August 27 Tuesday – Sam wrote in his notebook that the hotel was a pleasant contrast to the villages and roads. But it was close to a village church which messed with their sleep:

St. Nicklaus Aug. 27—Awakened at 4:30 by the clang & jangle of a church bell wh rang 15 min. Went to sleep no more. At 7 it rang again 15.

It is an ugly little whitewashed church with a queer tin dome like a turnip growing with its root in the air.

Damn all ch bells! At 7.25 they rang again!

August 26 Monday – Sam and Joe took a train to Locchi-Suste (Visp). They met John Dawson and wife, an English family going their way. From Visp the two hiked “6 hours through mud & rain” the ten miles to St. Nicklaus, Switzerland [MTNJ 2: 148]. Rodney: “Ensconsed in a new hotel, they changed into dry clothes and revived with a good dinner” [107].

August 25 Sunday – From Sam’s notebook:

…visted the King of the World’s palace [a natural cliff formation] & drew its outline, seated on a grassy bench (a precipice) 2 or 300 ft high,) with 2 or 3 trees projecting above its edge.

Gigantic French Countess—did wish I might venture to ask her for her dimensions. The fatlings bathe 3 hours in AM & 2 in PM [MTNJ 2: 145-6].

August 24 Saturday – From Sam’s notebook:

“…up, shaved breakfasted, before 8—everybody gone but us…visited Gasternthal—gushing waterspout from rock. Sun shining on green ice & blazing snow…Chased a chunk down stream” [MTNJ 2: 143]. (See this source for Twichell’s description of Sam boyishly and joyously chasing a stick downstream.)

August 23 Friday – Sam and Twichell said goodbye to the family and left Interlaken.

August 22 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook:

At Jungfrau Hotel, Interlaken—Superb view of the Jungfrau.

Confounded crow woke us all up at daylight.

Set your umbrellas up on these polished wood floors, down it goes. Step suddenly on them, down you go. The lowest snow on the Jf seems but little above the valley level [drawing inserted] [MTNJ 2: 141].

August 21 Wednesday – Sam hired a carriage and the group continued on to Interlaken, Switzerland. From Sam’s notebook: “Left in 4-horse ambulance. Proprietor gave children box” [MTNJ 2: 141].

August 20 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Lucerne to Frank Bliss about Twichell inspiring him for a “better plan” for the book. Sam wouldn’t go to work “in earnest until…Munich in November.” The plan and title of the book were a secret, Sam wrote. He’d had rheumatism for two months, but had gotten the better of it. For a few months mail could be sent in care of Edward Meigs Smith, Lang’s Hotel, Heidelberg [MTLE 3: 77].

August 19 Monday – From Sam’s notebook: “The Yale cub who asked so many idiotic questions on the lake steamer” [MTNJ 2: 140]. Sam thought Lucerne “a charming place” but didn’t care for the “horde” of tourists that flocked there in the summer. Rodney concludes that, to Sam, “the antiquity of the Swiss city was more impressive than that of Heidelberg, its local color and natural beauty more appealing” [104].