Day 111-116: Switzerland - Geneva (lost my luggage!!), Grindelwald/Interlaken

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Day 111: July 25 - LATVIA - Riga, SWITZERLAND - Geneva
Accommodation: City Hostel, Geneva

It was time to leave Latvia today, except my flight wasn't until 3:30pm. There was no strict checkout time so I set no alarm, and I had no key to hand in although there wasn't really a need for security in this hostel as the atmosphere was pretty friendly and trustworthy. I had another hangover this morning which was part of the reason why I didn’t get out of bed until 2pm. I almost freaked out at the time I had left to get to the airport, threw my things together and rushed outside to catch the bus to the airport. I missed the bus I was aiming for by mere seconds as I saw it going down the main street as I approached the bus stop, so I waited 20 minutes for the next one hoping I would make it in time for my flight. When I got on it cost me only 20 santims, one-fifth of 1 Latvian Lat, worth about 50 cents Australian. I couldn't believe how cheap it was! This was my last taste of an Eastern European bargain. We travelled through various residential areas which was a cultural experience in itself and I wondered if I'd ever get there, but we eventually got to a freeway and I arrived at the airport with about half an hour to spare. I figured I'd be pushing it for my flight time, but as I got to check-in I found out my flight had been delayed indefinitely. I asked British Airways what was going on and they said there was a safety problem with the original plane and they had to replace it with another plane which had to fly in from England and this would delay departure by 3 hours. I had 4 hours before my London to Geneva flight so I wasn't too worried. BA even gave me a meal voucher worth 5 Lats so I could have a nice meal while I was waiting. Riga airport was rather small and there was only one place to get a hot meal, but it looked good so I splurged. I stocked up on a goulash-style soup, a sausage, a meat pattie, some sort of weird looking vegetables, some bread, a juice, and a glass of Coke, which after handing in my meal voucher only set me back 3 more Lats. Nice one! I scoffed that down and still had 2 hours to kill. I found a net café and stuffed around on a few websites. Unfortunately there was no mouse, only a trackball which moved very slowly making it hard to point and click on anything fast. One of the websites I visited was a music one which played a song when loading the page. What I didn’t know was that the net café speakers were extremely loud! What was worse is that the trackball wouldn’t move fast enough to click the mute button, so this music was blaring across the airport terminal and I couldn’t make it stop! It was so embarrassing. I basically finished what I was doing not long after that and went off to hide in a corner far away from the net cafe. Looking back on it I must admit it was pretty funny.
Anyway, I finally got onto my flight arriving in London Gatwick airport safely. By the time I got off the plane I had 45 minutes to rush over to my next gate before my connecting flight was to depart. I got there with time to spare and I could even see the luggage being put onto the plane itself from the gate window. I couldn’t spot my bags but I had faith that they would be moved across for me from the previous flight. For some reason I checked in both my bags on this day. I’d never done that before and I still can’t think of why I did it this time. It was probably because I was sick of carrying one bag on with me in the cabin and wanted someone else to deal with them.
My second BA flight got me into Geneva, and the view of the lights over the city and over the lake was beautiful. I got off and went to the baggage conveyor belt as usual to wait for my bags, and gradually more and more people picked their bags up and I still couldn’t see either of mine, and then the conveyor belt stopped. I was confused as my bags weren’t there so I figured they’d start up the belt again soon as it was just a hitch. I started to get worried when a lady was whinging about her bags not arriving, and then I realised my bags had not come with me to Geneva. I started freaking out thinking my bags had been lost forever, wondering how I was going to replace everything and the cost of things, wondering what clothes I was going to wear tomorrow, how I was going to have a shower, and all sorts of other things crossed my mind all at once. I tried keeping my cool while I went into a little office and a very calm guy at a computer desk took down my contact details and gave me a phone number to call after 24 hours to inquire about the location of my bags. He gave me a little sealed bag of tiny toiletries and a white replacement shirt and sent me on my way. It was lucky I found out how to find my hostel in advance and hadn’t left the directions in one of my bags or I really would’ve been lost.
So feeling almost totally dazed and in a state of shock I took my little bag and caught the airport train shuttle to the train station nearest to my hostel. I was walking the streets feeling very abnormal at 11:30pm at night without knowing what Geneva at night was like, but at least I had 35kg less to carry. I got to hostel reception just in time as they were closing up at midnight. I told my story to the guy at reception and he sympathised but still had to charge me for sheet and towel hire even though I had no choice but to take them as my own linen was in my lost bags so that was a little bit heartless, but what can you do. So many things were racing through my head that there was no way I could even think of sleeping, so I called my mum and told her the details, then spent some time on the net posting on a message board about it to try to get everything out to make myself feel better. It worked for a while as I was able to get some sleep, even if I didn’t get to bed until about 1:30am.

