Switzerland - At the top of Europe.

On the top of Europe

We headed for cooler temperatures since the weather had been heating up. So we set our sights on the Swiss Alps and booked a campsite just outside of Interlaken. Switzerland is reputed to be expensive and a perusal of the Our tour blog yielded a great idea - to stock up on food and gas before heading there.  We had been shopping often so we had to think about what would keep for awhile and loaded up our tiny kitchen shelves.  But the Swiss are sharp and they still got us for a toll vignette to the tune of 40 Swiss francs at the border.  We had been doing okay with my limited French but we really don't know German.

The drive to Interlaken was very pretty as we went north of Lake Leman. Once we arrived at the campsite, I realized I no longer had our ACSI discount card and spent a fair amount of time searching for it. The campsite owner wasn't moved by our story and charged us full price - 59 Swiss francs per night. Welcome to Switzerland. We were given passes for the local bus system and Dermot grilled seasoned duck breast skewers for dinner.  As we were eating, we heard voices overhead and watched as paragliders floated above with the Alps as a backdrop.  This has to be our best campground view yet.  Later I spent a good part of the night reading up on Rick Steves' recommendations for the area, deciphering the bus schedule and trying to find that card while Dermot watched Croatia beat England in the world cup semi-final.  

Since clear weather makes a huge difference in visibility in the Alps and the weather forecast was best on Thursday and Friday, I had prepped for a fast breakfast and departure but we didn't exactly get off to an early start the next morning.  We took the bus to the station to buy train tickets and gulped at the price of the transportation to Jungfraujoch.  Since we were staying four nights, we got three day passes and that set us back over 500 Swiss francs (very close to the same in dollars). 

It took three different trains - some of which were very slow, to reach Jungfraujoch - billed "Top of Europe." We were very lucky to have good weather and clear skies the whole way up and we passed cute villages, rushing alpine streams, and grazing cows that were completely unfazed by the tremendous mountains jutting up all around us.  We, along with all the other tourists couldn't wait to get to the top level to see the peaks and they were spectacular. 

There's a metal grid platform that circles the top of the building where everyone goes to take photos. When you look down it's a loooong way to solid ground.  Dermot doesn't like heights and his reaction was visceral.  Heights don't bother me as much but it made me woozy as well.  After much Alps admiration and picture taking, we ate the picnic lunch and toured the rest of the facility which included an ice palace (think ice cave with ice sculptures) and walked outside in the snow for more pictures.  

I decided I needed hot chocolate so we returned inside to warm up and check the map to see if we could  hike anywhere nearby.  As we walked up the stairs it quickly dawned on us that we had some altitude sickness and hiking in freezing temperatures (yes, even in July) wasn't in the cards for the day.

Friday we decided to go to Schlithorn. This was a different experience in that the Jungfraujost was higher and the peaks still surrounded you but at the Schlithorn you had a 360 panorama and could see the Alps stretching into other countries as pointed out by the plates on the platform.  You could see Mont Blanc in France as well as peaks in Italy and Germany's Black Forest.  I couldn't help but be saddened though that there was much less snow and fewer glaciers that when my family visited 15 years ago. 

We'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

This place really makes the most of its claim to fame as the location of the filming of the movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - the 1969 Bond 007 movie. We ate lunch then descended to the station below where they had more places to stand on a see through platform, experience vertigo and take more pictures. 

We then descended to the lovely small town of Murren and we followed Rick Steves walk and took many pictures.  Great views!

When we got back to camp without any word from the campsite we contacted the day before, we quickly contacted places in the next two towns and made reservations for four nights in each place.  Ten nights planned is a record for us!

Saturday 

We set out for Trummelbach Falls walking from the Lauterbrunnen train station.  On the way, Dermot heard a strange sound overhead and we witnessed people jumping from a cliff in flying squirrel suits whizzing towards the ground. They let out a tiny parachute followed by a bigger one. We had never seen that in person and I can't imagine what it would be like.

At the falls, there was an elevator that took us halfway up the falls and thereafter it was a chilly and wet climb - mostly on stairs so it wasn't slippery.  We were both surprised at how much water there was and also noticed how the falls are obviously much bigger at other times of the year since they have carved huge passages through the rock.

We had lunch in a restaurant in Lauterbrunnen to try traditional Swiss cooking.  Dermot had a Farmer's Roti (shredded potatoes with cheese,   ham mushrooms onions).  Mine was a small salad and raclette which turns out to be small potatoes in a bowl of more melted Swiss cheese than any one person should eat in a sitting.  We were so stuffed we spent the afternoon riding the trains going back up for one more glimpse of the snow covered peaks and the small villages tucked into valleys. We'll miss the views in the Alps, but not the high prices!