We arrived in Grindelwald late in the evening. So, like we did with all previous late arrivals, we practically ran to town in hopes of being able to make it there before the restaurant closed.
I absolutely LOVE all of the different Canton and regional flags!
We were in luck! Our hotel restaurant was open late... AND, they apparently serve the best fondue in town!
The elevators in Europe were so amazingly small. We're not very big people, but we were BARELY able to squeeze in our hotel's elevator with our packs on.
Several of the hotels we stayed in placed chocolate on the pillow. Fantastic touch!
Me being a hungry bird. Seriously, I was really, really, ridiculously hungry.
Hungry Scotty and the fondue flame.
This was some of the best raclette we have ever had! Scott's face looks pretty serious here. Not to worry, his expression isn't so much one of disappointment as it is of shock and amazement at how delicious the cheese was. Seriously amazing. BTW, we ate raclette at least once a day when every day we were in Switzerland. :)
Full, happy, and ready for bed!
I think this is a sufficient amount of cowbell.
We woke up early the next morning in hopes of getting to the top of the Jungfrau before the forecasted storm rolled in. It paid off! Check out the stunning Alpine view from our balcony.
We were impressed with the breakfast in a lot of the hotels we stayed in... but I think the Swiss put on the best spread. Yum!
After a hearty Swiss breakfast, we made our way to the station so could catch our train to Kleine Sheidegg, then transfer to our train to the Jungfraujoch!
It's had to tell, but this picture is to show what a steep angle the cog-wheel train reaches when climbing the mountain. It looks like I'm standing straight and the seats are at an angle. But really, I'm standing at an angle and the seats are 90 degrees to the floor. Wild!
A glimpse of the cog-wheel track.
We enjoyed hanging out in the souvenir shops while waiting for our transfer in Kleine Scheidegg.
WE LOVE SWITZERLAND!
The Jungfrau is sister mountains with Mount Huangshan in China. As a result, LARGE groups of tourists from China travel to Switzerland to see their sister mountain. LARGE groups. We felt like we were in China and Switzerland at the same time. It was wild! Part of one group was getting their picture taken with a real life, genuine Swiss St. Bernard.
You're probably supposed to pay money to have your picture taken with the dog, but we were able to sneak in this shot when the dog took a break from the big group.
I have always loved this breed. Beautiful.
The railway runs mostly through a tunnel built into the Eiger and Monch mountains with two stops along the middle of the tunnel.
You can get off the train for a few minutes at each station and visit these really cool observation windows.
Monster icicle!
Beautiful, but unforgiving landscape. Wouldn't want to be trapped out there.
The trains have a really cool retro styling.
We arrived at the Jungfraujoch and the Eispalast
We had heard the ice palace was worth the expensive train ticket and we definitely weren't disappointed!
We ended up taking several photos with a bunch of the tourists from China in this little photo op spot (I'm sure it was mostly due to our awesome hats). I wish we would have thought to had someone our camera during one of those photos so we could have documentation of that. Oh well.
It was hard to believe the entire Eispalast is made of, well, ice!
Oh Scotty. I'm glad he didn't get stuck to the wall.
We ran through this little tunnel over and over again like little kids.
It was no surprise to find plenty of ice sculptures in the ice palace.
Why? Because he can.
After the ice palace we made our way outside on to the saddle. It was so unbelievably cold and windy that we resorted to calisthenics to stay warm. I was SO glad we bought those furry hats in Zug. The rest of our body was chilly, but our heads stayed super warm.
We were amazed by the ice crystals that had formed on the posts and chains.
So cold. So very very cold.
The Sphinx Observatory. Truly an engineering and construction wonder. How in the world did they build that thing!?! It looks like the hideout of a James Bond villain.
We only lasted about 10 minutes outside. We weren't surprised after seeing the weather report: -9.4 C = 15 F... 40 KM/H = 25 MPH wind, which = -4 F. Notice that at one point that day the temp had dipped to -50 C, -58 F! Yikes!
I can't stress how happy I was to have such a warm hat. I absolutely loathe having a cold noggin.
We decided to brave the elements once more to check out the observation deck.
The view was worth being chilled to our bones.
The saddle of the Jungfrau is just 33 feet higher than the top of Mt. Timpanogos back home, but the peak of the Jungfrau is an impressive 13,642 ft.
The Sphinx observatory has what is supposed to be a really great Indian restaurant. Random. Sadly, it was closed for the season (it's only open from April-September). Oh well.
Supposedly a lot of Indian films are shot in Switzerland.
We decided to find lunch back in Grindelwald rather than munch on cafeteria food at the observatory.
One more transfer in Kleine Sheidegg to the Wengernalpbahn.
See how the name on the side of the train ends in 'bahn' (train)? I hope to better understand German someday. Words like Bahnhof (train station) aren't too confusing, but words like Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (the name of a law that has to do with how beef is labeled. I found it here) make me feel like there is no hope of ever speaking this crazy language.
We were fortunate enough to be able to see the filming of some kind of cultural documentary.
Could our day in the Alps have been any more perfect?
Don't you just love their traditional folksy outfits?
Not a bad backdrop for the filmmakers and singers.
I am still wondering why my ancestors left this country. Look at that adorable Alpine village!
We wandered around the streets of Grindelwald while looking for a place to have lunch.
While wandering we kept hearing the most beautiful bells and, after some searching, found a herd of honey colored cows grazing happily in this meadow.
We both reached the critical grumpy status of must... eat... NOW! and just picked a place to eat at random.
We got lucky, the food was delicious! We had...
House made sausage and carrot soup,
apple strudel with cream sauce,
and the best hot chocolate of all time.
Not to mention a pretty sweet view.
Check out the Chinese bank. Awesome.
Our hotel from the night before.
A parting shot of Grindelwald. Time to head to Lauterbrunnen!
The lovely trains in this region are owned by a private company, so our Eurail passes didn't cover our travel. Bummer. At least we got a discount.
We fell in love with Lauterbrunnen the minute we got off the train.
Why not have giant balls made of rocks?
The view from our balcony. I could move here tomorrow.
Scott made sure we had a room with a view of Staubbach Falls. The waterfall is usually more spectacular, but we arrived during an early cold spell and only got to see it at a frozen trickle. No complaints though, we were still impressed.
The bells from this church rang out loud and strong for 30 minutes, telling the locals it was time to come to church.
We decided to stop gawking from our balcony and take a walk around the village.
This was as close as we could get to the waterfall. The trail was closed because it was completely covered in ice. Guess we'll just have to come back! (I've noticed I say that in almost all of my posts about Europe. We must have had a good enough time to want to go back.)
Yet another public fountain with culinary water. The Swiss are brilliant!
Why? Because I can!
The original bell from the church.
The windows of the church had such a warm, inviting glow. We walked in for a minute to check it out and could tell that the 5 or 6 locals in attendance were a little bummed out when we turned around and left. Maybe the townsfolk and tourists were so annoyed by the 30 minute bell clanging that they decided to sit this Sunday out in protest?
Hunger struck once again, so we played restaurant roulette once again. We struck gold with two dishes at this place: A salad with the absolute best sauerkraut we have ever had and Rösti topped with raclette.
The next morning we were treated to yet another impressive Swiss breakfast.
We left pretty early so we could catch our train to Bern in time to meet our dear friend Mares. It was freeeezing cold!
While waiting for our train we got a close-up look at the details of the cog-wheel trains.
We were treated to some gorgeous scenery as we passed through Interlaken
I think this was the fanciest train compartment of our entire trip. Those seats were deluxe!
Up next: Europe Part 5.3: Switzerland: Bern, Bettenhausen, and the Emmental Valley.
