Switzerland-Day Five-Lauterbrunnen to Grindelwald

Today can best be summed up by one word, Eiger.

After waking up to perfect views of Staubbach Falls from our room in Lauterbrunnen...

We hopped on a train to Kleine Scheidegg, which goes through Wengen on the way.  Here is the view looking back down on Wengen from the train. 

When we reached Kleine Scheidegg, the views of the north face of the Eiger took over. 

We started our hike down to Grindelwald from Kleine Scheidegg, after a few stops for pictures. 

We stopped for lunch along the trail, and took some amazing pictures on the camera, which I will post on here later (this is a plug to check the blog again later ;-) 

Our lunch spot  

The north face of the Eiger is very impressive, especially when you realize it is approximately three times as high as the north face of Half Dome in Yosemite. The men who climbed these routes are legends; they even have their own plaque. 

And the real thing. 

We continued our hike to Grindelwald, which looked beautiful from above, with tons of wildflowers in bloom. 

Looking down on Grindelwald. 

After a walk through town...

We found a room at the Hotel Alpenblick.  We instantly fell in love with this place. Our room has stunning views of the Unterer Grindelwaldgletscher from a huge balcony...

Which also felt great to relax on after a day of hiking. 

And the hotel has a bunch of great beers, mostly from the local region. 

We loved it so much that we changed plans and will stay here for two nights, and will do a day hike tomorrow in this region. Until then...

Switzerland-Day Four-Mürren to Lauterbrunnen

Wow, what a day!  After waking up to views of the Eiger from our hotel room before sunrise...

We ate breakfast at the hotel and headed into Mürren.  There are no cars in Mürren (and the streets are paved with cheese ;-) 

With views towards the Eiger galore. 

We then decided to take a gondola to Schilthorn, which did not disappoint. 

From the gondola looking back at the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.  

The views from Schilthorn were expansive, literally 360 degrees, including the "Big Three" (Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau), as well as all the way to Mont Blanc in France and the Black Forest in Germany.  The James Bond film, "On her Majesty's Sevice," was filmed here (and they are sure to remind you).  

The sign with names of the peaks. 

And the real thing. 

And they didn't even charge you to look though the telescopes!

There are even hiking trails starting right at the top. 

It was hard to look away, even to take a picture. 

On the way down from Schilthorn, the gondola stopped at Birg, which had a platform you can walk out on and look straight down. 

After a quick snack in Birg, we rode the gondola back down to Mürren...

Where we had a beer and lunch with views of the Eiger. 

From Mürren, we rode a train to Grütschalp, and then a gondola down to Lauterbrunnen.  This is the view from the gondola, with Staubbach Falls in view over Lauterbrunnen. 

Once in Lauterbrunnen, we got the largest room yet and it has a nice view too. 

We took a walk to Staubbach Falls, which has a trail up to and behind the falls. 

We got dinner at the hotel (Fondue) and had the biggest beer yet. 

And then headed back up to the room and took this picture from where I write this post. 

Someone pinch me...

Switzerland-Day Three-Zermatt to Mürren

We left beautiful Zermatt and took the train back down to Visp. We are really starting to appreciate the train system here. They are always on time, clean and very easy to navigate. Not to mention the beautiful scenery along the way. 

In Visp, we had a little time and Jessica got her first gelato in Switzerland. 

We had a snack on the train to Spiez, which was our first double decker train here and went under ground nearly the whole way through the mountains.  From Spiez, we took a train to Interlaken and then transferred to a train to Lauterbrunnen. The train to Lauterbrunnen followed along a beautiful little river. 

We had heard that Lauterbrunnen was beautiful with a lot of waterfalls, it didn't disappoint. 

We then caught a huge gondola up to Grütschalp, which had amazing views back down to Lauterbrunnen. 

We had lunch in Grütschalp which had views towards the Eiger, but it was shrouded in clouds. 

Then we started our hike to Mürren, which had awe inspiring views along the way. 

Once in Mürren, we got a room at the first hotel that sounded good, with a bar downstairs and a view towards the Eiger from our room. 

And it has bunk beds, Jessica called top!

Switzerland-Day Two-Zermatt and Matterhorn

We woke up to beautiful blue skies. After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we walked into town and caught our first clear view of the Matterhorn. 

We then rode an underground train up to Sunnegga and then a gondola to Blauherd. 

From Blauherd we started a beautiful hike to Stellisee lake, all with amazing views to the Matterhorn along the way. 

We stopped for lunch in Grunsee at a place with stunning views of the Matterhorn. 

After lunch, we continued our hike to Riffelalp, where the trail dropped down into a beautiful alpine forest, and came across this crazy mushroom. 

We made it back down into Zermatt and strolled through town back to the hotel. 

 

Switzerland-Day One-Lausanne to Zermatt

After landing in Geneva, we took the train to Lausanne for lunch. Lausanne is a beautiful old city, with cobblestone streets and little cafés. 

After lunch we stopped at a park and watched a dance off and relaxed after a long day of traveling. 

We then got back on the train and headed for Zermatt.  The ride from Visp to Zermatt was gorgeous, as the train follows a glacier melt river the whole way. 

We got upgraded to a different hotel with a bigger room, but we were a little sad to not have the roof top views of the Matterhorn from La Petite Hotel, which Jessica is standing in front of. 

But our room is great and the hotel we are in is really nice, with a big balcony with this view.