Caves & Waterfalls

It's the last day of vacation! We've covered too many miles to count over three weeks, stayed in eight different places and seen some wonderful things. Everyone is tired, really tired. So what's one more stop on the drive home, right?

St Beatus Caves are next to Thun Lake, or about half way between our previous nights stay in Geneva and home. As caves go it's not particularly impressive, however it does have an interesting history and the views of the lake along the way are stunning!

 

According to local legends, the caves were used as a hermitage by St Beatus in the first century where the locals claim he slayed a dragon in the caves. St Beatus however had a more interesting life than that as a mere dragon slayer. He was born on the British Isles and baptized by Saint Barnabas there (yes, that Barnabas who was one of the seventy disciples sent out by God to spread Jesus' word. He is also believed to be Saint Mark's cousin). Beatus then traveled to Rome where he was ordained by Saint Peter the Apostle and sent to evangelize the tribe of Helvetii which lived in what is now western Switzerland. He died in 112 AD and is buried near the entrance to caves which hold his name. A few centuries later an Augustinian Monestary was established at the mouth of the caves to provide pilgrams a place to worship on their visits. And I can only imagine what those early pilgrims must have thought as they hiked up to the cave entrance and were greeted by this!

The monastery has since been converted into dining facility for tourists interested in doing a little light spelunking. And while that is a bit disappointing it's still a great place to stop and gaze across the lake.

Can't pass up the Beatus Burger!

As I mentioned earlier the caves themselves weren't all that impressive compared so some others but it is a whole other world underground and we all found something interesting during our tour.

Reflections for Amanda

Running water for me

Rocks for Charlotte

And stairs for Olivia

And about that slayed dragon!

And with that it was time to head back home...

...Except that St Beatus is only about 20 minutes from Lauterbrunnen Falls. So with just one more quick side trip and we were able to see one of the more majestic waterfalls in all of Europe.

Now we can go home. And not a moment too soon for the girls.

Of course they slept through the loop-de-loop we made on the drive home...only in Switzerland is this a road.

This officially concluded our road trip to end all road trips. My dad did the math, for the 23 days we were gone, we averaged 7mph the entire trip. No wonder we all need a vacation from our vacation.