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 !!!!

Hello from Christine

Hi everyone, We are in Colmar right now and it is the first chance  for me to sit down at the computer for as much time as this is going to take me and the letters are in different places on the computer than ours which complicates things.  I have just re read all of Trudys wonderful postings and all your gratifully received comments. This has been so greqt whoops great to recieve them and to share our trip which has been perfectly amazing and I dont believe all the things we have done.  Elizabeth and Brian we loved Portovenere and wished we could spend more time we went to Vernazza first for three hours and ferry to Portovenere and then to Monterosso as the ferry wasnt leaving from Levanto while we were there due to work being done:  We loved the Berna Hotel as much as Helen and I did last trip and especially the ongoing coffee and croissants in the lounge after our journey starting at 7 am train from Levanto. Helen, Palace Hotel is the same wonderful place to stay as it was on our trip. Treated us like old friends and kissed us on both cheeks when we left. We were VERY SAD to leave as it is a very special place as you all and Denise and Geoff know there is something very special about it that grabs at your heart. If only there werent so many steps EVERYWHERE .  Esme and George I hope you are well and I do hope that Verna had a wonderful birthday and everything went exceptionally well for her celebrations.  Would you tell her that I climbed up to the Church and took some beautiful photos looking over Portofino harbour like the painting she has on her wall that she so loves.  If possible could you please show her the blog and she can see the photo which was taken by Trudy with her magic phone to put on the computer:  She has worked well into the night sometimes to do this and I am truly amazed and extremely greatful for this.  Gail and John I do hope you enjoy your time up at the farm and have a relaxing time.  Ele and Craig and Caitlin,Nana  is truly having a fantastic time but I am missing you all and wish I could blink my eyes and have you all here with both of us.   This has been a wonderful experience to date and although we have been blown away by some of the sights we have seen we have loved sharing every single minute of our trip together. Denise and Geoff  sorry I cant make contact by sms at present.  Thank you all for all your comments they have been great to read and look forward to more.  It is 7.30 pm in Colmar at present was 9 degrees about midday and has been raining off and on. Not good for photos and videoing so we went to our favourite coffee place for lunch and found another favourite coffee place for afternoon tea.  Then came back to hotel to do this. This was after we went shopping for our tea in french and came back with some brie and a baguette and an almond tart and a florentine which we could have on my balcony but owing to the weather we will have in one of our rooms.  Well am going now and Gail could you give Mum a great big hug and kiss from both of us.  We both love you all lots and lots. XXXXXX  Christine did this !!!

Lauterbrunnen - Schiltorn

9th May - Lauterbrunnen - Schilthorn

As it was slightly sunny when were having breakfast we decided to go up to Piz-Gloria, Schilthorn, another peak about 10,000ft high. It was also the location for 'Her Majesty's Secret Service' James Bond movie.

Although the Jungfraujoch was higher, the journey to the Schilthorn was more interesting. Starts with a very steep cable car ride (5mins) then a train ride to Murren. A 15 min walk through Murren (a town perched on the edge of a mountain!) - then the next cable car - extremely high above the ground. We all got off that cable car and walked into the complex which had a restaurant - but disappointed to find it all closed! We had planned to have lunch there as it was Mother's Day so I was treating Mum to lunch! As the group on the cable car were all discussing how disappointing it was that the restaurant was closed, somebody said 'hey there's another cable car ride - we aren't there yet!!!'. We all bustled our way to the next cable car, feeling relieved!!!

The next cable car ride was absolutely magnificent!!!! I'm not sure how high we were by then - probably around 7000 or 8000 feet! Over mountains and through clouds! The final approach to Schilthorn was so steep I wondered how the cable car was going to do it!

Finally we had arrived - was reasonably cloudy but we could still see peaks in France and Italy - and apparently Germany but Im not sure those peaks were visible for us due to the cloud. We stood outside and took a bunch of photos, and although we were cold, we were relieved to find that we weren't affected by altitude at all this time! I guess an extra few thousand feet make a huge difference!!





We eventually went inside to have lunch - veal escalope with mushroom sauce and buttered noodles, vegetables - and peach, pineapple and strawberry pieces with whipped cream - all on the same plate! Bit bizzare but it all seemed to work!

While inside, a snow storm closed in and caused a complete white-out!! We literally couldn't see anything outside but white. I went outside so I could stand in it - I love snow - each individual flake is so beautiful - and it doesn't make any noise! I know if I lived with snow everyday I'd feel differently.

We stayed for another hour or so, drinking coffee (with schnapps!!!) and watching the movie all about Schilthorn including the building of the complex for the James Bond movie - including clips from the movie. The snow storm kept going so deciding we'd had enough of the white, we left. Was really eerie when we were waiting for the cable car, it suddenly appeared right in front of us out of the snow!! The ride down until we were under the snow storm and clouds was eerie too!!!

Had dinner at a cosy place called the Hotel Oberland. Too cold and wet today to sit out on our balcony!!