Day 112: July 26 - Geneva, Grindelwald
Accommodation: Mountain Hostel, Grindelwald

Hostel check out was 10am as most hostels are so I took my tiny soap and shampoo and conditioner and shaver and had a decent shower. The hostel was very nice but I wasn’t in a condition to really appreciate it. I wasn’t really in the mood for sightseeing or even travelling to my next destination as I was still freaked out about the whereabouts of my bags. I had 4 hours on trains ahead of me but I wasn’t ready to do anything in a rush yet so I stuffed around on the net to get my mind off things, then eventually I felt a bit better and by lunchtime I was ready to take on the town. Luckily the trains were very frequent and I didn't have to leave at any chosen time, so I had several hours to space out.
It was a nice sunny day, even a bit warmer than I was expecting. I took a Geneva city map from the hostel and wandered towards the lakeside. I passed a tiny shop on the way selling baguettes so I tried to order one toasted with chicken and cheese and lettuce. The vendor didn’t speak a word of English and I forgot that French was the regional language in this part of Switzerland, so I had to scrape together the few words of French I knew to try to score some lunch. I passed my money over and threw in a bit of ‘si vous plait’ and ‘merci beaucoup’ and I was off. I got down to the waterfront and sat down on the grass there still thinking about what I was going to do without my bags not knowing how long I’d be without them, so I just spaced out there for who knows how long. Eventually I got up out of my daze and walked around Geneva’s expensive fashion and jewellery stores. There were designer names everywhere, and while I knew this would’ve made a lot of people on my Contiki tour happy I just kept walking. I was neither in the mood for this nor did I have the money or the interest to buy anything. I walked up and down a few flights of steps, passed a stone-built cathedral, and looked at my map for things to visit.
The most interesting place to visit I could find was the Red Cross museum, so I found a tram to take me there and I was on my way. I didn’t know that the Red Cross had actually originated in Geneva, so I was fascinated to find a museum about it.
The tram I caught took me past my hostel and dropped me off just outside the United Nations building. There was a huge black gate guarding the entrance which had flagpoles holding a flag of each of the UN member countries. I didn't know whether I could actually get in as a member of the public or whether this was just a meeting place, so I moved on. Just up the hill I found the International Red Cross & Red Crescent Museum. In some countries as a symbol to show who they were they used the cross, and in some the crescent, usually depending on whether the area was predominantly of Christian or Islamic faith. It was all the same organisation though. For anyone not knowing with this organisation does, they mainly assist groups of people who have been affected directly or indirectly by war by giving them medical help. They also help with a few other related services such as the removal of landmines to stop innocent people from stepping on them long after a war involving landmines has ended. I saw some fascinating and remarkable and shocking photos and exhibitions on the efforts of this organisation's members. It really was worth the effort to make a visit.
I walked back down towards the city centre with my missing bags still on my mind. Wandering around still in a bit of a daze I found a British Airways booking office completely by chance, so I went inside to ask about my bags. They were able to call the lost baggage centre with my reference number, and to my surprise and relief my bags had been found, had been sent by flight to Geneva earlier that morning, and were already on their way by private courier to the small town of Grindelwald if not already there.
I couldn't believe how lucky I was, but I later realised that my bags had a very narrow time period to be transferred from one plane to the other and probably missed out on being placed on my Geneva flight by a matter of minutes, so it was a minor mishap. What made me feel even better is that I didn't have to carry 35kg between 2 different hostels and 4 different trains over a 4-hour period. I only wished I'd called earlier in the day to find out this good news to save the trouble and grief, although they had told me not to contact them within 24 hours of the bags going missing. I guess I'll know better if it happens again, but I hope it never does!
Feeling better I grabbed a bite to eat and an English-language newspaper (seeing I had no music to listen to as it was in my lost bag) and took a train to Grindelwald. I saw some beautiful scenery along the way, but I had to change trains at Lausanne, Bern, Interlaken, and then Grindelwald main station to get to Grindelwald Grund which was the closest station to my hostel down a steep hill. It was about 4pm and daylight when I started my trip and about 8pm when I arrived in Grindelwald in complete darkness apart from the occasional street light, so it was hard to find the hostel and by this point the train service running directly to my hostel had stopped for the day so I had to walk down a hill through residential areas to find a place in the dark I didn't know how to find. It was quite a challenge but I found it in the end. The guy at reception had my bags there waiting for me, and laughed at the fact that this was the first time the bags had arrived before the customer! I had to laugh at the situation too.
I couldn't see much in the dark obviously, but what I saw on the train trip was beautiful passing high grassy peaks and a glacier river and a huge lake on the way into Interlaken and Grindelwald. The town was sitting in a valley with peaks on all sides and I couldn't wait to see them in full daylight. After a mentally and somewhat physically tiring day I found my dorm room and crashed in bed.

