Tuesday 25th August: Cool morning, Misty skies then sunny and warm: 9°C to 19°C.
Grindelwald to Meiringen: 13.2K: 8.45am to 2.15pm: 5hrs 30mins, plus 40 minutes of bus to Meiringen
Hotel Alpenblick
The Eiger is still with us and the highlight of the day as we climbed up 800 metres to Grosse Scheidegg at 1962m. Yesterday's Kleine Scheidegg at 2061m is supposed to be the lower than Grosse Scheidegg, but someone gave them their names before working out the heights and finding that Grosse is lower. No matter to us, today was still spectacular.
We eat breakfast with a view of the mist hanging over Grindelwald. Breakfast is a typical spread of meats, cheeses and yoghurts with hot breads. Swiss breakfasts are definitely better than French with just a croissant and jam. It's cold and misty as we leave to climb up to Grosse Scheidegg. The track winds backwards and forwards across the road which is closed to motor vehicles and only open to walkers, cyclists and buses. The mist soon rises revealing the Eiger as a backdrop over Grindelwald.
Misty morning out of Grindelwald
Eiger and Kleine Scheidegg in clouds (yesterdays Pass)
Eiger stands out
Post Bus on way to top
Roll up the jacket the suns out
Sunnt day in the Alps
Gross Scheidegg (1962m) with Eiger in background
Ahead going down, but not going up
Lunch half way down
Beer, wine cheese and salmon
The Postbus passes us on it's way to the top with a load of early morning walkers who get a lift to the top then hike the dozens of tracks around Grosse Scheidegg. At 11am, a shed appears - perfect place for a cup of coffee as it's still very cool and we're walking on the shady side of the mountains. But as soon as we leave, the sun rolls over and it's time to take off our jackets. One hour later and we reach Gross Scheidegg, a flatter platform than many passes with a hotel and a collection of 50 cyclists who have made the trip up from one side or the other.
Apart from admiring the Eiger again and again, there's nothing else to do and no place to sit and have lunch so it's off down the other side. i'm a bit quicker going down than coming up, and scoot off down the mountainside looking for a warm spot for lunch as it's still only 9ºC. A seat with a view across to the wall of the Bernese Alps is perfect, and we have a 30 minute leisurely lunch as we've intended to catch a Postbus down at some point depending on the time.
At 2.15, we reach Schwarzaldalp, where there's a large car park as this marks the end of vehicular access up to Grosse Scheidegg. The Postbus for Meiringen is due to depart at 2.46pm, and there's an agreement that this is a good idea as the 1100m descent down is very steep. 40 minutes later we're in Meiringen, and it's only a 50 metre walk to our Hotel Meiringen, a lovely 3 star hotel in the centre of town, opposite a Migros and Coop. Time for some washing before the boys go downtown to buy a picnic dinner whil I catch up on photo sorting and blogging.
The local Coop is just 100 metres down the road and all 4 of us stroll down to buy our picnic dinner - smoked salmon, beers, Penfolds Shiraz Cab, bullocks heart tomatoes and avocados to go with our leftover bread and cheese in our room. After moving chairs and tables around, it's a relaxed dinner that costs 1/4 the cost of a restaurant dinner and twice as nice - except that our room smells fishy! An early night for a potentially long day. We'll need to decide whether to take the cable car up 400, 800, 1200 or 1600 metres to get to PlanPlatten, to shorten our walk to Tannulp tomorrow.