Contents
- Preface
- San Francisco
- Amsterdam
- Amsterdam, Helmond
- Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem
- Amsterdam, Bruges
- Bruges, Brussels, Cologne, Berlin
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- Vienna, Salzburg, Füssen
- Füssen, Neuschwanstein, Munich
- Munich, Innsbruck
- Innsbruck
- Innsbruck, Zürich, Lauterbrunnen
- Lauterbrunnen, Jungfraujoch
- Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn
- Lauterbrunnen, Spiez, Zermatt
- Zermatt
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- Athens
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Prev :: Wednesday, 21 September 2005 :: Next
20. Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn
Photo Gallery
This morning I started with a walk up the valley to check out the Trummelbach falls inside the mountain. This is neat, especially if you have bad weather outside and there's not much else to do. But today the clouds had finally cleared, and it was spectacular! Not only does this valley look like the Yosemite valley, but immediately above it — and visible from the valley floor — are these fantastic glaciated 4000m peaks. It's just a terrific place to be.
I walked further up the valley with a pair of Californian students — lawyers in the making (but they weren't all that bad). They weren't spending nearly enough time in the area and were on their way home in the afternoon. Someone had told them to do a hike at lower elevations out of the valley, but I convinced them that it would be more fun to ride the cable cars to the top of the Schilthorn (2970m). This is a stunning half-hour ride — much faster than going up the other side, and only about half the price as well. It took us some time to get to the cable car (a bridge had washed out), so we didn't make it to the top until around noon. Here there is a revolving restaurant where you can get your spicy "James Bond" spaghetti, which is not nearly as over-priced as I'd expect. The restaurant makes one revolution in the time it takes to eat a meal, so you get the full 360° view. Although it's lower, the view here is in many ways better than on the other side, because you can see further down into the valleys and meadows, and also further to the great flat expanse of Europe north of the Alps. But I'm glad I didn't come here yesterday, because it probably barely poked up out of the clouds, and today it's beautiful and clear. The lawyers hurried straight down the slope to catch the cable car at Birg (its penultimate stop), but I wanted a more ambitious hike.
I went the other way, west along a spectacular adrenaline-pumping razorback ridge, with metal stairs bolted on where it got too rough. After a while I started hiking with a pair of charming, geeky (in a very good way) young brothers from Pennsylvania. Nice to have someone to take your picture in a place like this — and I got some really good ones. We went all the way down from the dry, lunar, rocky landscape at the top to the lush green meadows near the village of Murren. A lot of very happy cows grazing on the trail here, with huge Swiss bells dangling from their necks. Immediately below, the Lauterbrunnen valley drops another 1000m, and immediately on the other side of that rise the glaciated 4000m peaks of the Jungfrau, Eiger, and Mönch. We turned west into a north-facing canyon which actually made me think of Kauai — lush green grass with innumerable tiny waterfalls pouring down almost sheer, eroded cliffs. This is definitely my favorite hike in the world that I've done, ever — which is saying a lot.
At Murren, the brothers sensibly headed back to the cable car, but I wanted to walk all the way down. I headed right towards the village of Gimmelwald, which Rick Steves particularly loves. I must admit, it is amazingly situated, right on the edge of the valley cliffs below, but with the immense snow-covered peaks incredibly close on the other side. However, I can't say I found it very welcoming — first place I tried wouldn't let me use the restroom, even though I offered to buy a soda. Ok, then I won't buy a soda (which was unfortunate because I actually wanted one anyway). So they sent me to the "public" restroom at the cable car, but even this took some cajoling of the operator, as it's behind the ticket gate so you can't normally get to it unless you've bought a ticket. Needless to say, I would not stay in this village. I guess a torrent of Rick Steves' people would be enough to turn anyone sour. Perhaps Murren is nice — it seems similarly situated and is also car-free. But I like Lauterbrunnen — you get to see the spectacular waterfalls, and it's the highest point which is convenient to both the Jungfraujoch train and the Schilthorn cable car. Anyway, after hiking down over 2000m in elevation, your legs get pretty sore. I wish Switzerland had discovered the hot tub! They should really import some from northern California.