Day 113: July 27 - Grindelwald, Kleine Scheidegg, Eigergletscher, Wengen
Accommodation: Mountain Hostel, Grindelwald

The main reason I was in this part of Switzerland was to go hiking through some of the most beautiful countryside in Europe, and I had a few maps I had photocopied from a Lonely Planet guidebook I'd left at home to save on the weight in my bag, so I was ready. The thing is that I didn't know where to walk to first. I decided to visit the place that the cog train had taken me to on my Contiki tour, Kleine Scheidegg. This was the halfway point on the cog railway where we had to change trains. It wasn't the destination that motivated me, it was the surrounding views that I was more interested in. I picked up some food and drinks from the supermarket in town and I was on my way.
One thing I found different about this supermarket from an Australian supermarket is that when you choose your fruit you need to weigh it and print out your own barcode sticker with the weight and price on it to take to the checkout. This felt weird because I was used to the fruit being weighed and priced at the checkout rather than having to do it myself, but it was a good experience to do something a different way.
I had to walk past my hostel back in the other direction to start my walk, but I didn't mind it so much as it was mostly downhill or flat ground. That didn't last long. When my hike officially started it was a sleep incline straight up this narrow paved track. There were little yellow signs everywhere pointing me in whichever direction I wanted to go, so I kept following the signs to Kleine Scheidegg. It was a reasonably warm sunny day and the track was a lot steeper than I was expecting and was showing no real signs of levelling out, so I knew I had to just learn to deal with it and enjoy the atmosphere. That's exactly what I did, and the higher I climbed the more beautiful the valley and town of Grindelwald looked from a distance with lovely green hills and cute houses all grouped in the middle.
Gradually I was passed by people walking in the other direction or riding mountain bikes down. Some people were power riding straight up the mountain and straight past me with a huge level of fitness. It was unbelievable. I noticed the higher I climbed that further down the mountain people fitter than me were slowly catching up to me, especially when I stopped to catch my breath or take a drink of water. At different times the track would come close to the cog railway line, and occasionally a cog train would ramble past, even crossing the walking track at a few areas. At one point I heard cowbells, and when I reached the top of that little hill I saw cows on the grassy areas on both sides of the track which I had to walk between, and even more remarkable was the fact that I could see huge snow capped peaks off in the distance.
Further up the track I started to pass slower people going up as well as down, and eventually I came to Kleine Scheidegg. It felt weird being in a place I had visited just over a month ago with Contiki tour mates but being by myself with my own time period. The train stop had a few tacky souvenir shops and a few nice outdoor cafes serving beer. I couldn't resist a roll packed full of meat with a glass of local Swiss beer on such a warm welcoming sunny day, but I still had a little bit of walking to go. Kleine Scheidegg was about 2000 metres high, but the Eiger glacier (Eigergletscher in Swiss) was only another 300 metres up and was the end of the line for normal day trekkers without having to go rock climbing, so slightly tired from already walking up 1000 metres I figured I had to do it. I passed many people who had just got off the 2000-metre train stop as the walk was mostly flat for half an hour, but getting to the glacier itself was another close-to-vertical climb. It was definitely worth it. Back in June with Contiki the train stopped here for 5 minutes for us to take photos, but now in July with more sun on the mountain a fair amount of the ice had melted to reveal more of the rock face and it was a surprising contrast to the ice layers I had seen only 5 weeks earlier.
Down the other side of the train track from the Eiger glacier was a relatively steep track of silica dirt and loose rocks that had been left by the glacier thousands of years before. Signs on the track pointed to Lauterbrunnen which was at the bottom of the mountain so I followed the track. Eventually the dirt was overtaken by lush green grass and the occasional trickle of water coming down from the glacier, but the steepness did not end there. I spent two hours walking in completely open country and then the track followed into a forest surrounded by high pine trees, so I spent some time in there before the track opened up again meeting the train track. From here I had several train stations on which to jump on a train to take me down the mountain if I got tired, so I decided to keep walking as much as I could before I got worn out. Thankfully it was a good choice as the track snaked down through more forest areas and crossing small streams of water, and I passed the occasional hiker along the way. Eventually I came to the alpine village of Wengen and by now it was getting close to 5pm and I had been walking since about 10am so I figured it was time to give up. It was still very sunny outside but I was very content with the walking I'd already covered, so I caught the train from Wengen down to Lauterbrunnen to meet a connecting train to take me back to Grindelwald and back to the hostel. After grabbing a bite to eat I wandered off to bed after a very long yet fulfilling day.

