Thursday, August 15, 2013

Grindelwald

Schynige.  First.  Sheidegg.

We returned to the Jungfrau region (Interlaken / Bernese Oberland) this weekend for more Alpine hiking!  We stayed in Grindelwald, on the other side of the valley from where we were last summer.  There were a lot of tourists, and when we arrived the town looked a bit sleepy but that's only because everyone was at the restaurants eating and drinking!  The pizzeria we ultimately decided on was pleasantly packed and lively.  The town was also hosting a bike race on Sunday, so hotel space was hard to come by.


Saturday, we took a train down the valley to Wilderswil to catch an old cog-wheel train up to Schynige Platte.  It was a steep and very scenic ride (5,000 feet of vertical)!  The 10-mile hike from Schynige to Faulhorn to First is a very popular Swiss hike ("First" means crest/ridge in German). 


You start at the summit and walk along the ridge, with views of Interlaken and the sparking turquoise lakes below on your left, and big mountains on your right.  As we got farther into the hike, the sky turned grayer and the weather was chillier.  We passed through rocky terrain, meadows and Alpine lakes (and snow).  At Faulhorn (an overnight hut circa 1832 perched at the top of a 9300-foot peak (2861 meters), we stopped for some chocolate cake!  Unfortunately, the views were a bit cloudy but it was still pretty spectacular. 






At First, we were blocked by a gaggle of goats for a bit, who were messing around and grabbing at backpacks etc.  The cows seem a bit more harmless in my book (Matt even beriended one)!  From First, we took the ski gondola back down to Grindelwald.  It was a long and wonderful day of hiking!







At our hotel we saw an advertisement for an alpenhorn festival the following day, so on Sunday we took another cog-wheel train, but this time we went up the other side of the valley to Klein Scheidegg and took a short walk from the base of the Eiger to Männlichen.  At Männlichen we encountered nearly a hundred alpenhorn players dressed in traditional costume (including a handful from Japan) accompanied by a troupe of flag throwers and a group of singers. 





We took another gondola back to Grindelwald and then drove to the Lautenbrunner Valley (the next valley over).  The valley is spectacular, with various waterfalls flowing over its steep cliffs.  Towards the end of the valley we took a detour to Trummelbach Falls, a waterfall with 10 cascades flowing  inside a cave.  Kate hopes this is the "waterfall you can walk behind" her parents keep talking about!  To get to the top of the tallest cascade there was a funicular carved into the mountain.  At the top you could walk down and view all six stages of the waterfall.  It was a fun way to end an enjoyable weekend. 




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