Aufwiedersehen!!! xxxx


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Lauterbrunnen and the Jungfraujoch

8th May Lauterbrunnen

Firstly - just noticed an important mistake in last post. I wrote that Gornergrat (Matterhorn lookout) was 3100 ft high - er well, that should have been metres!!!! 3100 metres!! (around 10000 or so feet!).

Secondly - we are BOTH having trouble with our phones and neither of us can send or receive sms's at the moment! Feel free to communicate via this blog -or if it is a private message, then through my hotmail email address which is trudystoddard@hotmail.com

Thanks for your ongoing comments - I know I've said it before but we really do appreciate them!! Im trying to reply to all comments - i will eventually. Mum will too in next day or so hopefully!!

Ok back to the trip!!

Arrived in beautiful Lauterbrunnen via Interlaken at about 11.30am. None of our photos - and actually none of the postcards we saw - could possibly do Lauterbrunnen justice. I'm not even sure what words to use! Stunning. Spectacular. Peaceful. Beautiful. Swiss!!!!




(our hotel is on the left - our rooms were on the other side and looked out to the Staubbach Falls on the right and the mountains in the distance. We were on the top floor and had two large and long balconies which we sat out on and had lovely Swiss cheese and wine (until the sun went down and the bats came out!!!).


When we arrived, we were a bit early for our rooms so as we could see some blue sky we promptly dropped off our lugggage and jumped on the train to the Jungfraujoch - the highest railway station in Europe at almost 12,000 ft high. It took several trains (one through the Eiger!!) and several stops to allow for altitude adjustment - about 2 hours in total.

Wow how magnificent are these mountains! Cloud was shrouding the Eiger - and it was snowing on the way up - but even though visibility wasn't 100 percent, we did still get a great view of the Jungfraujoch glacier and surrounding mountains. We were quite affected by the altitude though! Such a weird feeling - a quick movement of the head caused whooooooaaah moments!!




Check out the icicles on this building!! It was -4.7 degrees.

Aufwiedersehen !!
xxxx

The Matterhorn and Montreux

Thursday 6th May

At breakfast this morning (in Brig) we noticed it had stopped raining and there was a hint of blue sky - so decided to try to see the Matterhorn today insted of tomorrow. A hotel staff member told us that they have had 5 days of continuous rain but that it was more normal for them to have 3 months of sun and no rain at all! A bit depressing given the awful weather yesterday but oh well! Can't be helped!

Our journey from Brig to Zermatt (where Matterhorn is) was great. Finally got to see the sun on some snow covered mountains. Wow - such a bright white!!!

Well - as we rounded the last corner to Zermatt, we saw it. A huge, completely white and CLOUD FREE mountain - the Matterhorn!!! I was a bit emotional actually! I didn't actually cry but was a bit choked up!! A dream come true and a moment I'll never forget! We were MUCH closer to it than the photos show - a limitation of my iPhone camera - my 'real' pictures look fantastic!!




We got off train and walked straight over to the Gornergrat railway - which takes you up to about 3100 ft high and right past the Matterhorn. A train was due to leave in a few minutes and we nervously waited in line to get a ticket - next train was in one hour - the weather and visibility changes so quickly in the Alps it was quite possible that it all could be shrouded in cloud by the time we saw it again. We got on the train with about 1 minute to spare!!

We grinned our heads off all the way to Gornergrat!! Not only was the sun shining but Zermatt's buildings and trees were covered with snow - a winter wonderland. The whole ride up (about 40 or 50 mins I think) was breathtaking.




There is a restaurant and look out (complete with blankets!!!) overlooking the Matterhorn and also Gornergrat Glacier. It was -2 degrees but surprisingly bearable! Actually the sun was quite hot and I got a bit sunburnt!! We certainly noticed the altitude though and were both quite dizzy at times!




We finished the day with a walk around Zermatt - then shared some potato rosti and a cheese fondue in a very cute restaurant. Yummmmmm!




It was an absolutely and utterly perfect day!!!!!

Friday 7th May - visited Vevey and Montreux on Lake Geneva - in an area known as the Swiss Riviera. Quite cold and a bit rainy - but a nice day.

Vevey is where Charlie Chaplin lived for the latter part of his life - we saw a statue of him along the waterfront.

Both Vevey and Montreux have a beautiful waterfront - would be gorgeous in nice weather. Both places were both French speaking and so we got to try out our French!!!

We visited Chillon Castle in Montreux -a pretty nice looking castle jutting out into the lake. Also would have been very picturesque on a clear day as it has a bunch of rather huge mountains behind it that, even just seeing glimpses of them through the cloud, looked superimposed!!!!




Look for the large dark area of cloud above the castle (castle in middle of pic). Above the dark area of cloud there is a faint line of dark cloud - THAT is the tops of the mountains!

Tomorrow - Lauterbrunnen

Lots of love and aufwiedersehen for now!!

Bernina and Glacier Express

Bernina Express - Italy to Switzerland
Glacier Express - Chur to Brig

4th May- Bernina Express

Caught train from Varenna to Tirano to connect to the Bernina Express. We weren't 100% sure that it was our train as there was no announcement and no-one around to ask - but it was around the right time - so we thought it better to catch it! I was in the middle of asking a passenger if it was the train to Tirano when suddenly we reached a long tunnel and everything went black! No lights on in train! So Mum and I stood there clasping on to our luggage, trying to stay upright as the train flew through the tunnel!

