Weekend Twenty-eight / Switzerland

Our Switzerland trip started off with a bad start. I lost my Ipod on the plane ride to Geneva. We tried to go back to look for it but it was long gone. But from there, it only looked up. The trip was an amazing success due to my fabulous planning skills! And Mat’s comprehension of the Swiss travel system. Thank goodness he figured it out!! We fly into Geneva and took a train around Lake Geneva to Montreux. We had lunch here and that was about it. Oh yeah, we did have time to hit the Casino Montreux and Mat won a nice bit of Swiss Franks! We took the Golden Pass which is a panoramic train to Interlaken. It had huge windows and upper windows that let in lots of light and scenery. We checked into our hotel and hung out until dinner. The next day we got up bright and early to go canyonning. Definition of canyoning: Canyoning (also known as canyoneering) is traveling in canyons using a variety of techniques that may include walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, abseiling, and/or swimming. Scariest, freakiest thing I have ever done.
Tried and hungry, we rented a scooter and rode around town plus we took a trip to Grindelwald. We took a hike up to see the lowest accessible glacier; yes we had to climb 980 steps! After the glacier we took a gondola over to those luging track and raced around that which was pretty funny.

That night we watched the cow’s parade through the town center heading to the William tell show. We had yet another fabulous dinner and crashed. Sore but excited we booked our paragliding trip. It was a short ride in a VW bus and we were at the top looking down. It was a great ride and probably the closest we will be to flying. Mat took some fabulous pictures of me “flying”.

After paragliding we headed into the mountains. For the next three days we stayed in Gimmelwald. The population of Gimmelwald is 130 and no cars. The only way to get to the city is by going up and down in a gondola. Literally took us 10 mins to walk from one end to the other. We dropped out stuff off at the Pension where we were staying and headed back down the mountain. Trummelbach Falls is unique, in that seven of its 10 cascades are inside a mountain. A lift takes you up inside the mountain, and you start climbing up to the cascades. The tunnels and stairs that lead to the cascades are dimly lit and damp, with water dripping everywhere. I can't tell you 20,000 liters per second sounds like but it was LOUD!!!

The next day we headed up to the Schilthorn. At 2,970 meters high summit there is a 360 degree moving restaurant at the top. The James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Service"- was filmed here on the Schilthorn. We stopped off in Birg for some photo opportunities or the three big mountains in this region. Jungfrau, Munch, Eiger. Heading down we stopped in Murren for a hike. Another town that took us about 15 mins to walk from one end to the other. It's more of a ski resort town. On the hike I did a little “the hills are alive with the sound of music”. Mat did a little serenading of the cows. We saw a great waterfall and ate some local cheese.


We had dinner in Murren which was yet another great meal (Thanks Rick Steves!!). The next day we headed up to the big one, Jungfraujoch. At an elevation of 3,454 meters is the highest railway station in Europe. The Jungfraujoch is often called the "Top of Europe". We went sled riding and went into an ice palace. It was pretty hard to breath at that elevation but you just had to take it easy. That pretty much took all day but after another short hike we were home. On our last night we stopped for a walking tour of Bern which was a really nice city. Very clean with lots of little interested tid bits.