooler in Switzerland than back in Boston, and today we started out with quite cool weather, but the forecasted rain showers did not materialize.  We all enjoyed the sunny weather, which warmed us and brightened our spirits!

Our main event in Lausanne was the Olympic Museum.  We walked from the train station about half a mile to the museum, which is beautifully situated on the shore of Lake Geneva, with the Alps on the far shore in the background.  Stunning!  

RMHS students have not had many opportunities for field trips, especially during the past three years, and we all learned a lot about traveling as a group today.  It is not easy to travel to a foreign country, and traveling in a large group is a completely different story!  The students did a great job! 

Finally, here is a quick video report from Maya and Sophia:

https://youtu.be/scRGLsp6nJU

Bern

 13 April 2023

On Thursday, we traveled with our Swiss hosts to Bern, the capital city of Switzerland.  Bern is a very old city, founded in the late 1100s, and a beautiful example of a medieval city.  We had a tour in the morning to learn more about the city.  Our tour ended at the bear enclosure, where the city's three bears live, next to the Aare River, which runs around the city of Bern.  There was a brief squall, accompanied by some hail (!) but it moved through quickly, much to our relief!

We had a quick hike up to the city's rose garden (no roses, but lots of tree blossoms) and there we enjoyed the gorgeous view as the sun came out.  After that, all the students had some free time in Bern to explore, eat lunch, and do some shopping.  A good day with much more sun than we had expected!

Basel Tour!

Wednesday 12 April 2023

On our first full day in Basel, the Swiss students and their teachers, Caroline MacFarland and Melanie Scherrer, provided a fun, informative tour of Basel!  We met at the Gymnasium Leonhard where the Swiss students attend school at 10 am, a nice slow start to the day.  Students arrived on foot, on bicycles, and walking from the tram.  Everyone was excited to be there and reported a good first day at home with their Swiss hosts.  

We went inside and got to hear some presentations about Swiss culture and customs, industry and geography, and key tourist sights.  Then, we went on a walking tour of Basel and the Swiss students provided many more small presentations at different spots around the city.  We did walk A LOT that day, and even the Swiss students were a little tired out by the end of it, but it was a great introduction to the beautiful city of Basel!  

We finished out the day by sharing a pizza dinner at a restaurant in Basel to officially welcome our group, and then students went home to rest and have some more "unstructured" time!