CHEESE COUNT: fondue 1 / raclette 1
I said yesterday I wanted to catch the 8AM train from Bern to Interlaken this morning, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that was already too late to get going. I calculated that we would need 2 hours from the time we caught the train to the time we’d be ready to start our Interlaken-Adventures, so the 8AM train meant we’d be “starting” the day at 10AM – half the morning gone! So instead, we caught the 6:30AM train and by 9AM our day was well underway.
Because the skies were clear, we decided to walk along the Lauterbrunnen Valley, visit the Trümmelbach Falls, go to the Schilthorn (think 007 and the movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service), explore Murren, then be back in Interlaken by 3-4 ish because I saw that the chances of precipitation in the afternoon increased significantly around that time.
Walking the Lauterbrunnen Valley is something my husband particularly wanted to do; he remembers it so fondly from our last visit in 2011, and this time we walked much further than last time so he was quite pleased.
About an hour down the path are the Trümmelbach Falls – they are quite something! The carving force of water is on full raging (and ear splitting) display, very impressive! Pictures can’t possibly do them justice because it’s the sheer force of the moving water that makes the attraction so awesome, along with the knowledge that your are deep inside the mountain.
From there, we continued about another half hour to the cable car that would take us up to the Schilthorn (actually a series of 4 separate rides to the summit almost 3000m up) and have lunch at the Piz Gloria, a 360° rotating restaurant offering splendid views of the alps. Wouldn’t you know that’s when the clouds came out! It was a panoramic view of a white wall.
We did get the occasional glimpse, but it lasted seconds and you had to be quick! Most of the time, by the time I got my Iphone out of my pocket, turned it on and opened the camera app… the hole had closed! Well, at least lunch was yummy!!!
So, since we were not into the Bond Museum Experience, we headed out of the cloud after lunch and headed down to Murren to enjoy (mostly) unobstructed alpine views!
So much better!!!!
We came back to the hotel to check in and unpack, I think by then it was about 4ish (hardly a surprise that the room was not ready for us when we arrived at 7:30AM) and then feeling refreshed by that little break, we headed out to enjoy Interlaken a bit more. Still no signs of rain! Encouraging!
We walked around for a while, then had drinks at a cafe by the park and watched the paragliders land… boy I wish I had the guts to try!!!
By 7, we were off to eat – raclette for me, it was a no brainer!! I don’t usually like it served this way: pre-melted in the kitchen, I prefer having a little stove at the table and melting the cheese myself but since I didn’t want a huge portion anyway, this was OK in the end.
Just as we were leaving the restaurant, I think it was about 8:30, we were greeted with HUGE thunder claps… BOOMING! is it because the storm was going to be ferocious or is it an echo-effect due to the mountains? I don’t know, but it seemed to me the Earth was splitting in two. We made it back to the hotel JUST as the Atlantic Ocean was dumped over Interlaken.
The forecast for tomorrow is about the same… keep your fingers crossed for us that the rain only starts again after supper!!
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