Sightseeing Switzerland
Day 8
Today was another one of our travel days driving over to Lauterbrunnen. We were the first year to spend an extra day here, which was warranted! Cynthia, spent much of the drive going over all the different activities we could do in this town. Lauterbrunnen sits at the bottom of a valley, both sides with their own unique adventures.
On our drive we stopped by one of Switzerland's many beautiful lakes for a quick break. We took the traditional Rick Steve group picture, and those who wanted to could take a sip of Schnapps.
One of the items Cynthia mentioned on the drive was the ride up the Schilthorn to Piz Gloria, known for the famous Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and in the evenings they had discounted tickets up. Since we knew we didn't want to spend an entire day up there, we decided to drop our bags off and head on up! We were thankfully able to take the last cable car ride for the evening. It was a lot of stops - and very high up in the air!
Piz Gloria is now a 007 museum and certainly capitalizes on the fame, as it should. The restaurant was only able to be completed with the help of the film. When we arrived, we took in some of the views on the platform, including a picture with our favorite hero. They also had binoculars you could look to see other peaks in the Alps, including Mont Blanc, which we'd be visiting soon. On the platform we ran into some of our tour friends who had the same idea as us. We headed up to the rotating restaurant for their last call. I ate a 007-branded burger and a martini as my drink, obviously shaken - not stirred. Throughout the rotating restaurant were TVs showing clips of the film that included the room. It was a cute little place. The bathrooms were all decked out in Bond gear, and we took a quick stop through the museum itself. There wasn't too much to do there, which made it the perfect evening activity on our first night.
Day 9
We had an early morning wake up for our first full day in Switzerland. We were surprised how many of our tour got up early, too, as we ran into so many at breakfast. We had decided to take the train up to Jungfraujoch, the highest train ride in all of Europe. There were discounted tickets when you went up and down early enough, so we decided to go for it. There are three mountains on this side of the valley - Jungfrau, Mönch, and Eiger. You can always remember that the Monk protects the Young Woman from the Ogre. The train to Jungfraujoch goes directly through Jungfrau, and you are actually dropped off in the middle of the mountain itself and you walk out to the open.
It was a kitschy tourist destination, which I'm sure is fun for young kids. Inside the mountain you can walk through a glacier that has ice sculptures and your favorite cartoon character, you can see a gigantic snow globe, watch an animatronic history of the mountain, and visit a Lindt chocolate factory museum. Outside of the mountain you could zipline, ski, snowboard, or go sledding on the summer snow. Instead of paying to do extra activities, we just enjoyed our snow hike outside and took in the views. It was fun to look at the glacier we had just walked through. Beware of the altitude! You go thousands of feet up in a short time, and your body can feel it!
After a quick lunch at the top, we took the last train down that helped us keep the discounted tickets. On the train we were all given a small Lindt bar as a souvenir! Instead of taking the train all the way down to the bottom of the valley, we decided to take it halfway down to the town of Kleine Scheidegg and hike the rest of the way.
The location where we were dropped off was absolutely gorgeous! I know I keep using that word, but it all really is! We had the best view of the three mountains and had to stop for plenty of pictures. As I mentioned in Ortisei, the directional signs are all measured in time instead of distance or difficulty. We finally got to a fork in the road that split three ways - the shortest route, one with an additional 20 minutes, and one with an additional hour. We decided to go ahead and take the shortest route down. Well to our surprise, it was the shortest because it was also the steepest. It was actually a hiking trail turned ski run in the winter! Not only any ski run, but a competitive one at that. Needless to say, our toes were very sore by the end of the day. We learned the next morning that the route with an extra 20 minutes was actually beautiful and easy.
For some reason I wasn't feeling great that night, so we just had a quick dinner at the hotel, which was some sort of melted cheese dish. When in Switzerland - am I right?
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Day 10
Today we decided to let ourselves sleep in a little bit and hike the other side of the valley, and again, we weren't the only ones! We had a nice long breakfast with the many of our tour members discussing what we all did the previous day, and helpful hints for today's adventure. For us, that was hiking the North Face Trail.
Cynthia had already advised which direction we should walk in, so we went a bit far away from the trail to take the cable car up to the best place to start. A car had left just as we arrived, so we were the first in line for the next one and the first one on the ride. And then more and more people kept coming on board - more than I could have ever imagined or wanted! We ended up squished in the corner as we took the car up. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised, as its a typical transport for the locals to get around from village to village. Thankfully it was a short ride!
Nearly all of us got dropped off at the first stop. The more serious hikers, with their poles and all, took the steep path going up while we took the even path we were already on. It was a Blue Bird day and we had perfect weather! It may have been a heat wave summer to the locals, but to these Texans the mid-70s was fantastic. And the water is so pure here that you can literally drink it out of a trough. In fact, they have them all around as drinking fountains.
We ran into the same tour friends from the night we went up to Piz Gloria - and who we had missed at Jungfraujoch - and enjoyed the rest of the trail to Mürren with them. And then we ran into even more tour friends in town! We had a quick walking tour of town in our Rick Steves guidebook before we settled for a quick lunch break. Lauterbrunnen is the destination for base jumpers, so we watched those more adventurous than us while we ate!
After lunch we headed down to the little town of Gimmelwald - not to be confused with the much larger town of Grindelwald on the other side of the valley - which is a favorite of our good friend Rick. This is a small, quiet town that encompasses the history and life of peaceful Switzerland. Even today, the only way to get up there is via cable car.
The town was so peaceful that we were the only ones out and about, if you don't include all of the farm animals. We stopped first at the Honesty Shop, take what you need and they trust you to leave the money. There were a few other farms that operated with this mindset of open doors. They would stock up the refrigerator with meats, cheese, and other refreshments and would collect their profits at day end. They obviously had enough luck with it to keep it going!
We also got a chance to see some of the very large ceremonial cow bells, although sadly not in action. During the summers the farmers will keep the cows high atop the mountains and bring them down to the base for winter. As they move the cows down they have a special ceremony where the cows wear flower crowns and humongous cow bells. Who knew they would be such millenial trendsetters?
After we explored all there was to see of Gimmelwald we took the cable car back down to the base. It dropped us off on the other side of town from our hotel, so we had a nice little walk back. We passed by a base jumper camp and hotspot. The no shirt, no shoes, no service didn't seem to apply there.
We arrived back to our hotel in time for a little 'apres hike' and were shortly joined by Cynthia and Jost. It was fun learning a little bit more about their lives! They had done multiple tours together, and you could tell that they were friends.
They then give us a great recommendation for dinner at a place nearby where I order the Raclete, or more melty cheese, for dinner. Matt offers to help me with the last bites. We headed back to the hotel and expressed how the summer evening sky was perfect for a bite of ice cream. One of the hotel staff overheard us and offered to help us out! Oh Switzerland, you're so sweet.
We already can't wait to come back!
