Lauterbrunnen to Lucerne

10th May - Lauterbrunnen

Originally we were planning to catch a train to Grindlewald - a cute looking village (in the brochures!), but it was a lovely morning so we decided to walk to Trummelbach Falls (a series of 10 glacier waterfalls inside a mountain. The walk there was nothing short of idylic!!! Sunny skies, fields of green grass and yellow flowers, brown and white cows, waterfalls, farms - and huge mountains everywhere. A Swiss picture postcard!







After about an hour and a half of leisurely walking and picture taking, we arrived at the falls. We sat outside at the cafe and had some delicious vegetable soup with fresh herbs then tackled the hundreds of steps (you take a freaky lift ride inside the mountain to the top then walk down). The Trummelbach Falls alone drain the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau glaciers - which is fairly impressive!!! I think a lot of the water action was hidden within the mountain and we were unable to see a few of the waterfalls due to some work going on - but what we did see was great. The best bit was not so much the visual of the waterfalls but the THUNDERING sound they made as they crashed through the mountain. You could actually feel the mountain shuddering!!!!


We caught a bus back to Lauterbrunnen, grabbed some food from the supermarket for tea and sat out on our balcony with an unbelievable view for one last time!

We LOVED Lauterbrunnen and the surrounding area. Our hotel, although only a two star, was brilliant. Thanks Don for telling us about Lauterbrunnen and for recommending the Staubbach Hotel!!!!

Tomorrow - Lucerne - our last stop in Switzerland!

11th May - Lucerne

We arrived in Lucerne around lunchtime. Bought more memory cards for our cameras and then checked in to the hotel. After quite a long walk from the station with luggage we were hot as it was cold that morning in Lauterbrunnen but 21 degrees and sunny in Lucerne!

We walked straight to the river area and found the famous bridge - so started taking photos etc. There was all sorts of river, bridge and roadwork going on so it was hard to take decent pictures. Inwardly we were both a little disappointed with the bridge as it didn't seem as long or as pretty as the pictures we had seen in brochures!

Continuing our exploration of Lucerne we wandered through various alleyways and streets and back to the river again. Oh! We seem to have come across another bridge!!! Yes - this was the Chapel Bridge - the most photographed part of Lucerne!!! Feeling both a little foolish and relieved at the same time we took a few photos from the waterfront. We then had a choice to make - have a coffee now before walking up to the bridge / exploring the rest of Lucerne, or have a coffee later ....... I convinced Mum that we should have a coffee now... I chose poorly!

As we were drinking our coffee we noticed that clouds were coming. All of a sudden we realised we only had a few minutes of sun left as the clouds were moving quickly. We hurried to the bridge as fast as we could and snapped away but by then the clouds had well and truly blocked out the sun! We agreed that I'd keep taking photos of the old part of Lucerne while there was still some light and Mum would go to the bank - we'd meet up in about 30 mins.

It started to spit with rain but I was determined to at least get a few good photos as we were only here for today! The rain got heavier but I ignored it!!! Need .....to ........ take ....... photos!!! As I was crossing a bridge something hit me in the leg. Then the head (I had a hooded raincoat on). It was hail!! All of a sudden a sky full of ice was hitting me on the head so I hurried to find some shelter, still trying to take photos from under my hood!!! :-)

I found some shelter with a few others under some fantastic arches - which ironically I forgot to take a photo of!!! The hail got heavier and heavier and the thunder and lightening was unbelievable. It was a pretty ferocious storm but actually kind of fun to be in it! I was glad that our photo taking wasn't interuppted by a pathetic little downpour!! Walking carefully on the pavement that was now white with ice, I caught up with Mum after about an hour instead of half hour due to having to wait for the hail to stop!!

I forgot to take photos of the bridge with my iphone - but here is a photo of some of the hail anyway!!




Anyway that was pretty much it for Lucerne!!! It was now freezing cold so we found a restaurant close to the hotel to eat dinner at then retired to our rooms ready for the extremely early morning the next day! (up at 5.30 am!!).

Tomorrow - Colmar, France

Aufwiedersehen !!!!