European Getaway - Day 4 - Lauterbrunnen

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Day 4 - Lauterbrunnen

I wake up pretty early to have a shower and enjoy the brisk morning air. I take a few snaps of the scenery and bump in to 3 nervous souls who are about to do the skydiving optional extra. Simon, Trent and Brendan all look a little scared, but I can’t blame them, I certainly wouldn’t want to skydive.

I have breakfast and then we take the brief walk to the train station to catch the really expensive train up to Jungfraujoch, commonly known as the Top of Europe. Most of our group cram on to the little train and we head up on our couple of hours journey to the top. The views from the train are amazing; the snow capped mountains are just like a postcard scene. We switch trains halfway up and the rest of the journey is pretty much a tunnel, which stops twice at viewing windows on the way up, which give amazing views of the valley below. Funnily enough on the new train I am sat across from another English man, who is from Ilkley, which isn’t far from Sheffield.

We reach the top and I feel slightly congested, we were warned that altitude sickness could be an issue, given that we were 3,454 feet above sea level. I wasn’t feeling sick but could feel an effect. I hang around with the girls I met in Paris. We head to the observation point at the top of the small complex atop the mountain. The views are amazing; we are above the clouds and can see glaciers. I was also amused by my Australian friends who were getting excited about seeing snow. For some of them this was their first experience of snow, which I find a bit crazy but given the Aussie climate I suppose it isn’t odd at all.

We stop briefly to eat our packed lunches (ham and cheese sandwiches) and then head to the ice cavern. This is a room made completely of ice, the walls and floors are ice and there are sculptures inside, funnily enough made of ice. The cavern is great and we take some crazy photos of each other. A highlight of the cavern is the squirrel from the Ice Age films, who is frozen into one of the walls, with the acorn he chases in the films.

After this we head to the souvenir shop and I buy some small gifts for the family, I call my mum from the top of Europe and then we head back down the mountain. On the way down I’m sat with a few of the girls and we have a little chat about our love lives etc (or lack of in my case), I always feel a bit awkward with these sorts of conversations. When we get back to the village I buy some Swiss chocolate and some guys buy watches and army knives (typically Swiss stuff). Simon in particular buys an amazing watch, but I imagine it costs a bomb. We stop buy the local restaurant to try the local speciality, Rosti, which was recommended by our tour leader Jess. The Rosti was amazing, we ordered a few between us which contained bacon, egg, mushrooms, beef etc. It was a taste sensation.

We head back to the camp and have dinner, which included cheese fondue, which wasn’t great, and then headed to the bar for another night of fun. It wasn’t as fun as the night before as some people gave it a miss and the music wasn’t as good. I played a few drinking games, which were crap (and I kept losing) and then went to bed. Overall Switzerland is the best country I have ever been to, the views were amazing, the towns were very clean and no crime whatsoever, I’ve never felt more safe anywhere ever.

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