On Sunday morning (Sept 18), Jer and I embarked upon our drive to Switzerland. It was about a 5 hour drive and our hope was to drive there by way of the Black Forest and maybe stop in Freiburg or Baden Baden for lunch on the way... Apparently our GPS had different plans as we were a tad surprised when all of a sudden we were driving through the France border.
When we finally crossed into Switzerland, it was like crossing into another world. Everything was so beautiful and so green and lush. And there were a ton of cows...almost reminded me of our drives down to Roanoke along 29 (almost). When we got closer to our destination, we started coming upon these gorgeous blue lakes in the valley of the Alps. I dont think my camera did them justice - plus it was difficult for Jerry to drive with me trying to lean over him to take a picture of them.
Eventually we ended up in Lauterbrunnen. We parked the car, took a cable car ride up to a town called Grutschlap and finally a train to Murren since Murren is a car-less town where the cows use the roads more than the people do.
Unfortunately the weather was less than desirable - raining and almost freezing. The rain caused this fog to form and so it was really difficult to see that we were in the midst of these most incredible mountains. Never ones to stay in our hotel room, even when the weather sucks, we checked in to our apartment at the Chalet Helvetia and then immediately headed to dinner at the Hotel Alpina and then for beers at the Eiger Guesthouse where we befriended the bartender - who was thisclose to getting me to drink a Das Boot.
The next morning we woke up to snow and even colder weather. Since Jer and I had not planned for this weather, we weren't sure of what to do since Murren is such an outdoors town. So, Edmee, our lovely host, recommended we go to the glacial waterfalls of Trummelbach since most of them are in caves and we would stay dry. We took the cable car from Murren down to Stechelberg where we caught a bus to the waterfalls. The power of the falls was incredible. I had to take videos of them because pictures just did not do them justice (hence why I dont show them below). On the way back we stopped for a few minutes in Gimmelwald - a very small town that Rick Steves highly recommends. Overall, it was a great afternoon and I'm glad we were able to make the most of it.
On Tuesday morning, we woke up to crystal clear weather and of course it was the day we had to leave. Such a travesty because we could finally see the mountains! And man were they gorgeous. I just wish we had at least another day or two to spend there. There was so much we couldn't do because of the rain/snow. But at least it gives us a good reason to go back.
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