Sunday July 14th - Cool to Very Warm and sunny all day - again and again, 18°C to 27ºC
Train to Interlaken via Brienzersee
Where to go for a walk?
Let's go to Grindelwald and walk by the Eiger and Junfrau mountains
Paragliders up near the Eiger
Setting off for Klein Sheifegg
Checking out the wanderweg
How nice is this country
A taste of next year's holiday
Snow, alps, forrests, walking paths
Lunch near Alpiglen
Keep on walking
Getting closer to the Eiger
We've come up a long way
And still some up to go
Kleine Scheidegg - train station for the Jungfrau
Bonnie and Luca chat on Face Time
Bonnie and Luca chat on Face Time
I know where we're going next year! Today was a re-taste of mountains and snow and I loved it. We, as in myself, Ian and Luca, took the train to Interlaken then to Grindelwalde in the mountains, walked for 4 hours up 1,100 metres to Kleine Scheidegg to see the Eiger, Monche and Jungfrau mountains then caught the train back down and home to Bern. An amazing day with beautiful weather, though a little hazy.
We're up around 7am, have breakfast, pack a picnic lunch and we walk the 1.5k to the Bern Station to catch the 9.04 train to Interlaken. The station is buzzing with hikers carrying backpacks and poles. It's Sunday and from anywhere to the mountains in Switzerland is only an hour or so by train. After picking up fresh bread, we're on the train. After 30 minutes, the train travels around the edge of Lake Brienzersee. Interlaken sits between this lake and Thunersee.
Interlaken is overrun by Asian tourists. In fact it's worrying when you walk into a shop and the Asian shop assistant doesn't speak German or English, just Japanese and next door is an Asian restaurant. Luca buys a map and after studying it, we decide to do a 4hr walk from Grindelwald up to Klein Scheidegg, past the Eiger, Monche and Jungfrau mountains, then catch the cog train back down to Grindelwalde.
First we need to get another train to Grindelwald, which is easy as there's trains every 30 minutes on this busy Sunday and we have coffee at the local hotel before setting out for our walk up the mountain - a walk of about 8km with an 1100 metre ascent.
There's snow on the mountain tops and a coolness in the air and it brings back a flood of memories from our walking trip in the alps last year. I like this kind of country. The air is filled with paragliders riding the thermals high up near the north wall of the Eiger. Some of the climb is quite steep but the air is dry and cool and it's not distressingly hot stepping slowly up and up.
After 2 hrs, we reach Bendegg, a one restaurant trainstop and then Alpiglen, another train stop. It's almost 2pm when we find a cold running creek with a walk bridge over it, and sit down for our picnic lunch - what else but ham, cheese, tomato, capsicum and bread, topped off with some dark Swiss chocolate.
On again, getting closer to the Eiger, Monche and Jungfrau. There's a large building up ahead, and we finally arrive to see it's part of Kleine Scheidegg at 2061metres, a climb of 1100 metres from Grindelwalde. This is the train station where the cog train from Grindelwald meets the cog train going further up to the Jungfrauboch, highest train station in Europe sitting in the col between Monche and Jungfrau.
We sit in the beergarten and drink a cold bottle of water watching the Asian tourists pour in an out of the train to the top. The track up to Jungfrauboch was built more than 100 years ago and passes through a 7km tunnel in the heart of the Jungfrau. Luca tells us that the Asians are infatuated with anything Swiss, and our guess is that 70% of the tourists today are Asian, the other 30% mostly local hikers.
At 4pm it's time to get the cog train back down the mountain. It's steep and you almost feel like slipping off the seat. Back in Grindelwald there's a connecting train to Interlaken and then another train on to Bernwhere we do some more grocery shopping for tonight's dinner.
It's almost 9pm when we have a Bar BQ of German/Swiss sausages, grilled vegetables with a wine. A long day but so nice. Time to pack. We need to be up before 5am to catch the 6.04am train to Basel then a TGV to Lyon, and hopefully we can get our bikes on the train from Lyon to Grenoble.