Day 114: July 28 - Grindelwald, Interlaken
Accommodation: Mountain Hostel, Grindelwald

After such a long walk the day before I decided to have a bit of a rest today. I slept in as much as I could. There was a group of 16-year-old school kids staying in the hostel and staying up making loud noise until late in the night right outside my window when I needed a good sleep. I made a comment to reception about it, and I hate having to complain about these things and rarely do it, but this was ridiculous and went on for ages. Apparently their teacher who wasn't staying there had a chat to them and got them to keep quiet. Luckily I've only had to deal with kids in this hostel and my Copenhagen one on my whole trip so this was an isolated case for me. There are times for partying and times for sleeping, regardless of how old or adventurous you are. I had to make a comment about them right before the day of my big walk where I desperately needed sleep, and last night they were quiet so my comment worked and I slept very well. After a well needed rest and a good sleep-in I decided to check out the cute little town of Grindelwald. The town was at the top of a steep but short hill, or there was a half hourly train going one station stop to the top so I figured I could get away with a free ride. Although I found out just how efficient the Swiss people are when as soon as the train left the station a conductor appeared to check tickets and sell them to people without tickets, including myself. By the time I had been sold a ticket and given my change, the train was rolling into the final stop at the top of the hill. It almost seemed like a waste of time, but the conductor got his CHF4.40 in coins out of me and it saved me time and a tiring ascent up a steep hill, so in the end I was alright with it.
There are two types of tourist or souvenir shops around. There are the type that sell things that are decent enough to consider buying at a reasonable price, and then there are the type that sell things you don't need or can't afford. Thankfully Grindelwald had a lot of the first type of these shops.
The town also had a lot of cafes and restaurants with outside tables and chairs allowing people to eat and enjoy the view at the same time, and the occasional store that can be used by tourists and locals alike such as a supermarket and post office and newsagent. I had seen a t-shirt I liked in Lucerne that had the caption "Switzerland - Up a mountain, down a beer" which was a philosophy I agreed with, but for some reason I didn't buy it at the time and looking around Grindelwald I saw several t-shirt stores but not that particular t-shirt. I wasn't about to travel a few hours by train to buy a shirt, so this was a lesson to buy things on impulse that you like because the chance to buy them a second time will rarely come up again if at all and you may regret it later. Still, while I wanted the shirt it wasn't a big letdown or anything.
I found a net cafe to catch up on some things. There was a net kiosk in my hostel but it charged 15 Swiss Francs an hour which was the most expensive price I'd seen in all of Europe, so I was happy to find about 8 Francs an hour in this net cafe. It was situated inside a photo developing store which was unusual, but you make do with what you find.
The rest of the town was full of hotels and ski lodges, signs and gondolas to take people up mountains, a tiny visitors centre, and an ice skating rink and indoor swimming pool. I basically checked out the whole place then chilled out back at the hostel for a while before deciding to go for a short train ride. I took the half-hour train trip down the mountain to Interlaken to do some research on any adventure activities to do in the area. I decided I'd do some white water river rafting the next day and called around to book it. Not long after this it started to absolutely pour down with rain with gale force winds blowing all sorts of stuff in my face. I managed to escape into the supermarket where I bought some food to save money, and eventually had to sprint from the supermarket to the train station. I was only out running in the rain for 30 seconds but got completely drenched. Luckily I dried off in the train back to Grindelwald and the rain had stopped by then to produce a beautiful rainbow. With a backdrop of the mountains I took a nice rainbow scenery photo from the train.
I cooked some food back at the hostel. The kitchen was out the back door with a hot plate and pots and pans and a sink. It was basic but it was all I needed. I ate my food sitting near the glacier river running next to the hostel (the same one running past Contiki's Lauterbrunnen cabin and camping site) and watched Coyote Ugly in German with some of the 16-year-old girls until they left and I watched as many English speaking channels as I could find, which weren't too many. That eventually put me to sleep.

