Day 11 (Sunday 7/23) saw us take off from Fussen Germany and board the magic bus for the 6 hour journey to Lauterbrunnen Switzerland. As we traveled from Fussen, the road to Switzerland actually meandered back through Austria, and then paralleled Liechtenstein (which is only 15 miles long!). After a few hours and finally crossing the Swiss border, we arrived at our lunch spot, Lucerne. We took a few hours to sit by the lake in Lucerne and enjoy our lunch and drink a beer (aperol spritz for Katie) as we enjoyed the scenery and hung out with Diane and Cindy from Tacoma (who have become our tour buddies!). Afterwards, we took off again with one stop at the scenic overview at Lungern where our tour guide Brian befriended a feral cat who was lounging in the area. Along the way, every picture we took from the bus of the countryside seemed like it could have been a postcard!
Once we arrived at the hotel in Lauterbrunnen, we realized that the quaint Swiss town was nestled in a glacial valley at the foot of several very tall mountains. Simply stunning! Due to the fact that we arrived in the early evening, we went straight to dinner across the street and afterwards, hiked to the Staubbach waterfall, which is literally a 10 minute walk down the street from our room.
The following day (Monday 7/24, day 12) was a bit on the cool and rainy side, but we decided to brave the elements and do some mountainous exploring. Our original goal was to take the mountain train up to the scenic village of Wengen, take the cable car up to the mountain town of Mannlichen, and take a nice mountain hike to Kleine Scheidegg, and then proceed back on a train up the mountain to Jungfrau (which, at 11,332 feet, is the highest train station in Europe). However, due to high winds in the area, the train to Jungfrau closed down early. We then decided to just go to Mannlichen and take the hike out and all the way back. However, when we got there, the wind was sideways and the train workers said that they might be canceling train service soon...which meant that we could have been stuck there on the mountain for who knows how long. So we hopped back on the train and took it all the way back to town. We did get some cool pictures however! LOL. Later however, we did get back on the train to Wengen and had a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant there.
Today (Tuesday 7/25, day 13) we decided to forego any type of high elevation, mountainous adventures and stick to a long valley hike from Lauterbrunnen, through Zweilutschinen to Wilderswil. The hike was around 15 miles long (as long as the country of Liechtenstein!!) and took us the better part of 6 hours. We stopped at Wilderswil for a picnic lunch half-way through the hike and although it rained on us several times, the scenery was beautiful and it was quite a fun adventure we had together! After returning back to the hotel room, we each took a long, hot shower to ease our weary, old muscles and bones. We later decided to pick up a bottle of wine and some schwarma to go and had a nice dinner the the room.
Tomorrow we head to the final destination with our tour group high up in the French Alps: Chamonix. That's all for now. Until next time, auf wiedersehen!!
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