Lauterbrunnen, Bern, Switzerland Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Trummelbach Falls

As we are in no rush today, we sleep in a little and go down to breakfast without pre-packing. We are surprised and happy to find scrambled eggs and bacon on the buffet along with the other usual suspects. We know this is a result of the American owner. We do not take long to ponder this fact as hot eggs and bacon disappear from our plates. Time for seconds, it just tastes so good. We don’t have complaints about our other breakfasts but they have been pretty much the same for a month so the change is very welcome and enjoyable.
We check out and leave our large packs here, while we go to visit Trummelbach Falls further down the valley. We take a bus from a stop near the hotel to the falls.

Slot Canyon

Paying and going through the entrance, we are whisked up near the top in an incline elevator through a tunnel blasted in the rocks. Getting out you climb stairs carved inside the mountain to several different viewpoints. It is actually pretty cool as the water plunges inside the mountain and has carved out several interesting passages over time. It reminds me a little of being in a slot canyon in Utah without the red rock. The falls churn and corkscrew down and through the mountain to the river below. They are not visible from the valley at all. We visit four viewing areas above the elevator and then walk back down where there are six more areas along the way. The water carved canyon is highlighted by the different amounts of light that sneak in from above. We both think it was a worthwhile stop.

Chamois By Murren

We take the bus back to the hotel, pick up our packs, and head to the train station. We do not take a train, we take a cable car up to Grutschalp, where we change to a train to Murren. The whole trip takes maybe a half hour. We wind our way through Murren and start a walk down to Gimmelwald below. The views are incredible and Carol spots a chamois, a type of Swiss deer, below a ridge in Murren. That is the first wildlife of a significant size that we have seen in all our walks. In fact up to Alpiglen, our European wildlife experience has consisted of snails, slugs, fish, and flies! At Alpiglen, we saw a marmot, and the fox. Now, we see a chamois. What will be next?

View From Our room

The walk down to Gimmelwald is a little hot and on a winding paved path. It takes us about 45 minutes and the last few hundred feet has to climb down some steep steps. What else would we expect from the Swiss mountains.
Gimmelwald is a sleepy little berg, I would not call it a town or village, it is not that big. We planned two nights here just to hang out and rest a little. That part is working out great. The views are great from our Pension and our room, the restaurant prices look reasonable, and it should be a quiet night.

Looking Good

We freshen up, get unpacked, and go to sit on the patio. There are tables and the waitress/manager/masseuse/soup maker says we should sit on the couch under the porch, it has the best view. Who can argue with that and we order two dunkel beers, sit and relax. I blog and Carol reads some. Before long, Carol is chatting away with some Germans that sat at a table. An hour and a half later, we are sitting with them as dinner starts.
Europeans are very interested in our politics and how we like Obama and who we think will win. They tell us about things they hear about the health insurance for all, isn’t this good?, and other reports that make their way here. I think as in everything nowadays, the reports are skewed by those who have other agendas rather than just reporting facts.

Nice Patio

Dinner is good. We get the 15SF special which is a Swiss sausage pasta and soup or salad. I get the cream of mushroom soup and Carol gets a salad. It is all pretty tasty. We talk mostly to Christopher, who is now working in Zurich for Microsoft. He has only been with them for a month in marketing and sales, but we are sure he will go far. He has the personality and the drive. He has recently returned from a Microsoft bash in Atlanta where like 15000 employees attended. Now we know why the software still costs quite a bit!! We talk for quite a few hours and his father joins us near the end. There are seven of them hiking for 6 nights together, mostly family and two friends. They are extremely nice people and we hope to stay in touch. We call it a night after 1000 PM and are ready to sleep in as we have no real agenda tomorrow.
CNC
“The cool thing about being famous is traveling. I have always wanted to travel across seas like to Canada and stuff” – Britney Spears

Expenses
20SF- Trummelbach Falls
16.50SF- 3 beers
30SF- 2 dinners
100SF- Pension Geimmelwald

Miles Walked – 3.5 Miles