Day 115: July 29 - Grindelwald, Interlaken
Accommodation: Mountain Hostel, Grindelwald

Today was white water river rafting day, although for some reason I couldn't get a rafting time earlier than 1pm. I didn't mind so much because it just meant more time to sleep in, grab some breakfast, and make my way down to Interlaken. In the end I got there early and had half an hour to wait around. I was getting picked up by a minibus from the train station, and there were a couple of Korean girls getting picked up also. I wondered why the group was so small, then when we arrived it hit me. In my absent minded attitude towards which day of the week it was, I'd picked another weekend day to go rafting. This meant the place was full of dozens of German-speaking Swiss people who had travelled to Interlaken for the day for a rafting experience, leaving about 4 of us who couldn't speak German. Still, we had a guide talk to us in English while the 60 or so Swiss people got a German safety rundown. We all got suited up and piled onto buses up the same river that was flowing past my hostel and Contiki's cabins, the Lütschine.
The Korean girls being a bit weak in the upper body and arms and beginners to rafting got placed into one group whereas I got sent in with a group of well built Swiss German guys who were strong and knew what they were doing. This was not a rampaging river by any standards, or at least not compared to one I had in Norway or even the fairly tame ride I had in New Zealand. It was fast moving but was more narrow and had less submerged obstacles like rocks and trees. Our team of strongmen was able to maneouvre through the rough parts easily, and it was more of a relaxing weekend paddle than an adventure activity. It was still fun though and I enjoyed it even though there weren't too many adrenalin fueled sections.
The river ended up in a section of water that had a concrete or stone wall built around it. Eventually the current stopped and we had to paddle to shore, and then jump into the still water to get to the steps at the bank, with the bus taking us back to the rafting base on land. Back where we stashed our gear there was a free beer or two on offer and a small bite to eat, and a CD full of photos of each rafting group on sale for 50 Francs. That's close to AU$50! I skipped that offer. For something that I could do for AU$2 it didn't seem like good value to me.
After all that I went over to one of the party hostels and found a Thai restaurant next door with fast cheap internet, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then I went next door to the Balmers hostel for a few beers. One of the rafting guides was a Kiwi. Seeing I was the only Aussie I stood out from the Swiss people. He told me there was a replay of the Bledisloe Cup match at Balmers hostel (an Australia & New Zealand rugby match, which was rare for me to see halfway across the world) so I came along and had a few beers watching that, and chatting to other Aussies that were there. The last train back to Grindelwald left around 9:30pm, so I stayed at the bar for as long as I possibly could while wishing the last train went back later and caught the train back to my hostel very tipsy. It’s probably good I left when I did or I could’ve had a huge hangover the longer I stayed and drank. I didn't last too long before I crashed in bed.

