Grindelwald, Switzerland - 25th - 30th June, 3348 miles

From Bern we headed east toward the alps.  We travelled through the Interlaken area to reach our next site in Grindelwald which yes, does indeed sound like something from Harry Potter.  Our campsite was in an awesome spot, nestled in the valley below the village, with the Eiger as a backdrop.  It's a view you don't really get used to.

One of the lakes which Interlaken lies between.  Yep, literal naming

The town of Grindelwald was a little touristy as expected but still charming and we found some nice spots.  During our stay we had a 6 day pass which let us use the majority of the trains and gondolas.  Like a lot of things in Switzerland this was hideously expensive but we made the most of it, and of the sunny weather.

On our first day we made our ascent on the Jungfrau.  At 4138m above sea level it's the highest peak in Europe.  To get there from Grindelwald, which is about 1000m above sea level, we took a series of cog-wheel trains through beautiful mountain scenery- think Heidi/Sound of Music.  The last train in the trip is particularly impressive.  It was built in 1912 and actually passes through both the Eiger and the Monch mountains to reach the Jungfrau.   It's the highest railway station in Europe at 3471m and it's a pretty steep ride!

This was taken from the train heading up the Jungfrau.  It gives you a pretty good idea of how steep the train track was!

Up the top there's a whole complex with restaurants, shops and viewing platforms.  They also had a slightly bizarre "ice palace", which consisted of a series of tunnels carved in ice and ice sculptures.  We did a walk through the snow out toward Monchsjoch hut.  We really noticed the altitude on our walk- it was pretty hard going and we both felt a bit short of breath.  Good as always to see Japanese girls doing the same walk in high heels, apparently without any trouble!
The views were of course stunning....

Check out the cool hats

View down toward the glacier

In the Ice Palace

The sky was the most insane dark blue colour

Morgan uses the time honoured method of estimating snow depth

View from the complex out toward the Monchsjoch hut.  That's a line of people walking.

View from our walk, back toward the complex.  That's the tiny looking thing on to of the closest peak.

On the second day we took a series of cable cars up to a place called First, which is about 2168m above sea level.  From there we walked to Bachalpsee, an alpine lake.  The walk certainly wasn't as hard as the previous day but it was pretty hot, so props to the elderly Japanese ladies who were covered head to toe in clothing and carrying umbrellas...not to mention handbags!  The lake was simply beautiful and I took about a million photos of the whole wild flower-lake-mountain combo.  From here we did a bit of a hike down to one of the lower cable car stations (Bort)- we descended about 600m over a couple of hours.

From there I had one of the more terrifying experiences of our trip, after Morgan convinced me to go the last leg on something called a Trottibike.  This is basically like a child's scooter only far less stable, particularly when going down a mountain.  Like I said, terrifying!

Grindelwald village viewed from the cable car

The first leg of the cable car up to First.  

View from First station

Bachalpsee Lake

Heidi-ho

The walk back down

Nothing like rounding a corner during your walk in the "wilderness" and finding a cafe

We saw a dog fetch a stone out of this river that was bigger than the dogs own head

Terrifying death scooter, a.k.a Trottibike

On our third day of gorgeous sunshine we headed over to the Schilthorn, another mountain peak which stands 2970m above sea level and has great panoramic views.  To get there we used a series of cable cars and trains.  All up it took us a bit over 3 hours to get there, but it was easy going and the scenery was beautiful.

View of the glacial valley where the village of Lauterbrunnen lies

The pretty alpine village of Murren.  This is where we deviated from our usual travelling food rules (no asian food in european countries) and had chinese- it was delicious!  Also, the white flowers may or may not be Adelweis.

An alpine lake seen from the Schilthorn cable car

The cable car leading up toward the Schilthorn.  Some people may recognise this from the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"

You can understand why the Schilthorn is bummed it got the only Bond movie starring George Lazenby

View from the Schilthorn

As predicted by the weatherman, the following morning we were woken by a storm.  And blimey, what a storm.  I've never experienced thunder or lightening like it- it was really loud. It was a little scary to be honest!  The bad weather was a good excuse to do a bit of recovering from all the activity though and recharge for our next adventure- crossing the alps and heading to Ticino, the Italian speaking region of Switzerland.  Stay tuned.