Trip to the "Top of Europe"

25 July 2014

Well today turned out the best for the past few days so we headed off up the Alps by train.

First I must add a pic of Mary's that I forgot to add yesterday. Close where we are staying is a small herd of dairy cows - all wearing the necessary bells around their necks. Mary managed to get a pic of them early in the morning whilst still in their byre.

A further correction is due for Wednesday night when we went to a free concert in the village where the performers were the South Tyne Wind Band from Newcastle in the UK.

But today was hectic with crowds of tourists and heaps of groups all dutifully following their leaders. Orderly queueing - that great British tradition - has no place in the German and Chinese cultures. The one with sharpest and most powerful elbows gets the seat on the train. Here are a small selection of pics from the Jungfrau at some 4000 metres -

Trips from Wilderswil

Sunday, 20 July, 2014

Today was cloudy with rain threatening so we decided to take a trip to Thun by boat - from Interlaken West to Thun on Thunersee (Lake Thun). The lake was calm and the trip was fine although the rain started just as we arrived. So lunch under cover seemed a good idea except everyone else had the same idea. We settled on a plate of antipasto and watched the rain ease.

Here's a view of the Alps from the boat.

     
Once the rain stopped we had an easy walk around town and checked out the castle and the sluice gates which we assumed were for flood mitigation.

We returned to Interlaken West by train (quicker than the boat trip). Yesterday (Saturday) after our trip up Schynige Platte we had caught the train back to Interlaken East and walked back along the River (Aare) to Interlaken West. This way we were able to go via the old town of Unterseen. It was here that Mary took a pic of this classic hotel.

 

Monday, 21 July 2014

More rain overnight but cleared by the time we had eaten breakfast.  We decided to take another boat trip but this time to Brienz on Brienzersee (Lake Brienz). Today the boat was a paddle boat and the drive mechanism was able to be seen from a lookdown inside the boat. Just before landing in Brienze we saw the Giessbach Falls and above the Grand Hotel Geissbach (no not the Grand Budapest Hotel). Once we had landed in Brienz we decided to take the bus to the Ballenberg open air museum. However, it turned out to be either a fast hour's walk from east to west or a very slow five to six hours visiting most of the village buildings and craft events. 

For those interested this link will be useful:-

Ballenberg Open Air Museum 


We elected instead to have lunch at the Restaurant Ballenberg and had a huge serving of Bratwurst with hash brown and onion gravy - certainly enough to see us through to tomorrow's breakfast! The only pic here is this one of a distant waterfall above Lake Brienz

Tuesday, 22 July 2014


The weather was still cloudy and it had rained during the night so once more decided against any mountain trips. Instead we decided to do the Waterfall Walk along the side of Lake Brienz which we had seen from the boat. We again caught the boat (not the paddle boat this time) but this time alighted at the village of Istelwald and took the lower lakeside track toward Geissbach Falls. Here is the bridge crossing the falls just before splashing into the lake -

We then walked up to the Grand Hotel Geissbach and found the upper track back to Istelwald. Here are some pics of the hotel and views of the falls at higher points -

 
























Wednesday, 23 July, 2014


Weather still cloudy but at least fine. Picked up an easy walk from 'Walking Switzerland' number 8007 Grosse Scheidegg to First (see Blog under 'Maps and Walks'). This involved a train to Grindelwald and then a bus onto Grosse Scheidegg where the walk started at the hotel. The walk was on a narrow roadway but very little motor traffic. It was well graded until we got to the stage leading up to First so we plumped for  the next stop down at Schreckfeld and stopped for lunch at the restaurant - more delicious sausage with proper chips (French fries) and beer and cider. After lunch we did consider albeit very briefly walking back down to Grindelwald (only two hours) but chose, for the sake of experience, a ride down on the gondola service.

Here are some views of Eiger and shots from the gondola on the way down.

 

The downward track is seen below



Back in Grindelwald we caught the train back to Wilderswil and filled in a gap of our stay in Wilderswil - a walk around the old village. The main attraction is a wooden bridge built in 1738 leading to the church. This bridge was nearly destroyed in 2005 by the River Lutschine in spate. This prompted the expensive piece of investment in the form of a powered lifting system where, in the case of high levels for the river, the bridged could be raised above the destructive force of the flood waters.

Thursday, 24 July 2014


A virtual rest day today as the weather had been wild during the night with lots of thunder storms producing heavy rain. However, the sun came out by midday and it looks promising for a trip to Jungfrau tomorrow - fingers crossed.

Relaxing in Wilderswil

Saturday, 19 July 2014  SCHYNIGE PLATTE

OUR FIRST CLOSE UP VIEW OF THE ALPS.

Fritz and Gabi are the owners of Gafri Chalet.  They used to manage the Baren Hotel in Wilderswil and built this B&B about three years ago.  There are photos of it in the Accommodation section on the web.  We have a lovely big room with a comfortable lounge, a writing desk, table and chair plus an en suite bathroom with everything included.  There was a welcome bowl of fruit plus chocolates, and an invitation to collect a Swiss Souvenir Cowbell at a shop in Interlaken - haven't done that yet, but the fruit is disappearing and the chocolates were gone very quickly!

Staying here when we arrived were an English couple who have been coming to this area for years for their holidays.  Penny and Martin are their names and they together with Fritz have given us lots of information about what to do and see here.  They all recommended that we take the opportunity to go to Schynige Platte on the train from Wilderswild on a fine day and Saturday was a beautiful sunny day - the only drawback was that it was about 30 degrees!

Following their advice we got an early start and arrived at the Station around 10.00 am - there were lots of people milling around, but the railway people were well organised and there were about six cog and rack trains operating.  There was also one being operated by a steam engine, but we didn't get to see that until we got to the top.

It takes two hours to get to the Platte and the views on the way up and down are fantastic.  Brian took some photos in an attempt to show how steep it is, but it is really difficult to do so successfully.  


 















In the brochure there is a code which indicates the environment through which the train travels and there is one that the railway employees have called the "ooh ah" tunnel.  As you emerge this is the view you get, and yes there were lots of ooh ahs in our train as well.

 


Schreckhorn, Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau are the peaks you can see. 

 
This is taken from a viewpoint which forms part of the walk around the Alpine Botanical Garden.  Brian was looking at the possibilities of using some of the plants in Canberra.

In the foreground you can just make him out sitting under the conifer in the right hand corner.  When he tried to take some photos he discovered that the camera was full.  So while he deleted them, I walked up further and took more photos on the phone.

We wandered around the top for a while, but didn't do any long walks.  It was just too hot.  We checked out the hotel and sat under a shady umbrella and listened to two men in traditional costume play the alpine horns.  There was a lady with a dog near us and the dog didn't like the sound of the horn at all.  

Brian took more photos on the way down:

 
 Went to the Baren Hotel for dinner that night.  Good meal and not too expensive.