Grindelwald - Grosse Scheidegg to Meirengen

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Since it looks like tomorrow (now today) is rain, we decided to take the Grindelwald Bus up to the Grosse Scheidegg Pass and walk down to Meirengen which is about a 16km walk. This is a "must do" hike as it passes some superb scenery. On arriving at Grosse Scheidegg you look back at the razor edge view of the Eiger and the Upper Glacier. You then pass the Wetterhorn mountain and begin the walk directly under the huge wall of rock which soars up to 3701m. We wound our way down the valley through open mountain territory then into forest and on down into pastures laden with alpine flowers at this time of year. No wonder the Alp cheese has such a distinctive flavour with so many different flowers for the cows to eat. Many of them we recognise - forget-me-nots, campanulas, buttercups large and small, primrose and many others as well as herbs. When we reached Rosenlau we bought a large block of Alp Cheese. The cows had just been brought up to these pastures so we are serenaded by hundreds of cow bells. Lovely.

There was a loud CRACK followed by a rumble and we watched an avalanche tumble off the front of the glacier coming off the Wetterhorn. It looked like a waterfall from where we were standing but through the binoculars you could see the snow and blocks of ice falling.

Once past the Rosenlau glacier the land evens out a little until you reach the edge of the Rheinbach Falls where it drops about steeply to Meirengen. The Falls are spectacular with tunnels, holes and smooth channels made by water and rock over the 1000's of years since the glaciers receded back. It is typical glacier country - steep U-shaped valleys with steep sides. On the very last section below the Falls, we took the Funicular down to the town as there was no track from the falls. From there, a train back to Interlaken, train to Grindelwald and bus to Terrasenweg to the house. Why oh why didn't we take the bus all those other years instead of staggering up the hill after a day of hiking?? Nuts.

A point of interest: we often run into elderly people on our walks in the hills and mountains. By elderly, I don't mean our age, I mean people in their 70's and 80's. They must be fit from a life time of living in this environment. We see the odd older hiker at home but nothing like we see here. It's a fantastic sight to see people not giving in to age.

Today it is drizzly with low cloud on the mountains all around. Time to write emails and catch up on news in NZ via the internet. Maybe a few games of Solitaire to drive us mad - 12 games before getting one out yesterday. The things we must do when TV and radio isn't an option.

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Photos

The Wetterhorn
The Wetterhorn from just below Grosse Scheidegg

Flowers in the pastures
There are masses of differrent coloured flowers along the path