Val’s spent the last 2 days having treatment from her eye surgeon, and tomorrow it’s time to leave. It’s hard to believe that in all the years we’ve been coming to this region, we’d never spent a night in Grindelwald. Our stay at Chalet Irma has been lovely, and Wil has been a great host.
Tonight we’ll pop out to the Avocado Bar for a few beers, and tomorrow we have a short flight back to the UK. We won’t be there long, as we’re off to sunny Spain in a week’s time.
Late addition. View of the alpenglow from Avocado this evening.
Last night we met Dave and Lesley, and caught the bus up the hill to restaurant Leugibrüggli. It’s Dave’s birthday, so we splashed out on lovely steaks and a couple of bottles of wine. The views down to the lake are breathtaking.
Views back to Interlaken after dark.
This morning we caught the little cable car up to Pfingstegg again. This time we’re walking towards the lower glacier. Great views of Grindelwald from the top.
The path is steep and narrow in places.
Eventually we arrived at the gorge formed by the glacier. There’s no ice down here anymore, but the meltwater from the glacier high above forms a river about 100 metres below us.
There’s an old marble quarry at a place called Marmorbruch. Marble from here was transported to Bern for the construction of the parliament buildings.
There’s also a restaurant at Marmorbruch. We stopped for lunch before our walk took us back to the valley floor and home.
Our host Wil has a pizza oven on the terrace of our chalet, so tonight we’re looking forward to home made pizzas.
Unlike Wengen, Grindelwald is accessible by road. Despite this there’s still no ambulance service, so if you are unfortunate enough to be taken ill a helicopter will come and whisk you off to hospital. The helipad is a few metres from our kitchen window, and yesterday evening the peace was shattered by the machine’s arrival.
My hiking shoes were giving me trouble yesterday, so this morning we ventured into the village to find some new ones. Grindelwald is a big village with many sports shops, so I had no trouble finding what I wanted. Afterwards we caught the bus up to Hotel Wetterhorn where we had lunch yesterday. The path from here undulates its way back towards the village.
It’s a warm day, so a stop at a bench is always welcome.
Tonight we’re off to Interlaken to meet Dave and Lesley who are staying in Wengen at the moment. It should be a good dinner.
Last night we had a huge storm. As it approached the village was in darkness while the glacier above remained in the sunshine.
Despite the rain, we wanted to get up to the village to see the August 1st parade. We dashed up to the Avocado bar in a drier moment. The parade was excellent despite the awful weather.
It was still raining this morning, but there’s a hike we fancy doing so we headed up the hill on the little cable car. By the time we got to the top it was dry.
There’s a summer toboggan run up here. It’s very popular with the kids.
No tobogganing for us though, we’re going to hike to the top of the valley where the glaciers emerge. At one point we need to cross the path of a glacier which has long since retreated up the mountain. The ice has left behind a steep, smooth section of rock.
The polished rock would be difficult to cross, particularly when it’s wet. The Swiss have therefore built a tunnel underneath it.
The tunnel was dark and wet, but it got us safely across the slippery rock. A little further along we got a nice view of the mountain station of the Wetterhorn cable car.
This cable car was the first of its kind in Switzerland, and it opened in 1908. Unfortunately it was repeatedly damaged by avalanches, and it eventually closed in 1915.
We’re almost at the end of our walk, and we arrive at the point which used to be the base of the Upper Grindelwald glacier. There’s no ice here anymore, but there’s still a lot of meltwater coming down.
We had a late lunch at the Hotel Wetterhorn, before catching the bus back to Grindelwald.
Yesterday a taxi collected us at 5.30am, and we travelled back to Switzerland. We couldn’t find anywhere to stay in Wengen, but our pals the Halls have offered us the use of their holiday flat in nearby Grindelwald. It’s very nice, and once the rain had stopped we got a great view of the Eiger and the glacier.
Every Wednesday evening the main road through the village is closed, and a street festival is held. We got lovely burgers at one of the food trucks, and there was lots to see.
It rained again overnight, but the weather looked promising this morning, so we headed out. A combination of heavy rain and high temperatures makes the river appear to boil.
Various pieces of ‘art’ have been created along the river. They’re a bit abstract.
This one is supposed to be a man and a woman.
It’s always very damp on the forest floor, and this is ideal for snails. I’m pretty sure that these are the same ones that we have in garlic butter when we have dinner at the Berghaus in Wengen.
It’s Swiss National Day today, so the festivities of last night will be repeated with the addition of fireworks. It all gets a bit crazy, and a good strategy is finding a seat in a cosy bar until the noise has died down.
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