Blogs from Grindelwald, South-West, Switzerland, Europe - page 2

Since the weather was looking a little dicey we decided that visiting somewhere indoors was in order just in case. The forecast is okay out of the mountains in the morning but raining with possible thunderstorms in the affternoon. The rain took the sting out of the heat so it is much more comfortable to move about in. We took the train to Thun and walked into the city. It being Sunday, of course everything is shut apart from transport and eating places. The first sight we saw was men surfing waves on the river by the old bridge and flood control gates. This is a bit weird to see in a city away from any beach. The covered bridges in Thun are shorter versions of those in Lucern and just as pretty with flowers decked ... read more

With unfinished business yesterday we got up for an early breakfast and headed off to see the dying or weeping lion statue carved out of rock. The lion commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris. Nearby is the Old City Wall with several towers erected along it. Instead of the old wooden ramparts there are now concrete elevated paths along the wall to walk along and some towers that you can climb up on original wooden stairs. It's an impressive sight looking out over the river and the city. We were back in time to move out of the hotel and convoy with our bags down to the railway station. Our train for Interlaken left at midday and was a 2 hour ... read more

Having walked from Engelberg (or at least the Trübsee) all the way to Meiringen the previous day, I woke to another beautiful blue sky on Monday (18th July) and set about making the most of Meiringen's proximity to some particularly spectacular attractions. Just a short walk upstream alongside the Aare River (which I still remember fondly from having floated down it through the capital Bern back in the summer of 2008; and not so fondly from having floated down it again the following year on my 30th birthday - when it was only May and the water was butt-numbingly cold!) led me to the Aareschlucht, where the river has carved a narrow gorge with walls rising up to two hundred metres high, through which a trail - in places tunneling through the rock; in others bolted ... read more

What a day! Left the best to the last :) We got the Grindelwald Bus up to Grosse Scheidegg where we alighted to a great view out over Grindelwald in the distance, over to First where we'd been yesterday and up to the sharp ridge of the Eiger. From there we started down the other side of the Pass away from Grindelwald. First, you walk through high alpine vegetation at the Pass, down through soft boggy plants, lower down to high pastures and forest to Schwarzwaldalp. This is a pretty place with a few houses, a hotel, a cheese sales little hut, and a very old saw mill running off a water wheel. Further down the road were small farms with many cows with bells and also milking goats. The noise was quite deafening but also ... read more

Today looked perfect. Sunny, cloudless, calm and not too cool. Not that warm either but it did improved as the day went on. Since it was an "out of the bag" day, Karilyn and Neil decided to go on the Jungfraujoch trip. We've been twice before so we opted for a hike. We all got the cable car up to Mannlichen (one of the longest in the world) over meadows, tree tops, high altitude meadows then rock and grass. At the top was a most unbelievable panorama in every direction. We swung around from Pre Alps to the mid Alps of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau and further around to the the Schilthorn and eventually to Interlaken and Switzerland to the north. Just a most stunning view with gleaming white snow and blue skies. We walked from ... read more