We WERE on the right train :-). Arrived in Tirano with about three hours to spare so had a wander around - even though it was raining! Weather had really taken turn for the worse and was really foggy and quite miserable actually!

Bernina Express ride through the mountains to Chur in Switzerland was lovely. Most of the mountains were shrouded in fog so I'm sure it could have been 'spectacular' rather than 'lovely'! We did manage to get some great photos - we found some windows that we could open in a passageway near our seats - we could then take photos without a reflection of the train carrage in them! So we spent the whole trip racing to the window when there was a great view - then sitting down for about 2 minutes until the next interesting view! Was fun - and funny as we tried to remain upright while rushing to the other side of train as a better view appeared. The side to side momentum was probably worth videoing actually! We were glad that there were bars to hold on too!















Arrived in Chur at 7pm - walking to hotel our immediate impression of Switzerland was how calm, orderly, clean and friendly it was.

5th May - Glacier Express across Switzerland to Brig

Well after such a long time planning - it all just comes down to the weather! And the weather was revolting!! Rain, fog, sleet and wet windows on the train - I think I only took about 5 photos - and they were really only in desperation!




This was not the Switzerland in the pictures!! It was pouring with rain when we arrived in Brig so we trudged to our hotel (walking the wrong way initially!). We looked and felt like drowned rats, dripping all over the hotel reception floor! We were given a lovely warm and friendly welcome though and we really appreciated it!

We checked in then went out exploring, despite the weather!

The weather forecast is terrible for next few days - we were hoping to see the Matterhorn tomorrow or next day. The hotel staff suggest waiting until Friday rather than going tomorrow (Thursday) but said that it didn't look good! So perhaps we will go to Montreux (on Lake Geneva) tomorrow and attempt Zermatt (and the Matterhorn on Friday). Not looking good but we'll see!!


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Lake Como

2nd May
Caught early train to Milan then another train to Varenna, in Lake Como. Raining the whole journey. Arrived in Varenna - still raining and really cold! 10 min walk in rain to hotel down a really steep hill - glad to arrive!

Oh - getting OFF the train .... Train driver obviously only expecting a few to get off so started to close the doors after about 10 seconds .... Mum was almost off so I helped get her baggage off - only to be shut in the doors !!!! Mum grabbed a door and pulled - and I pushed as hard as i could but the doors stayed put for a little while - half of me - and all of my luggage inside the train!!! Having visions of being dragged along the platform I pushed sideways as hard as I could (with the help of a lot of extra adrenalin!!!) and Mum pushing the other door as hard as SHE could, finally the doors budged enough that I could get out - but started to close again so we pushed as hard as we could against doors while I simultaneously yanked my luggage out and threw it on the platform!! I wish I had video footage of that!!!

Our hotel rooms had an amazing view of the lake - well - we assumed so as we werent sure given the clouds, fog and rain!! Checked in to hotel then hopped straight on the ferry to Menaggio - literally opposite our hotel. Here's what the lake looked like!




Shortly after taking that photo I dropped my iPhone on the ferry floor and the glass panel smashed!!!!!! So with the train, weather and iPhone incident I was actually feeling a bit disappointed with my Lake Como experience thus far!! The weather remained cold and wet for rest of day. Walked around Menaggio - had awesome lunch though - as was so cold we stayed in restaurant for a few hours had minestrone then osso bucco - yummm!). Then caught ferry to Bellagio and as still raining, had a very yummy and warming Irish coffee!! Perfect!!!

3rd May
Woke up and peered out window - to find this view -



There are actually mountains all around!!!! Couldn't see that the day before!!! We quickly had breakfast then hopped on ferry to Como - 2hr ferry ride. Soooooo nice to see a bit of sun! Still overcast with patchy sun for rest of day but managed to get lots of photos whenever sun shone - and loved it!!!






Visited Villa Carlotta - wow what amazing gardens!







Went back to Bellagio and had a good walk around - lovely. Lots of steps! Stayed there for dinner - our last Italian dinner :-(.

Got back to hotel just as a storm was beginning - spectacular lightning and rolling thunder - went on and on!

The hotel was nice - huge rooms - both of us had a corner room so had brilliant view of the lake. Breakfast was a bit reminiscent of a Fawlty Towers episode!! We'd had soup in the dining room on the first night - and the hotel owner sat as at the table - quite specifically ie 'you sit here' ! Well someone was sitting there the next morning so we sat at the next table. Manuella the waitress wasn't happy!! Mum was actually eating her cereal and all of a sudden it got picked up and put on another table!!! 'you sit over HERE!!! DAT table is for diiiinnerr' (said in huffy voice with French accent!).
Next morning we sat at same table - and Manuel (the male waiter) said 'three???' - I replied 'oh, ah, two' - and with a roll of the eyes, Manuel dramatically whisked away the extra place setting :-)

Overall - loved what we saw of Lake Como and would love to come back and see it in better weather!





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