Interlaken

For the first time since Thursday, we had a dry day. It’s still cold though, so we went down to Interlaken where it should be a good deal warmer. We had a good walk, and a lovely lunch at Brasserie 17, but there was something missing.

Where are all the people? This is the busiest street in town and it should be packed with tourists, but there’s no one here. Very nice for us, but absolutely hopeless for a town which relies on tourism for the majority of its income. Even the Co-op was quiet.

Cold!

We got lucky last night, the rain eased off as we walked to the village for dinner. But it was cold, and the manager at the Regina had a roaring fire going in the bar where we stopped for a drink.

We had dinner at the Berghaus. Chateaubriand and a nice bottle of red from Ticino.

This morning it was raining hard again, and even colder. A chilly 5 degrees at lunchtime according to the thermometer outside our kitchen window.

At these temperatures it must be snowing higher up, and sure enough we began to see for ourselves through a few breaks in the cloud.

We were happy to stay at home watching the Formula 1.

Raining

Yesterday’s rain started in the late afternoon, just as the forecast had promised, and it continued all night. Any hopes of an improvement today were dashed when we woke up this morning to hear the raindrops banging on the roof.

The camera always makes it look brighter than it really is, but we need a drier spell as we have a table booked for dinner later. Wet days are never entirely wasted though – we have a beautifully clean house.

Rain coming

It’s going to rain this afternoon, so this morning we dashed out for a walk hoping to avoid a soaking. It’s mild but a bit gloomy.

A Swiss housing estate at Innerwengen. Very nice apartments, and cheaper than you would pay nearer the village. The cluster of chalets is called Racers’ Retreat. Recent new restrictions on second home ownership mean there probably won’t be any more developments like this.

Across the valley, a shaft of sunlight illuminates the Spitzhorn below the Breithorn glacier. It might be the last we see of the sun for a few days.

Our walk loops back to the village, and we buy still-warm bread for lunch.

Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe

The Jungfraujoch is probably Switzerland’s most popular mountain attraction. It’s reached by rail from Kleine Scheidegg, and in a normal year in excess of 1 million visitors will make the trip. It’s also very expensive – a family of 4 could easily spend a thousand francs on a day trip.

But of course, these are not normal times, and the Jungfraujoch is facing a distinct shortage of visitors. To try and get more people up there the trip has been included in our summer passes, which means we can go as often as we like – for free. Off we go then. Plenty of room on the (normally packed) train.

The journey is almost entirely within a tunnel through the Eiger. We stop at a halfway point to look out at the Grindelwald glacier.

It’s difficult to convey the scale of it all. The glacier is huge.

The train continues to the summit at 3454 metres (11333 feet). We step outside. It’s cold, and there’s not much air to breathe. Before us is another glacier – the Aletsch. At 23 kilometres it is the longest in the Alps, and the ice is up to 1 kilometre deep.

The view down the other side is no less impressive. Kleine Scheidegg and the Lauberhorn below us.

You can go for a walk on the glacier, to a mountain hut. It’s late afternoon so we won’t be doing this today.

Inside, there are lots more attractions. This thing is like a huge snow globe.

And there’s an ice palace inside the glacier. Everything is ice – walls, floor and ceiling.

Lots of ice carvings in here, here are some penguins and an igloo.

There’s a chocolate museum, and we learn how Herr Lindt came up with the recipe for his delicious chocolate (it was an accident).

The shop attached to the museum is really good, with a big pick ‘n mix as well as all the different bars of choc. We bought loads before hopping on the train back to Scheidegg.

While we were waiting for the train back to Wengen we spotted a lone cyclist coming up the hill.

Emily has biked up from Wengen, and her goal was the top of the Lauberhorn. See you later for a well deserved beer!

Trachsellauenen

One of our favourite hikes is from Trachsellauenen, which is a tiny hamlet at the very end of our valley. There are no lifts or any kind of public transport, so you have to walk up from Stechelberg. Today however, we have an opportunity to do things differently. Sandro has a splendid new 4 wheel drive minibus, and he’s going hiking with his mate. We hitch a lift, and we’re dropped off just above Trachsellauenen. This saves us at least an hour. It’s a beautiful day.

Our first stop is at the Hotel Tschingelhorn. We have coffee and cake. They keep yaks here, and sometimes they’re on the menu.

After coffee we continue upwards. A big family of goats on the path.

We reach the next mountain hotel at Obersteinberg. More coffee, and fantastic views.

And this is as far up our valley as you can go. The last bridge over the Lütschine.

Having gained all that height we now need to start our descent. It’s steep and rocky.

But just look at those views.

The waterfall above is called the Schmadri fall. We can see it clearly from our balcony at home, but to get this close requires a bit more effort.

A great day out, and we covered about 11 kilometres.