Day 116: July 30 - Grindelwald, First
Accommodation: Mountain Hostel, Grindelwald

Today was my last day full day in Switzerland before leaving Europe completely (that is if you don't include the UK and Ireland as part of Europe), so I had to take advantage of whatever I could. I was looking at doing a scenic walk without being as strenuous as my steep walk just days earlier. I decided to cheat a little bit and take a gondola up the mountain. Grindelwald was about 1000m above sea level, and there was a gondola going to a little town called First which was about 2000m above sea level, so for about 40 or 50 Swiss Francs I took the challenge.
The gondola itself was relatively fast, but when I looked up at how far I had to go the ride was going to take me ages, and I couldn't be happier with the scenery around me. The gondola took me high over Grindelwald and over steep green hills not too far below, passing the occasional mountain hut and walking person down below. It was obvious that this was used for skiers and snowboarders in the winter, and I could only imagine how fun and long the runs would be skiing down these slopes. The gondola reached a hop-off point after about 5 or 10 minutes, but this was surprisingly only halfway through the trip.
Higher we climbed over a hill only to find another hill on the other side, and off in the distance was a beautiful glacier of a perfect blue colour with streams of white ice and snow shining in the sun. I almost didn't bother taking this ride but I'm so glad I did. We finally reached the top, and then the gondola turned a corner to the left and took me over another hill and dropped me off at a nice little cafe. Next to the cafe was a walking boots store that offered a try-before-you-buy deal where you could try on some boots then go for a hike and decide whether you wanted to buy them or not. I should've taken up the offer, but I would definitely have been sold on the idea and probably would've left the place carrying a heavy box worth $200 to $300. I should've at least had a look, but I was here to hike and not shop so I moved on.
It was a nice mild sunny day today and several other people had the same idea as me, although being a Sunday I shouldn't have been surprised to see hundreds of people hiking for the weekend. It was a fairly leisurely walk after the gondola took me past all the steep parts, and after about 45 minutes the track took me towards a rather large glacier lake. The grass hills surrounding it with a backdrop of a snow capped peak was too good a photo opportunity to pass up. I liked it so much that I stuck the photo on my ATM card. It was a scene of indescribable beauty.
I walked past the lake and along a track that gradually took me downhill. My only other choices were to walk another 700 metres of so towards the highest peak to hike to without rockclimbing, or go back to the gondola I'd just came from, so I was quite content to spend my time heading down the mountain without exerting too much effort. Over about 2 or 3 hours the track took me around corners, over hills and fresh running creeks and streams, past a little hut with a goat out the front, occasionally through some trees, and down towards the halfway gondola station I had passed earlier in the day. The reason I had come to this station is I had heard I could hire a pushbike to ride down the hill on a paved track, except when I got there it wasn't exactly a pushbike. It was a stand-up scooter that you controlled with your arms and by shifting your weight to one side or another, much like a bike except there was no seat. After being used to riding bikes for years but never riding a scooter I found it hard to control, and I had to slow down a few times because I physically could not turn around the corners fast enough without crashing into a patch of grass or a fence or a cow. My legs were starting to hurt after a while also. Apart from all that it was a fun fast ride shooting down the hill at high speeds. Once I got off the narrow paved track I was onto the two-lane road fighting it out with the cars and I had more room to swerve around corners without using the brakes, provided there were no cars coming either way. When I got to the bottom I wanted to do it again, but that would've cost me another expensive gondola ride or an extra hour or two walking up a steep hill, so I decided that was it for the day.
By then it was 5pm and I'd worked up a good appetite after all that walking, so from there I found a nice open-air restaurant to have a meal at. I ordered a beer, which only came in one size i.e. half a litre, and a big German (or in this case Swiss) sausage with a potato side dish they called 'rosti', which was basically grated potato lightly fried together as a pancake. It tasted really good. With a nice meal and a beautiful view of the peaks off in the distance as the sun was setting, it was the perfect end to a great day.
Since I was leaving the country tomorrow and would have no use for my Swiss Francs, I would be unable to exchange my Swiss coins for any other currency (seeing foreign exchange offices do not exchange coins) so I had to spend them on something. There was a vending machine at the hostel for drinks, mostly soft drinks but one of the selections was the local beer Rugen Brau, which I had been drinking all over this part of Switzerland. I packed my bags and fed my coins into this machine intending to keep going until I either ran out of coins or the beer sent me to sleep. I had about 3 or 4 beers and that was enough to make me very drowsy, so sleep won in this case.
It was hard to believe after spending the longest time in one place without changing accommodation (5 nights straight) that I was about to leave, but time had been moving so fast over this trip that I shouldn't have been surprised.

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