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Falls ahead.... It rained steadily through the night and into the morning but it looked like there could be some breaks in the weather in the town of Meiringen. This is where Riechenbach Falls and the Sherlock Holmes Museum is located. We took our normal train and got there early. We had to walk through the town a mile or so to get to the Reichenbach funicular station. At the top, you can see part of the falls and the fictional spot where Sherlock Holmes fell in the gorge to his death fighting Professor Moriarty. Arthur Conan Doyle visited here in 1893 and was inspired to make this be the fatal spot when he decided to retire Sherlock permanently in “The Final Problem” There was such a hue and cry that he had to bring him back in the story, "The Adventure of the Empty House.” Long ago, the spot was very close to the waterfall but, since then, the falls have cut into the mountain and moved far away. To get to the top of the fall, you hike up steep paths and stairs and rocks. Once there, you can go around the back to get around to star looking over the
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Another Funicular gorge where Sherlock was imagined to fall. It’s a ways to go and winds around with lots of branching unmarked trails. We lucked into the right one and came upon it right before we tried another direction. It’s very steep and you are on a tiny ledge. Brian learned he doesn’t like that situation. Amy didn’t mind looking down but didn’t love walking the tiny path with a sheer wall on one side and a drop on the other. The options to return were to go back up, over and down to the cable car or just keep on going down. We chose down and ended up on small trails, through gates and into pastures. It seemed wrong to follow trail markers even on pasture gates but there was a path. The most dangerous part was avoiding sheep pies. Eventually, we made it back to town, where we had a meringue dessert. This is the second thing for which Meiringen is famous. One story is that a chef serving Napoleon had leftover eggwhites and whipped up what we now call meringue as he named it after the town. There are other tales but the outcomet ree is that you can
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The Game's Afoot! g The Sherlock Holmes Museum was our last stop and the elderly caretaker was very glad to have visitors. We got to have an audio guided tour, view some artifacts, and see a recreation of Sherlock Holmes’ 221B Baker Street living room, complete with violin. We weren’t there long and she slightly scolded us for going too fast. We explained that it was very wonderful but we had to catch the train, which was true, we swear! (Random aside: This was a perfect adventure for us as we recently binge-watched all 3 Seasons of the BBC's Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch. Dude looks like an alien sometimes but he is awesome. Highly recommended! We are also fans of "Elementary." Traditionalists could actually READ the Holmesian stories.) changed trains a few time and got back to Interlaken in time for the evening chocolate show at the Grand Café Restaurant Schuh and enjoyed some Prosecco for our Swiss version of wine-thirty. We learned about cocoa beans, how to make chocolate, and tasked all kinds. We got to make and decorate our own chocolate lollipops. After all the desserts and trail snacks, we still had no room for rosti (hashed brown potato dish) or
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It's elementary that it's now Amy's turn... fondue so we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our big day on the mountain tomorrow.
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