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Published: April 5th 2012
Spectacular surroundings
The town of Lauterbrunnen (with the Valley Hostel in the foreground)At the end of my last update I was in Innsbruck (in Austria) awaiting the delivery of my new mastercard, which I hadn't expected to receive until the following afternoon (monday 25th August) meaning I wouldn't have time to make it to Switzerland before dark. Thankfully though when I checked out of my hostel - just as reception was about to close for five hours - my card had already arrived, so I headed straight to the train station and jumped on the first available train to Zurich, four hours to the west.
And so after having to change from the train to a bus and then back to another train (for what reason I have no idea) to get out of Austria, and travelling through the tiny little country of Liechtenstein (which took a grand total of ten minutes!), I ended up in Zurich; where I took another train onto Lucerne on the shores of the Vierwaldstattersee (Lake Lucerne).
Once in Lucerne I decided it would be nice to stay there for the night rather than hopping onto another train, so after a fifteen minute walk along the waterfront I had arrived at the only backpackers hostel in
Beautiful bridge
The Kapellbrucke in Lucerne town, which thankfully had beds available since I hadn't booked anything in advance. After walking back alongside the lake I came to the justifiably famous Kapellbrucke (Chapel Bridge) over the Reuss River, which is a beautiful, covered wooden footbridge with an adjoining water tower originally built in the fourteenth century (but completely rebuilt after a fire fifteen years ago), featuring painted pictorial panels from the seventeenth century under the roof, depicting various scenes from Switzerland's history.
Around a bend in the river is a second wooden footbridge from the same era and similarly decorated, known as the Spreuerbrucke. Meanwhile overlooking the town on a nearby hill was a grand old castle, and further away in each dirction were towering mountains. All in all, Lucerne would have to rank as one of the most beautiful towns I have visited in Europe; definately deserving of a return visit.
The next morning I was on a train by eight o'clock, bound for Interlaken two hours away to the south-west. To set the scene for you, Interlaken (at an altitude of just over 500 metres) is so named because it sits between a pair of lakes (the Brienzersee to the east and
Three lofty peaks
The Jungfrau peaks - Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau Thunersee to the west); and lying directly south, running from north to south, is a ridge at an altitude of over 2000 metres; while on either side of this ridge are the Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald Valleys more than a thousand metres below. And as if that is not a spectacular enough setting in itself, to the south the ridge leads to the three adjacent peaks of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau (Ogre, Monk and Virgin) mountains - all of which reach a height of over 4000 metres and whose summits are covered in snow all year round.
So after arriving in Interlaken I took a train to Lauterbrunnen where I had booked a couple of nights at a hostel in the valley called, funnily enough, the Valley Hostel. A quick scan through the tourist brochures and I was on a cable car from Lauterbrunnen (at an altitude of 800 metres) to Grutschalp, where I then took a brief but scenic train ride along the rim of the valley to nearby Murren (1600 metres); and from there another cable car took me right up to the summit of the Schilthorn - which is almost 3000 metres above sea level -
Light-headed and loving it
Soaking up the sun (and high-altitude air) at the base of Jungfrau where there is a revolving restaurant.
Unfortunately though, the view that greeted me from the top was not quite the spectacular panorama that I had anticipated, since the entire top of the mountain was surounded by cloud! :-( So after taking the cable car back down to Murren, I set off on foot through the picturesque little town of Gimmelwald to Stechelberg back down in the valley. On my way back to the hostel I even stopped in at the Trummelbache Falls, where an enormous amount of water forces it's way through a series of cascades inside the mountain.
The following day I was out of bed even earlier to catch the first train of the day from Lauterbrunnen to Kleine Schedeigg (at a height of 2000 metres), before hopping on another train to the highest railway station in Europe - Jungfraujoch, which at a height of almost 3500 metres is higher than any point in Australia. After ploughing through the Eiger and Monch, (where holes blasted in the side of the mountains offer views of the valley below) the line comes to an end at an underground station, in between the Monch and Jungfrau peaks.
From
River of ice
The Aletsch Glacier, seen from Jungfraujoch the 'Sphinx' observation deck directly above the train station I could see all the way down to the valley floor almost three kilometres below; though the view off into the distance - which on clear days apparently extends as far as Mont Blanc in France and the Black Forest in Germany - was partially obscured by clouds. After admiring the view for a while, I set off on a half-hour hike through the snow - which thanks to the thinner high-atitude air had me out of breath in no time - to a nearby hut at the base of the Monch peak.
Having satisfied my thirst for snow (and recovered my mobile phone - which I had unwittingly left on the train!), I headed all the way back down to Gimmelwald in the valley of the same name, on the opposite side of the Mannlichen ridge to Lauterbrunnen. After tucking into a hearty Swiss lunch (and a less-than-impressive local beer), another cable car took me high up above the Grindelwald Valley to Mannlichen; from where I then tackled the fifteen hundred metre descent down the other side of the ridge back to Lauterbrunnen on foot.
On thursday I
Vertiginous valley walls
The spectacular Lauterbrunnen Valley checked out of the hostel in Lauterbrunnen and headed back to Interlaken, but since I had a couple of hours to wait for my onward train to Montreaux, I took the funicular railway up to the top of Harder Kulm (about 1350 metres above sea level) - which is a mountain that sits immediately to the north of Interlaken and which provides a fantastic view of Interlaken, the lakes on either side of the town, and the mountains to the south. As usual I had to race against time to make it back to the train station in time for my two-and-a-half hour trip to Montreaux; but once again I somehow managed to make it just in time.
Once in Montreaux I had hoped to visit the nearby Chateau de Chillon castle, but running short on time I had to content myself instead with a leisurely one-hour boat cruise on Lake Geneva (Lac Leman in French) to my next overnight stop, Lausanne. Not only is Lausanne located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, but the lake actually forms part of the border between Switzerland and France; so after climbing the hillside from the ferry terminal to my hostel for
Cruising Lake Geneva
View from the Montreaux - Lausanne ferry the night and taking a walk around town to check out my new surroundings, I ended up lying in bed watching the lights of the French town of Evian sparkle away in the distance from across the lake.
On friday I boarded a train to another French-speaking town set on the shores of a lake - Neuchatel. From there I took a local train into the Val de Travers - which is an area of countryside consisting of forests, mountains and rocky outcrops near the country's western border - where I set off on a hike to the Creux de Van abyss, which is basically a crescent-shaped vertical cliff that rises up out of the valley floor.
Back in Neuchatel I went for a walk along the lakefront, and ended up going for a swim at a rocky little beach (actually it was only about twenty metres long!) that was obviously quite popular with the locals; before hopping on another ferry for a one-hour round-trip to a couple of towns on the other side of Lake Neuchatel - for no particular reason other than that I had enjoyed my cruise on Lake Geneva the day before! Having discovered
Fine place for a swim
Small beach on the shore of Lake Neuchatel from the tourist office though that not only was the hostel I had hoped to stay at in Neuchatel no longer in existence, but that there were in fact no hostels anywhere in town, I ended up continuing onto Bern - the country's capital city - which true to form for Switzerland was only about a forty-five minute train ride away!
More to follow...
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